1346 – Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.
1770 – Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia when he ran aground.
1776 – In America, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.
1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte took the island of Malta.
1880 – Jeanette Rankin was born. She became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
1912 – Silas Christoferson became the first pilot to take off from the roof of a hotel.
1915 – British troops took Cameroon in Africa.
1927 – Charles A. Lindberg was presented the first Distinguished Flying Cross.
1934 – The Disarmament Conference in Geneva ended in failure.
1937 – Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a purge of Red Army generals.
1940 – The Italian Air Force bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.
1942 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviets in their effort in World War II.
1943 – During World War II, the Italian island of Pantelleria surrendered after a heavy air bombardment.
1947 – The U.S. government announced an end to sugar rationing.
1967 – Israel and Syria accepted a U.N. cease-fire.
1987 – Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office.
1990 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that would prohibit the desecration of the American Flag.
1998 – Pakistan announced moratorium on nuclear testing and offered to talk with India over disputed Kashmir.
