1429 – Joan of Arc, a 17-year-old French peasant, began a crusade to relieve the city of Orleans of English control.
1854 – Through an act by the Pennsylvania State Legislature, the Ashmun Institute became the first college chartered exclusively for African-Americans. It was renamed the Lincoln Institute in 1866.
1879 – Electric arc lights were used for the first time in Cleveland, OH.
1945 – American soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, where tens of thousands of people had perished.
1992 – A jury in Simi Valley, CA, acquitted 4 White police officers of beating motorist Rodney King the previous year. The verdict prompted widespread rioting through much of Los Angeles.
2004 – The National World War II Memorial opened in Washington, D.C.
