1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba.
1921, The first live sports event on radio took place this day over KDKA Radio. Pittsburgh sports writerFlorent Gibson gave an account of the action in the lightweight boxing match between Johnny Ray andJohnny Dundee.
1940, Andrew Ponzi of New York set a world’s record in a New York pocket billiards tournament. Ponzi ran 127 balls straight.
1948, Frank Sinatra married Ava Gardner.
1951, President Harry S. Truman removed General Douglas MacArthur from his post as commander of U.N. forces in Korea, and ordered the general home.
1965, Golfer Jack Nicklaus scored a record 271 in his second Masters victory, becoming the first man to win consecutive Masters.
1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act Of 1968 into law, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. Two days after take-off, an explosion on board put the return of the spacecraft and the survival of its three astronauts in doubt. However, Apollo 13successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 17th.
1981, President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House from George Washington University hospital, 12 days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt.
1990, Funeral services were held in Indianapolis for AIDS patient Ryan White, who died three days earlier at age 18. Among the 1,500 mourners were first lady Barbara Bush and singers Elton John and Michael Jackson.
1991, The U.N. Security Council issues a formal cease fire with Iraq.
1994, The White House disclosed that President & Mrs. Clinton had failed to report $6,498 income that the First Lady made by trading commodities in 1980. The couple wrote checks totaling $14,615 back taxes and interest.
1996, Seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff, who’d hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country, was killed along with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after taking off from Cheyenne, Wyoming.