Events
Up to 1900
37 - Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate. 193 – Roman Emperor Pertinax was assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sold the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus. 364 - Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens as co-Emperor. 845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. 1566 - The foundation stone is laid for Valletta, Malta, by Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. 1776 – Juan Bautista de Anza sails into San Francisco Bay and claims the nearby land for Spain. 1795 – Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceased to exist and became part of Imperial Russia. 1802 – Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man. 1809 – Battle of Medellin, Colombia. 1814 - The Royal Navy defeats the United States Navy in the Battle of Valparaiso, Chile. 1834 – The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States. 1854 – Crimean War: United Kingdom and France declare war on Russia. 1860 – First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka broke out. 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass – In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26. 1871 - The Paris Commune is officially created in Paris. 1883 - Tonkin Campaign: French victory in the Battle of Gia Cuc. 1889 - The Yngsjö murder occurs in Sweden, as Anna Mansdotter and her son are arrested for the crime.
1901 2000
1910 – Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France. 1913 – Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires Convention. 1915 - British passenger steamship Falaba is sunk by a German U-boat off Wales, killing 104 people, including the first American to die as a direct result of World War I. 1920 – Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford marry. 1930 – Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara. 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid 1941 – World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan – In the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian battleships and two destroyers. 1942 – World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire. 1946 – Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power. 1947 – The last episode of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio. 1951 - First Indochina War: Battle of Mao Khe. 1959 - The State Council of the People's Republic of China dissolves the Government of Tibet. 1964 – The first British offshore pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, is established. 1964 - Tsunamis from the previous day's Good Friday earthquake strike along western coasts of North America, killing 107 people in Alaska, 11 in California and 4 in Oregon. 1965 - An earthquake causes a dam to break near the town of El Cobre, Chile, which is flooded, killing over 200 people. 1969 - Greek poet Giorgos Seferis makes his famous statement on the BBC World Service against the ruling junta in Greece. 1970 - An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hits Gediz, Turkey, killing 1,086 people. 1978 – US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity. 1979 – In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails at Three Mile Island, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown. 1979 - The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister James Callaghan's Labour Party government. A new election on May 3 results in Margaret Thatcher being elected Prime Minister. 1990 – President George H. W. Bush posthumously gives Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. 1994 – In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg resulting in eighteen deaths. 1997 - A rock fall in Afghanistan kills 380 people. 1999 - Kosovo War: Serbian paramilitary and military forces kill 146 Kosovo Albanians in the Izbica Massacre. 1999 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits southwestern China and northern India, killing 100 people.