Historical Events on Thursday, 10th April

10/04/2023

A mass shooting occurs at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky that leaves five victims dead and eight wounded.

On April 10, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at an Old National Bank branch in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Five people were killed, and eight others were injured, including two responding police officers. The shooter, 25-year-old former employee Connor James Sturgeon, was fatally shot by police at the scene.

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10/04/2016

The Paravur temple accident in which a devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu, kills more than one hundred people out of the thousands gathered for seventh day of Bhadrakali worship.

On 10 April 2016 at approximately 03:30 am IST, the Puttingal Temple in Paravur, Kollam, Kerala, India, experienced a fireworks accident after firework celebrations went awry. As a result, 111 people were killed and more than 350 were injured, including some with severe burns. The temple and at least 150 houses in the area of the temple were damaged by the blast. According to local reports and eyewitnesses, the explosion and fire were caused by sparks from a firecracker being used in a competitive fireworks display igniting fireworks in a concrete storehouse. About 15,000 pilgrims were visiting the temple to mark local Hindu celebrations during the last day of a seven-day festival of the goddess Bhadrakali.

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An earthquake of 6.6 magnitude strikes 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, impacting India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Srinagar and Pakistan.

The 2016 Afghanistan earthquake was a magnitude 6.6 earthquake which struck 39 km (24 mi) west-southwest of Ashkasham on April 10, at a depth of 210.4 km (130.7 mi). The shock had a maximum intensity of V (Moderate). The earthquake killed at least 5 people in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Gilgit Baltistan. A further 46 were injured in both provinces. The tremors shook up Peshawar, Chitral, Swat, Gilgit, Faisalabad and Lahore. The Himalayas region is one of earth's most seismically active regions. The tremors were felt in Delhi, National Capital Region, Kashmir and Uttarakhand. In Delhi, some 1,000 kilometers from the epicentre, the Delhi Metro was temporarily halted.

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10/04/2010

Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.

The Polish Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej. In 2014 it consisted of roughly 26,000 military personnel and about 475 aircraft, distributed among ten bases throughout Poland.

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10/04/2009

President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces the abrogation of the constitution and assumes all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis.

The president of Fiji is the head of state of the Republic of Fiji. The president is appointed by the Parliament for a three-year term under the terms of the 2013 Constitution. Although not entirely a figurehead, the role of president in the government is largely ceremonial, but there are important reserve powers that may be exercised in the event of a crisis. In addition, the president is the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.

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10/04/1998

The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland.

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethnic and national conflict in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. It was a major development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. It is made up of the Multi-Party Agreement between most of Northern Ireland's political parties, and the British–Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on the agreement.

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10/04/1991

Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, killing 140.

The Moby Prince disaster was a major maritime accident resulting in 140 deaths. It occurred in the late evening of Wednesday 10 April 1991, in the harbour of Livorno, Italy. It is the worst disaster in the Italian merchant navy since World War II. It is also considered one of the two worst environmental disasters in Italian history, along with the explosion and loss of the tanker Amoco Milford Haven on the following day in an unrelated accident near Voltri.

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A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.

South Atlantic tropical cyclones are unusual weather events that occur in the Southern Hemisphere. Strong wind shear, which disrupts the formation of cyclones, as well as a lack of weather disturbances favorable for development in the South Atlantic Ocean, make any strong tropical system extremely rare, and Hurricane Catarina in 2004 is the only recorded South Atlantic hurricane in history. Storms can develop year-round in the South Atlantic, with activity peaking during the months from November through May. Since 2011, the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center has assigned names to tropical and subtropical systems in the western side of the basin, near the eastern coast of Brazil, when they have sustained wind speeds of at least 65 km/h (40 mph), the generally accepted minimum sustained wind speed for a disturbance to be designated as a tropical storm in the North Atlantic basin. Below is a list of notable South Atlantic tropical and subtropical cyclones.

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10/04/1988

The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Ojhri Camp disaster took place on 10 April 1988. Ojhri Camp was a military storage center located in Rawalpindi Cantonment in Rawalpindi, Punjab Province of Pakistan. Following the disaster, then-Prime Minister Junejo ordered an inquiry into the events, culminating in President Zia-ul-Haq sacking him and dissolving Parliament.

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10/04/1981

Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected to Westminster as the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He died twenty-six days later.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.

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10/04/1979

Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.

On Tuesday, April 10, 1979, a widespread and destructive outbreak of severe weather impacted areas near the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. Thunderstorms developed over West and North Central Texas during the day within highly unstable atmospheric conditions following the northward surge of warm and moist air into the region, producing large hail, strong winds, and multiple tornadoes. At least 22 tornadoes were documented on April 10, of which two were assigned an F4 rating on the Fujita scale; four of the tornadoes caused fatalities.

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10/04/1973

Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashes in a snowstorm on approach to Basel, Switzerland, killing 108 people.

Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 (IM435) was a Vickers Vanguard 952, flying from Bristol Lulsgate to Basel-Mulhouse, which crashed into a forested hillside near Hochwald, Switzerland on 10 April 1973. The aircraft somersaulted and broke up, killing 108 people, with 37 survivors. To date, this is the deadliest accident involving a Vickers Vanguard and the deadliest aviation accident to occur on Swiss soil. Many of the 139 passengers on the charter flight were women, members of the Axbridge Ladies Guild, from the Somerset towns and villages of Axbridge, Cheddar, Winscombe and Congresbury. The accident left 55 children motherless and became known in the British media as the Basle air crash.

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10/04/1972

Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are discovered by construction workers in Shandong.

The Yinqueshan Han Tombs Bamboo Slips Museum is a museum dedicated to archaeological finds from two Western Han dynasty tombs excavated on site in Lanshan District, Linyi City, Shandong Province, China.

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Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

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10/04/1970

Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.

Sir James Paul McCartney is an English musician. He gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he was the bassist and keyboardist, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile tenor vocal range and musical eclecticism, exploring genres ranging from pre-rock and roll pop to classical, ballads and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in music history.

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10/04/1968

The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand ferry sinks in Wellington harbour due to a fierce storm – the strongest winds ever in Wellington. Out of the 734 people on board, fifty-three died.

TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand.

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10/04/1963

One hundred twenty-nine American sailors die when the submarine USS Thresher sinks at sea.

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or informally to refer to remotely operated vehicles and robots, or to medium-sized or smaller vessels. Submarines are referred to as boats rather than ships regardless of their size.

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10/04/1944

Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp.

Rudolf Vrba was a Slovak-Jewish biochemist who, as a teenager in 1942, was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. He escaped from the camp in April 1944, at the height of the Holocaust, and co-wrote the Vrba-Wetzler report, a detailed report about the mass murder taking place there. The report, distributed by George Mantello in Switzerland, is credited with having halted the mass deportation of Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz in July 1944, saving more than 200,000 lives. After the war, Vrba trained as a biochemist, working mostly in England and Canada.

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10/04/1941

World War II: The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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10/04/1925

The Russian city of Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad to honor the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, who had guided the defense of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War in 1920.

Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn (1589–1925) and Stalingrad (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of 859.4 square kilometres, with a population of slightly over one million residents. Volgograd is the 16th-largest city by population size in Russia, the third-largest city of the Southern Federal District, and the fourth-largest city on the Volga.

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10/04/1919

Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.

The Mexican Revolution was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its replacement by a revolutionary army, and the transformation of Mexican culture and government. The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war, but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles; the U.S. involvement was particularly high. The conflict led to the deaths of around one million people, mostly non-combatants.

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The Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole.

The Regional Congresses of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents represented the "highest form of democratic authority" within the political system of the Makhnovshchina. They brought together delegates from the region's peasantry, industrial workers and insurgent soldiers, which would discuss the issues at hand and take their decisions back with them to local popular assemblies.

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10/04/1912

RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, UK, on her maiden and only voyage.

RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died, making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture. It was the second time White Star Line had lost a ship on her maiden voyage, the first being RMS Tayleur in 1854.

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10/04/1900

British suffer a sharp defeat by the Boers south of Brandfort. 600 British troops are killed and wounded and 800 taken prisoner.

Brandfort, officially renamed Winnie Mandela in 2021, is a small agricultural town in the central Free State province of South Africa, about 60 km northeast of Bloemfontein on the R30 road. The town serves the surrounding farms for supplies and amenities. It is well known for once being home to the anti-apartheid stalwart and wife of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, during her banishment.

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10/04/1896

1896 Summer Olympics: The Olympic marathon is run ending with the victory of Greek athlete Spyridon Louis.

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, and commonly known as Athens 1896, were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had been created by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, the event was held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896.

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10/04/1887

On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of the Catholic University of America.

Easter, also called Pasch or Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the Bible's New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

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10/04/1872

The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.

Arbor Day is a secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.

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10/04/1868

At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops die.

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,104,300 square kilometres (426,400 sq mi). As of 2025, it has around 135 million inhabitants, making it the 14th-most populous country. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.

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10/04/1866

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States."

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10/04/1865

American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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10/04/1864

Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico.

Maximilian I was an Austrian archduke who became emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution by the Mexican Republic on 19 June 1867.

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10/04/1858

After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes (32,000 lb) bell for the Palace of Westminster, had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and, by extension, for the clock tower which stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. Originally named the Clock Tower, the structure was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The clock is a striking clock with five bells.

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10/04/1826

The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi begin leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive.

Missolonghi or Mesolongi is a town in western Greece. It is the capital of the Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit, and the seat of the municipality of Iera Polis Mesolongiou. According to the 2021 census, the municipality has a population of 32,048 people, of whom 13,965 live in the town of Missolonghi. Missolonghi is known as the site of a dramatic siege during the Greek War of Independence, which resulted in the death of poet Lord Byron.

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10/04/1821

Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.

Gregory V of Constantinople, born Georgios Angelopoulos, was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1797 to 1798, from 1806 to 1808, and from 1818 to 1821. He was responsible for much restoration work to the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George, which had been badly damaged by fire in 1738.

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Greek War of Independence: the island of Psara joins the Greek struggle for independence.

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence fought by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which in subsequent years would be expanded to its current size. The revolution is commemorated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March.

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10/04/1816

The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the United States.

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10/04/1815

The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth's climate for the next two years.

Mount Tambora, or Tomboro, is an active stratovolcano in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Located on Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands, volcanism is the result of subduction zones. The 1815 eruption was the largest in recorded history, erupting up to 150 cubic kilometers of volcanic material, making it a VEI-7 on the Volcanic explosivity index. This caused the summer of 1816 to become known as the "Year Without a Summer" due to global cooling from the eruption.

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10/04/1814

Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington attack Toulouse held by Marshall Soult, driving out the French after fierce fighting.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was a British Army officer and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures in Britain during the early 19th century, twice serving as Prime Minister. He was one of the British commanders who ended the Anglo-Mysore wars by defeating Tipu Sultan in 1799, and among those who ended the Napoleonic Wars in a Coalition victory when the Seventh Coalition defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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10/04/1809

Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition begins when forces of the Austrian Empire invade Bavaria.

The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a global series of conflicts fought by a fluctuating array of European coalitions against the French First Republic (1803–1804) under the First Consul followed by the First French Empire (1804–1815) under the Emperor of the French, Napoleon I. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and from the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe. The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres: the War of the Third Coalition, War of the Fourth Coalition, War of the Fifth Coalition, War of the Sixth Coalition, War of the Seventh Coalition, the Peninsular War, and the French invasion of Russia.

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10/04/1796

War of the First Coalition: A surprise Austrian attack at the Battle of Voltri marks the beginning of the Italian Campaign of 1796-1797, the decisive campaign under Napoleon Bonaparte that will end the war a year later.

The War of the First Coalition was a set of wars between a coalition of several European powers and France fought between 1792 and 1797. The coalition was only loosely allied and fought without much coordination; each power wanted to annex a different part of France should they defeat the French, something that never occurred.

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10/04/1741

War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia gains control of Silesia at the Battle of Mollwitz.

The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740 to 1748, was a conflict between the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King George's War, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the First Carnatic War, and the First and Second Silesian Wars.

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10/04/1724

Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.

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10/04/1717

Robert Walpole resigns from the British government, commencing the Whig Split which lasts until 1720.

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain, serving from 1721 to 1742. His formal titles included First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons. He is the longest serving prime minister in UK history, with a tenure of over 20 years.

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10/04/1710

The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.

The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709 or the Copyright Act 1710, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.

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10/04/1606

The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

The Virginia Company of London was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N.

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10/04/1545

The settlement of Villa Imperial de Carlos V (now the city of Potosí) in Bolivia is founded after the discovery of huge silver deposits in the area.

Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal 4,067 m (13,343 ft).

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10/04/1500

Ludovico Sforza is captured by Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.

Ludovico Maria Sforza, also known as Ludovico il Moro, and called the "arbiter of Italy" by historian Francesco Guicciardini, was an Italian nobleman who ruled as the Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499.

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10/04/1407

Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama visits the Ming dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma".

The 5th Karmapa, Deshin Shekpa (1384–1415),, was the 5th Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu, a subschool of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Deshin Shekpa was born in Nyang Dam in the south of Tibet. According to the lineage, he said after being born: "I am the Karmapa. Om mani padme hum shri." Deshin Shekpa was then taken to Tsawa Phu who recognized him as the reincarnation of the 4th Karmapa.

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10/04/0847

Election of Pope Leo IV following the death of Pope Sergius II.

Pope Leo IV was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 10 April 847 to his death in 855. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches that had been damaged during the Arab raid against Rome, and for building the Leonine Wall around Vatican Hill to protect the city. Pope Leo organized a league of Italian cities who fought and won the sea Battle of Ostia against the Saracens.

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10/04/0837

Halley's Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles).

Halley's Comet is the only known short-period comet that is consistently visible to the naked eye from Earth, appearing every 72–80 years, though with the majority of recorded apparitions occurring after 75–77 years. It last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061. Officially designated 1P/Halley, it is also commonly called Comet Halley, or sometimes simply Halley.

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10/04/0428

Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Nestorius of Constantinople was an early Christian prelate who served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 11 July 431. He was a Christian theologian from the Catechetical School of Antioch, and several of his teachings in the fields of Christology and Mariology were seen as controversial and heretical, causing major disputes. In 431, he was condemned and deposed from his see by the Council of Ephesus, presided over by his archrival Cyril of Alexandria, but the counter-council led by John I of Antioch vindicated him and deposed Cyril in return. Nestorius refrained from attending both of these councils and instead sought retirement from the Byzantine Emperor.

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10/04/0238

During the year of Six Emperors, forces of Gordian I and Gordian II are defeated by those of Maximinus Thrax in the battle of Carthage.

The Year of the Six Emperors was the year AD 238, during which at least six different men made claims to be emperors of Rome. The events of the year were characteristic of the period dubbed the Crisis of the Third Century by later historians.

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