1497 – John Cabot claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he has found Asia in Nova Scotia)
1509 – Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London
1793 – 1st republican constitution in France adopted
1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armée numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River
1853 – US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)
1901 – 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso aged 19, opens in Paris
1930 – 1st radar detection of planes, Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
1940 – France signs an armistice with Italy during WW II
1948 – Soviet Union begins the West Berlin Blockade by stopping access by road, rail and water
1967 – Pope Paul VI publishes encyclical Sacerdotalis coelibatus
1986 – In Britain, Foreign Office Minister Lynda Chalker, meets Oliver Tambo, president of the African National Congress to discuss means of ending Apartheid without violence
1992 – Mafia boss John Gotti begins life sentence in jail for murder and other crimes
2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history
2012 – Female athletes will be allowed to compete for Saudi Arabia at the Olympics for the first time
2016 – British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns after the UK votes to leave the EU
2017 – World record for highest altitude football match ever played at 18,799ft on Mount Kilimanjaro by women’s international team
2018 – Women drive for the first time in Saudi Arabia after ban is lifted
2018 – Britain’s Prince William begins a five-day tour of the Middle East visiting Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories
2020 – Russia celebrates its victory 75 years ago over Nazi Germany with huge military parade through Red Square in Moscow (delayed from May 9 due to pandemic)
Film & TV:
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract
2006 – “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”, directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, premieres at Disneyland – becomes fastest film to gross over 1 billion
Music:
1958 – Nina Simone releases her debut jazz album “Little Girl Blue”
Sport:
1995 – 3rd Rugby World Cup, Ellis Park, Johannesburg: Springboks fly-half Joel Stransky lands the winning drop goal in extra time as South Africa beats New Zealand, 15-12
