37 – The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’s will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
1314 – Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
1673 – John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.
1741 – New York governor George Clarke’s complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.
1766 – American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.
1837 – Grover Cleveland, American lawyer and politician, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (d. 1908) was born.
1845 – Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist (b. 1774) died.
1865 – American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.
1869 – Neville Chamberlain, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1940) was born.
1874 – Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.
1877 – Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945) was born.
1892 – 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 the Stanley Cup.
1922 – In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He serves only 2 years.
1937 – The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.
1940 – World War II: Axis Powers – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
1945 – Michael Reagan, American radio host, was born.
1959 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
1962 – Mike Rowe, American television host was born.
1968 – Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
1972 – Dane Cook, American comedian and actor was born.
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.
1990 – Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
2001 – FBI Agent Robert Phillip Harrison was arrested at his home for selling American secrets to Soviets. He had received about $1.4 million in cash as well as diamonds for his illegal services to the Soviet Union.
2005 – Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. (She died 13 days later). Terri Schiavo had originally suffered severe brain injury on February 25th, 1990 after a long period without oxygen following a collapse in her apartment. The case for her be removed from life support with all the interested parties started in 1998 with it continuing till the time of her death , the parents of Terri wanted their daughter to continue with life support but the husband believed his wife would not have wanted to live in this way. The legal history around the Schiavo case included Florida courts,Federal District Court, Supreme Court of Florida and the Supreme Court of the United States.
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