April 11, 1876 - Sir Charles Gordon ends religious tolerance in Sudan; April 11, 1921 -The Emirate of Transjordan created; April 11, 1925 - Abd el-Krims Rifkabylen defeats French army in Morocco; April 11, 1990 - Customs officers in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq; April 11, 2006 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium; April 12, 1946 - Syria gains independence from France; April 12, 2009 - President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority makes a courtesy phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, restarting the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue; April 13, 1517 - Ottoman army occupies Cairo; April 13, 1909 - In Constantinople the primarily Albanian First Army Corps seizes the parliament building and telegraphs offices, forcing the Ottoman statesman Hilmi Pasha to resign; April 13, 1204 - Crusaders occupy Constantinople; April 13, 1250 - The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France captured; April 13, 1975 - Christian Falange kills 27 Palestinians, begins Lebanese civil war; April 13, 1985 - Ramiz Alia succeeds Enver Hoxha as party leader of Albania; April 13, 1994 - Target date for Israeli complete withdrawal, doesn't occur; April 14, 1915 - Turkey invades Armenia; April 14, 1988 - USSR, US, Pakistan & Afghanistan sign Afghanistan treaty; April 14, 2003 - U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985; April 14, 2007 - At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; April 15, 1997 - Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343; April 16, 1913 - Bulgarians and the Turks agree to an armistice that will be accepted by the other nations involved; April 16, 1986 - To dispel rumors he's dead, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appears on TV; April 17, 1971 - Egypt, Libya & Syria form federation (FAR).

April 11, 1783 - Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War; April 11, 1953 - US Department of Health, Education and Welfare created; April 11, 1968 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act; April 11, 1993 - 450 prisoners riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continue for ten days, citing grievances about prison conditions and the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis); April 12, 1770 - British parliament repeals the Townshend Revenue Acts, which had fueled opposition to British rule in colonial America; April 12, 1945 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office and Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President; April 12, 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; April 12, 1983 - Chicago elects Harold Washington, 1st black mayor; April 13, 1911 - The US House of Representatives votes to institute direct elections of senators to Congress, a step towards direct democracy; April 13, 1920 - 1st woman US Civil Service Commissioner, Helen Hamilton appointed; April 14, 1865 - US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater; April 14, 1903 - Dr Harry Plotz discovers a vaccine against typhoid (NYC); April 14, 1971 - Supreme Court upheld busing as means of achieving racial desegregation; April 15, 1861 - Federal army mobilized (US Civil War); April 15, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies 9 hours after he is shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington; April 16, 1862 - Slavery abolished in District of Columbia; April 16, 1869 - Ebenezer Bassett, 1st African American diplomat, begins service as Minister to Haiti; April 16, 2007 - Virginia Tech massacre: The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. 32 people are killed and 23 injured; April 17, 1905 - US Supreme Court judges maximum workday unconstitutional in Lochner v. New York; April 17, 1993 - Two Los Angeles police officers convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King's civil rights and sentenced to prison, while two others are acquitted.