1064 German KingHenry IV gives away Utrecht county of West Friesland

1492Christopher Columbus is given royal commission by Spanish monarchsIsabella I andFerdinand II to equip his fleet to the New World

1527Henry VIII of England andFrancis I of France sign the Treaty of Westminster, pledging to combine their forces against Holy Roman EmperorCharles V in attempt to win War of the League of Cognac

1725 EmperorCharles VI & King Philip IV of Spain sign Treaty of Vienna

1763 Member of Parliament and journalistJohn Wilkes confined in the Tower of London, charged with seditious libel

1789George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America at Federal Hall in NYC

1803 Chancellor Robert Livingston andJames Monroe sign Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris at a cost of 15 million dollars, doubles the size of the USA

1852Anton Rubinstein's opera "Dmitri Donskoi" premieres in St Petersburg, Russia

1859 AmericanPaul Morphy, widely regarded as the world's best chess player, retires after returning from a 10-month chess tour of Europe

1859Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" is first published in literary periodical "All the Year Round" (weekly installments until Nov 26)

1861 US PresidentAbraham Lincoln orders Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory (US Civil War)

1863 -5/1] Battle of Snyder's Bluff, Virginia (part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War):General Sherman beaten by Confederate forces

1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia: In a major victory GeneralRobert E. Lee's troops defeat larger Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker,Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded

1897 English physicist and head of the Cavendish laboratoryJ. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron in a lecture to the Royal Institution

1900 Weighing in at 170 lbs British former world heavyweight boxing championBob Fitzsimmons KOs 270 lb American Ed Dunkhost in round 2 of a lop-sided bout in Brooklyn, New York

1902Claude Debussy's only completed opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" premieres at the Salle Favart in Paris by the Opéra-Comique, conducted by André Messager

1921 PopeBenedict XV encyclical "On Dante"

1927Princess Juliana gets seat in Dutch Council of State

1939FDR becomes 1st US President to appear on TV when NBC-RCA television broadcasts the opening of 1939 New York World's Fair

1939Lou Gehrig sets a MLB record playing his 2,130th consecutive and final game for the New York Yankees.

1943Noël Coward's play "This Happy Breed" premieres in London; written in 1939, production was delayed by WWII

1944 NY Giant,Mel Ott scores 6 runs in 1 game drawing 5 walks for 4th time

1945 "Arthur Godfrey Time" begins a 27 year run on CBS radio

1945Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his new wife Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin as the Red Army captures the city

1945 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) calls for crusade against the Bolsheviks

1945 Red Army opens attack on German Reichstag building in Berlin

1946 Cleveland Indians pitcherBob Feller's 2nd career MLB no-hitter; beats New York Yankees, 1-0

1953 Little-Bigger League changes its name toBabe Ruth League

1954Darius Milhaud's 4th Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Op. 295) premieres in Haifa, Israel

1958Ted Williams is 10th major league player to get 1,000 extra-base hits

1961 MLB San Francisco Giants outfielderWillie Mays becomes just the 9th player in MLB history to hit 4 homers in one game in 14-4 win against the Braves in Milwaukee

1961 PremierFidel Castro of Cuba receives Lenin-Peace Prize

1962 NASA civilian pilotJoseph A. Walker takes X-15 to 75,190 m

1967 Ostankino Tower, the then highest free-standing structure in the world at 540m is finished in Moscow, Russia

1973Paul McCartney releases "Red Rose Speedway" album, includes the hit single "My Love"

1973 US President Nixon announces the resignation ofH. R. Haldeman, Ehrlichman and others

1974 US PresidentRichard Nixon hands over partial transcripts of Watergate tape recordings

1976Muhammad Ali beats Jimmy Young in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1977 Human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo begin protesting at the forced disappearances of thousands, under the military dictatorship ofJorge Rafael Videla, in Buenos Aires

1978 British film "The Stud" starringJoan Collins, based on the book by her sisterJackie Collins premieres in UK

1985Dale Murphy drives in record tying 28th & 29th runs of April

1986Bill Elliott sets all-time NASCAR qualifying record, winning pole for the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway; 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h; 44.998 seconds)

1988 NY YankDave Winfield gets his 29th RBI of April-Sets AL & ties ML Rec

1989 PopeJohn Paul II beatifies Victoire Rasoamanarivo of Madagascar

1989 World Wide Web (WWW) is first launched in the public domain by CERN scientistTim Berners-Lee

1990 As Met pitcherDavid Cone argues a call at 1st base, 2 Braves score

1992 208th & final episode of "The Cosby Show" on NBC-TV

1996 USPresident Clinton approves the sale of $227 million of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; US gas prices are at their highest levels in 5 years

1997 42 million watchEllen DeGeneres publicly declare she is gay

1997 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include:Sting,Elton John,James Taylor,Stevie Wonder,Lyle Lovett, Bobby McFerrin, Bonnie Raitt, Shawn Colvin and Zucchero

2001 USVice President Cheney calls for increased domestic production of fossil fuels and increased usage of nuclear power to meet America's energy demand

2002 A referendum in Pakistan overwhelmingly approves the Presidency ofPervez Musharraf for another five years

2004 "Mean Girls", teen comedy film released starringLindsay Lohan andRachel McAdams and written byTina Fey

2007 German ChancellorAngela Merkel officially hands over the Waldseemüller Map (oldest known document to name America) to the US Library of Congress[1]

2008David Blaine sets a new Guinness World Record for holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes 4-1/2 seconds on "TheOprah Winfrey Show"

2008Heidi Klum launches her clothing line for Jordache

2008 Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia, were confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains ofAlexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters