| 0 | | Feast of St Francis de Paola, Patron of Naval Officers, Mariners, Boatmen, and Sick Children |
| 999 | | Gerbert of Aurillac elected Pope as Sylvester II (999-1003) |
| 1118 | | Count Baldwin of Edessa becomes King Baldwin II of Jerusalem (1118-1131) |
| 1194 | | tradition holds that King Richard Lionheart first met Robin Hood, in Sherwood Forest |
| 1283 | | Giacomo Savelli is elected Pope as Honorius IV (1283-1287) |
| 1416 | | Alfonso V succeeds to the throne of Aragon and Sicily (1416-1458) |
| 1513 | | Juan Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain |
| 1550 | | Jews are expelled from Genoa |
| 1672 | | King Charles II authorized the adoption of the bayonet by the English Army -- Learn More |
| 1781 | | US Frigate 'Alliance 'captures British privateers 'Mars' and 'Minerva' |
| 1794 | | The French Committee of Public Safety authorizes the activation of the "1ere Compagnie d'Aérostiers", a balloon unit -- the first "air force" in history |
| 1801 | | Nelson "Copenhagens" the Danish Fleet |
| 1827 | | Construction of the first U.S. Naval Hospital begins, Portsmouth, Va |
| 1863 | | Richmond Bread Riot: Jeff Davis threatens to fire on women & children |
| 1865 | | Battles of Petersburg/Ft Gregg/Sutherland's Station, Va: Robert E. Lee is forced to evacuate Richmond |
| 1865 | | US Maj Gen James H Wilson's cavalry captures Selma |
| 1912 | | Sun Yat Sen forms the Kuomintang Party |
| 1915 | | Battle of the Wasaa: Good Friday riot by ANZAC troops in Cairo's Red Light District |
| 1916 | | German Zeppelins bomb a distillery in Rosyth, causing a flood of fine whiskey |
| 1917 | | Pres Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany |
| 1941 | | Nazi occupiers disband the Dutch Boy Scouts |
| 1942 | | Burma: the British abandon Prome. |
| 1942 | | USS 'Hornet' (CV-7) sails from San Francisco, carrying 16 Army B-25Bs |
| 1942 | | Singapore: Japanese 18th Div sails for Rangoon. |
| 1942 | | US bombers from India attack Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands. |
| 1943 | | Italian blockade runner 'Orseolo' reaches Bordeaux from Kobe |
| 1944 | | US Fifth Air Force raids Hansa Bay, New Guinea. |
| 1944 | | Merrill's Marauders heavily engaged at Nhpum Ga, Burma |
| 1964 | | President Goulart of Brazil replaced by Castello Branco in a coup |
| 1972 | | Israeli PM Menachem Begin visits Pres Sadat of Egypt |
| 1982 | | Argentina invades the Falkland Is, initiating a 72-day losing war with Britain |
| 1986 | | TWA Flight 840 bombed on approach to Athens airport; four passengers (all of them American), including an infant, are killed. |
| 2012 | | Mass shooting at Oikos University, Oakland, California, 7 die |
| 323 | BC | Alexander IV of Macedon (323-309 BC), son of Alexander the Great |
| 742 | | Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, d. 814 -- Learn More |
| 1348 | | Byzantine Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1376-1379), deposed, d. 28 June 1385 |
| 1514 | | Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere of Urbino (1538-28 September 1574), Condottiero, patron of Titian |
| 1725 | | Giacomo Casanova was born, adventurer, lover, librarian, memoirist, sometime soldier, d.1798 Learn More |
| 1826 | | Philip Dale Roddey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1897 |
| 1833 | | Thomas Howard Ruger, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1907 |
| 1838 | | Léon Gambetta, French politician, Member of the Government of National Defense (1870-1871) who escaped from Paris in a balloon; later Prime Minister (1881-1882), d. 1882 |
| 1840 | | Émile Zola, French author and journalist, defender of Dreyfus, d. 1902 |
| 1914 | | Alec Guinness, naval officer, actor ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Bridge on the River Kwai"), d. 2000 Learn More |
| 1920 | | Jack Webb, sometime B-26 crewman, actor ("The DI"), d. 1982 |
| 1925 | | George MacDonald Fraser, soldier, author ("Flashman", "Quartered Safe Out Here"), d 2008 |
| 1118 | | Baldwin of Boulogne, 60, Count Baldwin I of Edessa (1098-1118), King Baldwin I of Jerusalem (1100-1118) |
| 1416 | | Ferdinand I "the Just", King of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, & Sardinia, Titular King of Corsica, King of Sicily, Titular Duke of Athens and Neopatria, and Count of Barcelona, Roussillon, & Cerdanya (1412-1416), Regent of Castile (1406-1416), at 35 |
| 1420 | | Nicolò Malvizzi, Patrician of Bologna, Papal Notary, assassinated |
| 1440 | | Giovanni Maria Vitelleschi, cardinal & condottiero, murdered |
| 1502 | | Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, at 15; elder brother of the later Henry VIII |
| 1657 | | Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, at 48 |
| 1702 | | Jean Bart, 50, French admiral |
| 1787 | | Gen. Sir Thomas Gage, c. 68, who lost the opening act of the American Revolution -- Learn More |
| 1831 | | King Charles Felix of Sardinia (1821-31), at 74 |
| 1851 | | King Rama III of Siam (1824-1851), 63 |
| 1865 | | Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill, C.S.A., KIA at 39 |
| 1930 | | Zewditu, 53, daughter of Menelik, first Empress Regnant of Ethiopia (1916-1930) |
| 1953 | | Hugo Sperrle, 68, German airman, Field Marshal, sometime C-in-C Luftwaffe |
| 1966 | | C.S. Forester, novelist ("Horatio Hornblower"), b. 1899 |
| 2005 | | Pope St. John Paul II (1978-2005), one of the Righteous, at 84 |
| 2008 | | Geoffrey Sandford Cox, New Zeeland journalist and war correspondent, at 97 -- Learn More |