1242 – Russian troops repelled an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.

1614 – American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

1621 – The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, MA, on a return trip to England.

1792 – U.S. President George Washington cast the first presidential veto. The measure was for apportioning representatives among the states.

1806 – Isaac Quintard patented the cider mill.

1827 – James H. Hackett became the first American actor to appear abroad as he performed at Covent Garden in London, England.

1843 – Queen Victoria proclaimed Hong Kong to be a British crown colony.

1869 – Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the U.S. Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.

1887 – Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the meaning of the word “water” as spelled out in the manual alphabet.

1892 – Walter H. Coe patented gold leaf in rolls.

1892 – In New York, the Ithaca Daily Journal published an ad introducing a new 10 cent Ice Cream Specialty called a Cherry Sunday.

1895 – Playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde had been accused of homosexual practices.

1908 – The Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.

1919 – Eamon de Valera became president of Ireland.

1923 – Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began the first regular production of balloon tires.

1930 – Mahatma Ghandi defied British law by making salt in India.

1933 – The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO.

1941 – German commandos secured docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany’s invasion of the Balkans.

1951 – Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for committing espionage for the Soviet Union.

1953 – Jomo Kenyatta was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison for orchestrating the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya.

1955 – Winston Churchill resigned as British prime minister.

1984 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Los Angeles Lakers) became the all-time NBA regular season scoring leader when he broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 31,419 career points.

1985 – John McEnroe said “any man can beat any woman at any sport, especially tennis.”

1986 – A discotheque in Berlin was bombed by Libyan terrorists. The U.S. attacked Libya with warplanes in retaliation on April 15, 1986.

1987 – FOX Broadcasting Company launched “Married….With Children” and “The Tracey Ullman Show”. The two shows were the beginning of the FOX lineup.

1989 – In Poland, accords were signed between Solidarity and the government that set free elections for June 1989. The eight-year ban on Solidarity was also set to be lifted.

1998 – The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan opened becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world. It links Shikoku and Honshu. The bridge cost about $3.8 billion.

1999 – Two Libyans suspected of bombing a Pan Am jet in 1988 were handed over so they could be flown to the Netherlands for trial. 270 people were killed in the bombing.

1999 – In Laramie, WY, Russell Henderson pled guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard.

2004 – Near Mexico City’s international airport, lightning struck the jet Mexican President Vicente Fox was on.

2009 – North Korea launched the Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

The protest had started on April 16 as about 1,000 students marched to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, a pro-reform leader within the Chinese government.

Despite government warnings, pro-reform and pro-democracy demonstrations continued for a month drawing ever-larger crowds of young people, eventually totaling over a million persons.

On May 13, three thousand students began an eight-day hunger strike. The government imposed martial law on May 20 and brought in troops.

On June 2, in their first clash with the People’s Army, demonstrators turned back an advance of unarmed troops. However, in the pre-dawn hours of June 4, the People’s Army, using tanks, machine-guns, clubs and tear gas, opened fire on the unarmed protesters.

Armored personnel carriers then rolled into the square crushing students still sleeping in their tents. The Chinese government later claimed only 300 died in the attack. U.S. estimates put the toll at over 3,000. Following the massacre, over 1,600 demonstrators were rounded up and jailed, with 27 being executed.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot while standing on
the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where he had traveled to support a 
sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots
swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a
national day of mourning. 

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