On April 5, 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of Indian chieftain Powhatan, married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
In 1792 George Washington used presidential veto power for the first time, refusing to sign a bill affecting state representation.
In 1827 Sir Joseph Lister, founder of antiseptic surgery, was born.
In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the surrender of all private stores of gold to Federal Reserve banks to stop the hoarding of gold. In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death after being convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.
In 1955 Winston Churchill submitted his resignation as Britain`s prime minister.
In 1964 General of the Armies Douglas MacArthur died at age 84.
In 1969 a four-man British expedition reached the North Pole after a 14-month, 1,300-mile trek by dogsled.
In 1973 an advance party of U.S. officials arrived in Beijing to establish the first formal American presence in China in more than 20 years.
In 1974 the U.S. and Saudi Arabia agreed to expand economic and military cooperation.
In 1975 Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87 in Taiwan.
In 1976 the Supreme Court refused to review the court-martial conviction of former Army Lt. William Calley for the 1968 murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. Also in 1976 billionaire Howard Hughes died at age 70.
In 1980 the world`s most valuable stamp, an 1856 British Guiana 1-cent magenta, was sold at auction to an anonymous buyer for $850,000.
In 1983 France expelled 47 Soviet diplomats, journalists and others for alleged espionage activities.
In 1984 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became the highest scoring player in NBA history, topping Wilt Chamberlain, with 31,421 career points.
In 1989 Joesph Hazelwood, former captain of the Exxon Valdez supertanker that leaked nearly 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska`s Prince William Sound, surrendered to authorities in New York.
