The Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, setting off the American Civil War.
1940: Italy annexes Albania
After a brief Italian military campaign, Albania deposed King Zog I and agreed to offer the Albanian crown to Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III.
1961: First human in space
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer space. His spacecraft, Vostok 1, orbited Earth for 1.5 hours and landed in the Soviet Union.
1981: First space shuttle launched
NASA launched the world’s first reusable and manned space shuttle, Columbia, from the Kennedy Space Center.
1988: The Last Emperor wins 9 Oscars
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor—a biopic on the last Emperor of China, Puyi—became the first film to win all Academy Awards it was nominated for.