On April 8

On board Soyuz TMA-12, Yi So-yeon became the first Korean astronaut.

The Progress Party was founded in a movie theater in Oslo, Norway.

BOAC Flight 712 experienced an engine fire shortly after take-off from London Heathrow, leading to the deaths of five people on board, including flight attendant Jane Harrison, who was posthumously awarded a George Cross for heroism.

A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf killed 238 people.

A team of computer scientists and others met to discuss the creation of a common business-oriented programming language, which became COBOL.

Otto and Elise Hampel were executed in Berlin for performing acts of resistance against Nazism.

World War II: The United States Army Air Forces flew its first mission from India over the Hump (the eastern end of the Himalayas) to deliver materiel to China.

The Australian state of Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, but efforts to implement the result proved to be unsuccessful.

World War I: German naval officer Wilhelm Werner murdered 19 captured crew members of the British cargo ship Torrington by submerging U-55 when they were on deck.

American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo (featured), one of the earliest animated films.

France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict.

Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan was renamed Times Square after the New York Times building.

American Civil War: Late-arriving reinforcements helped Confederate forces rout the Union Army at the Battle of Mansfield.

The Venus de Milo (pictured), an ancient Greek statue of a woman with its arms missing, was discovered on the island of Milos.

Kiliaen van Rensselaer purchased land near present-day Albany, New York, to establish Rensselaerswyck, which became the most successful patroonship under the Dutch West India Company.

Crusades: The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers, a castle in present-day Syria, to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baybars.

Abbasid forces decisively defeated the Saffarid emir Ya'qub ibn Laith, forcing the latter to halt his advance into Iraq.

Roman emperor Caracalla (pictured) was assassinated near Harran and succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect Macrinus.