| | 3952 BC - According to the Venerable Bede, the world was created. |
| | 1673 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to some Friends (Quakers). |
| | 1766 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which was very unpopular in the British colonies. |
| | 1850 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo. |
| | 1865 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time. |
| | 1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights. |
| | 1906 - Traian Vuia flew a self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft which took off without any external means |
| | 1909 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter becoming the first radio broadcaster. |
| | 1922 - In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He would serve only 2 years. |
| | 1922 - The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City. |
| | 1925 - The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people. |
| | 1937 - The New London School explosion kills three hundred, mostly children. |
| | 1953 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250. |
| | 1959 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21. |
| | 1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space. |
| | 1968 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency. |
| | 1971 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani killing 200. |
| | 1974 - Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan. |
| | 1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops. |
| | 1990 - 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the largest art theft in US history. |
| | 1995 - Michael Jordan announces that he will come out of retirement and play for the Chicago Bulls once again. |
| | 2003 - US enters war in Iraq. About $1 billion was taken from Iraq's Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family, just hours before the United States began bombing Iraq, biggest bank robbery in history. [1] |
| | 2003 - FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives. |
| | 2005 - Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband, fueling a worldwide debate on euthanasia. |