1. In 837, the best view of Halley's Comet in 2,000 years was seen.

2. In 989, Byzantine Emperor Basilius II defeated Bardas Phocas in the Battle of Abydos.

3. In 1055, Bishop Gebhard van Eichstatt was named Pope Victor II.

4. In 1059, Pope Nicholas II issued the papal bull "In Nomine Domini", establishing that popes would be elected by bishops and cardinals, not appointed by their predecessors.

5. In 1111, after months of controversy, Pope Paschal II crowned Henry V, the King of Germany and Italy, as the Holy Roman Emperor.

6. In 1180, at the Diet of Gelnhausen, Henry the Lion was deprived of the Duchy of Saxony.

7. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, crusaders occupied Constantinople.

8. In 1250, the Seventh Crusade was defeated in Egypt, and Louis IX of France was captured.

9. In 1256, Pope Alexander IV issued the papal bull Licet Ecclesiae Catholicae, forming the Grand Union of the Augustinian Order.

10. In 1346, Pope Clemens VI declared German Emperor Louis of Bavaria an envoy.

11. In 1517, the Ottoman army occupied Cairo.

12. In 1520, Raphael's final influential masterpiece "The Transfiguration" was put on display a week after the artist's death.

13. In 1556, Portuguese converted Christian Marranos who reverted to Judaism were burned by order of the pope.

14. In 1560, Giovanni, the son of Italian mathematician Girolamo Cardano, was executed for poisoning his wife, despite his father's efforts to save him.

15. In 1598, the Edict of Nantes was issued, granting political rights to French Huguenots.

16. In 1640, the English Short Parliament was formed (until May 5).

17. In 1668, John Dryden, aged 36, was appointed the first English poet laureate by King Charles II.

18. In 1741, the Dutch people protested the poor quality of bread.

19. In 1741, the Royal Military Academy was formed at Woolwich, England.

20. In 1742, George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" was performed for the first time at the New Music Hall in Dublin.

21. In 1759, the French defeated the European allies in the Battle of Bergen.

22. In 1769, the British ship Endeavour, captained by James Cook, arrived in Matavia Bay, Tahiti, with botanist Joseph Banks on board.

23. In 1796, in the Battle of Millesimo, Italy, Napoleon's forces defeated the allied armies of Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia - Piedmont.

24. In 1796, the first elephant arrived in the US from India.

25. In 1829, the Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed by the British parliament, culminating the process of Catholic emancipation throughout the UK.

26. In 1834, HMS Beagle anchored at the river mouth of Rio Santa Cruz, Patagonia.

27. In 1840, William Henry Lane ("Juda") perfected tap dance.

28. In 1842, Lord Rosse successfully cast a 72 - inch (183 - cm) mirror for a telescope.

29. In 1860, the first Pony Express rider reached Sacramento, California.

30. In 1861, after 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrendered to the Confederates, marking the start of the American Civil War.

31. In 1863, the Battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana (Fort Bisland) took place.

32. In 1863, the Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled was incorporated in the state of New York.

33. In 1865, Raleigh, North Carolina, was captured by Union forces.

34. In 1868, the Abyssinian War ended as British and Indian troops captured Magdala, and Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II committed suicide.

35. In 1869, the steam - power brake was patented by George Westinghouse.

36. In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was formed in NYC.

37. In 1873, the Colfax Massacre in Grant Parish, Louisiana, occurred, with 60 blacks killed.

38. In 1882, the anti - Semitic league was formed in Prussia.

39. In 1883, US prospector Alfred Packer was convicted of manslaughter, though accused of cannibalism.

40. In 1896, John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan" premiered at the Tremont Theatre in Boston.

41. In 1904, a squadron of the Russian fleet was decoyed out of Port Arthur by Japanese maneuvers, and their battleship Petropavlovsk hit a mine and sank, with a loss of 700 men.

42. In 1904, the Battle of Ovi Umbo (in modern Namibia) took place, where Herero tribesmen rose up against German colonists.

43. In 1904, the US Congress authorized the Lewis and Clark Exposition $1 gold coin.

44. In 1906, a mutiny occurred on Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos and Vasco da Gama.

45. In 1919, British troops opened fire on demonstrators in Amritsar, India, killing 350.

46. In 1919, the Bavarian Soviet Republic was established.

47. In 1941, the Soviet - Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed in Moscow.

48. In 1943, Nazi Germany announced that the Soviet Union had secretly massacred thousands of Polish prisoner - officers in the Katyn Forest.

49. In 1945, the Soviet Red Army captured Vienna.

50. In 1960, the Transit - 1B navigation satellite was launched successfully.