1. 1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongolian armies defeat a Polish - German coalition led by Henry of Silesia.

2. 1388 - Battle of Näfels: Glarius Swiss defeat the Habsburg (Austrian) army.

3. 1413 - Henry V is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

4. 1440 - Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark (1440 - 48).

5. 1454 - Milan and Venice sign the Peace of Lodi.

6. 1474 - Breisach land guardian Peter von Hagenbach throws out Walloon and Italians.

7. 1483 - Edward V succeeds his father Edward IV as King of England but is never crowned and later disappears, presumed murdered.

8. 1538 - Danish King Christian III enters the Schmalkaldic Union.

9. 1555 - Marcello Cervini is elected Pope Marcellus II.

10. 1595 - The Spanish Mendaña and Queirós expedition departs from Callao, Peru, to colonize the Solomon Islands.

11. 1609 - Spain and the Netherlands sign a 12 - year truce pact.

12. 1621 - The 12 - year truce pact between Spain and the Netherlands ends.

13. 1667 - The first public art exhibition is held at the Palais - Royale in Paris.

14. 1682 - French explorer René - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, claims the lower Mississippi (Louisiana) for France.

15. 1691 - French troops occupy Mons.

16. 1731 - British mariner Robert Jenkins' ear is cut off by a Spanish guard in the Caribbean, later becoming a catalyst for war between Britain and Spain.

17. 1768 - John Hancock refuses to allow two British customs agents to go below the deck of his ship, considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies.

18. 1772 - Philosopher and mathematician Jean - Baptiste le Rond d' Alembert becomes the permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences.

19. 1783 - Tippu Sahib drives out the British from Bednore, India.

20. 1784 - Great Britain ratifies the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War.

21. 1834 - The second Lyon workers' uprising in France occurs. The workers demand the abolition of monarchy and the establishment of a republican government.

22. 1865 - The American Civil War ends. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

23. 1917 - In the Russian Revolution, the Russian National Assembly begins to discuss how to solve political and social problems, paving the way for the October Revolution.

24. 1931 - The Empire State Building in New York is completed. It is 381 meters tall with 102 floors and was the tallest building in the world for 40 years.

25. 1936 - Zhang Xueliang and Zhou Enlai hold a secret talk in Yan'an to discuss stopping the civil war and uniting against Japan.

26. 1939 - African - American singer Marian Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial after being banned from singing at the Daughters of the American Revolution headquarters because of her race.

27. 1940 - Germany invades Denmark and Norway in World War II, launching "Operation Weserübung".

28. 1941 - The Chinese army annihilates about 20,000 Japanese troops in Shanggao, Jiangxi, a major victory on the frontal battlefield of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

29. 1944 - Charles de Gaulle is appointed the commander - in - chief of the Free French Forces, strengthening the French resistance in World War II.

30. 1946 - Ye Ting dies. He is a military strategist of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

31. 1948 - Jewish Zionist right - wing terrorist organizations such as Irgun break into the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem and massacre about 107 Arab civilians.

32. 1951 - The People's Literature Publishing House is established in Beijing.

33. 1952 - Guo Moruo receives the Stalin Peace Prize.

34. 1959 - NASA announces the first seven astronauts for the American space program, known as the Mercury Seven.

35. 1961 - The Chinese men's table tennis team wins the world men's team championship for the first time at the 26th World Table Tennis Championships.

36. 1963 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which becomes an important symbol of the American civil rights movement.

37. 1967 - The Boeing 737 airliner developed by Boeing makes its first test flight.

38. 1968 - The United States experiences black riots in four major cities.

39. 1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

40. 1992 - The siege of Sarajevo in Yugoslavia officially begins, causing great damage to the citizens and cultural heritage of Sarajevo.

41. 1993 - The Shanghai Yangpu Bridge, the longest - span cable - stayed bridge in the world at that time, is closed.

42. 1997 - Wu Zuoren, a contemporary Chinese painter and art educator, passes away.

43. 1998 - A stampede occurs during the Hajj in Mecca, killing 118 people.

44. 2003 - The Iraq War ends with the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

45. 2005 - Prince Charles of the United Kingdom marries Camilla Parker Bowles.

46. 2005 - Philippine President Gloria Arroyo announces the lifting of the country's state of emergency.

47. 2016 - The first - ever rocket recovery at sea is achieved in human history.

48. 2019 - Huang Yihe, the founder of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and the chief director of the first Spring Festival Gala, passes away.

49. 1553 - French Renaissance writer François Rabelais passes away.

50. 1626 - British philosopher Francis Bacon passes away.