| 1430 | | Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English. |
| 1533 | | Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void. |
| 1618 | | The Thirty Years War begins. |
| 1701 | | Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames. |
| 1785 | | Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals. |
| 1788 | | South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution. |
| 1861 | | Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia. |
| 1862 | | Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia. |
| 1864 | | Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia. |
| 1900 | | Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner. |
| 1901 | | American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo. |
| 1915 | | Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. |
| 1934 | | Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers. |
| 1945 | | Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces. |
| 1949 | | The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed. |
| 1960 | | Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. |
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