• 1460 – Juan Ponce de León, Spanish explorer and conquistador who searched for the fountain of youth and the first European to discover Florida, born in Santervás de Campos, Castile, Spain (d. 1521)
  • 1759 – British troops chase French out of Masulipatam India
  • 1783 – Catherine II of Russia annexes the Crimea
  • 1801- Soldiers riot in Bucharest, kill 128 Jews
  • 1832 – About 300 American troops of the 6th Infantry left Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to confront the Sauk Indians in the Black Hawk War.
  • 1913 – Opening of China’s 1st parliament takes place in Peking (now Beijing)
  • 1914 – US & Colombia sign a treaty concerning Panama Canal Zone
  • 1929 – Indian Independence Movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest.
  • 1940 – German battle cruisers sink British aircraft carrier Glorious
  • 1943 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases to common carriers and public utilities.
  •  1946 – The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time.
  • 1956 – 6 marine recruits drown during exercise at Paradise Is SC
  • 1964 – Unmanned Gemini 1 launched
  • 1965 – India & Pakistan forces engage in a border fight
  • 1994 – Smoking was banned in the Pentagon and all U.S. military bases.
  • 2000 – 19 U.S. troops were killed when a Marine V22 Osprey crashed during a training mission in Arizona.