1521 – Martin Luther arrived at the Diet of Worms assembly
1705 – Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge
1789 – George Washington headed for first presidential inauguration
1818 – Senate ratified the Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border)
1861 – US President Abraham Lincoln outlawed business with Confederate States (US Civil War)
1862 – Slavery abolished in District of Columbia
1862 – American Confederate Congress approved conscription act for all white males (18-35 years)
1866 – Nitroglycerine exploded at a Wells Fargo & Co office in San Francisco shattering glass for half a mile
1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fought his last gun battle
1900 – US Post Office issued its first books of postage stamps
1912 – Harriet Quimby became first woman pilot to fly across English Channel
1922 – Annie Oakley set women’s record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row
1929 – NY Yankees became the first team to wear uniform numbers
1932 – Short film “The Music Box” released in the US, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (1932 Academy Award Best Live Action Short Film)
1939 – The Soviet Union proposed an alliance with Britain and France to counter Nazi Germany; the Soviets would later sign a secret agreement with the Nazis
1943 – Swiss scientist Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD
1945 – Battle of Berlin: Red Army began its attack on the capital of Nazi Germany
1953 – British royal yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II
1956 – First solar powered radios went on sale
1962 – Walter Cronkite began anchoring CBS Evening News
1964 – 9 men sentenced 25-30 years for Britain’s 1963 “Great Train Robbery”
1986 – To dispel rumors he’s dead, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared on TV
1987 – Michael Jordan became the second NBA player in history to score 3000 points in a season
1990 – Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a “retarded man,” Dalton Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in 1977
1993 – Jury reached guilty verdict in federal case against police officers (two convicted, two acquitted) who beat Rodney King, but the verdict is not read until April 17th
2003 – Washington Wizards’ Michael Jordan played his final NBA game, in Philadelphia, where he received a 3 minute standing ovation.
2007 – Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and injured 23 others before committing suicide.
2017 – World record for gathering of Charlie Chaplin lookalikes – 662 at Manoir de Ban, Chaplin museum in Vevey, Switzerland
2018 – Kendrick Lamar was the first rapper and non classical or jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music with his album “Damn”
2020 – 22 million Americans filed for unemployment in 4 weeks (5.2 million in the last week), wiping out 9 1/2 years of job gains