Events
- 1861 - American Civil War: Virginia secedes from the Union.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Plymouth begins – Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.
- 1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
- 1907 - Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than any other day.
- 1924 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company.
- 1945 - In Stassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seizes half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb.
- 1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
- 1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair.
- 1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
- 1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
- 1970 - Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
- 1973 - Federal Express delivers its first package.
- 1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever gaining 17.58 to 3,004.46.
- 2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.