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.
