/year

April 21 in history

225 sourced entries recorded on April 21, from 44 BCE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 44 BCEApril 18–April 21 – Octavian engages in a charm offensive with consular Cicero who is fulminating against Mark Antony.source
  • 43 BCEAntony is again defeated in the Battle of Mutina by a coalition of Octavian, Decimus Brutus, and the two consuls of the year.source
  • 43 BCECicero's 14th and last Philippic.source
  • 847Rabanus Maurus, a Frankish Benedictine monk, becomes archbishop of Mainz after the death of Odgar.source
  • 900Namwaran and his children, Lady Angkatan and Bukah, are granted pardon by the Lakan (ruler) of Tondo, as represented by Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pila, which released them of all their debts as inscribed in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (Philippines).source
  • 1084King Kyansittha begins his reign as ruler of the Pagan Kingdom in Burma (modern Myanmar).source
  • 1092The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the dignity of a metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II.source
  • 1104The new basilica at Vézelay Abbey (located in northern Burgundy in France) is dedicated.source
  • 1211Santiago de Compostela Cathedral (begun in the 11th century) is consecrated, in the presence of King Alfonso IX of León.source
  • 1251City of Launggyet in Arakan (modern-day Burma) is founded according to some sources.source
  • 1307Ralph Baldock, Bishop of London, becomes the new Lord Chancellor of England upon the death of William Hamilton, but serves for less than four months.source
  • 1331Irish raid and capture Arklowsource
  • 1400Sir Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, resigns as England's Admiral of the North and West to join the resistance against King Henry IV. The office will remain vacant for more than six years. Percy will be beheaded in 1403 after his defeat in the Battle of Shrewsbury.source
  • 1486The adoption of the Sentència Arbitral de Guadalupe ends the War of the Remences, in the Principality of Catalonia.source
  • 1503Third Italian War: Battle of Seminara – Spanish forces under Fernando de Andrade de las Mariñas defeat the French under Bernard Stewart, 4th Lord of Aubigny, who is captured, in Calabria.source
  • 1503Battle of Seminara: Spanish forces under Fernando de Andrade de las Mariñas defeat the French under Bernard Stewart, 4th Lord of Aubigny.source
  • 1503Battle of Cerignola: Spanish forces under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeat the French under Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours.source
  • 1509Henry VIII becomes King of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.source
  • 1519April 21 (Maundy Thursday) – Hernán Cortés reaches San Juan de Ulúa, and sets foot the next day (Good Friday) on the beach of modern-day Veracruz.source
  • 1526Battle of Panipat: Babur becomes Mughal emperor, invades northern India and captures Delhi, creating the Mughal Empire, which lasts until 1857.source
  • 1526The First Battle of Panipat is fought. Babur becomes Mughal emperor, invades northern India and captures Delhi, beginning the Mughal Empire, which lasts until 1757.source
  • 1544The Italian town of Agropoli, frequently targeted by pirates from North Africa, is sacked by Ottoman raiders and 100 people are taken prisoner.source
  • 1571In the German Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, the serfs are emancipated by John, Count of Palatine and Duke of Zweibrucken.source
  • 1571In China, General Altan Khan is granted authority to rule the western provinces by the Ming dynasty Emperor Longqing in return for his payment of a tribute.source
  • 1585The papal conclave begins at the Vatican in Rome on Easter Sunday, with only 42 of the 60 cardinals attending. Early voting favors Cardinals Pier Donato Cesi and Guglielmo Sirleto, neither of whom receives a majority.source
  • 1591Japanese tea-master Sen no Rikyū commits seppuku, on the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.source
  • 1615The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.source
  • 1618Spanish-born Jesuit missionary Pedro Páez becomes (probably) the first European to see and describe the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.source
  • 1628Generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein of the Holy Roman Empire is made Admiral of the Baltic Sea by Emperor Ferdinand II.source
  • 1639William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele and Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke imprisoned for refusing to fight against the Covenanters.source
  • 1641England's House of Commons votes 204 to 59 in favor of the conviction for treason and the execution of the Earl of Strafford, and the House of Lords acquiesces. King Charles refuses to give the necessary royal assent.source
  • 1643Maximilien Villain presides over a diocesan synod of the Diocese of Tournaisource
  • 1649The Maryland Toleration Act is passed in the American colony, allowing all freedom of worship.source
  • 1668Henry Brouncker is expelled from the English House of Commons for treason during the 1665 Battle of Lowestoft during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.source
  • 1676Sudbury Fight: The village of Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Metacom's Wampanoag Confederation as one of the last major battles of King Phillip's War. Captain Samuel Wadworth and 28 of his men are killed in the defense of the town.source
  • 1680Prince Rajaram Bhosle, the 10-year-old son of the Shivaji, the Chhatrapati (Emperor) of the Maratha Empire in India, is installed on the throne as the new Emperor, less than three weeks after the death of his father. Sambhaji Bhosle, the eldest son of Shivaji, learns the news while imprisoned at Panhala and makes plans to escape prison and take over the throne.source
  • 1686April 20–April 24 – three Roman Catholic judges are appointed to Ireland (but Charles Ingleby refuses to travel there).source
  • 1700In India, the siege of the fortress of Sajjangad (located in the Maharashtra state) is begun by an army led by Fateullahakhan. The fortress falls on June 6.source
  • 1701In Japan, the young daimyō Asano Naganori is ordered to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). A group of 47 samurai of his service begin planning to avenge his death.source
  • 1703Battle of Pultusk; Charles XII wins the Battle of Pultusk during the invasion of Poland and Lithuania.source
  • 1703Swedish victory at the Battle of Pułtusk (1703).source
  • 1703The Company of Quenching of Fire (i.e., a fire brigade) is founded in Edinburgh, Scotland.source
  • 1703the Edinburgh "Company of Quenching of Fire", i.e., a fire brigade, is formed.source
  • 1704Battle of Biskupice: The Hungarians (Kurucs) win a costly victory over the Danes.source
  • 1709Mirwais Hotak takes control of Kandahar (in Afghanistan) by murdering the Persian governor, Gurgin Khan, known also as George XI.source
  • 1721The deadliest outbreak of smallpox in the history of Boston begins when the British ship HMS Sea Horse arrives in Boston Harbor with a crew of sailors who had survived a smallpox epidemic. One of the Seahorse crew who had cleared quarantine develops symptoms the next day and infects other people in a lodging house. Over the next 10 months, 5,759 cases of smallpox are recorded in Boston and 844 people die of the disease.source
  • 1743Thomas Herring becomes Archbishop of York and is replaced as Bishop of Bangor by Matthew Hutton. Both men go on to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury.source
  • 1747Edmund Burke sets up Burke's Club, a debating society at Trinity College Dublin, which will become the College Historical Society.source
  • 1756James Montgomery, a slave, escapes from a ship bound for Virginia at Port Glasgow and flees to Edinburgh where he is recaptured and begins the legal case of Montgomery v Sheddan in an attempt to gain his freedom.source
  • 1757Battle of Reichenberg: Marshal Augustus William von Bevern enters Bohemia with a Prussian army (some 15,000 men). In Reichenberg he encounters the Austrians under the command of General Christian Moritz von Königsegg. Von Bevern defeats the Austrian troops and captures large quantities of supplies. He continues his advance on Prague.source
  • 1758Thomas Secker enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.source
  • 1764Residents of French Louisiana are informed for the first time that they will come under Spanish rule as the result of a secret agreement of November 13, 1762 whereby France has ceded all of its North American territory west of the Mississippi River. The Spanish, however, do not take possession until August 17, 1769.source
  • 1764Residents of French Louisiana are informed for the first time that they will come under Spanish rule (from 1769) as the result of a secret agreement of 13 November 1762, whereby France has ceded all of its North American territory west of the Mississippi River.source
  • 1782A Lak Mueang (city pillar) is erected on Rattanakosin Island, located on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, by order of King Rama I, an act considered the founding of the capital city of Bangkok.source
  • 1785The Empress Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire issues the Charter to the Towns, providing for "a coherent, unified system of administration" for new governments organized in Russia.source
  • 1789John Adams takes office as the first vice president of the United States, and begins presiding over the United States Senate.source
  • 1791The first of forty boundary markers of the original District of Columbia, delineating the borders of the new District in the United States is laid at Jones Point Light in Alexandria, Virginia.source
  • 1794Charles Kemble, Brecon-born brother of Sarah Siddons, makes his first appearance on the London stage as Malcolm in Macbeth.source
  • 1796War of the First Coalition – Battle of Mondovi: Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeats the army of Piedmont-Sardinia, leaving its capital of Turin defenseless. This convinces Piedmont to sign an armistice and withdraw from the war, turning the war in Italy decisively in France's favor.source
  • 1801Ranjit Singh is invested as Maharaja of Punjab.source
  • 1802About 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, the second ruler of the First Saudi State attack and sack Karbala, kill between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plunder the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib.source
  • 1809Battle of Landshut: Napoleon defeats Austria, in yet another battle.source
  • 1813Frederick William III of Prussia establishes the Landsturmsource
  • 1815In India, the eastern part of the former Garhwal Kingdom is joined with Kumaon division, under the administration of the British Raj.source
  • 1819In a period of about a month starting today during his "Living Year", English poet John Keats writes "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and most of his major odes.source
  • 1820Hans Christian Ørsted discovers the relationship between electricity and magnetism.source
  • 1829Popular German conductor Felix Mendelssohn begins his first of 10 visits to Britain, touring the island until November 28. This includes the first London performance of his concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his trip to Fingal's Cave.source
  • 1830Phillip Tapsell is married to Karuhi, sister of a Ngā Puhi chief, by Samuel Marsden.source
  • 1836Texas Revolution – Battle of San Jacinto: Mexican forces under General Antonio López de Santa Anna are defeated at San Jacinto, Texas.source
  • 1849The Austrian government asks Russian help against the Hungarian Revolution. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia agrees to send troops against Hungary.source
  • 1849Belgian domestic law updated in line with becoming a signatory to the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Tradesource
  • 1849Great Famine (Ireland): 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse die over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high. This year's potato crop again fails and there are renewed outbreaks of cholera.source
  • 1856Building workers agitate for the eight-hour day in Melbourne, Australia.source
  • 1859the Dunfermline Press begins publication.source
  • 1863Ayyam-i butun: Bahá'u'lláh begins a 12-day stay in the Najibiyyih gardens, Baghdad (later known as the Garden of Ridván) during which he declares his station as He whom God shall make manifest. This date is celebrated in the Baháʼí Faith as the festival of Ridván.source
  • 1865German chemicals producer BASF moves its headquarters and factories from Mannheim, to the Hemshof District of Ludwigshafen.source
  • 1868Alfred Henry Maurer, modernist painter (suicide 1932)source
  • 1879From 1879 the eight-hour day was a public holiday in Victoria; it celebrated the stonemasons' strike in 1856.source
  • 1881The University of Connecticut is founded as the Storrs Agricultural School.source
  • 1884Hammond, Indiana, is incorporated a city.source
  • 1888The Texas State Capitol building, completed at a cost of $3 million, opens to the public in Austin.source
  • 1894A bituminous coal miners' strike closes mines across the central United States.source
  • 1897Sir Alfred Milner becomes High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony.source
  • 1898Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.source
  • 1898Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.source
  • 1898More suspects were arrested by the Spanish authorities: Doroteo Jose; Cecilio Velarde, the parish priest of Quiapo; Felix Roxas; Padre Consunji; and many more.source
  • 1899The nova V606 Aquilae is first observed from Earth as seen within the constellation Aquila.source
  • 1903April 19–21 (April 6–8 O.S.) – The first Kishinev pogrom, beginning on Easter Day, takes place in Kishinev, capital of the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire. At least 47 Jews are killed during mob rioting encouraged by blood libel articles in the press and led by priests.source
  • 1908Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.source
  • 1908Knattspyrnufélagið Víkingur is established.source
  • 1912Yung Wing, the first Chinese overseas student (born 1828)source
  • 1913Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, built by John Brown & Company, is launched on the River Clyde.source
  • 1915On the orders of Talat Pasha, Haydar Bey organized an expedition against the Assyrians. He killed thousands of Assyrians along with Kurdish tribes.source
  • 1915Establishment of the Theatre Circosource
  • 1916Roger Casement and two others were arrested at Banna Strand, County Kerry, for attempting to land arms and ammunition.source
  • 1918Canadian Captain Roy Brown (209 Squadron, RAF) supposedly shoots down the famed Red Baron. More accepted theories credit either Sergeant Cedric Popkin (Australian 24th Machine Gun Company), Gunner Snowy Evans or Gunner Robert Buie (both of 53rd Battery, 14th Field Artillery Brigade, RAA) with the kill.source
  • 1920April 19–26 – San Remo conference: Representatives of Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan meet to determine the League of Nations mandates for administration of territories, following the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • 1920April 19–26 – San Remo conference held at Castle Devachan in Sanremo, Italy. Representatives of Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Japan meet to determine the League of Nations mandates for administration of territories following partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The conference was attended by the four Principal Allied Powers of World War I who were represented by the prime ministers of Britain (David Lloyd George), France (Alexandre Millerand), Italy (Francesco Nitti) and by Japan's Ambassador Keishirō Matsui.source
  • 1927A banking crisis hits Japan.source
  • 1930The Turkestan–Siberia Railway is completed.source
  • 1930A fire in the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, United States kills 320 people.source
  • 1930A fire in the Ohio Penitentiary near Columbus kills 320 people.source
  • 1933Nazi Germany outlaws the kosher ritual shechita.source
  • 1934Meron Benvenisti, Israeli political scientist and deputy mayor of Jerusalemsource
  • 1934The "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, taken in Scotland by London gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson and in 1994 admitted to be a hoax, is published in the Daily Mail London national newspaper.source
  • 1935The magnitude 7.1 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake struck western Taiwansource
  • 1943The first German Tiger I tank is captured in North Africa by British forces.source
  • 1943Aberdeen, Scotland, experiences its worst bombing, with 125 people killed.source
  • 1946Deutsche Volkszeitung ceased publication.source
  • 1950Nainital wedding massacre: A mass stabbing occurs at Nainital in India, killing 22 members of the Harijan caste.source
  • 1951The National Olympic Committee of the Soviet Union is formed. The USSR will first participate in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952.source
  • 1955April 18–24 – The Asian-African Conference is held in Bandung, Indonesia.source
  • 1958United Airlines Flight 736 is involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force F-100F jet fighter over what becomes Enterprise, Nevada; all 49 persons in both aircraft are killed.source
  • 1960In Brazil, the country's capital (Federal District) is relocated from the city of Rio de Janeiro to the new city, Brasília, in the highlands. The former Federal District, in which the city of Rio de Janeiro was situated, becomes the State of Guanabara.source
  • 1962The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, United States. This is also the Opening Day of the Seattle Space Needle.source
  • 1963April 21–23 – The first election of the Supreme Institution of the Baháʼí Faith (known as the Universal House of Justice, whose seat is at the Baháʼí World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel) is held.source
  • 1963The first prize of Miss World Chile is given to Maria Pilar Aguirre Gómez.source
  • 1964Hanna Neumann is named professor and chair of pure mathematics at the Australian National University in Canberra, becoming the first female professor of pure mathematics at an Australian university and the first woman to be appointed to a chair at ANU.source
  • 1964Judy Hanrahan becomes the first female bank teller appointed by the Bank of NSW since World War II, taking up the position at the Collins Street branch in Melbourne.source
  • 1966Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rasta leaders.source
  • 1966The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.source
  • 1966An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas, hospital.source
  • 1970The Principality of Hutt River "secedes" from Australia (it remained unrecognised by Australia and other nations, and is dissolved in 2020).source
  • 1971Siaka Stevens is sworn in as the first president of Sierra Leone.source
  • 1971The Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda (Icelandic:Konungsbók Eddukvæða) and the Codex Flateyensis (Icelandic:Flateyjarbók) is returned from Denmark.source
  • 1975Paulino do Livramento Évora became the first Cape Verdean born bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verdesource
  • 1976The Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne, Australia: Bandits steal A$1.4 million in bookmakers' settlements from Queen Street, Melbourne.source
  • 1978April 18– 30 – The Khmer Rouge massacres 3,157 civilians in Ba Chúc, Vietnam.source
  • 1981Soldiers of the Army of Guatemala entered the village of Acul, near Santa Maria Nebaj in the Guatemalan highlands, and executed most of the adult men for suspected collaboration with leftist guerillas. "Within two weeks," an investigator for the government noted in 1997, "the village was empty, and the army burned every house and field of corn in Acul". The village was rebuilt two years later.source
  • 1983John Glenn announces a presidential run.source
  • 1986Lorimar-Telepictures launches as a mass media company.source
  • 1987In Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Central Bus Station Bombing kills 113 civilians.source
  • 1989The Nintendo Game Boy has its first official release in Japansource
  • 1989Students from Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Nanjing begin protesting in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.source
  • 1990Japanese Yoshio Tani, M.Sc. murders gold merchant Turkka Elovirta and businessman Juhani Komulainen in Siuntio, Finland, having convinced them to buy a nonexistent 500 kilogram stash of Nazi gold.source
  • 1993The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.source
  • 1994The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda.source
  • 1996A general election in Italy proclaims a new center-left government headed by Romano Prodi, replacing Silvio Berlusconi.source
  • 1997The 47th Vuelta a Colombia begins in Bucaramanga, Santander.source
  • 1997A Pegasus rocket carries the remains of 24 people into earth orbit, in the first space burial by Celestis company.source
  • 1999Rwanda rejects the peace agreement in Libya to end the Second Congo War.source
  • 2000In Dushanbe, Tajikistan, U.N. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell held peace talks with Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood, former Nangarhar province governor Haji Abdul Qadeer and former member of the ousted Rabbani government Syed Hussain Anwari.source
  • 2003the primary radar for airspace control was opened (part of BALTNET).source
  • 2007April 15–22 – Three major marathon races were won by Kenyan men: Rotterdam Marathon was won by Joshua Chelanga, Boston Marathon by Robert Cheruiyot and London Marathon by Martin Lel.source
  • 2009UNESCO launches The World Digital Library.source
  • 2010Bosnian police fired tear gas and water at war veterans in Sarajevo, during a protest against proposed state benefit cuts.source
  • 2013Businessman Horacio Cartes wins the 2013 Paraguayan general election against Efraín Alegre.source
  • 2014Five people are sentenced to death and 37 others given prison sentences for their roles in the 2003 bombings in Riyadh.source
  • 2018Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is the first foreign leader to meet with President Miguel Díaz-Canel.source
  • 2018A local journalist, Miguel Angel Gahona, was shot dead in the city of Bluefields, allegedly by a police sniper.source
  • 2019At least 55 people are injured as a protest in the Pankisi gorge over construction of a hydro-electric power plant grows into clashes with the riot police. As a result, the construction is suspended, while the riot police units are withdrawn from the area.source
  • 2019A series of Islamist bomb attacks occur at eight locations in Sri Lanka, including three churches, four hotels and one housing complex in Colombo, on Easter Sunday, leaving 259 people dead and over 500 injured. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009.source
  • 20192019 Ukrainian presidential election: Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected the President of Ukraine in a landslide victory in the second round of voting. He took office on May 20, 2019.source
  • 2023The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, representing a majority of the global Anglican population, reject the leadership of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as the head of global Anglicanism over his support for same-sex marriage.source

Births

  • 1132Sancho VI (the Wise), king of Navarre (died 1194)source
  • 1488Ulrich von Hutten, German religious reformer (died 1523)source
  • 1523Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (died 1571)source
  • 1555Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter (died 1619)source
  • 1594Bernardino Spada, Italian Catholic cardinal (died 1661)source
  • 1619Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch founder of Cape Town (died 1677)source
  • 1651Blessed Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Ceylon (died 1711)source
  • 1661Georg Joseph Kamel, Jesuit missionary and botanist (died 1706)source
  • 1671John Law, Scottish economist (died 1729)source
  • 1705Jean-Pierre Aulneau, Jesuit missionary priest, briefly active in New France (died 1736)source
  • 1752Humphry Repton, English garden designer (died 1818)source
  • 1783Reginald Heber, English priest (died 1821)source
  • 1805James Martineau, English religious philosopher (died 1900)source
  • 1816Charlotte Brontë, English novelist, poet (died 1855)source
  • 1830Clémence Royer, French anthropologist (died 1902)source
  • 1838John Muir, American ecologist (died 1914)source
  • 1848April 21/23 – Carl Rüedi, pulmonologist (died 1901)source
  • 1855Hardy Richardson, American baseball player (died 1931)source
  • 1864Max Weber, German sociologist (died 1920)source
  • 1915Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor, painter, writer, and film director (died 2001)source
  • 1926Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (died 2022)source

Deaths

  • 185Apollonius the Apologist, Christian apologistsource
  • 186Apollonius the Apologist, Christian martyrsource
  • 234Xian of Han, Chinese emperor of the Han Dynasty (born 181)source
  • 518Yu Zhong, official and regent of Northern Wei (born 462)source
  • 586King Liuvigild dies at Toledo after an 18-year reign, and is succeeded by his second son Reccared I.source
  • 586Liuvigild, king of the Visigothssource
  • 839Pei Du, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (born 765)source
  • 847Odgar, Frankish monk and archbishopsource
  • 866Bardas, Byzantine chief minister and regentsource
  • 866Bardas, the regent of the Byzantine Empire, is murdered by Basil the Macedonian at Miletus, while conducting a large-scale expedition against the Saracen stronghold of Crete.source
  • 941Bajkam, Turkish military commandersource
  • 1073Alexander II, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1010/15)source
  • 1109Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (born 1033)source
  • 1142Peter Abelard, French scholastic philosopher (born 1079)source
  • 1213Maria of Montpellier, Lady of Montpellier, Queen of Aragon (born 1182)source
  • 1217Al-Mansur Abdallah, Yemeni imam (born 1166)source
  • 1329Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (born 1282)source
  • 1375Elisabeth of Meissen, Burgravine consort of Nuremberg (born 1329)source
  • 1421John FitzAlan, 13th Earl of Arundel (born 1385)source
  • 1509Henry VII of England, King of England and Lord of Ireland (born 1457)source
  • 1514Ichijō Fuyuyoshi, Japanese court noble (born 1465)source
  • 1526Ibrahim Lodi, last Sultan of Delhi (in battle)source
  • 1526Ibrahim Lodi, sultan of Delhi (birth date unknown)source
  • 1541James, Duke of Rothesay, Scottish prince (born 1540)source
  • 1552Petrus Apianus, German astronomer (born 1495)source
  • 1574Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1519)source
  • 1582Francisco de Toledo, Spanish soldier and politician (born 1515)source
  • 1591Sen no Rikyū, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (born 1522)source
  • 1644Torsten Stålhandske, Finnish officer in the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War (born 1593)source
  • 1650Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (born 1607)source
  • 1652Pietro Della Valle, Italian traveller (born 1586)source
  • 1665Jean-Joseph Surin, French Jesuit writer (born 1600)source
  • 1668Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (born c. 1604)source
  • 1690Jacob de Graeff, member of the De Graeff-family from the Dutch Golden Age (born 1642)source
  • 1699Jean Racine, French classic dramatist (born 1639)source
  • 1720Antoine Hamilton, French writer (born 1646)source
  • 1736Prince Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general (born 1663)source
  • 1792Tiradentes, a leading figure in the Inconfidência Mineira conspiracy, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.source
  • 1835Samuel Slater, American industrialist (born 1768)source
  • 1849Great Famine (Ireland): 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse died over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high.source
  • 1910Mark Twain, American writer (born 1835)source
  • 1918Manfred von Richthofen, German fighter pilot, top-scoring ace of World War I (killed in action) (born 1892)source
  • 1938Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Indian philosopher, poet (born 1877)source
  • 1946John Maynard Keynes, British economist (born 1883)source
  • 1975Sisowath Sirik Matak was executed by the Khmer Rouge after choosing to remain in Cambodia rather than to evacuate.source
  • 1992The death of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia results in a succession dispute between Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia and Vladimir's daughter Maria for the leadership of the Imperial Family of Russia.source
  • 2016Prince, 57, American musician ("When Doves Cry", "Little Red Corvette", "Purple Rain") and actor, Oscar (1984) and four-time Grammy winner, accidental fentanyl overdose.source
  • 2020Mozambique police say 52 male villagers were killed by Islamist militants earlier this month in Muidumbe District, Cabo Delgado Province, after they refused to join their ranks.source
  • 2025Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church since 2013, dies at the age of 88. World leaders pay tribute. Many countries declare national mourning.source
  • 2025Pope Francis, 88, Argentine Roman Catholic prelate, pope (since 2013), archbishop of Buenos Aires (1998–2013), stroke and cardio-circulatory collapse.source