- 1682 – King Louis XIV of France moved the French royal court and the seat of government from Paris to the Château de Versailles in Versailles.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, scored a decisive Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville near Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia.
- 1937 – The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire (pictured) and was destroyed while trying to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing over 30 people on board.
- 1954 – At Oxford's Iffley Road Track, English athlete Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
- 1994 – The Channel Tunnel, a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover connecting Folkestone, Kent, England to Coquelles, France, officially opened.
