1483: Edward V, aged 12, succeeds his father Edward IV as King of England. He is never crowned and disappears, presumed murdered, after being incarcerated in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”)

1731: British mariner Robert Jenkins’ ear is cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, catalyst for a later war between Britain and Spain

1768: John Hancock refuses to allow two British customs agents to go below deck of his ship, considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies

1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee and 26,765 troops surrender at Appomattox Court House to U.S. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War in Northern Virginia

1869: Hudson’s Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada

1992: John Major is elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after his Conservative Party wins the most votes in British electoral history

2003: Baghdad falls to US forces, ending the invasion of Iraq, resulting in widespread looting

Source: Onthisday.com