1606 – Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates were hung, drawn and quartered for their part in Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder plot.
1649 – Charles I, convicted of treason, was beheaded on a scaffold in Whitehall.
1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed two years after his death, on the anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.
1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world’s first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the northwest coast of Wales, is opened.
1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
1889 – Baronness Marie Vetsera, 17, and her lover, Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf, were found dead at the Royal hunting lodge of Mayerling, near Vienna. It remains a mystery whether it was double suicide or murder.
1931 – The American silent romantic-comedy film City Lights had its world premiere, and it is considered by many to be Charlie Chaplin’s crowning achievement in cinema.
1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
1945 – The greatest maritime disaster in history occurred as the German ocean liner Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Soviet submarine, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 people.
1948 – Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known for his non-violent freedom struggle to achieve social and political progress is assassinated by Pandit Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary.
1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner”.
1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
Famous Birthdays:
Gene Hackman, 94 years
Eugene Allen Hackman is a retired American actor. In a career that spanned more than six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Silver Bear.
Phil Collins, 73 years
Philip David Charles Collins LVO is an English singer, drummer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis and had a successful solo career, achieving three UK number-one singles and seven US number one singles as a solo artist.
Peter Crouch, 43
Peter James Crouch is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was capped 42 times by the England national team between 2005 and 2010, scoring 22 goals for his country during that time, and appearing at two FIFA World Cup tournaments.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He was a member of the Democratic Party and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms
12 April 1945 at the age of 63.