1. 38 - Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia and marries Livia Drusilla, ending the fragile peace between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey.

2. 395 - Emperor Theodosius I dies in Milan, and the Roman Empire is re - divided into an eastern and a western half. The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire is centered in Constantinople under Arcadius, son of Theodosius, and the Western Roman Empire is in Mediolanum.

3. 858 - Benedict III's reign as Catholic pope ends with his death.

4. 1287 - King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca.

5. 1377 - Pope Gregory XI moves the papacy back to Rome from Avignon.

6. 1387 - Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" characters begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury (according to scholars).

7. 1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the "Canterbury Tales" for the first time at the court of English King Richard II.

8. 1492 - Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the "Indies" with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found and the governorship of any lands encountered.

9. 1524 - Florentine navigator Giovanni Verrazzano on a voyage for France is the first European to discover New York harbour.

10. 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

11. 1534 - Thomas More is confined in the Tower of London.

12. 1555 - Siena surrenders to Spanish troops.

13. 1562 - France recognizes the Huguenots by the Edict of Saint - Germain.

14. 1595 - Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

15. 1596 - Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, occupies Calais.

16. 1608 - Emperor Suse Nyos of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Eben At; his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 of his men.

17. 1610 - English explorer Henry Hudson departs London aboard Discovery on his fourth, final, and fatal voyage to discover a northwest passage to the Pacific.

18. 1621 - Lord Chancellor of England Francis Bacon is charged with 23 counts of bribery and corruption by a parliamentary committee on the administration of the law.
1711 - Charles VI becomes Holy Roman Emperor after the death of his brother Joseph I.

19. 1747 - French troops occupy Zeeuws - Flanders, Netherlands.

20. 1758 - Francis Williams, the 1st US black college graduate, publishes poems.

21. 1773 - Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic circle.

22. 1774 - The first Unitarianism church service in England is held by Theophilus Lindsey at the Essex Street Chapel in London.

23. 1781 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Cowpens. Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton in South Carolina.

24. 1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the largest invasions of Spanish territories in America.

25. 1799 - Malta's patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed.

26. 1808 - The Bayonne decree by Napoleon I of France orders the seizure of US ships.

27. 1811 - Mexican War of Independence: In the Battle of Calderón Bridge, a Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries.

28. 1824 - Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54°40'N.

29. 1839 - Guatemala forms a republic.

30. 1851 - The clipper Marco Polo is launched at St. Johns, New Brunswick - then the fastest ship in the world.

31. 1852 - The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the South African Republic or Transvaal.

32. 1853 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke's government in the Netherlands resigns.

33. 1853 - The US marine hospital at the Presidio, San Francisco forms.

34. 1861 - Indianola, TX - The "Star of West" is taken by the Confederacy.

35. 1861 - Virginia secedes from the Union (US Civil War).

36. 1863 - Grierson's raid begins as Colonel Grierson and 1700 horse troopers set off from La Grange, Tennessee.

37. 1864 - The Battle of Plymouth, North Carolina.

38. 1864 - Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia.

39. 1864 - Grant suspends prisoner - of - war exchanges.

40. 1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

41. 1873 - A group of Modoc people defeats the United States army in the first battle of the Stronghold, part of the Modoc War.

42. 1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.

43. 1895 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed, ending the First Sino - Japanese War (1894 - 95).

44. 1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.

45. 1900 - 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign the instrument of cession.

46. 1905 - The US Supreme Court judges the maximum workday unconstitutional in Lochner v. New York by declaring the "right to free contract" implicit in the due process clause of the 14th amendment of the constitution.

47. 1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the US Virgin Islands.

48. 1917 - Lenin issues his "April Theses" calling for Soviets to take power during the Russian Revolution.

49. 1921 - The American company TJX is founded. It is now one of the world's largest discount retailers.