1064: Coimbra, Portugal fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.
1534: Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named Saint Lawrence.
1790: John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the first American book to be copyrighted.
1790: Civil war broke out in Martinique.
1860: The book, "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" by Mrs. Ann Stevens, was offered for sale for a dime. It was the first published "dime novel."
1861: Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke began working in Union hospitals.
1923: Bulgaria’s government was overthrown by the military.
1931: Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1934: Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon "The Wise Little Hen."
1940: Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.
1943: The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1945: Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1946: Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be ejected from a doubleheader (both games).
1953: A tornado struck Worcester, Massachusetts, killing about 100 people.
1959: The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, was launched.
1965: Michel Jazy ran the mile in 3 minutes, 53.6 seconds. He broke the record set by Peter Snell in 1964.
1972: American advisor John Paul Vann was killed in a helicopter accident in Vietnam.
1978: Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.
1980: Richard Pryor was severely burned by a "free-base" mixture that exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.
1985: Thomas Sutherland, an American educator, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was not released until November 1991.
1985: The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title by defeating the Boston Celtics.
1986: The Rogers Commission released a report on the Challenger disaster. The report explained that the spacecraft blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
1998: In Jasper, TX, three white men were charged in the dragging death of African-American James Byrd Jr.
1999: NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo.
2000: The U.S. Justice Department announced that it had not uncovered reliable evidence of conspiracy behind 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
2000: Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.
2000: The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal gift and estate taxes. The bill called for the taxes to be phased out over 10 years.
2001: Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to win three Conn Smythe Trophies. The award is given to the playoff's Most Valuable Player.
