0326 – Constantine refused to carry out the traditional pagan sacrifices.

1394 – Charles VI of France issued a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France.

1564 – Maximillian II became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

1587 – Japanese strong-man Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan and ordered all Christians to leave.

1593 – France’s King Henry IV converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1759 – British forces defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada.

1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.

1805 – Aaron Burr visited New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans as the capital city.

1845 – China granted Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States.

1850 – In Worcester, MA, Harvard and Yale University freshmen met in the first intercollegiate billiards match.

1850 – Gold was discovered in the Rogue River in OR.

1854 – The paper collar was patented by Walter Hunt.

1861 – The Crittenden Resolution, which called for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, was passed by the U.S. Congress. 

1866 – Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army. He was the first American officer to hold the rank.

1868 – The U.S. Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory.

1871 – Seth Wheeler patented perforated wrapping paper.

1907 – Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1909 – French aviator Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in a monoplane. He traveled from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. He was the first man to fly across the channel.

1914 – Russia declared that it would act to protect Serbian sovereignty.

1924 – Greece announced the deportation of 50,000 Armenians. 

1941 – The U.S. government froze all Japanese and Chinese assets. 

1943 – Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in a coup.

1946 – The U.S. detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It was the first underwater test of the device. 

1947 – Fortune Gordien of Oslo, Norway set a world record discus throw of 178.47 feet.

1952 – Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S. 

1978 – Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England. She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

1978 – Pete Rose (Cincinnati Red) broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.

1984 – Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyut 7.

1987 – The Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row. (Utah)

1994 – Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.

1997 – K.R. Narayanan became India’s president. He was the first member of the Dalits caste to do so.

1998 – The USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the U.S. Navy.

2010 – WikiLeaks leaked to the public more than 90,000 internal reports involving the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan from 2004-2010.