1545 – French King Francis I orders the Waldensian Protestants of the village of Mérindol to be punished, setting off a massacre
1892 – George C Blickensderfer patents portable typewriter
1916 – Irish nationalist activist and poet Roger Casement boards submarine U-19 at Wilmshaven, Germany, bound for a rendezvous with the Aud at Tralee
1924 – WLS-AM in Chicago begins radio transmissions
1930 – Wilfred Rhodes ends Test Cricket career aged 52 years 165 days
1955 – Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be ‘safe and effective’ and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration
1979 – Soyuz 33 returns to Earth
1998 – 62nd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Mark O’Meara claims his first major title with a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win by 1 stroke from David Duval and Fred Couples
2020 – Huge storm system produces more than 40 tornadoes in the US from Texas to South Carolina killing 32 people across six states
2023 – US Environmental Protection Agency proposes landmark set of pollution regulations to drive down greenhouse-gas emissions, including electric vehicles making up 67% of new passenger-car sales by 2032