1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg.
1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces captured Fort George.
1863 – American Civil War: First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson.
1883 – Alexander III was crowned Tsar of Russia.
1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado hit in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois. It killed at least 255 people and caused over $10 million in damage.
1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrived in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceased manufacture of the Ford Model T and began to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
1930 – The 1,046 feet Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opened to the public.
1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act was signed into law which required the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
1933 – The Walt Disney Company released the cartoon “Three Little Pigs”, with its hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”
1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declared the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic, which created a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit were shot after surrendering to German troops. Only two survived.
1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency”.
1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic. Almost 2,100 men were killed.
1958 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.
1958 – Ernest Green became the first African-American to graduate from Little Rock’s Central High School.
1962 – The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire was ignited in the town’s landfill above a coal mine.
1965 – Vietnam War: American warships began the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
1969 – Walt Disney World construction began at Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
1971 – John Lennon recorded the song “Imagine” at his Ascot Sound home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England.
1975 – Paul McCartney & Wings released the “Venus & Mars” album.
1977 – The Sex Pistols released “God Save the Queen”, which sparked major controversy and led to a ban on the song by the BBC.
1981 – John Hinckley attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on Tylenol.
1994 – Final broadcast of TV talk show “The Arsenio Hall Show”.
1994 – Larry King ends his radio show.
1994 – “The Flintstones” live action movie, starring John Goodman (as Fred) and Rick Moranis (as Barney), opened.
1995 – Actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia.
1997 – The 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak occurred which spawned multiple tornadoes in Central Texas, including the F5 that killed 27 in Jarrell.
1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
2016 – Barack Obama was the first president of United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meet Hibakusha.
2018 – Maryland Flood Event: A flood occurred throughout the Patapsco Valley. The flood caused one death, destroyed the entire first floors of buildings on Main Street in Ellicott City, and caused cars to overturn.