1. In 558, the dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople collapsed, and Justinian I immediately ordered it to be rebuilt.

2. In 1253, Flemish friar William of Rubruck set off to convert the Mongols to Christianity as ordered by French King Louis IX.

3. In 1274, the 2nd Council of Lyons (14th ecumenical council) opened, convened by Pope Gregory X.

4. In 1355, 1,200 Jews in Toledo, Spain were killed by Count Henry of Trastámara.

5. In 1416, monk Nicolaas Serrurier was arrested for heresy in Tournai.

6. In 1429, the English siege of Orléans was broken by Joan of Arc and the French army.

7. In 1579, the Congress of Cologne was formed in the Netherlands.

8. In 1624, Admiral Hermites' conquering fleet reached Callao, Lima, Peru.

9. In 1638, Cornelis S. Goyer took possession of uninhabited Mauritius.

10. In 1660, Isaack B. Fubine of Savoy patented macaroni in The Hague.

11. In 1663, the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London opened.

12. In 1664, Louis XIV of France inaugurated the Palace of Versailles.

13. In 1697, Stockholm's medieval royal castle was destroyed by fire, but the Codex Gigas survived after being thrown out of a window.

14. In 1700, William Penn began monthly meetings for blacks advocating emancipation.

15. In 1718, the city of New Orleans was founded by French explorer Jean - Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.

16. In 1727, Jews were expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia.

17. In 1748, French troops conquered Maastricht in the War of the Austrian Succession.

18. In 1756, Burmese King Alaungpaya sent his golden letter on rolled gold to King George II of Great Britain, detailing trade proposals.

19. In 1765, HMS Victory was launched, which later became Admiral Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar 40 years later.

20. In 1771, Samuel Hearne explored the Copper Mine River in Canada.

21. In 1775, the Turkish state of Bukovina seceded from Austria.

22. In 1789, the first US presidential inaugural ball was held for George Washington in New York City.

23. In 1792, Captain Robert Gray became the first European to discover Grays Harbor in Washington State.

24. In 1794, the influential gothic romance The Mysteries of Udolpho was published by Ann Radcliffe in London.

25. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was organized.

26. In 1817, Japanese Emperor Kōkaku abdicated in favor of his son Emperor Ninkō.

27. In 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th (Choral) Symphony premiered in Vienna.

28. In 1832, Greece became independent, and Otto of Bavaria was chosen as king.

29. In 1836, the settlement of Mayagüez in Puerto Rico was elevated to the royal status of villa by the Spanish government.

30. In 1840, a tornado struck Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people.

31. In 1846, the first printed copies of Poems by Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Brontë were received, published under the pseudonyms of Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell.

32. In 1847, the American Medical Association was organized in Philadelphia.

33. In 1848, the Prussians stopped an insurrection in Warsaw.

34. In 1856, Argentina and Brazil signed a navigation pact.

35. In 1861, a riot occurred between secessionist and Union supporters in Knoxville, Tennessee.

36. In 1862, the Battle of West Point, Virginia (Eltham's Landing, Barnhamsville) took place.

37. In 1864, the Battle of the Wilderness ended, with total losses of 17,666 for the Union and 7,500 for the Confederacy.

38. In 1866, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.

39. In 1867, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patented dynamite in England.

40. In 1873, US marines attacked Panama.

41. In 1875, the German ship SS Schiller sank near the Scilly Islands, killing 312 people.

42. In 1885, John E. W. Thompson was named US minister to Haiti.

43. In 1888, Édouard Lalo's opera Le Roi d'Ys premiered in Paris.

44. In 1891, in the battle in Bunyoro, Captain F. Lugard stopped a Muslim rebellion, with 300 people killed.

45. In 1895, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrated his invention, the world's first radio receiver, to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society in St. Petersburg.

46. In 1902, the La Soufrière volcano on St. Vincent erupted, killing 1,680 people.

47. In 1907, the Central American Court of Justice was inaugurated in San José, Costa Rica, the first standing tribunal for international law in the world.

48. In 1912, Columbia University approved plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after being established by Joseph Pulitzer.

49. In 1945, Nazi Germany officially announced its unconditional surrender.

50. In 1992, the space shuttle Endeavour was launched for the first time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.