0558: The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian.
1274: The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.
1429: The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.
1525: The German peasants' revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
1663: The first Theatre Royal was opened in London.
1763: Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.
1789: The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.
1800: The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.
1847: The AMA (American Medical Association) was founded in Philadelphia.
1898: The first Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association meet was held in New Haven, CT.
1912: Columbia University approved final plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories.
1912: The first airplane equipped with a machine gun flew over College Park, MD.
1915: The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. 1,198 people were killed.
1926: A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation's exports were motors.
1937: The German Condor Legion arrived in Spain to assist Franco’s forces.
1939: Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1940: Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.
1942: In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.
1943: The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.
1945: Baseball owner Branch Rickey announced the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League. There were 6 teams.
1945: Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It would take effect the next day.
1946: Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. was founded. The company was later renamed Sony.
1951: Russia was admitted to participate in the 1952 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee.
1954: French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.
1954: The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the Soviet Union's bid to join NATO.
1958: Howard Johnson set an aircraft altitude record in F-104.
1960: Leonid Brezhnev became president of the Soviet Union.
1975: U.S. President Ford declared an end to the Vietnam War.
1977: Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607.
1984: A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.
1987: Shelly Long, as Diane Chambers, made her last appearance as a regular on the TV show "Cheers."
1992: A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.
1994: The Edvard Munch painting "The Scream" was recovered after being stolen 3 months earlier from an Oslo Museum. This version of "The Scream", one of four different versions, was painted on paper.
1996: The trial of Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic opened in the Netherlands. He was later convicted on murder-torture charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
1997: A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.
1998: Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.
1998: Residents of London voted to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. The vote would take place in May 2000.
1998: Leeza Gibbons received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999: A jury ruled that "The Jenny Jones Show" and Warner Bros. were liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. He was killed by another guest on the show. The jury's award was $25 million.
1999: Jerry Moss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999: In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were wounded when a NATO plane mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy.
1999: In Guinea-Bissau, the government of President João Bernardo Vieira was ousted in a military coup.
2000: Russian President Vladimir V. Putin named First Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasyanov as premier.
2003: In Washington, DC, General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years.
2003: Roger Moore collapsed during a matinee performance of the Broadway comedy "The Play What I Wrote." He finished the show after a 10-minute break. He was fitted with a pacemaker the following day.
