0558 – The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian.

1274 – The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.

1429 – The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.

1525 – The German peasants’ revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.

1663 – The first Theatre Royal was opened in London.

1763 – Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.

1789 – The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.

1800 – The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.

1847 – The AMA (American Medical Association) was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1898 – The first Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association meet was held in New Haven, CT.

1912 – Columbia University approved final plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories.

1912 – The first airplane equipped with a machine gun flew over College Park, MD.

1915 – The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. 1,201 people were killed.

1926 – A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation’s exports were motors.

1937 – The German Condor Legion arrived in Spain to assist Franco’s forces.

1939 – Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1940 – Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.

1942 – In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.

1943 – The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.

1945 – Baseball owner Branch Rickey announced the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League. There were 6 teams.

1945 – Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It would take effect the next day.

1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. was founded. The company was later renamed Sony.

1951 – Russia was admitted to participate in the 1952 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee.

1954 – French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.

1954 – The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the Soviet Union’s bid to join NATO.

1958 – Howard Johnson set an aircraft altitude record in F-104.

1960 – Leonid Brezhnev became president of the Soviet Union.

1975 – U.S. President Ford declared an end to the Vietnam War.

1977 – Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607.

1984 – A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.

1992 – A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.

1994 – The Edvard Munch painting “The Scream” was recovered after being stolen 3 months earlier from an Oslo Museum. This version of “The Scream”, one of four different versions, was painted on paper.

1996 – The trial of Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic opened in the Netherlands. He was later convicted on murder-torture charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

1997 – A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.

1998 – Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.

1998 – Residents of London voted to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. The vote would take place in May 2000.

1999 – A jury ruled that “The Jenny Jones Show” and Warner Bros. were liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. He was killed by another guest on the show. The jury’s award was $25 million.

1999 – Jerry Moss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 – In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were wounded when a NATO plane mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy.

1999 – In Guinea-Bissau, the government of President João Bernardo Vieira was ousted in a military coup.

2000 – Russian President Vladimir V. Putin named First Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasyanov as premier.

2003 – In Washington, DC, General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years.

2003 – Roger Moore collapsed during a matinee performance of the Broadway comedy “The Play What I Wrote.” He finished the show after a 10-minute break. He was fitted with a pacemaker the following day.

2013 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 15,056.20. It was the first time it had closed over 15,000.

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1527 – German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.

1529 – Babur defeated the Afghan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghagra, India.

1576 – The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion.

1682 – King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France.

1835 – James Gordon Bennett published the “New York Herald” for the first time.

1840 – The first adhesive postage stamps went on sale in Great Britain.

1851 – The mechanical refrigerator was patented by Dr. John Gorrie.

1851 – Linus Yale patented the clock-type lock.

1861 – Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the Union.

1877 – Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.

1882 – The U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.

1889 – The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, France, marking the dedication of the Eiffel Tower. Also at the exposition was the first automobile in Paris, the Mercedes-Benz.

1910 – Kind Edward VII of England died. He was succeeded by his second son, George V.

1915 – Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run while playing for the Boston Red Sox.

1937 – The German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned in Lakehurst, NJ. Thirty-six people (of the 97 on board) were killed.

1941 – Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.

1941 – Bob Hope gave his first USO show at California’s March Field.

1942 – During World War II, the Japanese seized control of the Philippines. About 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.

1945 – Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.

1946 – The New York Yankees became the first major league baseball team to travel by plane.

1954 – British runner Roger Banister broke the four minute mile.

1957 – U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book “Profiles in Courage”.

1959 – The Pablo Picasso painting of a Dutch girl was sold for $154,000 in London. It was the highest price paid (at the time) for a painting by a living artist.

1960 – Britain’s Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong Jones. They were divorced in 1978.

1960 – U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

1962 – The first nuclear warhead was fired from the Polaris submarine.

1981 – A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin’s entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1994 – The Channel Tunnel officially opened. The tunnel under the English Channel links England and France.

1997 – Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

1997 – Four health-care companies agreed to a settlement of $600 million to hemophiliacs who had contracted AIDS from tainted blood between 1978-1985.

1999 – Britain’s Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the first elections for Scotland’s new Parliament and Wales’ new Assembly.

1999 – A parole board in New York voted to release Amy Fisher. She had been in jail for 7 years for shooting her lover’s wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.

2001 – Chandra Levy’s parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy’s body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.

2002 – “Spider-Man” became the first movie to make more than $100 million in its first weekend.