1783 – After receiving a copy of the provisional treaty on March 13, the U.S. Congress proclaimed a formal end to hostilities with Great Britain.
1814 – Napoleon was forced to abdicate his throne. He was banished to the island of Elba.
1898 – U.S. President William McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war with Spain.
1899 – The treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.
1941 – Germany bombers blitzed Conventry, England.
1945 – U.S. troops reached the Elbe River in Germany.
1945 – During World War II, American soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald in Germany.
1970 – Apollo 13 blasted off on a mission to the moon that was disrupted when an explosion crippled the spacecraft. The astronauts did return safely
1984 – China invaded Vietnam.
1985 – Scientists in Hawaii measured the distance between the earth and moon within one inch.
1991 – U.N. Security Council issued a formal cease-fire with Iraq.
1996 – Forty-three African nations signed the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty.
1996 – Seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff was killed with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Jessica had hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country.
2001 – China agreed to release 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E Navy crew had been held since April 1 on Hainon, where the plane had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead.
