Unix Timestamp: 1082332800
Monday, April 19. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The Fifth Summit of the Americas ends in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. //www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gQmVO4gmiKyL-oh0LKIpmOyMwsSQ ("Canadian Press")

Pope Benedict XVI succeeds Pope John Paul II, becoming the 265th pope.

Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols, set off the bomb.

A Los Angeles jury awards $3.8 million to Rodney King for violation of his civil rights.

The Social Democratic Party of Albania is founded.

George Carey is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A 7.6 earthquake kills 82 in Costa Rica and Panama.

"The Simpsons" cartoon first appears as a series of shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show".

The Soviet Union performs a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan.

"Advance Australia Fair" is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of 3 children who vanished between November 1963 and October 1965.

Haile Selassie visits Jamaica for the first time, meeting with Rasta leaders.

The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.

Bobbi Gibb becomes the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.

An artificial heart is installed in the chest of Marcel DeRudder in a Houston, Texas hospital.

Nelson Mandela makes his I Am Prepared to Die speech at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, a classic of the anti-apartheid movement.

British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.

BBC2 starts broadcasting in the UK.

In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig. Gen. Kouprasith Abhay. Not supported by the U.S., the coup is ultimately unsuccessful, and Souvanna Phouma is reinstated, remaining Prime Minister until 1975.

The 1964 New York World's Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. The fair runs until October 18, 1964 and reopens April 21, 1965, finally closing October 17, 1965. (Not sanctioned, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, some countries decline, but many countries have pavilions with exotic crafts, art food.)

U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, simultaneously announce plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.

The 1964 New York World\\'s Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. The fair runs until October 18, 1964 and reopens April 21, 1965, finally closing October 17, 1965. (Not sanctioned, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, some countries decline, but many countries have pavilions with exotic crafts, art food.)

April Revolution: South Korean students hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against President Syngman Rhee. Thus eventually leads him to resign from that office.

Burma joins the United Nations.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel", a musical play based on Ferenc Molnár's "Liliom", opens on Broadway and becomes their second long-running stage classic.

Heinrich Himmler, through Count Bernadotte, puts forth an offer of German surrender to the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.

Adolf Hitler concedes defeat in his underground Berlin bunker after learning Felix Steiner could not mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on the Soviets who had just broken through Germany.

Bertolt Brecht's anti-war play "Mother Courage and Her Children" () receives its first theatrical production at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.

The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British government and opposition to Jewish immigration begins.

Surgeon R.K. Wilson allegedly photographs the Loch Ness Monster.

The United States officially goes off the gold standard.

Warner Bros. release their first cartoon series called 'Looney Tunes' which runs until 1970.

A fire in the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus kills 320 people.

The Turkestan-Siberia Railway is completed.

Mexican Revolution: Álvaro Obregón announces in Chilpancingo that he intends to fight against the rule of Venustiano Carranza.

The 1920 Summer Olympics opens in Antwerp, Belgium

Germany and Bolshevist Russia agree to the exchange of prisoners of war.

WWI: The Second Battle of Gaza, a fiasco for the British, causes the dismissal of the commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Force, General Archibald Murray.

Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juárez but General Juan J. Navarro refuses his surrender demand.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, now BP, is incorporated.

The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocks Guatemala, killing 2,000.

Treaty with Yankton Sioux Tribe.

Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.

The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.

Battle of Raszyn: The armies of Austria are defeated by the Duchy of Warsaw as a part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition .

John Adams secures recognition of the United States as an independent government by the Dutch Republic. During this visit, he also negotiates a loan of five million guilders financed by Nicolaas van Staphorst and Wilhelm Willink.

American Revolution: The Second Continental Congress meets, elects John Hancock president, raises the Continental Army under George Washington as commander and authorizes the colonies to adopt their own constitutions.

American Revolution: Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, leading the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, capture Fort Ticonderoga.

American Revolution: Hostility between Britain and its American colonies explodes into bloodshed at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on the 19th,Battles of Lexington and Concord (history), Britannica Student Encyclopedia, 2006, "Britannica.com/ebi" webpage: //www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9275454 Brit-EBI-454: states The American Revolution began on April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. which ignites the American Revolution.

British explorer Captain James Cook and his crew aboard become the first recorded Europeans to encounter the eastern coastline of the Australian continent.

Premiere of the first Leipzig version of Johann Sebastian Bach's ""'St Mark Passion pastiche""' BWV deest BC D 5b at the St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig

In Louisiana (New France), Bienville's brother Serigny arrives on a French man-of-war, bringing news that war was declared between France and Spain (from December 1718).

Arabs besiege Portuguese in Muscat.

August

The Portuguese army defeats the Dutch army in the north of Brazil.

The First Fronde, the "Fronde Parlementaire", an insurrection, begins in France.

The First Fronde, the ''Fronde Parlementaire'', an insurrection, begins in France.

JunendashSeptember ndash Semyon Dezhnyov makes the first recorded voyage through the Bering Strait between Asia and North America.

April 22 ndash Battle of Shanhai Pass: The Manchu Qing Dynasty and Wu Sangui gain a decisive victory over Li Zicheng's Shun Dynasty .

At the Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers ("German:" Fürst) and independent cities ("German:" Reichsstadt) protest the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant movement.

In the Delhi Sultanate, the Afghan Lodi dynasty succeeds the Turkish Sayyid dynasty.

Pope Nicholas V is elected by the Council of Basel.

Robert III succeeds his father, Robert II, as King of Scotland.

Establishment of the Fontevraud Abbey.

At the death of antipope Theodoric, the partisan of the Holy Roman Emperor choose Albert as the new antipope.

Canute II of Denmark is canonized.

Michael V of the Byzantine Empire is deposed by popular revolt. Zoe, Empress of the Byzantine Empire with co-rulers since 1028, becomes reigning Empress with her sister Theodora.

Emperor Mahmud of Ghazni sacks the Hindu religious center of Somnath, slaughtering over 50,000 people and carrying off vast amounts of treasure.

The world's first paper-printed money, which later greatly benefits the economy of the Song Dynasty, originates in the Sichuan province of China.

After several years in the Peninsula, Roger of Toeni, a Norman knight, leaves the battlefields of the Ebro Vally and heads back to France. It ends what historians have described as a early crusade.ref name=french crusades

Pope John XIX succeeds Pope Benedict VIII (his brother) as the 144th pope.

Archbishop Alphege of Canterbury is murdered by his Danish captors.

The monastery on the Island of Iona celebrates Easter on the Roman date.

Boniface begins missions to the Germans.

Some members of the Blue and Green chariot racing factions in Constantinople are imprisoned for murder, precipitating the Nika riots the next year.

The building of the St. Sophia Basilica (Constantinople) is begun, and is completed in 537.

Ankan, age 66, succeeds his father Keitai as the 27th emperor of Japan.

The Franks under king Chlothar I march against the Thuringii with his nephew Theudebert I. The Kingdom of Thuringia comes under Frankish domination.

King Childebert I receives pleas from his sister Clotilde, wife of king Amalaric, that she is abused by her husband. Childebert invades Septimania (Gaul).

King Kavadh I, age 82, dies after a 43-year reign. Khosrau I, his favourite son, is proclaimed successor over his elder brothers.

Childebert I defeats the Visigoths and conquers the capital Narbonne. Amalaric flees south to Barcelona, where he is assassinated by his own men.Isidore of Seville, "History of the Goths", chapter 40. Translation by Guido Donini and Gorden B. Ford, "Isidore of Seville's History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi", second revised edition (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), p. 19

Clotilde returns with the Frankish army and dies on the journey home. She is buried in Paris alongside her father Clovis I.

Hermanafrid, last king of the Thuringii, is defeated by the Franks near the Unstrut River. During negotiations he is pushed from the town walls of Zülpich.

Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army (20,000 men) under command of Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Ar-Raqqah (northern Syria). Emperor Justinian I negotiates an end to the hostilities and Belisarius is hailed as a hero.

The reign of Chang Guang Wang, ruler of Northern Wei, ends. Gao Huan, Chinese general, begins a rebellion and declares another member of the imperial clan, An Ding Wang, emperor.

Theudis, sword-bearer of former king Theodoric the Great, succeeds Amalaric as new ruler of the Visigoths.