- 1429 – Siege of Orléans: French troops led by Joan of Arc lifted the English siege and turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
- 1541 – The expedition led by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.
- 1794 – French chemist and economist Antoine Lavoisier, a former royal tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined on the same day during the Reign of Terror.
- 1886 – In Atlanta, Georgia, American pharmacist John Pemberton first sold his carbonated beverage Coca-Cola as a patent medicine, claiming that it cured a number of diseases.
- 1945 – Most armed forces under German control ceased active operations by 23:01 hours CET at the end of World War II in Europe, in accordance with the capitulation documents signed by General Alfred Jodl (pictured) on behalf of Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz the day before.
