1846 – Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.
1847 – The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
1849 – The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal’s English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1862 – American Civil War: Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
1874 – Guglielmo Marconi, Bologna Italy, inventor (radio, Nobel 1909) Born
1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain.
1901 – New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
1908 – Edward R Murrow, Pole Creek NC, newscaster (Person to Person) Born
1912 – Gladys L Presley, mother of Elvis – Born
1916 – Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.
1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, Newport News VA, jazz singer (Is it live or Memorex) Born
1920 – At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopt a resolution to determine the allocation of Class “A” League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.
1923 – Albert King, Indianola, Mississippi, American blues singer/guitarist (Bad Look Blues) Born
1932 – Meadowlark Lemmon, basketball star (Harlem Globetrotter) [or 0421] Born
1938 – U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
1940 – Al Pacino, American actor and director was born.
1945 – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1945 – The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini tries to escape. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy.
1945 – Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.
1945 – The last German troops retreat from Finland’s soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military acts of Second World War end in Finland.
1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1956 – Elvis Presley has his first number one on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart with “Heartbreak Hotel” staying number one for 8 weeks.
1959 – The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
1965 – Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark kills three and wounds six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California.
1965 – Eric Avery, American musician (Jane’s Addiction, Deconstruction, Polar Bear) Born
1981 – More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
1981 – Nearly blind and close to death Bobby Sands in the MAZE Prison in Belfast refused to meet with Human Rights Activists , he is on hunger strike until the British Government recognize him as a Political Prisoner not as a criminal.
1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 – American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
1988 – In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.
1989 – Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, Chinese 11th Panchen Lama was born. On 14 May 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was named the 11th Panchen Lama by the 14th Dalai Lama. After his selection, he was detained by authorities of the People’s Republic of China and has not been seen in public since 17 May 1995.
1995 – Ginger Rogers, actress/dancer (Top Hat, Stage Door), dies at 83
2002 – Lisa Lopes, American rapper (TLC) (b. 1971) dies
2005 – Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.
2009 – Bea Arthur, American actress and singer (b. 1922) died.