On this date...

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In 1541, south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, becoming one of the first European explorers ever to do so.

In 1639, William Coddington founded Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1776, Washington confirmed sentences from a court-martial: One soldier is to receive 20 lashes for deserting his guard. He also confronts the spread of smallpox, directing officers to identify infected men immediately and send them without delay to the island set aside for sufferers. 

In 1776, Major General John Thomas, who reported that British ships had reached Quebec, landed troops and forced the American army into retreat up the St. Lawrence. The siege of Quebec is collapsing.

In 1781, after two months of constant artillery and cannon bombardment of the British forts, the 18-year British occupation of Pensacola, Florida, ended with a British surrender.

In 1783, General George Washington and New York Governor George Clinton received the first 17-gun salute fired by a British Ship, recognizing America as a new Nation.

In 1784, the only known hailstone deaths in the US occurred in Winnsboro, South Carolina.

In 1792, Congress passed the second portion of the Militia Act, requiring that every free, non-disabled white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years, be enrolled in the militia.

In 1846, US troops under Zachary Taylor defeated a Mexican force under General Mariano Arista in the Battle of Palo Alto, the first clash of the Mexican-American War (1846–48).

In 1852, The Boston Olive Branch publishes"The Rival Painters: A Story of Rome,” the first known story to appear in print by Louisa May Alcott, who will later write the beloved children's book Little Women (1868). For this, she is paid $5.

In 1858, American abolitionist John Brown held a secret antislavery convention in Canada.

In 1861, Richmond, Virginia, was named the capital of the Confederacy in the US.

In 1864, during the American Civil War, the Union forces of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant engaged the Confederate troops of General Robert E. Lee at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia.

In 1877, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (then known as the First Annual New York Bench Show of Dogs) began, attracting large crowds over four days. It is one of the oldest continuously running sporting events in the United States, second only to the Kentucky Derby.

In 1886, Coca-Cola was sold for the first time at a pharmacy in Atlanta. American pharmacist John S. Pemberton developed Coca-Cola, a drink he originally billed as a cure-all tonic. He based it on cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine-rich extracts of the kola nut.

In 1942, in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the USS Lexington became the first US aircraft carrier to be sunk during World War II.

In 1944, the first""eye ban"" was established in New York City.

In 1945, Germany surrendered, ending World War II in Europe.

In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed, and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.

In 1958, US President Eisenhower ordered the National Guard out of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 1959, Little Caesars Pizza was founded by Mike Ilitch and his wife, Marian Ilitch, in Garden City, Michigan.

In 1961, the first practical seawater conversion plant began operations in Freeport, Texas.

In 1963, with the American release of Dr. No, North American moviegoers got their first look down the barrel of a gun—at the super-spy James Bond (codename: 007), the immortal character created by Ian Fleming in his now-famous series of novels and portrayed onscreen by the relatively unknown Scottish actor Sean Connery.

In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy offered Israel assistance against aggression from its neighbors.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was indicted for refusing to be inducted into the US Army.

In 1970, Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York City's Wall Street.

In 1973, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, armed members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) surrendered to federal authorities, ending their 71-day siege of Wounded Knee, the site of the infamous massacre of 300 Lakota Indians by the US 7th Cavalry in 1890.

In 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to murder, attempted murder, and assault in connection with the"“Son of Sa"” shootings that claimed six lives and terrified New Yorkers. (Berkowitz was sentenced to six consecutive life prison terms.)

In 1980, smallpox was eradicated.

In 1987, Gary Hart, dogged by questions about his personal life, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1994, President Clinton announced the US would no longer repatriate boat people.

In 1999, Nancy Mace became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Carolina.

In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal negotiated under President Barack Obama

In 2020, US unemployment surged to 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression; the government reported that more than 20 million Americans had lost their jobs in April amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2025, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected the first American pope of the Roman Catholic Church and took the name Leo XIV. He succeeded Francis, who had died the previous month.