17 Farvardin 1403

Events

• 1818 (208 years ago) In the Battle of Maipú, Chile's independence movement, led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín, win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.
• 1879 (147 years ago) Bolivia declares war on Chile, and Chile declares war on Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
• 1942 (84 years ago) World War II: Adolf Hitler issues Fuhrer Directive No. 41 summarizing Case Blue, including the German Sixth Army's planned assault on Stalingrad.
• 1958 (68 years ago) Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada, is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time.
• 1976 (50 years ago) In China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen Incident.
• 1998 (28 years ago) In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.
• 2009 (17 years ago) North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of six-party talks.
• 2010 (16 years ago) Up to 50 people are killed and another 100 injured in two militant suicide bombings and attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan: the first on an Awami National Party rally in Timergara; the second on the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar.

Births

• 1568 (458 years ago) Pope Urban VIII,
• 1588 (438 years ago) Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (died 1679)
• 1900 (126 years ago) Spencer Tracy, American actor (died 1967)
• 1908 (118 years ago) Bette Davis, American actress (died 1989)
• 1916 (110 years ago) Gregory Peck, American actor, political activist, and producer (died 2003)
• 1937 (89 years ago) Colin Powell, American general and politician, 65th United States Secretary of State (died 2021)
• 1947 (79 years ago) Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Filipino academic and politician, 14th President of the Philippines
• 1950 (76 years ago) Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer

Deaths

• 1794 (232 years ago) Georges Danton, French lawyer and politician, French Minister of Justice (born 1759)
• 1964 (62 years ago) Douglas MacArthur, American general (born 1880)
• 1975 (51 years ago) Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese general and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (born 1887)
• 1976 (50 years ago) Howard Hughes, American pilot, engineer, and director (born 1905)
• 1994 (32 years ago) Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1967)
• 1997 (29 years ago) Allen Ginsberg, American poet (born 1926)
• 2005 (21 years ago) Saul Bellow, Canadian-American novelist, essayist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915)
• 2008 (18 years ago) Charlton Heston, American actor, director, and political activist (born 1923)

All 851 events, births and deaths of April 5