1497-John Cabot claims parts of North America for England in what is now Eastern Canada, believing he has found Asia in Newfoundland
1509-Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London
1812-Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armee numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River
1853-U.S. 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)
1930-First detection of an airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory engineers in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
1948-Soviet Union blockades West Berlin by stopping access by road, rail and water
2022-U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to choose abortion in a 6-3 vote