1471: In England, the Yorkists defeated the Landcastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses.
1493: Alexander VI divided non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal.
1626: Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island. Native Americans later sold the island (20,000 acres) for $24 in cloth and buttons.
1715: A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
1776: Rhode Island declared its freedom from England two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
1795: Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacre 99 Jacobin prisoners.
1814: Napoleon Bonaparte disembarked at Portoferraio on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1863: The Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
1886: Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter patented the gramophone. It was the first practical phonograph.
1905: Belmont Park opened in suburban Long Island. It opened as the largest race track in the world.
1916: Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare after a demand from U.S. President Wilson.
1930: Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British.
1932: Al Capone entered the Atlanta Penitentiary federal prison for income-tax evasion.
1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea commenced as American and Japanese carriers launched their attacks at each other.
1942: The United States began food rationing.
1946: A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended. Five people were killed.
1954: The first intercollegiate court tennis match was played in the U.S. It was between Yale and Princeton.
1961: Thirteen civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders," began a bus trip through the South.
1964: "Another World" premiered on NBC-TV.
1970: The Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam war protest at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded.
1979: Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman prime minister.
1981: The Federal Reserve Board raised its discount rate to 14%.
1987: Live models were used for the first time in Playtex bra ads.
1989: Oliver North, a former White House aide was convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes. He was acquitted of nine other charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. The three convictions were later overturned on appeal.
1994: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1998: Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, CA. The sentence was under a plea agreement that spared Kaczynski the death penalty.
1999: Several severe tornadoes hit the Midwest U.S. overnight. At least 45 people were killed.
1999: Manuel Babbitt was executed for killing Leah Schendel in 1980. Babbitt had received a purple heart for his injuries in Vietnam while on death row.
2000: Londoners elected their mayor for the first time.
2003: Idaho Gem was born. He was the first member of the horse family to be cloned.
