On April 11, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba.
In 1921 Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax.
In 1947 Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player, made his debut in an exhibition game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
In 1951 President Harry Truman relieved General of the Armies Douglas MacArthur of his command in the Far East during the Korean War.
In 1953 Oveta Culp Hobby became the first Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
In 1975 the U.S. closed its embassy in Phnom Penh as communist forces closed in on the Cambodian capital.
In 1979 Ugandan President Idi Amin was deposed as Tanzanian forces took control of the capital city of Kampala.
In 1980 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued regulations specifically prohibiting sexual harassment of workers by superiors.
In 1984 Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko was named president of the Soviet Union.
In 1986 two FBI agents and two bank robbery suspects were killed and five other agents wounded in a Miami shootout.
