On this date in history:

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began at the Battle of Lexington, Mass. Eight Minutemen were killed and 10 wounded in an exchange of musket fire with British Redcoats.

In 1861, one week after the Civil War began, the first Americans died, the result of a clash between a secessionist mob in Baltimore and Massachusetts troops bound for Washington. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed.

In 1943, Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto revolted when Germans tried to resume deportations to the Treblinka concentration camp. (When the uprising ended on May 16, 300 Germans and 7,000 Jews had died and the ghetto lay in ruins.)

In 1956, U.S. actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

In 1971, the Soviet Union launched its first Salyut space station.

In 1987, the first Simpsons cartoon appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show.

In 1989, an explosion in a gun turret aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors.

In 1993, a 51-day Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed a fortified compound after it was tear-gassed by authorities. Cult leader David Koresh and 85 followers, including 17 children, were killed.

In 1994, a federal jury awarded police beating victim Rodney King $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles.

In 1995, a bomb exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 400.

In 2000, a federal appeals court ruled in a high-profile case that 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez could stay in the United States until judges heard a full appeal from his relatives who sought to retain custody of the boy. (Eventually, he was returned to his father in Cuba.)

In 2005, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, already a major power in the Roman Catholic Church, was elected pope to succeed John Paul II. He chose the name of Benedict XVI.

In 2011, an air traffic control error was blamed for a near miss incident at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington in which a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, flew too close to a military cargo aircraft while landing.

In 2012, Syria, torn by a yearlong insurgency, agreed to accept a 30-person team of U.N. observers.

In 2013, one Boston Marathon bombing suspect was killed by police and his brother was arrested. The city had been in a virtual lockdown.

Copyright 2014 by United Press International