1775, the “shot heard around the world” was fired in a confrontation between British troops and American Patriot minutemen at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, beginning the Revolutionary War.
1910, after weeks of being viewed through telescopes, Halley’s Comet was reported visible to the naked eye in Curacao.
1943, thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland began a nearly month-long futile uprising against the Nazis.
1951, General Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Harry Truman, said goodbye to Congress, quoting a ballad line: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”
1965, The Beatles release “Ticket to Ride.”
1993, the 51-day siege at the Waco, Texas, compound of the armed Branch Davidian religious cult ended tragically as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began a tear gas assault. Among the 86 killed were 17 children and cult leader David Koresh.
1994, Rodney King was awarded $3.8 million in damages resulting from his 1991 beating at the hands of Los Angeles police.
1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of the bombing and sentenced to death, while his army buddy, Terry Nichols, was convicted on lesser charges related to the attack, and sentenced to life in prison.
1996, President Clinton, visiting Russia, paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Russians who died in the Nazi siege of Leningrad — and to the victims of the Oklahoma bombing as well.
1997, more than 50,000 residents abandoned Grand Forks, North Dakota, as the rising Red River overran sandbags.
1998, Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, arrived in the United States after being freed by China.
1999, a sore back put Baltimore Orioles player Cal Ripken, Jr., the holder of the “Iron Man” record for most consecutive games played, on the disabled list for the first time in his 19-year career.
1999, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law aimed at limiting e-mail smut does not violate free-speech rights.
1999, the German parliament inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, the country’s pre-war capital.
2000, the worst air crash in Philippine history killed 131 people aboard an Air Philippines Boeing 737-200.
2000, President Clinton knelt among 168 empty chairs memorializing each victim of the Oklahoma City bombing and declared the site “sacred ground” in the soul of America during a fifth-anniversary dedication ceremony.