Today in History: April 5

2000: Mori Yoshiro of the Liberal-Democratic Party became prime minister of Japan, replacing Obuchi Keizo, who had suffered a stroke earlier in the month and subsequently died.

1994: American grunge rocker Kurt Cobain, leader of the band Nirvana, committed suicide.

1986: A bomb explodes in a West Berlin disco packed with American soldiers.

1984: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Wilt Chamberlain as the all-time leading scorer in the National Basketball Association.

1955: Winston Churchill resigns as British prime minister.

1951: Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for espionage.

1943: The British 8th Army attacks the next blocking position of the retreating Axis forces at Wadi Akarit.

1941: German commandos secure docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany's invasion of the Balkans.

1930: Mahatma Ghandi defies British law by making salt in India instead of buying it from the British.

1919: Eamon de Valera becomes president of Ireland.

1908: The Japanese Army reaches Yalu River as Russians retreat.

1865: As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes with Union forces at Amelia Springs and Paine's Cross Road.

1861: Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the Navy issues official orders for the

1856: American educator and reformer Booker T. Washington was born in Virginia.

1843: Queen Victoria proclaims Hong Kong a British crown colony.

1818: Chile's independence movement, led by José de San Martín and Bernardo O'Higgins, won a decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Maipú, which left 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead on this day in 1818.

1792: George Washington casts the first presidential veto.

1621: The Mayflower departed for England after having deposited 102 Pilgrims at what became the American colony of Plymouth (Massachusetts).

1614: Powhatan Indian Pocahontas married Virginia planter and colonial official John Rolfe.

1588: English philosopher and political theorist Thomas Hobbes, best known for his publications on individual security and the social contract, was born.

1242: Russian troops repel an invasion by Teutonic knights.