In 1802 Washington, DC was incorporated as a city.

In 1937 Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Gone with the Wind.

In 1947, the Japanese post-war constitution came into force.

In 1948 the Supreme Court ruled in Shelley v. Kraemer said that agreements prohibiting the sale of real estate to black or other racial people are not legally enforceable.

In 1960, the Harvey Schmidt-Tom Jones musical The Fantasticks began a nearly 42-year run at New York’s Sullivan Street Playhouse.

In 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain’s first woman Prime Minister when the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in the general election.

In 1987, the Miami Herald said its reporters observed a young woman spend “Friday night and most of Saturday” at a Washington townhouse owned by Democratic presidential nominee Gary Hart. (The woman was later identified as Donna Rice; the resulting controversy torpedoed Hart’s presidential candidacy.)

In 2006, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, rejected the death penalty for al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, ruling that he should be imprisoned for life for his role in 9/11; As he was led out of the courtroom, Moussaoui scoffed, “America, you lost.”

In 2009, Mexican President Felipe Calderon told state television that a nationwide shutdown and an aggressive information campaign appeared to have helped contain a swine flu outbreak in Mexico.

In 2011, Chicago’s Derrick Rose became the NBA’s youngest MVP at the age of 22.

In 2012, US officials published online a selection of letters from Osama bin Laden’s last hiding place; The documents revealed a network that was weak, incapable and under siege – and its leader seemed at his wits end as to the end of the supposedly glory days of his global jihad.

In 2015, two gunmen were shot dead by a police officer in Garland, Texas after they opened fire before a deliberately provocative cartoon depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

In 2016, Donald Trump nearly secured the Republican nomination for president in an overwhelming triumph for a political maverick with a stunning victory in Indiana that knocked out his rival Ted Cruz.

In 2017, President Donald Trump met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the White House and vowed to “do whatever is necessary” to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

In 2018, a federal grand jury in Detroit indicted former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn on allegations related to the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. (Under the German constitution, he could not be extradited to the US to face charges.)

Last year, a raised section of the Mexico City subway collapsed as subway cars drove over it, killing 26 people; Investigations determined that the failure was caused by construction defects. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the New York City subways would resume 24-hour service in mid-May. They had been closed during the night hours for cleaning work since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Bill and Melinda Gates said they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage; The Microsoft co-founder and his wife said they would continue to work together at the world’s largest private charity. Singer-songwriter Lloyd Price, an early rock ‘n’ roll star and Rock Hall of Famer whose hits included “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” died in suburban New York at the age of 88.