1478: Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de’Medici and kill Giuliano de’Medici in Florence

1920: Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold “great debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

1945: Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, arrested for treason

1956: First modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas

1986: World’s worst nuclear disaster: 4th reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in USSR explodes, 31 die, radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe

2005: Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.

Source: Onthisday.com