351The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out after his arrival at Antioch.
558In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.
1104The Seljuk emirs of Mosul and Mardin defeat the Crusader States of Antioch and Edessa.
1798French Revolutionary Wars: A French force attempting to dislodge a small British garrison on the Îles Saint-Marcouf is repulsed with heavy losses.
1824World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.
1832Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London.
1840The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.
1864The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.
1895In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector—a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.
1915World War I: German submarine sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,199 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many former pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
1920Polish–Soviet War: Kyiv offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kyiv only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
1930The 7.1 Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed.
1931The stand-off between criminal Francis Crowley and 300 members of the New York Police Department takes place in his fifth-floor apartment on West 91st Street, New York City.
1937Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
1942World War II: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō; the battle marks the first time in naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
1945World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland.
1946Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded.
1964Pacific Airlines Flight 773 is hijacked by Francisco Gonzales and crashes in Contra Costa County, California, killing 44.
1986Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.
1991A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26.
1992Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.
1992Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.
1994Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.
1998Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
2000Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia.
2002An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 crashes on approach to Tunis–Carthage International Airport, killing 14 people.
2002A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
2004American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamist militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.
2023Tanur boat disaster: At least 22 people are killed when a boat carrying tourists capsizes in Tanur, Malappuram, Kerala, India.
2025The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force conduct surgical strikes code-named Operation SINDOOR on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam Attack that killed 26 people.
Nacimientos (142)
1488John III of the Palatinate, archbishop of Regensburg (died 1538)
1530Louis, Prince of Condé (died 1569)
1553Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia (died 1618)
1605Patriarch Nikon of Moscow (died 1681)
1643Stephanus Van Cortlandt, American politician, 10th Mayor of New York City (died 1700)
1700Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian physician (died 1772)
1701Carl Heinrich Graun, German tenor and composer (died 1759)
1711David Hume, Scottish economist, historian, and philosopher (died 1776)
1724Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, French-Austrian field marshal (died 1797)
1740Nikolai Arkharov, Russian police officer and general (died 1814)
1748Olympe de Gouges, French playwright and philosopher (died 1793)
1751Stephen Badlam, American artisan and military officer (died 1815)
1763Józef Poniatowski, Polish general (died 1813)
1767Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (died 1820)
1774William Bainbridge, American commodore (died 1833)
1787Jacques Viger, Canadian archaeologist and politician, 1st mayor of Montreal (died 1858)
1812Robert Browning, English poet and playwright (died 1889)
1833Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (died 1897)