GMT 4-16-2017

69 Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Otho commits suicide.

556 Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

1065 The Norman Robert Guiscard takes Bari, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy.

1705 Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton.

1818 The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.

1854 San Salvador is destroyed by an earthquake.

1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves a conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.

1862Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia.

1917 Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia to start the Bolshevik Revolution.

1922 Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets in a row, setting a woman's record.

1942 The Island of Malta is awarded the George Cross in recognition for heroism under constant German air attack. It was the first such award given to any part of the British Commonwealth.

1945 The destroyer USS Laffey survives horrific damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa, earning the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die."

1945 American troops enter Nuremberg, Germany.

1947 A lens which provides zoom effects is demonstrated in New York City.

1968 The Pentagon announces the "Vietnamization" of the war.

1972 Two giants pandas arrive in the U.S. from China.

Born on April 16
Wilbur Wright, designer, builder and flyer of the first airplane.