Unix Timestamp: 1050969600
Tuesday, April 22. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Transocean oil platform "Deepwater Horizon" sinks into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana after an explosion two days earlier that injured 7, with 11 still missing. //www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/22/transocean-rig-reportedly-sinks-louisiana-coast/ (Fox News)

The Euro falls to near year-low levels amid concerns about Greece's debt crisis. //www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085sid=aK.BjXdNJYhg (Bloomberg)

Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into 2 blind patients.

At a special session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director-General Jose Bustani is fired.

In a predawn raid, federal agents seize 6-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC, ending one of the most publicized custody battles in U.S. history.

In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida, and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC, ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.

Fuel that leaked into a sewer explodes in Guadalajara, Mexico 215 are killed, 1,500 injured.

Reactor shut-down due to failure of fuel rods at Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russia

The Albert Einstein Memorial is unveiled at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.

Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.

Sylvia Cook and John Fairfax finish rowing across the Pacific.

The first Earth Day is celebrated in the U.S.

Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping.

Lester Bowles Pearson becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Canada.

Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.

Recording sessions for the influential jazz album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis take place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City.

SenatorJoseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being soft on Communism.

Albert Hofmann writes his first report about the hallucinogenic properties of "LSD" (which he first synthesized in 1938).

John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBIambush in northern Wisconsin.

Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA recognize the Spanish Republic.

The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

An earthquake destroys 200,000 buildings in Corinth.

May 5 ndash The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 strikes 700,000 people in the greatest natural disaster in American history at that time.

May ndash Philo Farnsworth of the United States transmits his first experimental electronictelevision pictures, as opposed to mechanical TV systems that others had tried before.

João Ribeiro de Barros becomes the first non-European to make a transatlantic flight, from Genoa, Italy, to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.

The Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.

The Lambda Chapter of the Joe Whelan Sorority, Incorporated (the first chapter of a black sorority in New York State) is chartered.

The Chinese steamer ship "Hsin Yu" capsizes off the Chinese coast at least 1,000 are killed.

WWI: Start of Second Battle of Ypres. First use of poison gas on the western Front.

Battle of Kousséri: French forces secure their domination of Chad. Warlord Rabih az-Zubayr is defeated and killed.

Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS "Nashville" captures a Spanish merchant ship.

Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS ''Nashville'' captures a Spanish merchant ship.

Gongche Shangshu movement: 603 candidates sign a 10,000-word petition against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

At high noon in Oklahoma Territory, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed, with populations of at least 10,000.

German protectorate in South-West Africa.

The Colchester earthquake, England, the UK's most destructive, occurs.

The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

Texas Revolution: Forces under Texas General Sam Houston capture Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

The Swiss canton of Aargau denies Jews citizenship.

Mary Kies is the first American woman to be awarded a patent.

Battle of Eckmühl: French troops under Napoleon I and Marshal Davout defeat the Austrians under Archduke Charles.

George Washington signs the Neutrality Proclamation.

Lord ProtectorRichard Cromwell dissolves the English Parliament.

The vicar on Ven is dismissed: he had followed Tycho's orders not to perform an exorcism.

The Treaty of Saragossa divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal, stipulating that the dividing line should lie 297.5 leagues or 17° east of the Moluccas.

MayndashJuly ndash Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, presides over a legatine court at Blackfriars, London, to rule on the legality of King Henry VIII of England's marriage to Catherine of Aragon.ref name=CBH

Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal. He has 13 vessels with him.

May – Turks led by Umur Bey sail from Asia Minor to the Balkan Peninsula and raid Bulgarian territory.ref name=Ioannes Cantacuzenus p.530Ioannes Cantacuzenus. Historiarum... 2, p.530

Battle of Gamenario: The Lombards defeat the Angevins in the northwest region of present-day Italy, just southeast of Turin.

The first Statute of Westminster is passed by the English Parliament, establishing a series of laws in its 51 clauses, including equal treatment of rich and poor, free and fair elections, and definition of bailable and non-bailable offenses.

Battle of Lipitsa: Mstislav the Daring and Konstantin of Rostov defeat their rivals for the rule of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal.

John IX bar Shushan ends his term as Syrian Patriarch of Antioch.

Pope Gregory VII (Cardinal Hildebrand) succeeds Pope Alexander II as the 157th pope.

Extreme weather events, thought to have been caused by an extensive veil of dust in the atmosphere, begin in the Northern Hemisphere. They continue until the following year, causing unseasonal weather and crop faillure worldwide.

Anthimus I is deposed as patriarch of Constantinople in favour of Menas.

Pope Agapetus I dies in Constantinople after a reign of just ten months. He is succeeded by Silverius as the 58th pope.

The Little Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (begun in 527) is completed.

Pope Caius dies at Rome after a 13-year reign and is succeeded by Pope Marcellinus as the 29th pope.

Year of the Six Emperors: The Senate outlaws Maximinus for his bloodthirsty proscriptions in Rome and nominates two of its members, Pupienus and Balbinus, to the throne.

Maximinus advances to the town Aquileia in northern Italy, his army suffers from famine and disease, while the city is besieged. Soldiers of Legio II \\'\\'Parthica\\'\\' killed him in his tent, along with his son Maximinus (who is appointed co-emperor). Their corpses are decapitated and their heads carried to Rome.