Events

• 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria).
• 1608 – In Ireland: O’Doherty’s Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.
• 1617 – The town of Uusikaupunki (Swedish: Nystad, lit. “New Town”) was founded by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.
• 1677 – The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.
• 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa was not born until 1717.
• 1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
• 1782 – John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government.
  • The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.
• 1809 – An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition (refer to Napoleonic Wars).
  • On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.
• 1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
• 1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
• 1942 – World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
• 1943 – World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
• 1943 – Albert Hofmann deliberately doses himself with LSD for the first time, three days after having discovered its effects on 16 April.
• 1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
• 1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.
• 1975 – South Vietnamese forces withdrew from the town of Xuan Loc in the last major battle of the Vietnam War.
• 1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with “Good Night”.
• 1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
• 1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
• 2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.
• 2021 – The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.

People (Births)

• 1655 – George St Lo(e), Royal Navy officer and administrator (d. 1718).
• 1757 – Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, English admiral and politician (d. 1833).
• 1758 – William Carnegie, 7th Earl of Northesk, Scottish admiral (d. 1831).
• 1787 – Deaf Smith, American soldier (d. 1837).
• 1877 – Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American engineer, invented the outboard motor (d. 1934).
• 1879 – Arthur Robertson, Scottish runner (d. 1957).
• 1899 – Cemal Tollu, Turkish lieutenant and painter (d. 1968).
• 1917 – Sven Hassel, Danish-German soldier and author (d. 2012).
• 1922 – Erich Hartmann, German colonel and pilot (d. 1993).
• 1926 – Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (d. 1997).

People (Deaths)

• 1578 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1530).
• 1833 – James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, Bahamian-English admiral and politician, 36th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1756).
• 1955 – Jim Corbett, British-Indian colonel, hunter, and author (b. 1875).
• 1961 – Max Hainle, German swimmer (b. 1882).
• 1988 – Kwon Ki-ok, Korean pilot (b. 1901).
• 1993 – George S. Mickelson, US Army captain, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1941).
• 1999 – Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian-German SS officer (b. 1919).
• 2004 – Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (b. 1925).
• 2004 – Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (b. 1922).
• 2006 – Albert Scott Crossfield, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1921).
• 2015 – Roy Mason, English miner and politician, Secretary of State for Defence (b. 1924).