1998: Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.
1997: The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history.
1996: The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
1983: The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by experts.
1976: The 6.5 Mw Friuli earthquake affected Northern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 900-978 dead and 1,700-2,400 injured.
1975: During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut to commemorate 60th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
1972: Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.
1960: More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
1954: Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
1949: EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
1945: World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
1945: World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1937: Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
1916: Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while attempting to call upon the people to rise up against the French, and later being deposed and exiled to Réunion island.
1527: Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo.