April 5

1566 – 200 Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma – Governor of the Netherlands – and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces.

1614 – In Virginia, Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1621 – The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England.

1722 – On Easter Sunday, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island. And now you know how it got its name.

1792 – President Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill for determining allotment of members in the House of Representatives, the first time this power is used. The veto is not overridden, and Congress rewrites the bill to satisfy the President.

1879 – Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the 5 year long War of the Pacific.

1910 – The Transandine Railway connecting Chile and Argentina is inaugurated.

1915 – Boxing challenger Jess Willard knocks out Jack Johnson in Havana, Cuba to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

1922 – The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated.

1933 – Assuming authority under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the Emergency Banking Act in March 1933. President Roosevelt signs executive order 6102 “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates” by U.S. citizens.

1936 – An F5 power tornado kills 233 people in Tupelo, Mississippi.

1949 – A fire in St. Anthony’s hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements.

1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.

1977 – In the case of Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip, the Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people’s reservation terminates the tribe’s jurisdictional authority over the area.

1986 – 2 of the 3 people killed  and 79 of the 229 injured in the bombing of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin, Germany by Libyan government operatives are U.S. servicemembers

2010 – 29 miners are killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine in West Virginia.

2018 – Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 undocumented Hispanic workers in one of the largest workplace raids in U.S. history