April 17

1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
1935 - Sun Myung Moon claims to have a revelation from Jesus telling him to complete his mission from almost 2000 years ago.
1937 - Daffy Duck debuts in Warner Bros.' short Porky's Duck Hunt.
1941 - World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1970 - Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1973 - Federal Express delivers its first package.
1986 - Treaty signed, ending Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.

April 18

1025 - Boles³aw I the Brave was crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland
1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9, destroys much of San Francisco, California
1947 - Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, detonating 6800 tonnes of explosives, creating the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history, and changing the shape of the island
1955 - The death of Albert Einstein
1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule
1974 - Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port
1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President
1999 - Hockey player Wayne Gretzky's number (99) is retired league wide in the NHL

Zimbabwe – Independence Day

April 19

1692 - Bridget Bishop goes on trial in Salem, Massachusetts for witchcraft
1713 - With no living male heirs, Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa (not actually born until 1717)
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord which began the American Revolutionary War
1882 - The death of English biologist Charles Darwin
1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the United States will be abandoning the gold standard
1936 - First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine
1954 - Constituent Assembly of Pakistan decides Urdu and Bengali to be national languages of Pakistan
1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station
1985 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours
1987 - The Simpsons make their television debut in the short "Good Night" a segment for The Tracey Ullman Show
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murder Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, was executed in Arkansas

Declaration of Independence Day (Venezuela)

April 20

1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars
1808 - The birth of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French
1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
1914 - Seventeen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike
1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film
1928 - René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter in Timbouctou
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon
1986 - Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in a NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics
1999 - Largest bombing of Kosovo by the United States in the Kosovo War

April 23

1564 - The birth of William Shakespeare
1597 - Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance
1616 - The death of Peruvian writer El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
1616 - The death of Spanish author Miguel Cervantes
1616 - The death of William Shakespeare
1827 - William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of systems of rays
1850 - The death of English poet William Wordsworth
1867 - William Lincoln patents the zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel
1897 - Birth of Lester B. Pearson, fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada.
1920 - The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey was founded in Ankara
1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces
1968 - The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin
1968 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university
1982 - Conch Republic established
1987 - 28 construction workers died when the L'Ambiance Plaza collapses while under construction in Bridgeport, Connecticut
1988 - Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon, after spending the record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200, left the charts for its first time ever
1992 - The death of Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray
1993 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum
2006 - Mount Merapi erupted

National Beer Day in Germany
The 2007 Jewish Calender date of Israeli Independence Day

April 24

1704 - The first regular newspaper in the United States, the Boston, Massachusetts New-Letter, is published
1863 - The Keyesville Massacre: a massacre of 53 Native American men from the Tehachapi tribe in Keyesville, California
1877 - Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: Russia declares war on Ottoman Empire
1955 - Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemned colonialism, racism, and the Cold War
1965 - Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when civilians led by some members of the armed forces, including Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrow the triumvirate that was in power since the coup d'état on Juan Bosch, who was legally elected president in 1963
1967 - Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1, when the parachute fails to open. He was the first human to die during a space mission
1970 - The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched
1979 - "Georgia on My Mind" is adopted as the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia, a month after it is performed before a joint session of the Georgia General Assembly by Ray Charles
1990 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery
1993 - The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act came into force establishing Panchayati Raj system in India.

April 25

1607 - Eighty Years' War: Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar
1740 - The death of general Shrimant Baji Rao Vishwanath Bhat
1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine
1846 - Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican-American War
1849 - The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots
1898 - Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain
1901 - New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates
1916 - Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland
1945 - Elbe Day: United States and Russian troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe
1945 - Nazi occupation army leaves Milan after a partisan insurrection. This day is taken as symbol of the liberation of Italy.
1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA
1983 - American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war
1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit
1989 - James Richardson is freed from a Florida prison 21 years after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of his seven children
1993 - 300,000 gay, lesbian, transgender, and allied activists march on Washington, DC demanding freedom from discrimination
2005 - 107 die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan

April 27

1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army
1667 - The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10
1759 - The birth of English author Mary Wollstonecraft
1773 - The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade
1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise
1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario)
1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison
1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister
1967 - Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day
1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Nixon
1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse
1987 - The U.S. Justice Department bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II
1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history
1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote
1997 - Production began on Duke Nukem Forever, which was not completed as of the 10th anniversary of this date
2002 - The last successful telemetry from NASA space probe Pioneer 10

April 30

313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule
711 - Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus)
1006 - Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus
1483 - Orbital calculations suggest that on this day Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503
1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration
1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States
1838 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation
1943 - World War II: Operation Mincemeat – The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer
1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day
1966 - The Church of Satan is founded
1991 - A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing an estimated 138,000 people
1993 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN

May 1

1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – England recognises Scotland as an independent nation
1707 - The Act of Union joins England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
1751 - The first cricket match is played in America
1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery
1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States
1886 - The start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries
1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named
1941 - Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premieres in New York City
1956 - A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease
1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone
1991 - Rickey Henderson would steal his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category. However, his accomplishment would be overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan, who would pitch his seventh career no-hitter (breaking his own record)
1992 - On the third day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, African American criminal Rodney King appeared in public before television news cameras to appeal for calm and plead for peace, asking, "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"

May 8

1794 - Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris
1821 - Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks in Gravia
1873 - The death of English philosopher John Stuart Mill
1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola"
1902 - In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast
1914 - Paramount Pictures is formed
1919 - Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later resulted in the creation of Remembrance Day
1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest of British oppression in India
1945 - End of the Prague uprising, today still celebrated as national holiday in the Czech Republic
1967 - The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental
1973 - A 71-day standoff, between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants
1984 - Cpl. Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three and wounding 13. René Jalbert, sergeant-at-arms of the assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour
1996 - The Constitutional Assembly of South Africa ratifies the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Considered one of the most liberal Constitutions in the world regarding Human Rights

May 11

1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies
1792 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River
1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London
1818 - Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden
1820 - Launch of HMS Beagle the ship that took young Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage
1857 - Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British
1867 - Luxembourg gains its independence
1871 - The death of British mathematician & astronomer John Herschel
1891 - Otsu Scandal
1894 - Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois
1895 - The birth of Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti
1924 - Mercedes-Benz formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging the two companies
1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded
1949 - Siam officially changes its name to Thailand, a name in use since 1939
1966 - Henry "Dickie" Marrow is murdered in a violent racially-motivated crime in Oxford, N.C.
1981 - The death of Jamaican singer & musician Bob Marley
1984 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place
1987 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland). The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz, of Stanford University School of Medicine
1997 - IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player
1998 - India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including a thermonuclear device

May 15

1701 - The War of the Spanish Succession begins
1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun
1756 - The Seven Years' War begins when England declares war on France
1811 - Paraguay declares independence from Spain
1851 - Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand
1902 - In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider)
1907 - The birth of Indian freedom fighter Sukhdev Thapar
1914 - The birth of Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay
1919 - The Winnipeg General Strike began. By 11:00, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job
1930 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago
1940 - McDonald's is founded
1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel
1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister
2004 - The largest known prime number at the time of its discovery, 2(to the square root)24036583 − 1, is found by Josh Findley and the GIMPS collaborative effort

May 16

1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire
1811 - Peninsular War - Allies (Spain, Portugal & Britain) defeat French at the Battle of Albuera
1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense
1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends
1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel
1966 - The Communist Party of China issued the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution
1967 - The city Jerusalem is taken over by the nation of Israel
1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus
1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India
1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest
2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks

May 24

1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins
1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito
1830 - Mary had a little lamb by Sarah Hale is published
1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction
1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight
1956 - Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna
1961 - Cyprus enters the Council of Europe
1968 - FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City
1991 - Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel
1992 - The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests
1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia
1993 - Microsoft unveils Windows NT
1994 - Four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison
2000 - Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation
2001 - Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest
2001 - The Versailles wedding hall collapse in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster