| 1494 | | Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria. |
| 1814 | | British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York. |
| 1821 | | Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena. |
| 1834 | | The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium. |
| 1862 | | Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Williamsburg, part of the Peninsula Campaign.Eyewitness to War |
| 1862 | | Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla. |
| 1865 | | The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery. |
| 1886 | | A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago. |
| 1912 | | Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing. |
| 1916 | | U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic. |
| 1917 | | Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service. |
| 1920 | | Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Visetti are arrested for murder. |
| 1935 | | American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record. |
| 1942 | | General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India. |
| 1945 | | Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control. |
| 1961 | | Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space. |
| 1968 | | U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen. |
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