| 1139 | The Second Lateran Council opens in Rome. | |
| 1657 | English Admiral Robert Blake fights his last battle when he destroys the Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz Bay. | |
| 1769 | Ottawa Chief Pontiac is murdered by an Indian in Cahokia. | |
| 1770 | Captain Cook discovers Australia. | |
| 1775 | British troops begin the siege of Boston. | |
| 1792 | France declares war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia. | |
| 1809 | Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria. | |
| 1836 | The Territory of Wisconsin is created. | |
| 1841 | Edgar Allen Poe’s first detective story is published. | |
| 1861 | Robert E. Lee resigns from the U.S. Army. | |
| 1879 | The first mobile home (horse-drawn) is used in a journey from London to Cyprus. | |
| 1916 | The first National League game is played at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park. The park was renamed Cubs Park in 1920 and Wrigley Field, for the Chicago Cubs owner, in 1926. | |
| 1919 | The Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from the Soviets. | |
| 1940 | The first electron microscope is demonstrated. | |
| 1942 | Pierre Laval, the premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, establishes a policy of “true reconciliation with Germany.” | |
| 1945 | Soviet troops begin their attack on Berlin. | |
| 1951 | General Douglas MacArthur addresses a joint session of Congress after being relieved by President Harry Truman. | |
| 1953 | Operation Little Switch begins in Korea, the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war. | |
| 1962 | The New Orleans Citizens Committee gives free one-way ride to blacks to move North. | |
| 1967 | U.S. planes bomb Haiphong for first time during the Vietnam War. | |
| 1999 | Two students enter Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and open fire with multiple firearms, killing 13 students and teachers, wounding 25 and eventually shooting themselves. |
