26 March 1562

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed following a collision between the MV Dali container ship and one of the bridge's support pillars, killing 6 people.

An explosion, allegedly caused by a North Korean torpedo, sank the South Korean warship ROKS Cheonan near Baengnyeongdo in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors.

A prototype of the Tesla Model S, one of the most influential electric cars in history, was unveiled.

A jury began deliberations in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, an American practitioner of physician-assisted suicide who was charged with murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.

Police in Rancho Santa Fe, California, discovered the bodies of 39 members of the religious group Heaven's Gate who had died in an apparent cult suicide.

Singapore Airlines Flight 117 was hijacked by four Pakistani terrorists and diverted to Changi Airport.

The Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons, entered into force.

A group of peasant women in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, India, surrounded trees in order to prevent loggers from felling them, giving rise to the Chipko movement.

Jonas Salk announced the successful test of his polio vaccine on a small group of adults and children.

The American tanker Dixie Arrow is torpedoed and sunk off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by the German U-boat U-71.

Nationalist forces began their final offensive of the Spanish Civil War, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country.

First World War: Attempting to advance into Palestine, the British were defeated by Ottoman troops at the First Battle of Gaza.

First Balkan War: After a five-month siege, Bulgarian and Serbian forces captured the Ottoman city of Adrianople.

An explosion at the Brunner Mine in New Zealand killed 65 coal miners in the country's deadliest mining accident.

Perceiving that the Canadian government was failing to protect their rights, the Métis people led by Louis Riel began the North-West Rebellion.

A Dutch military expedition was launched to bombard Banda Aceh, the capital of the Aceh Sultanate in present-day Indonesia, beginning the Aceh War.

The Boston Gazette printed a cartoon coining the term "gerrymander", named after Governor Elbridge Gerry (pictured), who approved the legislation that created oddly shaped electoral districts.

The Safavid Empire began a four-year occupation of the Ottoman city of Basra on the Persian Gulf.

William Caxton (pictured) printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables.

Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a 21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.

Saladin (depicted on coin) was inaugurated as vizier of Egypt.

Byzantine emperor Maurice proclaimed his son Theodosius as his co-emperor.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses following a collision between the MV Dali container ship and one of the bridge's support pillars, killing six people.

Russia-wide anti-corruption protests in 99 cities. The Levada Center survey showed that 38% of surveyed Russians supported protests and that 67 percent held Putin personally responsible for high-level corruption.