286 The Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305) makes Maximian co-Emperor (286-305)

457 The Roman Army proclaims Flavius Julius Valerius Majorianus -- Majorian -- Emperor in the West (457-461), murdered

705 Election of Pope John VII (705-707)

1605 Alessandro Ottaviano de'Medici elected Pope as Leo XI (1-17 Apr 1605)

1865 Battle of Five Forks, Lee's line of communications are severed

1893 USN establishes the rate of Chief Petty Officer

1924 Hitler gets five years for the Munich "Beer Hall" putsch; will serve 18 months

1933 Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany

1933 Nazi Germany enacts anti-Semitic legislation

1939 US recognizes the Franco government in Spain

1941 The CNO orders all commands to take "special precautions against a surprise attack on weekends and holidays."

1941 The US Navy takes over Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay

1942 Bataan: Fil-American troops go on quarter rations

1942 Japanese First Air Fleet refuels south of Java

1942 Japanese troops capture Jessami, Netherlands East Indies

1943 Japanese aircraft attack the Russell Islands

1944 Adm Toyoda becomes commander of Combined Fleet

1944 TF 58 completes three days of raids in the western Carolines

1944 The Admiralties: 1st Cav Div begins mop-up of outlying islands

1944 B-24s of the 392nd Bombardment Group bomb Schoffaussen, Switzerland (on the "German" side of the Rhine), causing about 75 casualties, including 40 dead

1945 Okinawa: 60,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines land, on Easter Sunday

1945 US First & Ninth Armies, meet to form the Ruhr pocket

1954 The US Army forms its first helicopter Battalion, Fort Bragg, NC

1955 The Greek nationalist EOKA movement makes several bomb attacks against British facilities in Cyprus

1957 Leaders of the '56 Hungarian Revolution are tried in Budapest

1960 France detonates her 2nd atom bomb, in the Sahara

1960 US launches Tiros I, first weather satellite

1979 Iran is declared the Islamic Republic

1986 USS 'Nathanael Greene' (SSBN-656) grounds in the Irish Sea

1992 USS 'Missouri' (BB-63) decommissions for the last time

2003 USMC Task Force Tarawa secures An Nasiriyah in Iraq after a hot weeklong fight.