Today:
1603: Queen Elizabeth I of England died at Richmond Palace, ending the Tudor dynasty and leading to the accession of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
1765: The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide housing and food for British troops stationed in the colonies.
1882: German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis, during a lecture in Berlin.
1900: Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck broke ground for the first New York City subway line, which would eventually link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1934: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which provided for the future independence of the Philippines.
1944: During World War II, 76 Allied prisoners of war began their breakout from the German prison camp Stalag Luft III, an event later immortalized as the Great Escape.
1955: The Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Elia Kazan, opened at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway.
1958: Rock and roll legend Elvis Presley was inducted into the United States Army as a private at the draft board in Memphis, Tennessee.
1989: The oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, resulting in one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history.
1999: NATO launched Operation Allied Force, a series of airstrikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War, marking the first time NATO attacked a sovereign state.