On This Day April 19

Walter Mondale, U.S. vice president from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter, died at his Minneapolis home at age 93. He ran for the presidency in 1984, but lost to incumbent Ronald Reagan in a landslide

NASA’s helicopter Ingenuity made the first powered flight on Mars. The drone was airborne for less than a minute, but the controlled flight was the first by an aircraft on another planet

Taliban militants killed at least 64 people and injured more than 340 others in an attack on a security team responsible for protecting government VIPs in Kabul, Afghanistan

Over 800 migrants died when their ship capsized and sank off the coast of Libya as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. A similar disaster six days earlier killed 400 people

India successfully launched a new nuclear missile capable of hitting Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities in China, Delhi’s chief economic rival. The Agni-V missile has a range of 5,000km (3,100 miles)

Norwegian marathon runner Grete Waitz died from cancer, aged 57. In a glittering career she won nine New York City Marathons between 1978 and 1988, more than any other runner in history. She also won the London Marathon twice, in 1983 and 1986, plus a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and a gold medal at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki

English writer J.G. Ballard died from prostate cancer, aged 78. A prominent member of the science fiction New Wave movement, his best-known novels are the controversial Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and the loosely autobiographical Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II after the invasion and conquest of Shanghai. Both books were adapted into films, by David Cronenberg and Stephen Spielberg respectively

Australian Prime Minister John Howard warned that the Murray-Darling Basin was facing an "unprecedentedly dangerous" water shortage and that irrigation for farmers would be cut off unless there was significant rain in the forthcoming weeks

Japanese scientists showed off a one million-year-old ice core drilled from 3,000 metres beneath Antarctica. They hoped air trapped within the ice would provide clues to environmental changes in Earth’s history

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope, taking the name Benedict XVI. In 2013 he became the first pontiff to resign since 1415

Jordan’s King Abdullah cancelled talks with U.S. President Bush following his support of Israel’s policy to retain large settlements in the West Bank and deny Palestinian refugees, many based in Jordan, right of return

Norris McWhirter died at his home in England; in 1955, he and his twin brother Ross founded the Guinness Book of Records, now one of the world’s best-selling books

President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria was reelected with 62 percent of the vote in polls marred by allegations of fraud and intimidation, and by gunfights between different factions

An Imperial Easter egg produced by Russian court jeweller Carl Faberge sold for a then record $9.6 million in New York. The Winter Egg was embellished with more than 3,000 diamonds

Generic versions of branded drugs were legally available to treat AIDS in South Africa for the first time