1416: Jerome of Prague was burned as a heretic by the Church.
1431: Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19.
1527: The University of Marburg was founded in Germany.
1539: Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, landed in Florida with 600 soldiers to search for gold.
1783: The first daily newspaper was published in the U.S. by Benjamin Towner called "The Pennsylvania Evening Post"
1814: The First Treaty of Paris was declared, which returned France to its 1792 borders.
1848: W.G. Young patented the ice cream freezer.
1854: The U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.
1868: Memorial Day was observed for the first time in the U.S.
1879: William Vanderbilt renamed New York City's Gilmore’s Garden to Madison Square Garden.
1883: Twelve people were trampled to death in New York City in a stampede when a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing occurred.
1889: The brassiere was invented.
1896: The first automobile accident occurred in New York City.
1903: In Riverdale, NY, the first American motorcycle hill climb was held.
1911: Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis Sweepstakes. The 500-mile auto race later became known as the Indianapolis 500. Harroun's average speed was 74.59 miles per hour.
1912: The U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.
1913: The First Balkan War ended.
1921: The U.S. Navy transferred the Teapot Dome oil reserves to the Department of the Interior.
1922: The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.
1933: Sally Rand introduced her exotic and erotic fan dance to audiences at Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.
1943: American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.
1958: Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflicts were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1967: Daredevil Evel Knievel jumped 16 automobiles in a row in a motorcycle stunt at Ascot Speedway in Gardena, CA.
1967: The state of Biafra seceded from Nigeria and Civil war erupted.
1971: Mariner 9, the American deep space probe blasted off on a journey to Mars.
1981: In Chittagong, Bangladesh, President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated.
1982: Spain became the 16th NATO member. Spain was the first country to enter the Western alliance since West Germany in 1955.
1989: The "Goddess of Democracy" statue (33 feet height) was erected in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
1996: Britain's Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.
1997: Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, NJ, of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.
1998: A powerful earthquake hit northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.
2003: Peter Jennings was sworn in as a U.S. citizen.
