1588 - The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel, sparking the beginning of the Anglo-Spanish War.
1787 - The Constitutional Convention begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the goal of drafting a new Constitution for the United States.
1848 - Wisconsin becomes the 30th state of the United States.
1896 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 60 points for the first time.
1908 - The first Model T Ford is sold.
1918 - The First World War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
1925 - The Scopes Trial begins in Dayton, Tennessee, pitting evolutionist John Scopes against creationist William Jennings Bryan.
1934 - The United States Congress passes the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, creating the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
1940 - The United Kingdom and Belgium sign a mutual assistance pact, pledging to aid each other in the event of war.
1942 - The Battle of Midway begins, marking a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II.
1957 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation of public schools is unconstitutional, overturning the Court's previous ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson.
1968 - The student protests in Paris, France, culminate in a general strike that paralyzes the country.
1971 - The Mariner 9 spacecraft enters orbit around Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.
1981 - Pope John Paul II is shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City.
1987 - West German pilot Mathias Rust lands his Cessna plane in Moscow's Red Square, evading Soviet air defenses and causing embarrassment to the Soviet leadership.
1995 - The United Nations Security Council votes to lift sanctions against South Africa, imposed in 1986 in response to the country's apartheid policies.
2000 - Ehud Barak of the Labor Party is defeated by Ariel Sharon of the Likud Party in the Israeli prime ministerial election.
2008 - A powerful earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes the Chinese province of Sichuan, leaving over 87,000 people dead or missing.
2016 - The United Kingdom holds a referendum on whether to leave the European Union, resulting in a vote to leave, commonly known as Brexit.
2022 - The European Union agrees to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars and vans by 2035 as part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.