Today in History: Wednesday, April 19

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AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested. 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria). 797 – Empress Irene organizes a conspiracy against her son, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI. He is deposed and blinded. Shortly after, Constantine dies of his wounds; Irene proclaims herself basileus. 1012 – Martyrdom of Ælfheah in Greenwich, England. 1529 – Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms. 1539 – Charles V and Protestants signs Treaty of Frankfurt. 1608 – In Ireland: O'Doherty's Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry 1677 – The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops. 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa (not actually born until 1717). 1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia. 1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord. 1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy. 1809 – An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory. 1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed. 1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality. 1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city. 1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts. 1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world. 1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex. 1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp. 1943 – World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews. 1948 – Burma joins the United Nations. 1954 – The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan recognises Urdu and Bengali as the national languages of Pakistan. 1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco. 1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign. 1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president. 1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station. 1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders. 1973 – The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel. 1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours. 1985 – Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later. 1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night. 1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors. 1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die. 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168. 1997 – The 1997 Red River flood overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings. 1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin. 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI. 2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961. 2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.