1407 – Lama Deshin Shekpa visits the Ming Dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma. 1516 – 1st Jewish ghetto established: Venice compels Jews to live in a specific area. 1815 – Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing around 71,000 people, causes global volcanic winter. 1858 – “Big Ben”, a 13.76 tonne bell, is recast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 1912 – The RMS Titanic embarked on its maiden voyage, which ended in tragedy several days later when the luxury liner struck an iceberg and sank. 1925 – American author F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, which became a literary classic. 1938 – In a controlled plebiscite in Austria, soon after Adolf Hitler’s invasion of the country, 99.7 percent of Austrians approved the Anschluss (German: “Union”)—the political unification of Austria and Germany. 1972 – US, USSR & 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons. 1986 – Halley’s Comet reached the perigee (point nearest Earth) of its most recent passage near the planet. 1988 – After taking a decade to build, the Seto Great Bridge, spanning the Inland Sea in Japan, was opened to traffic. 1998 – The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement for Northern Ireland is signed by the British and Irish governments. 2001 – The Netherlands passed a bill permitting euthanasia, the first such national law in the world. 2003Haiti officially recognized Vodou as a religion.
Births & Deaths: 1583 – Hugo Grotius, the Dutch jurist and scholar whose legal masterpiece,De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625; On the Law of War and Peace), was one of the first great contributions to modern international law, was born.
Sport: 1896 – Spyridon Louis of Greece wins inaugural Olympic marathon (2:58:50) in Athens; runs last lap accompanied by Constantine I.
Music: 1970 – Paul McCartney officially announces the split of The Beatles.
TV & Film: 1953 – “House of Wax” 1st color 3-D movie, premieres in New York.
