April 24
1916: Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising, a rebellion against British rule in Ireland.
1915: The Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople, marking the start of the Armenian genocide.
1980: The United States launched Operation Eagle Claw, an unsuccessful attempt to free 53 American hostages in Iran that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. service members.
April 25
1507: A world map produced by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller contained the first recorded use of the term “America,” in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
1859: Ground was broken in Egypt for construction of the Suez Canal.
1915: Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Empire out of World War I.
1990: The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed in orbit from the space shuttle Discovery.
April 26
1607: English colonists went ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Virginia, on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
1977: The legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.
1986: An explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere, resulting in dozens of immediate deaths and a long-term death toll in the thousands.
April 27
1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines as he attempted to expand Spanish colonization in the region.
1813: U.S. forces defeated the British garrison in present-day Toronto in the Battle of York during the War of 1812.
1865: The steamer Sultana, carrying freed Union prisoners of war, exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, killing between 1,100 and 1,800 people.
April 28
1789: Mutineers led by Fletcher Christian took control of the ship HMS Bounty three weeks after departing Tahiti, setting the ship’s captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and 18 other crew members adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
1945: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans.
1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his WBA title after he refused to be inducted into the armed forces.
April 29
1945: American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp.
1992: A jury in Simi Valley, California, acquitted four Los Angeles police officers charged with assault and using excessive force in the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King.
2011: Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton were married in an opulent ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey.
April 30
1789: George Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York as the first president of the United States.
1803: The United States completed its purchase of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs.
1945: Adolf Hitler took his own life in his Berlin bunker as Soviet troops approached, as did his wife Eva Braun.
1975: The Vietnam War ended as the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.
