28th April 1967: Muhammad Ali, the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, refuses induction into the United States Army
Ali's refusal to be inducted led to him being stripped of his boxing titles and later convicted of draft evasion for which he was sentenced to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and a ban from boxing. He remained free on bail while the case was under ...
28 Apr 0s
27th April 1945: Benito Mussolini, the former Fascist dictator of Italy, captured by Italian partisans in northern Italy
Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans near the village of Dongo whilst attempting to flee to Switzerland, and was executed the next ...
27 Apr 0s
26th April 1865: John Wilkes Booth, who had assassinated Abraham Lincoln, shot after refusing to surrender
He was dragged out of the barn where he had been hiding and died three hours ...
26 Apr 0s
25th April 1859: Construction begins on the Suez Canal at the northern Egyptian port town of Port Said
The canal was designed as a sea-level waterway stretching approximately 120 miles across the Isthmus of Suez, and its completion in 1869, ten years after work began, significantly reduced travel time between Europe and ...
25 Apr 0s
24th April 1932: Mass trespass of Kinder Scout in the Peak District protests against limited access to open countryside
The Kinder Mass Trespass involved approximately 400 people walking to the Kinder Scout plateau in deliberate defiance of the landowners, in a protest in favour of the right to ...
24 Apr 0s
23rd April 1516: The Reinheitsgebot beer purity law first introduced in Bavaria
Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria signed the Reinheitsgebot, a law to ensure the purity of beer that specified a limited number of ...
23 Apr 0s
22nd April 1915: Poison gas used effectively in the First World War at the Second Battle of Ypres
Over five thousand French Algerian, Moroccan and territorial troops died within ten minutes of the chlorine gas being ...
22 Apr 0s
21st April 1526: First Battle of Panipat marks the beginning of Mughal rule in India and the end of the Lodi dynasty
Babur, a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, had established a power base in Kabul but the victory at Panipat gave him control of Delhi and Agra, allowing him to establish the foundations of what would become the Mughal Empire in ...
21 Apr 0s
