• 37 - Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.
• 193 - Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
• 364 - Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.
• 845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
• 1776 - Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
• 1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeat French forces at Le Cateau.
• 1795 - Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
• 1802 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
• 1809 - Peninsular War: France defeats Spain in the Battle of Medelin.
• 1834 - The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in de-funding the Second Bank of the United States.
• 1854 - Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.
• 1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - in New Mexico, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26.
• 1871 - The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.
• 1910 - Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
• 1913 - Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1920 - Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.
• 1930 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
• 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid.
• 1940 - Construction begins of the exhibition center to host the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair.
• 1941 - World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan - in the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian heavy cruisers and two destroyers.
• 1942 - World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
• 1946 - Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
• 1969 - Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
• 1969 - The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history with 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students at McGill's Roddick Gates. This led to the majority of the protesters getting arrested.
• 1978 - The US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
• 1979 - In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.
• 1979 - British Prime Minister James Callaghan, is defeated by one vote in a Motion of No Confidence. This results in Parliament being dissolved to make way for a General Election.
• 1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
• 1994 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.
• 1994 - BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts for first time in United Kingdom
• 2000 - A Murray County, Georgia, school bus is hit by a CSX freight train (3 children die in this accident).
• 2003 - In a "friendly fire" incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.
• 2005 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960.
• 2006 - At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.

Births