2005: Death of Pope John Paul II.
The bishop of Rome and the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978, Pope John Paul II, who was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first from a Slavic country, died in Vatican City this day in 2005.
| 1982: | | | Argentine troops seized the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), precipitating the Falkland Islands War with Britain. |
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| 1917: | | | U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. |
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| 1914: | | British actor Sir Alec Guinness was born. |
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| 1865: | | | In the face of advancing Union forces, Confederate troops evacuated Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. |
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| 1681: | | | King Charles II of England officially proclaimed the charter he had granted in March to William Penn for the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania in North America. |
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| 1513: | | | Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth in the Americas, landed on the coast of Florida near the present-day city of St. Augustine. |
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