| | 1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England. |
| | 1483 - Coronation of Charles VIII of France ("Charles l'Affable"). |
| | 1509 - Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Venetians. |
| | 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony. |
| | 1608 - Protestant Union founded in Auhausen. |
| | 1643 - Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. |
| | 1747 - A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at first battle of Cape Finisterre. |
| | 1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States. |
| | 1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination. |
| | 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River. |
| | 1811 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain. |
| | 1861 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859-gram chondrite-type meteorite strikes the earth near Barcelona, Spain. |
| | 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Jackson (MS). |
| | 1868 - Japanese Boshin War: End of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō. |
| | 1870 - The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club. |
| | 1889 - The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London. |
| | 1900 - The 1900 Summer Olympics open in Paris. |
| | 1913 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller. |
| | 1927 - Cap Arcona is launched at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. |
| | 1929 - Wilfred Rhodes takes his 4000th first-class wicket during a performance of 9 for 39 at Leyton. |
| | 1931 - Ådalen shootings, five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union manifestation. |
| | 1935 - The Filipinos ratify an independence agreement. |
| | 1935 - Northamptonshire Cricket Club gains (over Somerset at Taunton by 48 runs) what proved to be their last victory for 99 matches, easily a record in the County Championship. Their next Championship win was not until 29 May, 1939. |
| | 1939 - Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. |
| | 1940 - World War II: Rotterdam is bombed by the German Luftwaffe. |
| | 1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany. |
| | 1943 - Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine. |
| | 1948 - Israel declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel was attacked by the neighboring Arab states. |
| | 1955 - Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty called the Warsaw Pact. |
| | 1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob. |
| | 1970 - The Red Army Faction is established in Germany. |
| | 1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. It is the last launch of the Saturn V rocket. |
| | |
| | Launch of the Saturn INT-21, carrying the Skylab space station.1977 - In Milan, Italy, during a demonstration of the far-left, a hooded extremist shoots at police, killing a policeman, Antonino Custrà. The scene is photographed and the picture [1] of the hooded man shooting in the middle of the street will appear in many magazines around the world. |
| | 1978 - First round of the presidential elections in Upper Volta. |
| | 1986 - Formula One Italian driver Elio De Angelis has a terrible crash with his Brabham at the Paul Ricard circuit in France during a test session. He will die the next day at the Marseille hospital. |
| | 1988 - Carrollton bus disaster - A drunk driver going the wrong way on a Kentucky highway hits a bus carrying a church youth group, causing the deaths of 27 people in the resulting fire. |
| | 1995 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, proclaims six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. |
| | 1998 - The finale of Seinfeld airs on NBC, with 76 million viewers tuning in. |
| | 2002 - Ten members of the Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition invade the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory of Australia. |
| | 2004 - The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun. |
| | 2004 - The marriage of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary Donaldson takes place in Copenhagen. |
| | 2005 - Pope Benedict XVI observes his first beatification, elevating Blessed Marianne of Molokai on the road to canonization into sainthood. |
| | 2005 - Ex-America (CV-66), a decommissioned supercarrier of the United States Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise. |
| | 2006 - Massachusetts and New Hampshire declare a state of emergency as a result of massive flooding from the strongest rains to hit the region in a decade. |