| | 537 - Vigilius is consecrated and enthroned as Pope, replacing Silverius. |
| | 1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England. |
| | 1632 - Treaty of Saint-Germain signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629. |
| | 1638 - Swedish colonists establish the first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. |
| | 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade at Stockholm's Royal Opera just 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf. |
| | 1799 - New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state. |
| | 1806 - Construction authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway. |
| | 1807 - The planet Vesta is discovered. |
| | 1809 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden. |
| | 1831 - Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniak rebel against Turkey. |
| | 1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege. |
| | 1849 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab. |
| | 1857 - Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry revolts against the British rule in India and inspires a long-drawn War of Independence of 1857 also known as the Sepoy Mutiny. |
| | 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins. |
| | 1867 - Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1. |
| | 1871 - The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria. |
| | 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus. |
| | 1882 - The Knights of Columbus are established. |
| | 1911 - The M1911 semi-automatic handgun designed by John Browning becomes the standard-issue handgun in the United States Army, and is subsequently widely used in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. |
| | 1930 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler. |
| | 1936 - In Germany, dictator Hitler receives 99% of the votes in a referendum to ratify Germany's illegal reoccupation of the Rhineland, receiving 44.5 million votes out of 45.5 million registered voters. In 1933 all political parties and political liberty had been abolished. |
| | 1941 - World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces intercept those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan. |
| | 1941 - 80% of American AM radio stations change frequencies under the terms of NARBA. |
| | 1945 - World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England. |
| | 1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. |
| | 1961 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections. |
| | 1966 - Muhammad Ali deafeats Canadian George Chuvalo in fifteen rounds in Toronto, Canada. |
| | 1971 - My Lai massacre: Lt. William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. |
| | 1971 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers. |
| | 1973 - Vietnam War: The last United States soldiers leave South Vietnam. |
| | 1974 - NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury. It was launched on November 3, 1973. |
| | 1982 - The Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) receives the Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982 |
| | 1982 - The long running serial Search for Tomorrow moves to NBC after almost 31 years with CBS and becomes the second soap opera to switch networks since The Edge of Night moved from CBS to ABC-TV on December 1, 1975. |
| | 1993 - Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and Canada's first female premier. |
| | 1993 - Edouard Balladur becomes Prime Minister of France. |
| | 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 – above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever. |
| | 2002 - Premiere of Janez Lapajne's first feature film Rustling Landscapes (Šelestenje). |
| | 2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members. |
| | 2004 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants. |