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April 16 1746 - The Jacobite uprising in England ends when Charles "Bonnie Prince Charlie" Stuart is defeated by the Duke of Cumberland. 1789 - President-elect George Washington left his Mount Vernon, Virginia home for his inauguration in New York. 1889 - Actor-comedian Charlie Chaplin was...

April 12 1861 - The U.S. Civil War began when Fort Sumter in South Carolina was attacked by Confederate forces. 1862 - James J. Andrews led the raiding party that stole the Confederate locomotive "The General," inspiring the 1926 Buster Keaton movie. 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt died...

April 11 1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as Emperor of the French and was banished to the island of Elba. (Napoleon later escaped from Elba and returned to power in March 1815, until his downfall in the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.) 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd...

April 10 1790 - The U.S. patent system was formed. 1849 - The safety pin was patented by Walter Hunt in New York. 1866 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed. 1912 - The British liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, bound for New...

April 9 1413 - The coronation of England’s King Henry V took place in Westminster Abbey. 1731 - Robert Jenkins's ear was cut off, sparking the War of Jenkins's Ear between Spain and England. 1865 - Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia...

April 6 1830 - Joseph Smith and five others organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Fayette, New York. 1862 - The Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the next...

April 5 1614 - Indian Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas married Englishman John Rolfe, a widower, in the Virginia Colony. 1621 - The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts on a monthlong return trip to England. 1764 - Britain's Parliament passed The American...

April 4 1818 - Congress adopted a U.S. flag with one star for each state. 1841 - President William Henry Harrison died from pneumonia, just one month after his inauguration, becoming the first U.S. president to die in office; John Tyler became the first vice president to assume the presidency...

April 3 1860 - The first Pony Express service began. 1865 - Union forces occupied the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. 1882 - Outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back in St. Joseph, Missouri by Bob Ford, one of his own gang members, reportedly for a $10,000 reward. 1930 - Ras Tafari...

April 2 1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in present-day Florida. 1792 - Congress authorized the first U.S. Mint, to be located in Philadelphia. 1865 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia in the face...

April 1 1778 - Oliver Pollack created the dollar sign ($). 1789 - Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first Speaker of the House of Representatives. 1865 - During the Civil War, Union forces routed Confederate soldiers in the Battle of Five Forks in Virginia. 1891 - The...

March 30 1822 - Florida became a U.S. territory. 1842 - Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, first used ether as an anesthetic during an operation to remove a patient’s neck tumor. 1856 - The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War. 1867 - A treaty for the purchase of...

March 29 1848 - For the first time in recorded history, Niagara Falls stopped flowing. An ice jam in the Niagara River above the rim of the falls caused the water to stop. 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln ordered plans for a relief expedition to sail to South Carolina’s Fort Sumter, which was...

March 28 1797 - Nathaniel Briggs patented the washing machine. 1854 - During the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia. 1898 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, that Wong, who was born in the United States to Chinese immigrants, was an...

March 27 1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted present-day Florida. 1625 - Charles I acceded to the English throne upon the death of James I. 1794 - Congress authorized the U.S. Navy. 1866 - President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill which would later become the 14th...

March 26 1812 - An earthquake devastated Caracas, Venezuela, causing an estimated 26,000 deaths. 1827 - Composer Ludwig van Beethoven died at age 56 in Vienna, Austria. 1945 - The World War II Battle of Iwo Jima ended; about 22,000 Japanese troops were killed or captured in the fighting and...

March 25 1634 - Maryland was founded by settlers sent by the late Lord Baltimore. 1894 - Jacob Sechler Coxey and his "army" of unemployed men began their march from Ohio to Washington, D.C. to demand help from the federal government. 1911 - A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York...

March 22 1765 - The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies, which fiercely resisted the tax. (The act was repealed a year later.) 1820 - U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with dishonored former Chesapeake captain James Barron. 1882...

March 21 1556 - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake as a heretic. 1685 - Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany. 1804 - The French Civil Code, the Code Napoleon, was officially put forth. 1871 - Journalist Henry M. Stanley began his...

March 20 1413 - England's King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V. 1602 - The Dutch East India Company was established. During its 196-year history, it became one of the world's most powerful companies. 1727 - English physicist and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London at age...