April 9th

Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles was formerly married to Diana, Princess of Wales. His second marriage to Camilla made him the first member of the British Royal Family to have a civil wedding.

Baghdad falls to U.S. forces ending the invasion of Iraqi but resulting in widespread looting.

John Major elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after his Conservative Party wins the most votes in British electoral history.

The first Boeing 737 takes off on its maiden flight. The short-to-medium range plane is the best-selling airplane in history.

The Bolivian National Revolution overthrows Hugo Ballivián's government. The nationalist movement initiated radical reforms, including universal suffrage, the nationalization of tin mines, and the inclusion of previously marginalized ethnicities into national life.

Germany invades Denmark and Norway. The rationale of Operation Weserübung was to secure access to Swedish iron ore. In Norway, a resistance group around Max Manus and Gunnar Sønsteby successfully sabotaged the German war effort.

Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada.

US Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee and 26,765 troops surrender at Appomattox Court House to US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

The world's first recording of the human voice is created. French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville used his phonautograph, the earliest known sound recording device, to capture himself singing the French folk song “Au clair de la lune”.

British mariner Robert Jenkins' ear cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, later catalyst for war between Britain & Spain.

Edward V (aged 12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England. He is never crowned, and disappears presumed murdered, after incarceration in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the "Princes in the Tower").