1024Election of Pope John XIX following the death of his brother Pope Benedict VIII.
1042Following the attempt of Byzantine Emperor Michael V Kalaphates to depose his wife and empress Zoe Porphyrogenita, a popular uprising in Constantinople breaks out with the intention to restore her.
1506The Lisbon Massacre begins, in which about two thousand Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity are slaughtered by Portuguese Catholics.
1529Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities protest the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.
1539The Treaty of Frankfurt between Protestants and the Holy Roman Emperor is signed.
1572England and France sign an alliance against Spain in the treaty of Blois.
1608In Ireland, O'Doherty's Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.
1677The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.
1713With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, was not born until 1717.
1770Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
1775American Revolutionary War: The war begins during the Battles of Lexington and Concord with a victory of American minutemen and other militia over British forces, later referred to as the "shot heard round the world".
1775American Revolutionary War: Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston begins with American militias blocking land access to the British-held city.
1782John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.
1809An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.
1810Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
1818French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary "Note on the Theory of Diffraction" (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.
1839The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.
1861American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1903The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.
1925Colo-Colo, the most successful and popular soccer football team in the South American nation of Chile, was founded at the El Llano Stadium in San Miguel, Santiago, by footballer David Arellano and some of his teammates who had also left the Deportes Magallanes club.
1927Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1936The Jaffa riots commence, initiating the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
1942World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
1943World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
1976A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least by the tornado and survived uninjured.
1985Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.
1989A gun turret explodes on the , killing 47 sailors.
1993The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, US, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.
1995Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, US, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.
1999The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
2000Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.
2001Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.
2005Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.
2008The Quito Ultratumba nightclub fire in Quito, Ecuador, kills 19 people and injures at least 24 more.
2011Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.
2013Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
2020A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.
2021The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.
Nacimientos (120)
1452Frederick IV, King of Naples (died 1504)
1593Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet, English politician (died 1647)