1587 – Francis Drake sank the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbour.
1775 – The Battle of Lexington and Concord began, which started the American Revolution against the British.
1839 – The Treaty of London established Belgium as a kingdom.
1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ended.
1984 – Advance Australia Fair was chosen as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
1987 – The Simpsons premièred as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show.
1989 – Daphne du Maurier, British novelist died.
1992 – Benny Hill, and Frankie Howard died. They were both English comic actors.
1995 – A bomb in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, killed 168 people.
1999 – The German Bundestag returned to Berlin.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.