1514 – Copernicus made his first observations of Saturn.

1607 – The British established an American colony at Cape Henry, Virginia. It was the first permanent English establishment in the Western Hemisphere.

1654 – Jews are expelled from Brazil

1865 – Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Sherman during the American Civil War.

1865 – John Wilkes Booth was killed by the U.S. Federal Cavalry.

1929 – First non-stop flight from England to India was completed.

1937 – German planes attacked Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War for the Spanish nationalist government. This raid is considered one of the first to be attacks on a civilian population by a modern air force.

1944 – First B-29 attacked by  Japanese fighters. One Fighter shot down

1945 – Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.

1952 – US minesweeper Hobson rams aircraft carrier Wasp, kills 176

1986 – The world’s worst nuclear disaster to date occurred at Chernobyl, in Kiev. Thirty-one people died in the incident and thousands more were exposed to radioactive material.