Today:
1453 – Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Mehmed II, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.
1660 – Charles II was restored to the English throne, marking the beginning of the English Restoration.
1790 – Rhode Island became the 13th U.S. state after ratifying the Constitution, the last of the original colonies to do so.
1848 – Wisconsin was admitted as the 30th state of the United States.
1913 – The ballet The Rite of Spring, composed by Igor Stravinsky, premiered in Paris, provoking a riot due to its avant-garde style.
1919 – Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity was confirmed by British astronomers during a solar eclipse.
1953 – Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest.
1973 – Tom Bradley was elected as the first Black mayor of Los Angeles.
1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo became president of Nigeria in the country’s first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power.
2004 – The World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.