The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact.
After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people, including seven UN workers.
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) of the Government of the United Kingdom is enforced, but later merged into National Crime Agency on 7 October 2013.
An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained...
Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.
Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it.
Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion.
NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee.
Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), is introduced in Scotland.
Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.
Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.
Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.
The Local Government Act 1972 of England and Wales comes into effect.
Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India.
Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh.
President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law.
A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Berrechid, Morocco, killing 61.
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force.
The British Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry are replaced by a unified Defence Council of the United Kingdom.
The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.
The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece.
United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Chinese Civil War: The Chinese Communist Party holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Nationalist Party in Beijing, after three years of fighting.
The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years.
Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin.
The only mutiny in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy begins.
The 8.6 Mw Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands resulting in dozens of deaths, mostly in Hilo, Hawaii.
The Malayan Union is established. Protests from locals led to the establishment of the Federation of Malaya two years later.
World War II: The Tenth United States Army attacks the Thirty-Second Japanese Army on Okinawa.
World War II: Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
Fântâna Albă massacre: Between two hundred and two thousand Romanian civilians are killed by Soviet Border Troops.
A military coup in Iraq overthrows the regime of 'Abd al-Ilah and installs Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister.
Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is formed as an independent service.
India's central banking institution, the Reserve Bank of India, is formed.
The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in a series of anti-Semitic acts.
Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years fortress confinement for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch" but spends only nine months in jail.
In newly formed Northern Ireland, six Catholics are murdered in the Arnon Street killings, one week after six others were killed in the McMahon killings.
The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
The Territorial Force (renamed Territorial Army in 1920) is formed as a volunteer reserve component of the British Army.
Prince George becomes absolute monarch of the Cretan State.
The White Star steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547 in one of the worst marine disasters of the 19th century.
American Civil War: Union troops led by Philip Sheridan decisively defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line during the Siege of Petersburg.
The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin.
In New York City, the United States House of Representatives achieves its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker.
J. S. Bach's later Easter Oratorio in its first version is performed at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig on Easter Sunday.
In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Seventeen Provinces, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
Alexios I Komnenos overthrows the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and, after his troops spend three days extensively looting Constantinople, is formally crowned on April 4.
Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.
Roman emperor Diocletian names Maximian his co-emperor ("Augustus").