• 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V during the Sack of Rome in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo.
• 1536 - King Henry VIII orders English language Bibles be placed in every church.
• 1542 - Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
• 1604 - Leon VII Spanish poet's first poem is published: La Cocina.
• 1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
• 1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
• 1816 - The American Bible Society is founded in New York City.
• 1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
• 1840 - The Penny Black postage stamp is valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1857 - The British East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose Sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British and is considered to be the First Martyr in the War of India's Independence.
• 1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi's Mille sets sail from Genoa to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.
• 1877 - Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
• 1882 - Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin.
• 1882 - The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• 1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
• 1910 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
• 1935 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration.
• 1937 - Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
• 1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
• 1941 - At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
• 1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
• 1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
• 1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
• 1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
• 1960 - More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
• 1962 - St. Martín de Porres is canonized by Pope John XXIII.
• 1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
• 1972 - Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara for attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.
• 1976 - An earthquake strikes Friuli, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.
• 1981 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
• 1983 - The Hitler diaries are revealed as a hoax when experts examine the books and conclude that they're fake.
• 1988 - An airplane flying from Namsos to Brønnøysund in Norway crashes into the side of the Torghatten mountain, killing all 36 passengers and crew.
• 1994 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
• 1994 - Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files suit against President Bill Clinton, alleging that he'd sexually harassed her in 1991.
• 1996 - The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
• 1997 - The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history.
• 1998 - Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and didn't walk a batter in his 5th career start.
• 2001 - During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
• 2002 - Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is shot and killed by an animal rights activist.
• 2008 - Chaiten Volcano erupts in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

Births