1521: After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines.

Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebú, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighbouring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades

1859: In the closing stages of the Indian Mutiny, Private Richardson, 34th Regiment, won the Victoria Cross for close-quarter combat despite already being badly wounded.

1805: During the First Barbary War, an American-led force of Marines and mercenaries captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli. Raising of the first US flag over foreign soil

1813: US Navy and Army forces capture York (now Toronto), Canada

1865: The United States suffered its greatest loss of life in a maritime disaster when the Mississippi River steamboat Sultana, Captain J. Cass Mason, Master, exploded near Memphis, Tennessee. Sultana was a relatively new ship, launched at Cincinnati in 1863. She was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew.

During the Civil War, Sultana was employed carrying troops and supplies along the lower Mississippi River. Now that the war was over, regular river travel was beginning again. Sultana left New Orleans on April 21, with 100 passengers for a trip up river. She stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repairs to a leaky boiler. The ship's engineer advised the Master that two boiler plates needed to be replaced, but Captain Mason ordered the plates patched until the ship reached St Louis, Missouri, after competing scheduled stops at Memphis, Cairo, Evansville, Louisville, and Cincinnati. Mason was part owner of the riverboat.

He and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. The federal government promised to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer delivered to the North. The potential for huge profits motivated Mason to convince local military authorities to embark the entire contingent, despite the presence of two other steamboats at Vicksburg. Sultana left Vicksburg carrying 2,100 troops plus 200 civilians, more than six times its capacity.

On the evening of April 26, the ship stopped at Memphis before crossing the river to load coal in Arkansas. Just before midnight, Sultana continued her trip up river, bound for Cairo. Most of the servicemen aboard were to disembark there. The Mississippi River was at flood stage, and the overloaded ship was strained to make headway against the powerful current. By 0200 the ship had made only a few miles when a powerful explosion occurred when the boiler failed. Escaping steam and metal fragments killed hundreds immediately and hundreds more were thrown into river.

Back at Memphis, the watch onboard USS. Grosbeak, a river gunboat, saw the light and heard the noise. The captain ordered the ship away immediately and Grosbeak raced up the river, followed soon afterwards by other river steamboats. The mid-section of Sultana was destroyed by the explosion and fire spread rapidly to the surrounding spaces. The superstructure collapsed partially into the middle of the ship, sending hundreds of people sliding into a raging fire in what had been the engine room. The ship drifted down river fully in flames, coming to rest against a small island before sinking.

Approximately 1,700 passengers were lost. Only 600 people survived the explosion. Many of these died over the next few days due to burns and exposure, because of their already debilitated state.

The Sultana disaster received little attention in the contemporary press. The death of President Lincoln 11 days before, the surrender of the Army of Virginia by General Lee at Appomattox, and the surrender of the General Joseph E. Johnston's army the day before the disaster dominated the papers.

A formal inquiry into the cause of the accident attributed the disaster to boiler failure

1915: The submarine HMS E-14 managed to get past the navigational hazards and the formidable Turkish defences at the Dardanelles to break into the Sea of Marmora, where she then conducted a very successful patrol. Her commanding officer, Lieutenant-Commander Boyle, received the Victoria Cross.

1918: In France, the Reverend Hardy, an Army Chaplain, repeatedly tended to the wounded and dying under heavy fire, at one point rescuing a man lying just yards from a German pill-box. Lieutenant McKean, of the Royal Montreal Regiment, attacked alone down a German trench, capturing in turn two defended blocks with bayonet and grenades. Both men received the Victoria Cross.

1941: As units of the Mediterranean Fleet carry out the evacuation of Greece, destroyers HMS Diamond & Wryneck rescued troops from the bombed transport 'Slamat'. Shortly afterwards, both are sunk by more German bombers off Cape Malea at the SE tip of Greece. There are few survivors from the three ships

1982: The War Cabinet approved the landing of forces in the Falkland Islands. The landing ship Sir Bedivere and the ferry Norland, carrying part of 2 PARA, sail from the UK