We examine the effects of three basic but effective control strategies, namely uniform blowing, uniform suction, and body-force damping, on the intense Reynolds-stress events in the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) developing on the suction side of a NACA4412 airfoil. This flow is subjected to a non-uniform adverse pressure gradient (APG), which substantially modifies its turbulence statistics with respect to a zero-pressure-gradient (ZPG) boundary layer, and it also changes how control strategies affect the flow. The strong APG results in intense events that are shorter and more often detached from the wall than in ZPG TBLs. In a quadrant analysis, ejections remain the most relevant structures, but sweeps become more important than in ZPG TBLs, a fact that results in a lower contribution to the wall-normal velocity from intense Reynolds-stress events. Control effects are relatively less important on intense events than on the turbulent statistics. Uniform blowing has an impact similar to that of an even more intense APG, while uniform suction has more complex effects, most likely due to the particular behavior of the wall-normal velocity component near the wall. Body-force damping also reduces the probability of occurrence of very-large attached structures and that of intense events in the proximity of the actuation region. Our results show that intense Reynolds-stress events are robust features of the flow. If control strategies do not target directly these structures, their effects on the strong events is less pronounced than the effects on the mean flow. •Control effects are less important on intense events than on the turbulent statistics.•Uniform blowing makes intense events slightly shorter.•Uniform suction makes intense events slightly longer.•Body-force damping reduces the probability of very-large wall-attached structures.