On This Day in History

After leading a military coup three months earlier, Gnassingbé Eyadéma installed himself as President of Togo, a post that he held until 2005.

After an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 (mission patch pictured) exploded, disabling the spacecraft's electrical and life-support systems, astronaut Jack Swigert reported: "Houston, we've had a problem here".

Thousands of Georgians demonstrated in Tbilisi against an attempt by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

Let's Dance, English musician David Bowie's best-selling album, was released.

Iraqi no-fly zones conflict: In a friendly-fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort, two U.S. Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people.

A storm dropped around 500,000 tonnes of hailstones on Sydney (examples pictured) and the east coast of New South Wales, causing about A$2.3 billion in damages, the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history.

The Oregon Supreme Court nullified marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.

Plumes of ash from a major eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland led to widespread disruption of air travel throughout Europe for several days.

Nearly 2,700 people were killed in an earthquake registering 6.9 Mw in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China.

Western Kentucky University announced a five-year suspension of their swimming and diving programs as a result of a hazing scandal.

Flooding in the Persian Gulf began, killing 19 in Oman.