558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders the dome rebuilt.
1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
1429 - Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning, wounded, to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
1664 - Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles.
1697 - Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire (in the 18th century, it is replaced by the current Royal Palace).
1718 - The city of New Orleans was founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville .
1824 - World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the deaf composer's supervision.
1832 - The independence of Greece is recognized by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King.
1836 - The settlement of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is elevated to the royal status of villa by the government of Spain.
1840 - The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.
1847 - The American Medical Association (AMA) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1864 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention
1915 - World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
1920 - Kiev Offensive (1920): Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
1920 - Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
1927 - Angelos Sikelianos organizes the first Delphic Festival in Delphi to celebrate the ancient Greek Delphic ideal.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
1942 - During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Japanese Imperial Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
1945 - World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.
1948 - The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.
1952 - The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.
1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
1964 - Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F-27 airliner, crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
1974 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns.
1992 - Michigan 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.
1992 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage (STS-49).
1992 - Three 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.
1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
1999 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family $25 million USD.
1999 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
2002 - A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
2010 - Scientists conducting the Neanderthal genome project announce that they have sequenced enough of the Neanderthal genome to prove that Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis/Homo neanderthalensis) and humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) may have interbred. The two hominids were close genetic relatives, although the relationship and closeness is still undetermined.
