1814 – Napoleon Bonaparte disembarked at Portoferraio on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1863 – The Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
1886 – Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter patented the gramophone. It was the first practical phonograph.
1904 – The U.S. formally took control of the property for construction of the Panama Canal.
1912 – The Royal Canadian Navy was created
.1916 – Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare after a demand from U.S. President Wilson.
1928 – Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was born
1942 – The Battle of the Coral Sea commenced as American and Japanese carriers launched their attacks at each other.
1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
1945 – World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath includes all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany.
1979 – Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first woman prime minister.
1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
2000 – The citizens of London elected their mayor for the first time.
