Events on April 5 43
Year 1081
Alexios I Komnenos is crowned Byzantine emperor at Constantinople, bringing the Komnenian dynasty to full power.
Year 1242
During the Battle on the Ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
Year 1566
Two-hundred Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces.
Year 1609
Daimyo (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.
Year 1621
The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.
Year 1710
The Statute of Anne receives the royal assent establishing the Copyright law of the United Kingdom.
Year 1792
United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
Year 1818
In the Battle of Maipú, Chile's independence movement, led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín, win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.
Year 1900
Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover a large cache of clay tablets with hieroglyphic writing in a script they call Linear B.
Year 1904
The first international rugby league match is played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh & Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England.
Year 1915
Boxing challenger Jess Willard knocks out Jack Johnson in Havana, Cuba to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Year 1922
The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated.
Year 1932
Dominion of Newfoundland: Ten thousand rioters seize the Colonial Building leading to the end of self-government.
Year 1933
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs two executive orders: 6101 to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens.
Year 1936
Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado kills 233 in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Year 1942
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy launches a carrier-based air attack on Colombo, Ceylon during the Indian Ocean raid. Port and civilian facilities are damaged and the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
Year 1943
World War II: American bomber aircraft accidentally cause more than 900 civilian deaths, including 209 children, and 1,300 wounded among the civilian population of the Belgian town of Mortsel. Their target was the Erla factory one kilometer from the residential area hit.
Year 1944
World War II: Two hundred seventy inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans.
Year 1945
Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory".
Year 1949
A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States.
Year 1951
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.
Year 1956
In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna win the general elections in a landslide and S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Ceylon.
Year 1957
In India, Communists win the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad is sworn in as the first Chief Minister.
Year 1958
Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time.
Year 1971
In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches a revolt against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
Year 1976
In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen Incident.
Year 1986
Three people are killed in the bombing of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin, Germany.
Year 1991
An ASA EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, killing all 23 aboard including Sen. John Tower and astronaut Sonny Carter.
Year 1992
Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru, dissolves the Peruvian congress by military force.
Year 1992
Peace protesters Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sučić are killed on the Vrbanja Bridge in Sarajevo, becoming the first casualties of the Bosnian War.
Year 1998
In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.
Year 1999
Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
Year 2009
North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.
Year 2010
Twenty-nine coal miners are killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.