wikimeme
Events
- 1521 - Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
- 1547 - Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
- 1573 - Articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland.
- 1754 - Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
- 1788 - The first penal colony is founded at Botany Bay, Australia.
- 1813 - Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
- 1820 - Russian expedition discovered the Antarctic continent.
- 1855 - The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the Panama Railway.
- 1871 - Franco-Prussian War: France surrenders, ending the war.
- 1887 - In Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported: 15 inches wide, 8 inches thick.
- 1917 - Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco.
- 1935 - Iceland becomes the first country to legalize abortion.
- 1938 - The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by driver Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195.
- 1973 - Barnaby Jones premieres on CBS.
- 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven astronauts onboard.
- 2002 - An Ecuadoran airline Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia killing 92.
Births
- 1457 - King Henry VII of England (d. 1509)
- 1600 - Pope Clement IX (d. 1669)
- 1608 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)
- 1712 - Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese shogun (d. 1761)
- 1717 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1774)
- 1853 - José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
- 1873 - Colette, French writer (d. 1954)
- 1890 - Robert Stroud, American convict, the Birdman of Alcatraz (d. 1963)
- 1912 - Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
- 1922 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1993)
- 1933 - Susan Sontag, American writer and activist (d. 2004)
- 1936 - Alan Alda, American actor, writer, and director
- 1948 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian dancer
- 1954 - Rick Warren, Pastor, Author of The Purpose Driven Life
- 1968 - Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1981 - Elijah Wood, American actor
Deaths
- 814 - Charlemagne (b. 742)
- 1271 - Isabella of Aragon, queen of Philip III of France (b. 1247)
- 1547 - King Henry VIII of England (b. 1491)
- 1596 - Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and soldier (b. ca. 1540)
- 1621 - Pope Paul V (b. 1550)
- 1725 (O.S.) - Tsar Peter I of Russia, (b. 1672)
- 1939 - William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- 1986 - Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger:
- Greg Jarvis (b. 1944)
- Christa McAuliffe (b. 1948)
- Ronald McNair (b. 1950)
- Ellison Onizuka (b. 1946)
- Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
- Francis R. Scobee (b. 1939)
- Michael J. Smith (b. 1945)
- Greg Jarvis (b. 1944)