Unix Timestamp: 1081900800
Wednesday, April 14. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Chinese media say 589 people have died after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits China's Qinghai province. Reports suggest there were six quakes in total, and over ten thousand people were injured in the diaster.//www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/14/content_9728383.htm ("China Daily") //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8619593.stm (BBC) //www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/14/china-earthquake-death-toll-yushu ("The Guardian")

Air traffic is closed over Northern Norway as ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano drifts towards Europe. //www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16568ew_0_a_id=360735 (Iceland Review)

Volcanic ash from one of several eruptions beneath Eyjafjallajökull, an ice cap in Iceland, begins to disrupt air traffic across northern and western Europe.ref name=NASInfo

2010 Yushu earthquake

Eruption in glacier volcano Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, enters a new phase, causing local evacuations. //www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption (Morgungblaðið)

Delta Air Lines reaches an agreement with Northwest Airlines to take over Northwest and create the world's biggest airline. //ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvT6NX4k_YVkVtwqeij5T_qaczpwD901V9L80 (AP via Google News)

Taliban insurgents attack a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan killing 11 police officers. //ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijDA5bgxiHlTvS_r-SSjskS1Tq1wD901FDR00 (AP via Google News)

Passenger trains resume between Dhaka in Bangladesh and the Indian city of Calcutta, after 43 years. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7345724.stm (BBC News)

Garry Kasparov, Russian chess chion and opposition activist, is arrested with over 100 others while attempting to hold a protest march in Moscow. //www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/4/98AED3F9-73EE-4B12-83C2-74FC56BC78B4.html (RFE/RL)

Retired Russian chess chion Garry Kasparov, is detained in Moscow after participating in a banned protest march against the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.

The European Economic Community lifts economic sanctions on South Africa in response to moves to end the apartheid system.

In the Netherlands, thieves steal 20 paintings worth $500 million from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Less than an hour later they are found in an abandoned car near the museum.

Inauguration of the EBRD.

April 16–18 ndash Soviet President Gorbachev begins the first ever visit of a Soviet leader to Japan, but fails to resolve the two countries' dispute over ownership of the Kuril Islands.

The death of Hu Yaobang, which sparks the beginning of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

The Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies in European football, claims the life of 96 Liverpool supporters.

The U.S. government seizes the Irvine, CA Lincoln Savings and Loan AssociationCharles Keating (for whom the Keating Five were named – John McCain among them) eventually goes to jail, as part of the massive 1980s Savings and Loan Crisis which costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $200 billion in bailouts, and many people their life savings.//query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DF153BF937A1575BC0A966958260 NY Times May 3, 1990

Hailstones weighing 1 kg (2.2 lb) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

Iron Maiden's debut self titled album "Iron Maiden" is released.

1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against an attempt by Soviet authorities to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

In San Francisco, 10,000 march against the Vietnam War.

The South Vietnamese government promises free elections in 3–5 months.

"In Cold Blood" killers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, convicted of murdering 4 members of the Herbert Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, are executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary for Men in Lansing, Kansas.

In the United States, the Ford Mustang is officially unveiled to the public.

The Rolling Stones release their debut album, "The Rolling Stones".

A Delta rocket's third stage motor ignites prematurely in an assembly room at Cape Canaveral, killing 3.

Sentences totalling 307 years are passed on 12 men who stole £2.6m in used bank notes, after holding up the night mail train travelling from Glasgow to London in August 1963 – a heist that became known as the Great Train Robbery.

Shea Stadium opens in Flushing, New York.

The Institute of Mental Health (Belgrade) is established.

Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago by Ampex. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2 Quadruplex.

The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup for the 7th time in franchise history. Detroit wouldn't win the Cup again until 1997.

The day the N'Ko alphabet is held to have been completed by Solomana Kante.

WWII: The Canadian First Army assumes military control of the Netherlands where German forces are trapped in the Atlantic wall fortifications along the coastline.//www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/war-in-europe/western-europe/western-europe-index-1945.htm

WWII: The submarine is sunk.

WWII: The German submarine U-85 (1941) is sunk by .

Dust Bowl: The great dust storm, made famous by Woody Guthrie in his dust bowl ballads, hits eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma the hardest.

The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed in Madrid.

he inaugural Monaco Grand Prix is won by William_Grover-Williams.

May ndash The Wickersham Commission begins its investigation of alcohol prohibition in the U.S.

Two earthquakes in Chirpan and Plovdiv, in Bulgaria, destroy more than 21,000 buildings and kill almost 130 persons.

The first Volvo car rolls off the production line in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Emperor of Austria moves to exile in Switzerland.

The city of Irving, Texas is incorporated.

April 18 ndash First International Criminal Police Congress held in Monaco.

strikes an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean. She sinks the following day with the loss of 1517 lives.

The Paris World Exhibition opens.

A major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Commercial Bureau of the American Republics

Final engagement of Sino–French War, with a French victory at Kép. China withdraws its forces from Tonkin.

The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.

The Third Carlist War begins in northern Spain. Don Carlos, the Carlist pretender (Carlos VII) appointed General Rada commander-in-chief in Spain, and called for a general rising.

Hungary declares independence from Austria.

The Whig Party is officially named by United States Senator Henry Clay.

August 9 ndash U.S. Survey of the Coast operations suspended.

Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria: Napoleon I defeats Austria.

Seven Years War ndash Battle of Bergen: A French army defeats Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick.

The Porteous Riots erupt in Edinburgh after the execution of smuggler Andrew Wilson, when town guardCaptain John Porteous orders his men to fire at the crowd. Porteous is arrested later.

First performance, in London, of Joseph Addison's libertarian play "Cato, a Tragedy", which will be influential on both sides of the Atlantic.

June ndash The first battle of the Bishops' Wars is fought by Earl Marischal and the Marquess of Montrose, when they lead a Covenanter army of 9,000 men past Muchalls Castle over the Causey Mounth to fight at the Bridge of Dee.

Swedish forces under Johan Baner inflict a crushing defeat on the Imperial army at the Battle of Chemnitz. This prolongs the Thirty Year\'s War and allows the Swedes to occupy Pirna and advance into Bohemia.

Second Battle of Playa Honda: The Spanish navy defeats a Dutch fleet in the Philippines.

Battle of Mookerheyde: Spanish forces under Sancho de Avila defeat the rebel forces of Louis of Nassau, who is killed.

By the Treaty of Krakow, Poland and Hungary recognize the independence of Moldavia.

Battle of Barnet: Edward defeats the Lancastrian army under Warwick, who is killed.

The foundation stone of Nantes Cathedral in Nantes, France, is laid.

John VII Palaiologos overthrows his grandfather, John V Palaiologos, as Byzantine Emperor.

The Russian town of Kostroma is destroyed by the ushkuinik pirates from Novgorod.

October ndash Margaret I of Denmark becomes Regent of Denmark after the death of her father Valdemar IV.

Coluccio Salutati is appointed Chancellor of Florence.

Petru I succeeds his father, Costea, as ruler of Moldavia (now Moldova eastern Romania).

Hundred Years' War: The English, weakened by the plague, lose so much ground to the French that they agree to sign the Treaty of Bruges, leaving them with only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne.

The Mamluks from Egypt complete their conquest of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Levon V Lusignan of Armenia is imprisoned for several years in Cairo until a ransom is paid by King John I of Castile.

Moscow Tver sign a truce. Tver agrees to help Moscow fight the Blue Horde.

In Nanjing, capital of the Ming Dynasty of China, a bureau secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ru Taisu, sends a 17,000 character-long memorial to the throne, to be read aloud to the Hongwu Emperor. By the 16,370th character, the emperor has been offended by several passages, and has Ru Taisu summoned to court and flogged for the perceived insult. The next day, having had the remaining characters read to him, he likes four of Ru's recommendations, and instates these in reforms. Ru is nevertheless castigated for having forced the emperor to hear thousands of characters before getting to the part with true substance. The last 500 characters are elevated in court as the model-type memorial that all officials should aspire to create while writing their own.

Hundred Years\\\\\' War: The English, weakened by the plague, lose so much ground to the French that they agree to sign the Treaty of Bruges, leaving them with only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne.

Mujahid Shah succeeds his father, Mohammad Shah I, as Sultan of the Bahmanid Empire in Deccan, southern India.

Heirin-ji Temple is built near Tokyo.

Battle of Adrianople: The Bulgarians defeat the Latins.

Pope Celestine III succeeds Pope Clement III as the 175th pope.

Cnut becomes King of Norway

King Sancho III of Navarre conquers Castile.

Henry III, son of Conrad II, is elected king of the Germans.

r April 30 ndash Mieszko I, the first duke of Poland, is baptized a Christian. This is usually considered the beginning of the Polish state (see Baptism of Poland).

Charlemagne spends Easter in Treviso after putting down a revolt by Friuli and Spoleto, removing Hrodgaud, the Duke of Friuli, from power, and signing a treaty with Hildeprand, the Duke of Spoleto. Co-conspirators in the revolt are Arechis, Duke of Benevento, and Adelchis, the son of Desiderius. Charlemagne had defeated Desiderius two years earlier, and Adelchis had fled to Byzantium. Arechis was not defeated in this action by Charlemagne, and Adelchis never left Byzantium to provide any support to the revolt.

The Battle of Otford is fought between Mercia and Kent.

Siege of Jerusalem: Titus surrounds the Jewish capital, with three legions (V \\\\\\'\\\\\\'Macedonica\\\\\\'\\\\\\', XII \\\\\'\\\\\'Fulminata\\\\\'\\\\\' and XV \\\\'\\\\'Apollinaris\\\\'\\\\') on the western side and a fourth (X \\\'\\\'Fretensis\\\'\\\') on the Mount of Olives to the east. He puts pressure on the food and water supplies of the inhabitants by allowing pilgrims to enter the city to celebrate Passover and then refusing them egress.

First Battle of Bedriacum: Vitellius defeats Otho's legions Otho commits suicide.