1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.”

1775: American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The “Shot Heard Round the World” takes place later that day in Concord

1909: Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church

1995: Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh sets a truck bomb at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 and injuring 500

2011: Fidel Castro resigns his position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba after 45 years of holding the title

Source: Onthisday.com