1494 – Spain and Portugal divided the new lands they had discovered between themselves.
1498 – Christopher Columbus left on his third voyage of exploration.
1546 – Peace of Ardes ended the war between France and England.
1654 – Louis XIV was crowned king of France.
1712 – The Pennsylvania Assembly banned the importation of slaves.
1775 – The United Colonies changed their name to the United States.
1776 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.
1863 – Mexico City was captured by French troops.
1929 – The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
1939 – King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in the U.S. It was the first visit to theU.S. by a reigning British monarch.
1942 – The Battle of Midway ended. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days. Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties.
1942 – Japan landed troops on the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians. The U.S. invaded and recaptured the Alutians one year later.
1944 – Off of the coast of Normandy, France, the Susan B. Anthony sank. All 2,689 people aboard survived.
1948 – The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia.
1965 – In the U.S., the Gemini 4 mission was completed. The mission featured the first spacewalk by an American.
1968 – In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines swept an area 10 miles northwest of Danang in South Vietnam.
1981 – Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear reactor.
1983 – The U.S. ordered Nicaragua to close all six of its consulates and informed 21 Nicaraguan consular officials that they could not longer remain in the U.S.
1994 – The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia declared the RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) salvor-in-possession of the wreck and the wreck site of the RMS Titanic.
