A series of attacks in Nova Scotia, Canada, ended when the perpetrator was killed by police, leaving 22 victims dead.
19 April 390
A Thursday in history
Weekday
Thursday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
4th century
Records
258
2020
2015Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American, died of injuries sustained while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department.
2005Joseph Alois Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the papal conclave.
2000Air Philippines Flight 541 crashed in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.
1995A truck bombing destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (aftermath pictured) in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others.
1989A gun turret exploded on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1987The fictional Simpson family made their first appearance in the short "Good Night", aired in a segment of the The Tracey Ullman Show.
1984"Advance Australia Fair", written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem.
1975Aryabhata (pictured), India's first satellite, was launched from Kapustin Yar in the Soviet Union.
1971Salyut 1, the first space station, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in the Soviet Union.
- 1971
The Doors (pictured) released L.A. Woman, their final album during their lead vocalist Jim Morrison's lifetime.
1956American actress Grace Kelly (pictured) became the princess consort of Monaco upon her marriage to Rainier III.
1927American actress Mae West (pictured) was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" with her play Sex.
1903Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Kishinev, the capital of Bessarabia Governorate, causing the death of nearly 50 Jews and focusing worldwide attention on the persecution of Jews in Russia.
1875The Minute Man was unveiled as part of the centennial celebration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
1861The first bloodshed of the American Civil War took place when Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, Maryland, attacked members of the Massachusetts militia en route to Washington, D.C.
1809War of the Fifth Coalition: French general Louis-Nicolas Davout defeated an Austrian force in Lower Bavaria, allowing him to rejoin the main French army.
1782The States General of the Dutch Republic received John Adams, and the house he had purchased in The Hague became the first United States embassy.
1775The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the British colony of Massachusetts.
- 1773
The Polish Partition Sejm met to discuss the First Partition of Poland, carried out the previous year by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
1713With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issued the Pragmatic Sanction, allowing the Habsburg hereditary possessions to be inherited by a daughter.
1506In Lisbon, Portugal, a crowd began a massacre of Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity.
Photo archive
24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.
What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
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