1497: John Cabot claims parts of North America for England in what is now Eastern Canada, believing he has found Asia in Newfoundland

1509: Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London

1812: Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armée numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River

1853: US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)

1930: First detection of an airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by US Naval Research Laboratory engineers in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.

1948: Soviet Union blockades West Berlin by stopping access by road, rail and water

2022: US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to choose abortion in a 6-3 vote

Source: Onthisday.com