1775 – The American Revolutionary War begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate-LaBianca murders.
1987 – The Simpsons first appeared as a series of shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show.
1993 – A 51-day standoff with the Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Texas ended when fire destroyed the group’s compound after it was tear-gassed by authorities. Cult leader David Koresh and about 75 of his followers were killed.
1995 – The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is bombed, killing 168 people.
2000 – A federal appeals court ruled in a high-profile case that 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez could stay in the U.S. until judges heard a full appeal from his relatives who sought to retain custody of the boy. He was eventually returned to his father in Cuba.
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 Dzhokar is later captured hiding in a boat in a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
