1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile.
1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
1829 – George Washington Adams, son of John Q Adams, dies in NYC
1871 – The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.
1883 – Édouard Manet, French impressionist painter dies at 61
1894 – Coxey’s Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.
1900 – Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughan, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.
1907 – Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city.
1921 – The discussions over Germany sticking to the Treaty of Versailles and steps to enforce reparations by Germany for the World War are causing rifts between England , France and Italy with the British prime minister Lloyd George calling an emergency meeting of the cabinet . The French and Italians want immediate occupation of the Ruer region of Germany while Britain wishes to pursue more diplomatic means.
1923 – Al Lewis, American actor (Grandpa Munster) (d. 2006) Born
1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women’s federal prison in the United States.
1932 – The continued growth in TB / Tuberculosis is becoming more widespread and with more variations and the worst affected are infants and young children. It is often transmitted through milk from diseased cows . It can be diagnosed by a chest X-ray and is highly contagious . ( side note this was the most important reason the milk we now buy is pasteurized / homogenized )
1933 – Willie Nelson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (The Highwaymen) was born.
1938 – The animated cartoon short Porky’s Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny).
1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s N.Y. World’s Fair opening day ceremonial address.
1943 – World War II: Operation Mincemeat: The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun allegedly commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
1947 – In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is renamed the Hoover Dam a second time.
1948 – Wayne Kramer, guitarist (MC5, Dangerous Madness) Born
1956 – Former Vice President and Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia. He collapses after proclaiming “I would rather be a servant in the house of the lord than sit in the seats of the mighty.”
1957 – Aviva Chomsky, American historian, daughter of Noam Chomsky – Born
1959 – Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada – Birthed
1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company’s refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
1966 – The Church of Satan is established at the Black House in San Francisco, California.
1973 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aides H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and others have resigned.
1974 – Agnes Moorehead, American actress (Endora-Bewitched), dies of uterine cancer at 73
1982 – Lester Bangs, American music journalist, author, and musician (b. 1949)Dies
1983 – Muddy Waters, US blues singer/guitarist (Mad Love), dies at 70
1989 – Sergio Leone, Italian director (Good, Bad & Ugly), dies at 60
1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.
1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton becomes the first President to visit Northern Ireland.
2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
2007 – Zola Taylor, American singer (The Platters, Married to Frankie Lymon) (b. 1938) Dies
2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia, are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, one of his sisters.
2009 – Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2013 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicates and Willem-Alexander becomes King of the Netherlands.