On This Day, April 5: Kurt Cobain of Nirvana dies at 27

A Stratocaster once owned by Kurt Cobain is on display at a press preview for "Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 1. On April 5, 1994, Cobain killed himself at his home in Seattle. He was 27. It would be three days before his body was discovered. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
A Stratocaster once owned by Kurt Cobain is on display at a press preview for "Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 1. On April 5, 1994, Cobain killed himself at his home in Seattle. He was 27. It would be three days before his body was discovered. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
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April 5 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of a chief, married English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Va. It was a marriage that ensured peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years.

In 1768, the first U.S. Chamber of Commerce was founded in New York City.

In 1792, President George Washington exercised veto power, the first time it was done in the United States.

In 1933, Executive Order 6101 establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt. The public work relief program would run from 1933 to 1942 and provide employment for unemployed and unmarried men as part of the New Deal.

On April 5, 1992, Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, died of cancer at 74. UPI File Photo
On April 5, 1992, Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, died of cancer at 74. UPI File Photo

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death in New York for stealing atomic secrets for the Soviet Union. They were executed on June 20, 1953.

File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI
File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI
Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, leaves the White House on May 7, 1982, after meeting with President Ronald Reagan on the 1983 military budget. On April 5, 1991, Tower and 22 others were killed in a commuter plane crash in Brunswick, Ga. File Photo by Ron Bennett/UPI
Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, leaves the White House on May 7, 1982, after meeting with President Ronald Reagan on the 1983 military budget. On April 5, 1991, Tower and 22 others were killed in a commuter plane crash in Brunswick, Ga. File Photo by Ron Bennett/UPI

In 1955, following rumors of failing health, Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of the United Kingdom.

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died of kidney failure during a flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston. He was 71.

Massey Energy workers Maurice Blanchette (L), Jimmy Shortridge (2nd-L), Brandon Waddell (2nd-R) and Andrew Lucas take a break from drilling efforts above Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Coal Mine on April 7, 2010, in Montcoal, W.Va. On April 5, 2010, an explosion in a coal mine near Montcoal, in West Virginia's Raleigh County, killed 29 workers. File Photo by Jeff Gentner/UPI

In 1991, former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, and 22 others were killed in a commuter plane crash in Brunswick, Ga.

In 1992, Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, died of cancer at 74.

On April 5, 1955, following rumors of failing health, Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of the United Kingdom. File Photo courtesy Cecil Beaton/Imperial War Museums
On April 5, 1955, following rumors of failing health, Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of the United Kingdom. File Photo courtesy Cecil Beaton/Imperial War Museums

In 1994, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain killed himself at his home in Seattle. He was 27. It would be three days before his body was discovered.

File Photo by Julie Kramer/Wikimedia
File Photo by Julie Kramer/Wikimedia

In 1999, Russell Henderson, one of two men charged in the October 1998 beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, pleaded guilty and was given two life prison sentences. The second man, Aaron McKinney, who delivered the fatal blows, also received two life terms.

In 2000, Lee Petty, the winner of the first Daytona 500 and a pioneer of a NASCAR racing family, died at a North Carolina hospital from complications of an abdominal aneurysm. He was 86.

In 2010, an explosion in a coal mine near Montcoal, in West Virginia's Raleigh County, killed 29 workers.

In 2016, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to mandate six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents.

In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the U.N. Security Council to act decisively to help Ukrainians and end the occupation and violence against civilians by Russian forces.

File Photo courtesy of the Ukrainian President Press Office
File Photo courtesy of the Ukrainian President Press Office