TODAY IN HISTORY
1471
The deposed and exiled king of England, Edward IV, defeats King Henry VI’s forces at the Battle of Barnet, near London, enabling him to retake the throne
1775
The first US society for the abolition of slavery is formed in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin becomes an active member
1846
Caroline Chisholm, 37, sails from Sydney for England on the barque Dublin with her husband and three sons, to lobby in support of migrants to Australia
1865
US president Abraham Lincoln is shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. Lincoln dies the next morning
1881
A “Five Second” gunfight takes place in El Paso in which four men die. Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire, a noted gunfighter who had taken over as town marshal on April 11, kills three of the four men.
1912
The luxury White Star liner Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic, leading to the deaths of 1523 people
1981
NASA’s space shuttle Columbia makes a perfect landing in a Californian air-force base after its maiden flight 1999
Severe hailstorm in southern and eastern Sydney damages about 20,000 homes and buildings
2010
Eyjafjallajökull, a remote volcano in Iceland, starts belching an enormous ash cloud which will disrupt air travel
2020
US President Donald Trump says he is withdrawing US funding from the World Health Organisation for their alleged failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and for allegedly being too China-centric