Today:
1. 1607 – Jamestown, Virginia was founded as the first permanent English settlement in North America.
2. 1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War.
3. 1940 – Winston Churchill gave his famous “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech to the House of Commons, his first as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
4. 1950 – The first round of the inaugural Formula One World Championship was held at Silverstone, England.
5. 1958 – During the Algerian War, a French military junta staged a coup in Algiers, demanding a more aggressive approach against Algerian nationalists.
6. 1981 – Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City.
7. 1992 – Three parties in South Africa—the African National Congress, the South African Government, and the Inkatha Freedom Party—signed an agreement paving the way for the country’s first multiracial elections.
8. 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a British mountaineer, became the first woman to conquer Mount Everest without the aid of sherpas or supplementary oxygen.
9. 1998 – India conducted three underground atomic tests in Pokhran, its first since its initial test in 1974, leading to widespread international condemnation.
10. 2005 – Uzbekistan forces killed hundreds of protesters in what became known as the Andijan Massacre.