1429: Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans.
1502: Christopher Columbus left Spain for his final trip to the Western Hemisphere.
1671: Thomas "Captain" Blood stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.
1754: The first newspaper cartoon in America showed a divided snake "Join or die" in "The Pennsylvania Gazette."
1785: Joseph Bramah patented the beer-pump handle.
1825: The Chatham Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first gas-lit theater in America.
1901: In Australia, the Duke of Cornwall and York declared the First Commonwealth Parliament open.
1915: German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.
1926: Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly an airplane over the North Pole.
1930: A starting gate was used to start a Triple Crown race for the first time.
1936: Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia.
1936: The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale in New York City.
1940: Vivien Leigh debuted in America on stage in "Romeo and Juliet" with Lawrence Olivier.
1941: The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by Britain's Royal navy.
1945: U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1946: King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy abdicated and was replaced by Umberto.
1955: West Germany joined NATO.
1958: Richard Burton made his network television debut in the presentation of "Wuthering Heights" on CBS-TV.
1960: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time.
1961: Jim Gentile (Baltimore Orioles) set a major league baseball record when he hit a grand slam home run in two consecutive innings. The game was against the Minnesota Twins.
1962: A laser beam was successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
1974: The House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.
1978: The bullet-riddled body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found in an automobile in the center of Rome. The Red Brigades had abducted him.
1980: A Liberian freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. 35 motorists were killed and a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
1987: Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers were married.
1994: Nelson Mandela was chosen to be South Africa's first black president.
1996: In video testimony to a courtroom in Little Rock, AR, U.S. President Clinton insisted that he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan in the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
2002: In Bethlehem, West Bank, a deal was reached that would end the 38-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Thirteen suspected militants were to be deported to several different countries. The standoff had begun on April 2, 2002.
2002: In Kaspiisk, Russia, 39 people were killed and at least 130 were injurde when a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade.
2002: In Bahrain, people were allowed to vote for representatives for the first time in nearly 30 years. Women were allowed to vote for the first time in the country's history.