Events on April 10 43
Year 837
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).
Year 1407
Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama visits the Ming dynasty capital at Nanjing. He is awarded the title "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma".
Year 1500
Ludovico Sforza is captured by Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.
Year 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.
Year 1710
The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.
Year 1741
War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia gains control of Silesia at the Battle of Mollwitz.
Year 1809
Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition begins when forces of the Austrian Empire invade Bavaria.
Year 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.
Year 1816
The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1864
Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico.
Year 1865
American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
Year 1866
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
Year 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.
Year 1887
On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of the Catholic University of America.
Year 1904
British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the third and final chapter of The Book of the Law.
Year 1916
The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City.
Year 1919
Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.
Year 1925
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons.
Year 1957
The Suez Canal is reopened for all shipping after being closed for three months.
Year 1970
Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
Year 1971
Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.
Year 1972
Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong.
Year 1972
Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.
Year 1973
Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashes in a snowstorm on approach to Basel, Switzerland killing 108 people.
Year 1979
Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.
Year 1988
The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Year 1991
Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy killing 140.
Year 1991
A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.
Year 2009
President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces the abrogation of the constitution and assumes all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 2016
2016 Afghanistan earthquake, of 6.6 magnitude, 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, shakes up India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Srinagar and Pakistan.