Myanmar civil war: Burmese military and police forces killed at least 82 civilians in the Bago massacre, including people protesting a recent coup d'état.
Source9 April 75
A Wednesday in history
Weekday
Wednesday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
1st century
Records
437
2021
2005Charles, Prince of Wales, married Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at the Windsor Guildhall.
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2003Invasion of Iraq: Coalition forces captured Baghdad and the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square was toppled.
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1993Iranian filmmaker Morteza Avini was killed by a land mine in Fakkeh while producing a documentary.
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1980Iraqi philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (pictured) and his sister Amina were executed by the regime of Saddam Hussein.
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1976The first EMD F40PH, Amtrak's most widespread diesel locomotive for many years, entered into service.
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1967The Boeing 737 took its maiden flight, eventually becoming the most produced commercial passenger jet airliner in the world.
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1959NASA announced the selection of the Mercury Seven, the first astronauts in Project Mercury.
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1948Palestine war: Fighters from the Zionist paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing more than 100 Palestinian Arabs.
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1947Sixteen white and black men began a two-week journey in the American South, acting in defiance of local laws that enforced segregated seating on public buses.
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1947The Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornadoes killed 181 people and injured 970 others in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
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1945The German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer (pictured), the most successful capital-ship surface raider of the Second World War, was sunk by British bombers in port in Kiel.
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1942World War II: Japanese forces defeated Allied troops at the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines before beginning to forcibly transfer more than 90,000 prisoners of war to prison camps in the Bataan Death March.
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1940World War II: During the German invasion of Norway, Vidkun Quisling attempted to seize power in the first coup to be broadcast over radio.
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1939After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, African-American singer Marian Anderson gave an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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1917First World War: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France.
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1860Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville recorded himself singing "Au clair de la lune" on his phonautograph, producing the oldest known recording of an audible human voice (audio featured).
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1388Despite being vastly outnumbered, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Näfels.
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475Basiliscus issued the Enkyklikon, a circular letter to bishops supporting the Monophysitism position.
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193Year of the Five Emperors: Septimius Severus was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops at Carnuntum in modern-day Austria.
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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.
Sources & fact check
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