1314 - Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
1325 - According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date. The event is depicted on the Mexican coat of arms.
1438 - Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of Germany.
1673 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.
1766 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which had been very unpopular in the British colonies.
1781 - Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92
1793 - The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
1834 - Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
1850 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
1865 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
1871 - Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.
1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
1893 - Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 1910, and since 1926, only to National Hockey League teams.
1906 - Traian Vuia flies a self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft.
1909 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter, becoming the first radio broadcaster.
1915 - World War I: Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
1921 - The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.
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.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
1937 - The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
1938 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
1944 - The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.
1945 - World War II: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
1946 - Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union are established.
1948 - Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.
1953 - An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 250.
1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
1962 - The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence, which began in 1954.
1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1967 - The Supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.
1968 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
1970 - Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
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.
1980 - At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 50 people are killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
1990 - In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
1996 - A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162.
1997 - The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 on board and leading to the grounding of all An-24s.
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.
2003 - British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language.
2005 - Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband.
