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May 24 is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 221 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom. 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. 1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. 1567 – Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles. 1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library. 1601–1900 1607 – One hundred-five English settlers under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport established the colony called Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the Virginia coast, the first permanent English colony in America.[1] 1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved. 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. 1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance. 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum. 1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics. 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins. 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference. 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. 1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia. 1873 – Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first black president of a predominantly white university in the United States.[2] 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State. 1901–present 1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies. 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight. 1940 – Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen. 1944 – Börse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid during World War II.[3] [4] 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later. 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. 1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt. 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel. 1967 – Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Buñuel, is released.[5] 1976 – The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine. 1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha. 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War. 1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted. 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests. 1992 – The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town. 1993 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia. 1993 – Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and five other people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico.[6] 1994 – Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1995 – While attempting to return to Leeds Bradford Airport in the United Kingdom, Knight Air Flight 816 crashes in Harewood, North Yorkshire, killing all 12 people on board.[7] 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty. 2014 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people. 2014 – At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium. 2019 – Twenty-two students die in a fire in Surat (India).[8] 2019 – Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7. Holidays and observances Aldersgate Day/Wesley Day (Methodism) Battle of Pichincha Day (Ecuador) Bermuda Day (Bermuda), celebrated on the nearest weekday if May 24 falls on the weekend. Christian feast day: Anna Pak Agi (one of The Korean Martyrs) Donatian and Rogatian Jackson Kemper (Episcopal Church) Joanna Mary, Help of Christians Sarah (celebrated by the Romani people of Camargue) Vincent of Lérins May 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Commonwealth Day (Belize) Earliest day on which El Colacho tradition can fall, while June 27 is the latest; celebrated on Sunday after Corpus Christi. (Castrillo de Murcia, near Burgos) Independence Day (Eritrea), celebrates the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993. Lubiri Memorial Day (Buganda) Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Eastern Orthodox Church, Julian Calendar) and its related observance: Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day (Bulgaria) Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic Enlighteners' Day (North Macedonia) Victoria Day; celebrated on Monday on or before May 24. (Canada), and its related observance: National Patriots' Day or Journée nationale des patriotes (Quebec)
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May 23 is the 143rd day of the year (144th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 222 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1430 – Joan of Arc is captured at the Siege of Compiègne by troops from the Burgundian faction.[1] 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy. 1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void. 1568 – Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Arenberg, and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War. 1601–1900 1609 – Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place. 1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War. 1706 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.[2] 1788 – South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution as the eighth American state. 1793 – Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. 1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire. 1844 – Declaration of the Báb the evening before the 23rd: A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Baháʼí Faith; Baháʼís celebrate the day as a holy day. 1846 – Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States. 1863 – The General German Workers' Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony. 1873 – The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 1900 – American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863. 1901–present 1905 – The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II publicly announces the creation of the Ullah Millet for the Aromanians of the empire, which had been established one day earlier. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is usually celebrated on May 23,[3] although some do so on May 22 instead.[4] 1907 – The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session. 1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated. 1915 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London. 1932 – In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which resulted in the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later. 1934 – American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. 1934 – The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers. 1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day. 1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody. 1945 – World War II: Germany's Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces. 1948 – Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel. 1949 – Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.[5] 1951 – Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China. 1960 – A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.[6] 1971 – 78 people are killed when Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes on approach to Rijeka Airport in present-day Rijeka, Croatia (then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).[7] 1992 – Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions. 1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released. 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.[8] 2002 – The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland. 2006 – Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts. 2008 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries. 2013 – A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington. 2014 – Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara. 2015 – At least 46 people are killed as a result of floods caused by a tornado in Texas and Oklahoma. 2016 – Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, kill at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen. 2016 – Eight bombings are carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and Tartus, coastline cities in Syria. One hundred eighty-four people are killed and at least 200 people injured. 2017 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declares martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute's attack in Marawi. 2021 - A cable car falls from a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, killing 14 people. Holidays and observances Aromanian National Day[25] Christian feast day: Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church) Desiderius of Vienne Giovanni Battista de' Rossi Julia of Corsica Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler (Episcopal Church (USA)) Quintian, Lucius and Julian William of Perth May 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Constitution Day (Germany) Labour Day (Jamaica) Students' Day (Mexico) World Turtle Day
- Last week
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May 22 is the 142nd day of the year (143rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 223 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 192 – Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu.[1] 760 – Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.[2] 1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo. 1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet. 1246 – Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV. 1254 – Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty. 1370 – Brussels massacre: Between six and twenty Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host.[3] 1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe. 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England. 1520 – The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.[4] 1601–1900 1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg. 1762 – Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome.[5] 1766 – A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the Marmara region.[6] 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri. 1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason. 1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time. 1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs, and the riots spread to Ely the next day. 1819 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. 1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage. 1840 – The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique. 1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent. 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery. 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history. 1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure. 1866 – Oliver Winchester founded the Winchester Repeating Arms 1872 – Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers. 1900 – The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative. 1901–present 1905 – The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II establishes the Ullah Millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day,[7] although most do so on May 23 instead, which is when this event was publicly announced.[8] 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine". 1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century. 1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246. 1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China. 1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes. 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah. 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies. 1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern. 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece. 1948 – Finnish President J. K. Paasikivi released Yrjö Leino from his duties as interior minister in 1948 after the Finnish parliament had adopted a motion of censure of Leino with connection to his illegal handing over of nineteen people to the Soviet Union in 1945.[9][10][11] 1957 – South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities. 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths is estimated at 300, mostly Tamils. 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes in Unionville, Missouri after bombs explode on board, killing 45. 1963 – Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is shot in an assassination attempt, and dies five days later. 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson launches the Great Society. 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. 1967 – L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history. 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores. 1969 – Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface. 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations. 1972 – Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave. 1987 – Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India. 1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen. 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations. 1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 1996 – The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting. 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton. 2000 – In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna. 2002 – Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 2010 – Air India Express Flight 812, a Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737 until the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. 2010 – Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League). 2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m). 2014 – General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d'état, following six months of political turmoil. 2014 – An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries. 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum. 2017 – Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. 2017 – United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall. 2020 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashes in Model Colony near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 98 people.[12] 2021 – Severe weather kills 21 runners in the 100 km (60-mile) ultramarathon in the Yellow River Stone Forest, Gansu province of China.[13] Holidays and observances Abolition Day (Martinique) Aromanian National Day[7] (marginal, celebration on May 23 is more common) Christian feast day: Castus and Emilius Fulk Humilita Michael Hồ Đình Hy (one of Vietnamese Martyrs) Quiteria Rita of Cascia Romanus of Subiaco May 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Harvey Milk Day (California) International Day for Biological Diversity (International)[40] United States National Maritime Day National Sovereignty Day (Haiti) Republic Day (Sri Lanka) Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari (Ukraine) Unity Day (Yemen), celebrates the unification of North and South Yemen into the Republic of Yemen in 1990. World Goth Day[41]
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May 21 is the 141st day of the year (142nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 224 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy. 878 – Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege. 879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.[1] 996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.[2] 1349 – Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty. 1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire. 1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England. 1601–1900 1659 – In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end. 1660 – The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy. 1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. 1703 – Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.[3] 1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky. 1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later. 1792 – A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that killed nearly 15,000 people.[4] 1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held. 1851 – Slavery in Colombia is abolished. 1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces. 1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege. 1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends. 1864 – The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece. 1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week", some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested. 1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi. 1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique. 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C. 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.[5] 1901–present 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris. 1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution. 1917 – The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire's military forces.[6] 1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack). 1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing". 1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. 1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens. 1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals. 1937 – A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean. 1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition: A gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School. 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out. 1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. 1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student. 1972 – Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth. 1976 – Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California. 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. 1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries. 1981 – Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven's Gate.[7] 1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos. 1988 – Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.[8][9] 1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras. 1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end. 1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show. 1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out. 1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000. 1998 – In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker. 1998 – President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule. 2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. 2003 – The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands. 2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. 2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence. 2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year. 2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date. 2012 – A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others. 2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen. 2014 – Random killings occurred on the Bannan Line of the Taipei MRT, killing four and injuring 24.[10] 2017 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Holidays and observances Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia) Christian feast day: Arcangelo Tadini Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González Blessed Franz Jägerstätter Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday (often locally moved to Sunday). (Roman Catholic Church) Emperor Constantine I Eugène de Mazenod Helena of Constantinople, also known as "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles." (Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion) John Elliot (Episcopal Church) Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians) Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary) Independence Day, celebrates the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006, celebrated until the next day. (Montenegro) International Tea Day (International)[107] Navy Day (Chile) Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502. (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)[107]
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May 20 is the 140th day of the year (141st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 225 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 325 – The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.[1] 491 – Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery. 685 – The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated. 794 – While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a view to marrying princess Ælfthryth, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia is taken captive and beheaded.[2] 1217 – The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. 1293 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de Generales in Alcalá de Henares. 1449 – The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal. 1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date). 1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.[3] 1520 – Hernando Cortes defeats Panfilo de Narvaez, sent by Spain to punish him for insubordination.[4] 1521 – Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna. 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas. 1601–1900 1609 – Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.[5] 1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War. 1645 – Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of 800,000 residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.[6] 1741 – The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory and the British begin withdrawal towards Jamaica with substantial losses. 1775 – The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina. 1802 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution. 1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory. 1840 – York Minster is badly damaged by fire. 1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. Meanwhile, the State of North Carolina secedes from the Union. 1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening 84 million acres of public land to settlers.[7] 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory. 1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.[8] 1875 – Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units. 1882 – The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed. 1883 – Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people. 1891 – History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope. 1901–present 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President. 1927 – Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day. 1940 – The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz. 1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete. 1948 – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing. 1949 – In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established. 1956 – In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. 1964 – Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias. 1965 – 121 people are killed when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 crashes at Cairo International Airport.[9] 1967 – The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1969 – The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends. 1971 – In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus. 1980 – In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada. 1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier.[10] 1983 – Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by Umkhonto we Sizwe explodes on Church Street in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others. 1985 – Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba. 1989 – The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre. 1990 – The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania. 1996 – Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.[11] 2002 – The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976). 2011 – Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post.[12] 2012 – At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy. 2013 – An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others. 2016 – The government of Singapore authorised the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite the international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.[13][14][15] 2019 – The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete. Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Abercius and Helena Alcuin of York Aurea of Ostia Austregisilus Baudilus Bernardino of Siena Ivo of Chartres Lucifer of Cagliari Sanctan May 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Day of Remembrance (Cambodia) Emancipation Day (Florida) European Maritime Day (European Council) Independence Restoration Day, celebrates the independence of East Timor from Indonesia in 2002. Josephine Baker Day (NAACP) National Awakening Day (Indonesia), and its related observances: Indonesian Doctor Day (Indonesia) National Day (Cameroon) World Bee Day[37] World Metrology Day
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*Monika* joined the community
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May 19 is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 226 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 639 – Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace. 715 – Pope Gregory II is elected.[1] 1051 – Henry I of France marries the Rus' princess, Anne of Kiev.[2] 1445 – John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo. 1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12. 1535 – French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage). 1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest. 1542 – The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Myanmar. 1601–1900 1643 – Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power. 1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years. 1655 – The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1743 – Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale. 1749 – King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars. 1780 – New England's Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky, was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour. 1828 – U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States. 1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England. 1848 – Mexican–American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million. 1883 – Buffalo Bill's 1st Buffalo Bill's Wild West opens in Omaha, Nebraska.[3] 1900 – Great Britain annexes Tonga Island.[4] 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking. 1901–present 1911 – Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior. 1917 – The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK is founded. 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence. 1921 – The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration. 1922 – The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union is established. 1933 – Finnish cavalry general C. G. E. Mannerheim was appointed the field marshal.[5] 1934 – Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria. 1942 – World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor. 1945 – Syrian demonstrators in Damascus are fired upon by French troops injuring twelve, leading to the Levant Crisis.[6] 1950 – A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan explodes in the harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city. 1950 – Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce. 1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail. 1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data). 1961 – At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement. 1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday". 1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. 1971 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union. 1986 – The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 1991 – Croatians vote for independence in a referendum. 1993 – SAM Colombia Flight 501 crashes on approach to José María Córdova International Airport in Medellín, Colombia, killing 132.[7] 1996 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-77.[8] 1997 – The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts 2000 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-101 to resupply the International Space Station.[9] 2007 – President of Romania Traian Băsescu survives an impeachment referendum and returns to office from suspension. 2010 – The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders. 2012 – Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in the Italian city of Brindisi, killing one person and injuring five others. 2012 – A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing nine people. 2015 – The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast. 2016 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo, killing all on board. 2018 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion. Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Calocerus (Eastern Orthodox Church) Crispin of Viterbo Dunstan (Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church; commemoration, Anglicanism) Ivo of Kermartin Joaquina Vedruna de Mas Maria Bernarda Bütler Peter Celestine Pudentiana (Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church) May 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day (Turkey, Northern Cyprus) Greek Genocide Remembrance Day (Greece) Hồ Chí Minh's Birthday (Vietnam) Malcolm X Day (United States of America) National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States) Hepatitis Testing Day (United States) Mother's Day (Kyrgyzstan)
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May 18 is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 227 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople.[1] 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47. His first coronation was 28 years earlier, in 844, during the reign of his father Lothair I.[2] 1096 – First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacred in Worms, Germany.[3] 1152 – The future Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. He would become king two years later, after the death of his cousin once removed King Stephen of England. 1268 – The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Siege of Antioch. 1291 – Fall of Acre, the end of Crusader presence in the Holy Land. 1302 – Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia. 1388 – During the Battle of Buyur Lake, General Lan Yu leads a Ming army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Tögüs Temür, the Khan of Northern Yuan. 1499 – Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cádiz on his voyage to what is now Venezuela. 1565 – The Great Siege of Malta begins, in which Ottoman forces attempt and fail to conquer Malta. 1593 – Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe. 1601–1900 1631 – In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts. 1652 – Slavery in Rhode Island is abolished, although the law is not rigorously enforced. 1695 – The 1695 Linfen earthquake in Shannxi, Ming dynasty causes extreme damage and kills at least 52,000 people.[4] 1756 – The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France. 1783 – First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John, New Brunswick), Canada, after leaving the United States. 1794 – Battle of Tourcoing during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. 1803 – Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France. 1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate. 1811 – Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay led by José Artigas. 1812 – John Bellingham is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging for the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. 1843 – The Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland. 1848 – Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany. 1860 – United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State. 1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins. 1896 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional. 1896 – Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people. 1900 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.[5] 1901–present 1912 – The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai. 1917 – World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription. 1926 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears in Venice, California. 1927 – The Bath School disaster: Forty-five people, including many children, are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Bath Township, Michigan.[6][7][8][9] 1927 – After being founded for 20 years, the Nationalist government approves Tongji University to be among the first national universities of the Republic of China. 1933 – New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority. 1944 – World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino. 1944 – Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union. 1948 – The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking. 1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier. 1955 – Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends. 1965 – Israeli spy Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus, Syria. 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched. 1973 – Aeroflot Flight 109 is hijacked mid-flight and the aircraft is subsequently destroyed when the hijacker's bomb explodes, killing all 82 people on board.[10] 1974 – Nuclear weapons testing: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so. 1977 – Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.[11] 1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage. 1980 – Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms. 1990 – In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph). 1991 – Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland. 1993 – Riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police open fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injure 11 demonstrators. 1994 – Israeli troops finish withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, ceding the area to the Palestinian National Authority to govern. 2005 – A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra. 2006 – The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country. 2009 – The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides. 2015 – At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar. 2018 – A school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas kills ten people.[12] 2019 – United States presidential election: Joe Biden announces his presidential campaign.[13][14] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury Eric IX of Sweden Felix of Cantalice Pope John I[32] Venantius of Camerino May 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Baltic Fleet Day (Russia) Day of Remembrance of Crimean Tatar genocide (Ukraine) Independence Day (Somaliland) (unrecognized) International Museum Day National Speech Pathologist Day (United States) Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day (Sri Lankan Tamils) Revival, Unity, and Poetry of Magtymguly Day (Turkmenistan) Teacher's Day (Syria) Victory Day (Sri Lanka)
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May 17 is the 137th day of the year (138th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 228 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1395 – Battle of Rovine: The Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army.[1] 1521 – Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.[2] 1527 – Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men – by 1536 only four survive.[3] 1536 – George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason. 1536 – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's marriage is annulled. 1590 – Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland. 1601–1900 1642 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montréal. 1648 – Emperor Ferdinand III defeats Maximilian I of Bavaria in the Battle of Zusmarshausen.[4] 1673 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River. 1756 – Seven Years' War formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France 1760 – French forces besieging Quebec retreat after the Royal Navy arrives to relieve the British garrison.[5] 1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement. 1805 – Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt. 1809 – Emperor Napoleon I orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire. 1814 – Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian. 1814 – The Constitution of Norway is signed and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark is elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly. 1859 – Members of the Melbourne Football Club codified the first rules of Australian rules football. 1863 – Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language. 1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris. 1875 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby with the jockey Oliver Lewis (2:37.75). 1900 – The children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States. The first copy is given to the author's sister.[6] 1901–present 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer. 1914 – The Protocol of Corfu is signed, recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty. 1915 – The last British Liberal Party government (led by H. H. Asquith) falls. 1933 – Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: The Largo Caballero government resigns in the wake of the Barcelona May Days, leading Juan Negrín to form a government, without the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, in its stead.[7] 1939 – The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City. 1940 – World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium. 1943 – World War II: Dambuster Raids commence by No. 617 Squadron RAF. 1954 – The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools. 1967 – Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt. 1969 – Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure. 1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate. 1974 – The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. 1974 – Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall. 1977 – Nolan Bushnell opened the first ShowBiz Pizza Place (later renamed Chuck E. Cheese) in San Jose, California. 1980 – General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations. 1980 – On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru. 1983 – The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds [1.9 kt]), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request. 1983 – Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. 1984 – Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture. 1987 – Iran–Iraq War: An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew. 1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases. 1992 – Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, hundreds of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests. 1994 – Malawi holds its first multi-party elections. 1995 – Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage. 1997 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo. 2000 – Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen 2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts. 2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef. 2007 – Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953. 2014 – A military plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.[8] Holidays and observances Birthday of the Raja (Perlis) Christian feast day: Giulia Salzano Paschal Baylon William Hobart Hare (Episcopal Church (USA)) Restituta May 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Children's Day (Norway) Constitution Day (Nauru) Feast of ‘Aẓamat (Baháʼí Faith, day shifts with March Equinox, see List of observances set by the Baháʼí calendar) Galician Literature Day or Día das Letras Galegas (Galicia) International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia Liberation Day (Democratic Republic of the Congo) National Day Against Homophobia (Canada) Navy Day (Argentina) Norwegian Constitution Day[38] World Hypertension Day World Information Society Day (International)
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May 16 is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 229 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. 1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.[1] 1426 – Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes king of Ava.[2] 1527 – The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic. 1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England. 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.[3] 1584 – Santiago de Vera becomes sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines. 1601–1900 1739 – The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army. 1770 – The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, who later becomes king of France.[4] 1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The "Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina. 1811 – Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera. 1812 – Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.[5] 1822 – Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli. 1832 – Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.[6][7] 1834 – The Battle of Asseiceira is fought; it was the final and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal. 1842 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.[8] 1866 – The United States Congress establishes the nickel.[9] 1868 – The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.[10] 1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people. 1877 – The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.[11] 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances. 1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opened in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world's first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today). 1901–present 1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria. 1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later. 1919 – A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight. 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc. 1925 – The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.[12] 1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place. 1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. 1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines. 1959 – The Triton Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.[13] 1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. 1961 – Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea. 1966 – The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus. 1974 – Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia. 1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine. 1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress. 1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country. 2003 – In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. 2005 – Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote. 2011 – STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour. 2014 – Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya. Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Aaron (Coptic Church) Abda and Abdjesus, and companions: Abdas of Susa Andrew Bobola Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church) Caroline Chisholm (Church of England) Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar) Germerius Honoratus of Amiens John of Nepomuk Margaret of Cortona Peregrine of Auxerre Simon Stock Ubald (see Saint Ubaldo Day) Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA)) Mass Graves Day (Iraq) National Day, declared by Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan) Teachers' Day (Malaysia)
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May 15 is the 135th day of the year (136th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 230 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne. 589 – King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she had great influence among the Lombard nobility. 756 – Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain.[1] 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. 1525 – Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury. 1601–1900 1602 – Cape Cod is sighted by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.[2] 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made). 1648 – The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty. 1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance. 1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. 1849 – The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished. 1850 – The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina. 1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching. 1901–present 1905 – The city of Las Vegas founded in Nevada, United States.[3] 1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up. 1911 – More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales. 1918 – The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from the Russian troops.[4] 1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. 1919 – Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades. 1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. 1932 – In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated. 1933 – All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe. 1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus. 1940 – World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation. 1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant. 1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft. 1942 – World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. 1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. 1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. 1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone. 1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals. 1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control. 1974 – Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren. 1988 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. 1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister. 1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans. 1997 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.[5] 2001 – A CSX EMD SD40-2 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with flammable chemical, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south driverless for 66 miles (106 km) until it was brought to a halt near Kenton.[6] The incident became the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.[7] 2004 – Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C. with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles". 2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.[8] 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.[9] 2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days. Holidays and observances Aoi Matsuri (Kyoto) Army Day (Slovenia) Christian feast day: Achillius of Larissa Athanasius of Alexandria (Coptic Church) Dymphna Hallvard Vebjørnsson (Roman Catholic Church) Hesychius of Cazorla Hilary of Galeata Isidore the Laborer, celebrated with festivals in various countries, the beginning of bullfighting season in Madrid. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (Roman Catholic Church) Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Denise (Roman Catholic Church) Reticius (Roman Catholic Church) Sophia of Rome (Roman Catholic church) May 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Constituent Assembly Day (Lithuania) Earliest date on which Armed Forces Day (United States) can fall, while May 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Saturday of May. Independence Day (Paraguay), celebrates the independence of Paraguay from Spain in 1811. Celebrations for the anniversary of the independence begin on Flag Day, May 14. International Conscientious Objectors Day International Day of Families (International)[36] La Corsa dei Ceri begins on the eve of the feast day of Saint Ubaldo. (Gubbio) Mother's Day (Paraguay) Nakba Day (Palestinian communities) Peace Officers Memorial Day (United States) Republic Day (Lithuania) Teachers' Day (Colombia, Mexico and South Korea)
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May 14 is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 231 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1027 – Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks.[1] 1097 – The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade.[2] 1264 – Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the effective ruler of England.[3] 1509 – Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Republic of Venice.[4] 1601–1900 1607 – English colonists establish "James Fort," which would become Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest permanent English settlement in the Americas. 1608 – The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states, is founded to defend the rights, land and safety of each member against the Catholic Church and Catholic German states.[5] 1610 – Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne.[6] 1643 – Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. 1747 – War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre. 1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.[7] 1800 – The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the Federal government of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., begins the following day.[8] 1804 – William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis & Clark Expedition's historic journey up the Missouri River.[9] 1811 – Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor. 1836 – The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Jackson takes place.[10] 1868 – Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward.[11] 1870 – The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.[12] 1878 – The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.[13] 1879 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas. 1901–present 1900 – Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games. [14] 1913 – Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller. 1915 – The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.[15] 1918 – Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the Two-minute silence. 1931 – Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ådalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.[16] 1935 – The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote. 1939 – Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. 1940 – World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center.[17] 1943 – World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland. 1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1951 – Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers. 1953 – Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike.[18] 1955 – Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact. 1961 – Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle.[19] 1970 – Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction. 1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.[20] 1977 – A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people.[21] 1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: the Sumpul River massacre occurs in Chalatenango, El Salvador. 1988 – Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire. 2004 – The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.[22] 2004 – Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people.[23] 2008 – Battle of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre between Zenit supporters and Rangers supporters and the Greater Manchester Police, 39 policemen injured, one police-dog injured and 39 arrested. 2010 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135.[24] 2012 – Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.[25] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Boniface of Tarsus Engelmund of Velsen Matthias the Apostle (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion) Michael Garicoïts Mo Chutu of Lismore (Roman Catholic Church) Victor and Corona May 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Earliest day on which the first day of Sanja Matsuri can fall, while May 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third weekend of May. (Sensō-ji, Tokyo) Flag Day (Paraguay) Hastings Banda's Birthday (Malawi) National Unification Day (Liberia) The first day of Izumo-taisha Shrine Grand Festival. (Izumo-taisha)
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May 13 is the 133rd day of the year (134th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 232 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love.[1] 1501 – Amerigo Vespucci, this time under Portuguese flag, set sail for western lands.[2] 1568 – Mary Queen of Scots is defeated at the Battle of Langside, part of the civil war between Queen Mary and the supporters of her son, James VI.[3] 1601–1900 1612 – Sword duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on the shores of Ganryū Island. Kojiro dies at the end.[4][5] 1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason. 1654 – A Venetian fleet under Admiral Cort Adeler breaks through a line of galleys and defeats the Turkish navy.[6] 1779 – War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel). 1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in the Cumberland River area of what would become the U.S. state of Tennessee, providing for democratic government and a formal system of justice.[7] 1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city. 1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia. 1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on the Federal Republic of Mexico following a dispute over the American annexation of the Republic of Texas and a Mexican military incursion.[8] 1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights. 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. 1861 – Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri. 1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship. 1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), the Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery. 1901–present 1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom. 1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal. 1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins, as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons. 1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting against German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance. 1943 – World War II: Operations Vulcan and Strike force the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia. 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre occurs, a day prior to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. 1950 – The inaugural Formula One World Championship race takes place at Silverstone Circuit. The race was won by Giuseppe Farina, who would go on to become the inaugural champion that year.[9] 1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru. 1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting. 1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place. 1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators. 1958 – May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria. 1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey. 1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 1967 – Dr. Zakir Husain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969. 1969 – May 13 Incident involving sectarian violence in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1971 – Over 900 unarmed Bengali Hindus are murdered in the Demra massacre. 1972 – A fire occurs in the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators result in 118 fatalities (many victims leaping to their deaths). 1972 – The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured. 1980 – An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area. 1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives. 1985 – Police bombed MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia, killing six adults and five children, and destroying the homes of 250 city residents. 1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike. 1990 – The Dinamo–Red Star riot took place at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije (fans of Red Star Belgrade). 1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China. 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas. 1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people. 1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped. 1998 – India carries out two nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India. 2005 – Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan; Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates. 2006 – São Paulo violence: Rebellions occur in several prisons in Brazil. 2011 – Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others. 2012 – Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40. 2013 – American physician Kermit Gosnell is found guilty in Pennsylvania of murdering three infants born alive during attempted abortions, involuntary manslaughter of a woman during an abortion procedure, and other charges.[10] 2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.[11] Holidays and observances Abbotsbury Garland Day (Dorset, England) Christian feast day: Our Lady of Fátima Gerard of Villamagna Glyceria John the Silent (Roman Catholic) Julian of Norwich (Roman Catholic) Frances Perkins (Episcopal Church (USA)) Servatius May 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Rotuma Day (Rotuma)
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May 12 is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 233 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 254 – Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I, becoming the 23rd pope of the Catholic Church, and immediately takes a stand against Novatianism.[1] 907 – Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule. 1191 – Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus;[2] she is crowned Queen consort of England the same day. 1328 – Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice. 1364 – Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, is founded in Kraków.[3] 1497 – Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.[4] 1510 – The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan kills all the officials invited to a banquet and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor. 1551 – National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru. 1588 – French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry I, Duke of Guise, enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs. 1593 – London playwright Thomas Kyd is arrested and tortured by the Privy Council for libel. 1601–1900 1743 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor. 1778 – Heinrich XI, count of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, is elevated to Prince by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.[5] 1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces. 1797 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Venice. 1808 – Finnish War: Swedish-Finnish troops, led by Captain Karl Wilhelm Malmi, conquers the city of Kuopio from Russians after the Battle of Kuopio.[6] 1821 – The first major battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks is fought in Valtetsi. 1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.[7] 1862 – American Civil War: Union Army troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: Two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Union troops assault a Confederate salient known as the "Mule Shoe", with some of the fiercest fighting of the war, much of it hand-to-hand combat, occurring at "the Bloody Angle" on the northwest.[8] 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Palmito Ranch: The first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory. 1870 – The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15. 1881 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate. 1885 – North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat. 1888 – In Southeast Asia, the North Borneo Chartered Company's territories become the British protectorate of North Borneo. 1901–present 1926 – The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole. 1926 – The 1926 United Kingdom general strike ends.[9] 1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, is found dead near Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.[10] 1933 – The Agricultural Adjustment Act, which restricts agricultural production through government purchase of livestock for slaughter and paying subsidies to farmers when they remove land from planting, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[11] 1933 – President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.[12] 1937 – The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Westminster Abbey. 1941 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin. 1942 – World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: In eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later. 1942 – World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.[13] 1948 – Wilhelmina, Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, cedes the throne to her daughter Juliana. 1949 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.[14] 1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon. 1968 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral. 1975 – Indochina Wars: Democratic Kampuchea naval forces capture the SS Mayaguez.[15] 1978 – In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga); the local government asks the US, France and Belgium to restore order. 1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.[16] 1989 – The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people, only to be followed a week later by an underground gasoline pipeline explosion, which kills two more people.[17] 1998 – Four students are shot at Trisakti University, leading to widespread riots and the fall of Suharto. 2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban Revolution. 2003 – The Riyadh compound bombings in Saudi Arabia, carried out by al-Qaeda, kill 39 people.[18] 2006 – Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead. 2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country. 2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people. 2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud. 2010 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes on final approach to Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 out of the 104 people on board. 2015 – A train derailment in Philadelphia kills eight people and injures more than 200. 2015 – Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3500. 2017 – The WannaCry ransomware attack impacts over 400,000 computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom's National Health Services and Telefónica computers.[19] 2018 – Paris knife attack: A man is fatally shot by police in Paris after killing one and injuring several others.[20] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Blessed Imelda Blessed Joan of Portugal Crispoldus Dominic de la Calzada Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory Dix (Church of England) Modoald Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla, and Pancras Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople (Eastern Church) Philip of Agira International ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia Awareness Day[71][72]
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May 11 is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 234 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 330 – Constantinople is consecrated.[1] 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book.[2] 912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.[3] 1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves on his fourth and last voyage (till Nov.7,1504).[4] 1601–1900 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch–Hanoverian army.[5] 1792 – Robert Gray commands the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River.[6] 1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.[7] 1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.[8] 1833 – The Lady of the Lake strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks with the loss of up to 265 passengers and crew.[9] 1846 – President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War.[10] 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.[11] 1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd state of the United States.[12] 1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.[13] 1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.[14] 1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.[15] 1901–present 1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.[16] 1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.[17] 1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes.[18] 1960 – Adolf Eichmann is captured by the Mossad in Argentina.[19] 1963 – Racist bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, disrupt nonviolence in the Birmingham campaign and precipitate a crisis involving federal troops.[20] 1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage.[21] 1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.[22] 1985 – Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.[23] 1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.[24] 1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.[25] 1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.[26] 1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.[27] 2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.[28] 2010 – David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country's first coalition government since the Second World War.[29] 2011 – An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain.[30] 2013 – Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.[31] 2014 – Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.[32] 2016 – One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.[33] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Anthimus of Rome[184] Gangulphus of Burgundy[184] Majolus of Cluny[184] Mamertus, the first of the Ice Saints[184] National Technology Day (India)[185] Statehood Day (Minnesota)[186] Vietnam Human Rights Day[187]
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May 10 is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 235 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 28 BC – A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.[1] 1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king.[2] 1294 – Temür, Khagan of the Mongols, is enthoned as Emperor of the Yuan dynasty.[3] 1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.[4] 1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.[5] 1534 – Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.[6] 1601–1900 1688 – King Narai nominates Phetracha as regent, leading to the revolution of 1688 in which Phetracha becomes king of the Ayutthaya Kingdom.[7] 1768 – Rioting occurs in London after John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III.[8] 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.[9] 1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.[10] 1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.[11] 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Second Continental Congress takes place in Philadelphia.[12] 1796 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon wins a victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.[13] 1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.[14] 1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.[15] 1833 – A revolt broke out in southern Vietnam against Emperor Minh Mang, who had desecrated the deceased mandarin Le Van Duyet.[16] 1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks suspend the payment of specie, triggering a national banking crisis and an economic depression whose severity was not surpassed until the Great Depression.[17] 1849 – Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 22 and injuring over 120.[18] 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.[19] 1865 – American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.[20] 1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory with the golden spike.[21] 1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.[22] 1876 – The Centennial Exposition is opened in Philadelphia.[23] 1881 – Carol I is crowned the King of the Romanian Kingdom.[24] 1899 – Finnish farmworker Karl Emil Malmelin kills seven people with an axe at the Simola croft in the village of Klaukkala.[25][26] 1901–present 1904 – The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded. It would eventually become the Audi company.[27] 1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.[28] 1916 – Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.[29] 1922 – The United States annexes the Kingman Reef.[30] 1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and remains so until his death in 1972.[31] 1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.[32] 1940 – World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg.[33] 1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. On the same day, Germany invades France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.[34] Meanwhile, the United Kingdom occupies Iceland.[35] 1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.[36] 1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.[37] 1942 – World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.[38] 1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.[39] 1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.[40] 1967 – The Northrop M2-F2 crashes on landing, becoming the inspiration for the novel Cyborg and TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.[41] 1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.[42] 1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder.[43] 1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills over 200 workers.[44] 1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.[45] 1996 – A blizzard strikes Mount Everest, killing eight climbers by the next day.[46] 1997 – The 7.3 Mw Qayen earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province killing 1,567 people.[47] 2002 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.[48] 2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 20 m from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.[49] 2012 – The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people.[50] 2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.[51] 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the last footholds of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Al-Tabqah, bringing the Battle of Tabqa to an end.[52][53][54] Holidays and observances Children's Day (Maldives)[231] Christian feast day: Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus[232] Calepodius[233] Catald[234] Comgall[235] Damien of Molokai[236] Gordianus and Epimachus[237] Job (Roman Catholic Church, pre-1969 calendar)[238] John of Ávila[182] May 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Confederate Memorial Day (North Carolina and South Carolina)[239] Constitution Day (Micronesia)[240] Earliest possible day on which Pentecost can fall, while June 13 is the latest;[241] celebrated 50 days after Easter Day.(Christianity)[242] Golden Spike Day (Promontory, Utah)[239] Mother's Day (Guatemala,[239] and Mexico[243])
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May 9 is the 129th day of the year (130th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 236 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 328 - Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria.[1] 1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy. 1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force. 1450 – 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated. 1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California. 1601–1900 1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England.[2] 1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. 1726 – Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn. 1864 – Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland. 1865 – American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama. 1865 – American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships. 1873 – Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression. 1877 – Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania. 1901–present 1901 – Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne. 1911 – The works of Gabriele D'Annunzio are placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican. 1915 – World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces. 1918 – World War I: Germany repels Britain's second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk. 1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd's diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.) 1927 – Old Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.[3] 1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5. 1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages. 1942 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast. The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported. 1945 – World War II: The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. 1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II. 1948 – Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect. 1950 – Robert Schuman presents the "Schuman Declaration", considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union. 1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO. 1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill. 1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks. 1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon. 1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran. 1980 – In Florida, United States, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die. 1980 – In Norco, California, United States, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase. 1987 – LOT Flight 5055 Tadeusz Kościuszko crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 people on board. 1988 – New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.[3] 1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. 1992 – Westray Mine disaster kills 26 workers in Nova Scotia, Canada. 2001 – In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee. 2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.[4] 2017 – US President Donald Trump fires FBI Director James Comey.[5] 2018 – The historic defeat for Barisan Nasional, the governing coalition of Malaysia since the country's independence in 1957 in 2018 Malaysian general election. 2020 – The COVID-19 recession causes the U.S. unemployment rate to hit 14.9 percent, its worst rate since the Great Depression.[6] Holidays and observances Anniversary of Dianetics (Church of Scientology) Christian feast day: Beatus of Lungern Beatus of Vendome Christopher (Eastern Orthodox Church) George Preca Gerontius of Cervia Gregory of Nazianzen (The Episcopal Church (US) and traditional Roman Catholic calendar) Nicolaus Zinzendorf (Lutheran) Pachomius the Great Tudy of Landevennec May 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Commemoration of the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands related observances: Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. (Guernsey and Jersey)[28] National Day (Alderney) Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union) Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) Victory and Peace Day, marks the capture of Shusha (1992) in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the end of World War II. (Armenia) Victory Day over Nazism in World War II (Ukraine)
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May 8 is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 237 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 453 BC – Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin. 413 – Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths.[1] 589 – Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.[2] 1360 – Treaty of Brétigny drafted between King Edward III of England and King John II of France (the Good).[3] 1373 – Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.[4] 1429 – Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War. 1450 – Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI. 1516 – A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murdered Emperor Lê Tương Dực and fled, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended. 1541 – Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River[5] (then known by the Spanish as Río de Espíritu Santo, the name given to it by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519).[6] 1601–1900 1608 – A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.[7] 1639 – William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.[8] 1758 – The Maratha Empire captures Peshawar from the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Peshawar. The Maratha Empire was extended to its farthest distance away from Pune that it ever reached, over 2,000 km (1,200 mi), almost to the borders of Afghanistan. 1788 – King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements. 1794 – Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris. 1821 – Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn. 1842 – A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people. 1846 – Mexican–American War: American forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war. 1877 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens. 1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.[9] 1898 – The first games of the Italian football league system are played. 1899 – The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin produced its first play. 1901–present 1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast. 1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded. 1919 – Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I. 1921 – The creation of the Communist Party of Romania. 1924 – The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania. 1927 – Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane. 1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement. 1941 – World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby. 1942 – World War II: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet armies defending the Kerch Peninsula. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. 1942 – World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. 1945 – World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Reims comes into effect. 1945 – End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic. 1945 – Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre. 1945 – The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia. 1950 – The Tollund Man was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.[10] 1957 – South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.[11] 1946 – Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn. 1963 – South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis. 1967 – The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental. 1970 – The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.[12] 1972 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place naval mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation. 1973 – A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants. 1976 – The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain. 1978 – The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler. 1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.[13] 1984 – Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour. 1984 – The USSR announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.[14] 1984 – The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.[15] 1987 – The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland. 1988 – A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history". 1997 – China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people. 2019 – British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.[16][17] 2021 – A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding over 150.[18] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Amato Ronconi Apparition of Saint Michael Arsenius the Great Desideratus Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine Julian of Norwich (Anglican, Lutheran) Magdalene of Canossa Our Lady of Luján Peter II of Tarentaise Blessed Teresa Demjanovich (Ruthenian Catholic Church) May 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Earliest day on which Mother's Day can fall, while May 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday of May. (United States and others) Earliest day on which State Flag and State Emblem Day can fall, while May 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Sunday of May. (Belarus) Earliest day on which World Fair Trade Day can fall, while May 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Saturday of May (site of the WFTO) (International) Emancipation Day (Columbus, Mississippi) Furry Dance (Helston, UK) Liberation Day (Czech Republic) Miguel Hidalgo's birthday (Mexico) Parents' Day (South Korea) Truman Day (Missouri) Veterans Day (Norway) Victory in Europe Day, and its related observances (Europe): Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War, continues to May 9[47] White Lotus Day (Theosophy) World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day (International)
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May 7 is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 238 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 351 – The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out after his arrival at Antioch.[1] 558 – In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction.[2] Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt. 1274 – In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens; it ratified a decree to regulate the election of the Pope.[3] 1487 – The Siege of Málaga commences during the Spanish Reconquista.[4] 1544 – The Burning of Edinburgh by an English army is the first action of the Rough Wooing.[5] 1601–1900 1664 – Inaugural celebrations begin at Louis XIV of France's new Palace of Versailles.[6] 1685 – Battle of Vrtijeljka between rebels and Ottoman forces. 1697 – Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace.[7] 1718 – The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.[8] 1763 – Pontiac's War begins with Pontiac's attempt to seize Fort Detroit from the British. 1794 – French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic. 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: A French force attempting to dislodge a small British garrison on the Îles Saint-Marcouf is repulsed with heavy losses.[9] 1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.[10] 1832 – Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London. 1840 – The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history. 1846 – The Cambridge Chronicle, America's oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1864 – American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards. 1864 – The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia. 1895 – In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector—a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day. 1901–present 1915 – World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many former pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire. 1915 – The Republic of China accedes to 13 of the 21 Demands, extending the Empire of Japan's control over Manchuria and the Chinese economy.[11] 1920 – Kyiv Offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kyiv only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later. 1920 – Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later. 1930 – The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed. 1931 – The stand-off between criminal Francis Crowley and 300 members of the New York Police Department takes place in his fifth-floor apartment on West 91st Street, New York City. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces. 1940 – World War II: The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later. 1942 – World War II: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō; the battle marks the first time in naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships. 1945 – World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland. 1945 – World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day. 1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded.[12] 1948 – The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress. 1952 – The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer. 1954 – Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Viet Minh victory (the battle began on March 13). 1960 – Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers. 1986 – Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits. 1991 – A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26.[13] 1992 – Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise. 1992 – Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, STS-49. 1992 – Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada. 1994 – Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.[14] 1998 – Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.[15] 1999 – Pope John Paul II travels to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054. 1999 – Kosovo War: Three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft inadvertently bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. 1999 – In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup. 2000 – Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia. 2002 – An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 crashes on approach to Tunis–Carthage International Airport, killing 14 people.[16] 2002 – A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people. 2004 – American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.[17] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Agathius of Byzantium Agostino Roscelli Pope Benedict II[53] Flavia Domitilla Gisela of Hungary Harriet Starr Cannon (Episcopal Church (USA)) John of Beverley[50] Rose Venerini Stanislaus (Roman Martyrology) May 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Defender of the Fatherland Day (Kazakhstan) Dien Bien Phu Victory Day (Vietnam) Radio Day, commemorating the work of Alexander Popov (Russia, Bulgaria)[54]
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May 6 is the 126th day of the year (127th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 239 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.[1] 1536 – The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish. 1541 – King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church. In 1539 the Great Bible would be provided for this purpose. 1542 – Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time. 1593 – The Dutch city of Coevorden held by the Spanish, falls to a Dutch and English force.[2] 1601–1900 1659 – English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament. 1682 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles. 1757 – Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War. 1757 – The end of Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War, and the end of Burmese Civil War (1740–1757). 1757 – English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums. 1782 – Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke. 1801 – Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo. 1835 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald. 1840 – The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1857 – The East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British in the lead up to the War of Indian Independence. 1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by the Army of Northern Virginia. 1877 – Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska. 1882 – Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin. 1882 – The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris. 1901–present 1906 – The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23 by the Julian calendar). 1910 – George V becomes King of Great Britain, Ireland, and many overseas territories, on the death of his father, Edward VII. 1915 – Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run. 1915 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: The SY Aurora broke loose from its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.[3] 1916 – Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha. 1916 – Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while calling upon the people to rise up against the French, and is later deposed and exiled to Réunion island. 1933 – The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books. 1935 – New Deal: Under the authority of the newly-enacted Federal Emergency Relief Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 7034 to create the Works Progress Administration.[4] 1937 – Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed. 1940 – John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath. 1941 – At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show. 1941 – The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. 1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese. 1945 – World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops. 1945 – World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins. 1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.[5] 1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes. 1960 – More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey. 1966 – Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England. 1972 – Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order. 1975 – During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian genocide. 1976 – The 6.5 Mw Friuli earthquake affected Northern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 900–978 dead and 1,700–2,400 injured. 1983 – The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by new experts. 1984 – One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul. 1988 – All thirty-six passengers and crew were killed when Widerøe Flight 710 crashed into Mt. Torghatten in Brønnøy. 1994 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel. 1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared. 1997 – The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history. 1998 – Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start. 1998 – Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac.[6] 1999 – The first elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are held. 2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque. 2002 – Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio-interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum. 2002 – Founding of SpaceX.[7] 2010 – In just 36 minutes, the Dow-Jones average plunged nearly 1,000 points in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash. 2013 – Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.[8] Holidays and observances Christian Feast Day: Dominic Savio Evodius of Antioch (Roman Catholic Church) François de Laval Gerard of Lunel Lucius of Cyrene Petronax of Monte Cassino St George's Day related observances (Eastern Orthodox Church😞 Day of Bravery, also known as Gergyovden (Bulgaria) Đurđevdan (Gorani, Roma) Police Day (Georgia) Yuri's Day in the Spring (Russian Orthodox Church) St John before the Latin Gate May 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Earliest day on which Military Spouse Day can fall, while May 12 is the latest; celebrated on Friday before Mother's Day (United States) International No Diet Day Martyrs' Day (Gabon) Martyrs' Day (Lebanon and Syria) National Azulejo Day (Portugal)[22] Teachers' Day (Jamaica) The first day of Hıdırellez (Turkey)
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May 5 is the 125th day of the year (126th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 240 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople begins.[1] 1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. 1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.[2] 1494 – On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.[3] 1601–1900 1609 – Daimyō (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.[4] 1640 – King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.[5] 1654 – Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh. 1762 – Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg. 1789 – In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614. 1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread. 1821 – Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. 1821 – The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian, is published.[6] 1835 – The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen. 1862 – Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County. 1865 – American Civil War: The Confederate government was declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia. 1866 – Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York. 1877 – American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles. 1886 – Workers marching for the Eight-hour day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were shot at by Wisconsin National Guardsmen in what became known as the Bay View Massacre.[7] 1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor. 1901–present 1904 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball. 1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder. 1920 – Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder. 1930 – The 1930 Bago earthquake, the former of two major earthquakes in southern Burma kills as many as 7,000 in Yangon and Bago.[8] 1936 – Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1940 – World War II: Norwegian Campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms. 1941 – Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day. 1945 – World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation. 1945 – World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon. 1945 – World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles in that war in which American and German troops fought cooperatively. 1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 1955 – The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect. 1961 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight. 1964 – The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day. 1972 – Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy. 1973 – Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:592⁄5, an as-yet unbeaten record. 1980 – Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege. 1981 – Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. 1985 – Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech. 1987 – Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America 1991 – A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man. 1994 – The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism. 2006 – The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.[9] 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 aboard, making it the deadliest aircraft disaster in Cameroon.[10] 2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis. Holidays and observances Children's Day (Japan, South Korea)[38][39] Christian feast day: Angelus of Jerusalem Aventinus of Tours Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice Frederick the Wise (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod) Gotthard of Hildesheim[40] Hilary of Arles Jutta of Kulmsee Stanisław Kazimierczyk May 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Cinco de Mayo (Mexico, United States) Constitution Day (Kyrgyzstan) Europe Day (Council of Europe) Feast of al-Khadr or Saint George (Palestinian) Indian Arrival Day (Guyana) International Midwives' Day (International) Liberation Day (Denmark, Netherlands) Lusophone Culture Day (Community of Portuguese Language Countries) World Portuguese language day (International)[41] Martyrs' Day (Albania) Patriots' Victory Day (Ethiopia)[38] Revenge of the Fifth (see Star Wars Day) Senior Citizens Day (Palau)[42] Tango no sekku (Japan) Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Day (Canada and United States)
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May 4 is the 124th day of the year (125th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 241 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. 1415 – Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance. 1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson 1471 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. 1493 – Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation. 1601–1900 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw. 1686 – The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines. 1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III. 1799 – Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris. 1814 – Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile. 1814 – King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism. 1836 – Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians 1859 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England. 1869 – The Naval Battle of Hakodate is fought in Japan. 1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd. 1901–present 1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal. 1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy is created.[1] 1912 – Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes. 1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan. 1926 – The United Kingdom general strike begins. 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated.[2] 1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before. 1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army. 1945 – World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany. 1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot. 1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash. 1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. 1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held. 1961 – American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South. 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km). 1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam. 1972 – The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation". 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world's tallest building.[3] 1978 – The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.[4] 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1982 – Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War. 1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire. 1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal. 1990 – Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union. 1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. 2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London). 2002 – One hundred three people are killed and 51 are injured in a plane crash near Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria.[5] 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale. 2014 – Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.[6] 2019 – The inaugural all-female motorsport series, W Series, takes place at Hockenheimring. The race was won by Jamie Chadwick, who would go on to become the inaugural season's champion.[7] Holidays and observances Anti-Bullying Day (United Nations) Bird Day (United States) Cassinga Day (Namibia) Christian feast day: Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla Blessed Michal Giedroyc English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era (Church of England) F. C. D. Wyneken (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod) Florian Gotthard of Hildesheim José María Rubio Judas Cyriacus Monica of Hippo (1960 Roman Catholic Calendar) Sacerdos of Limoges Venerius of Milan May 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Coal Miners Day (India)[32] Death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik Day (Slovakia) Greenery Day (Japan) International Firefighters' Day May Fourth Movement commemorations: Literary Day (Republic of China) Youth Day (China) Remembrance Day for Martyrs and Disabled (Afghanistan) Remembrance of the Dead (Netherlands) Restoration of Independence Day (Latvia) Star Wars Day (International observance) World Give Day Youth Day (Fiji)
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May 3 is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 242 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico, assumes the throne. 1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties. 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I. 1568 – Angered by the brutal onslaught of Spanish troops at Fort Caroline, a French force has burned the San Mateo fort and massacred hundreds of Spaniards.[1] 1601–1900 1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends a French civil war. 1715 – A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy. 1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. 1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government. The "City of Washington" is given a mayor-council form of government.[2] 1808 – Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia. 1808 – Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Príncipe Pío hill. 1815 – Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples, is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war. 1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel. 1837 – The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece.[3] 1848 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire. 1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49. 1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua. 1901–present 1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida. 1913 – Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry. 1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia. 1921 – Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. 1921 – West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues. 1928 – The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.[4] 1939 – The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. 1942 – World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia. 1945 – World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay. 1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect. 1948 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.[5] 1951 – London's Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain. 1951 – The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman. 1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole. 1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network. 1957 – Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. 1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement. 1971 – Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989.[6] 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States. 1979 – Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election.[7] The following day, she becomes the first female British Prime Minister. 1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka. 1987 – A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega. 1999 – The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h). 1999 – Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side results in the Kargil War. 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet. 2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947. 2006 – Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi International Airport in Sochi, Russia, killing 113 people.[8] 2007 – The three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history". 2015 – Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting. 2016 – Eighty-eight thousand people are evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire rips through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.[9] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church) Antonia and Alexander Juvenal of Narni Moura (Coptic Church) Philip and James the Lesser Pope Alexander I Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church) The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland Theodosius of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox Church) May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Constitution Memorial Day (Japan) Constitution Day (Poland) Finding of the Holy Cross-related observances: Fiesta de las Cruces (Spain and Hispanic America) Roodmas, or Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Gallican Rite of the Catholic Church) Sun Day (International) World Press Freedom Day[40]
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May 2 is the 122nd day of the year (123rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 243 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.[1] 1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. 1559 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation. 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle.[2] 1601–1900 1611 – The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker. 1625 – Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Latin Patriarch of Ethiopia, arrives at Beilul from Goa.[3] 1670 – King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America. 1808 – Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808. 1812 – The Siege of Cuautla during the Mexican War of Independence ends with both sides claiming victory after Mexican rebels under José María Morelos y Pavón abandon the city after 72 days under siege by royalist Spanish troops under Félix María Calleja. 1829 – After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia. 1863 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later. 1866 – Peruvian defenders fight off the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao. 1876 – The April Uprising breaks out in Ottoman Bulgaria. 1885 – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion. 1889 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea. 1901–present 1906 – Closing ceremony of the Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. 1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis. 1933 – Germany's independent labor unions are replaced by the German Labour Front. 1941 – Following the coup d'état against Iraq Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launches the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power. 1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. 1945 – World War II: The surrender of Caserta comes into effect, by which German troops in Italy cease fighting. 1945 – World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death. 1945 – World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners. 1952 – A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg. 1963 – Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany. 1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the American aircraft carrier USNS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Two Viet Cong combat swimmers had placed explosives on the ship's hull. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later. 1964 – First ascent of Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders. 1969 – The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City. 1970 – ALM Flight 980 ditches in the Caribbean Sea near Saint Croix, killing 23.[4] 1972 – In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers. 1982 – Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. 1986 – Chernobyl disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster. 1989 – Cold War: Hungary begins dismantling its border fence with Austria, which allows a number of East Germans to defect. 1995 – During the Croatian War of Independence, the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina fires cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing seven and wounding over 175 civilians. 1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy. 1999 – Panamanian general election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama. 2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military. 2004 – The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2nd. 2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless. 2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people. 2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 2011 – An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill. 2012 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction.[5] 2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing. Holidays and observances International Harry Potter Day Christian feast day: Ahudemmeh (Syriac Orthodox Church).[30] Athanasius of Alexandria (Western Christianity) Boris I of Bulgaria (Bulgarian Orthodox Church) Germanus of Normandy May 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) The last day of the Festival of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith) (Note that this date is non-Gregorian and may change according to the March equinox, see List of observances set by the Baháʼí calendar) Anniversary of the Dos de Mayo Uprising (Community of Madrid, Spain) Birth Anniversary of Third Druk Gyalpo (Bhutan) Flag Day (Poland) Indonesia National Education Day Teachers' Day (Iran) (Note that this date is non-Gregorian and may change according to the March Equinox, see List of observances set by the Solar Hijri calendar)
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May 1 is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 244 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor. 880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. 1169 – Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland. 1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, England recognises Scotland as an independent state. 1486 – Christopher Columbus presents his plans discovering a western route to the Indies to the Spanish Queen Isabella I of Castile.[1] 1601–1900 1707 – The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect.[2] 1753 – Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. 1807 – The Slave Trade Act 1807 takes effect, abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire.[3] 1820 – Execution of the Cato Street Conspirators, who plotted to kill the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool.[4] 1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom. 1844 – Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and Asia's first, is established. 1846 – The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicate the Nauvoo Temple. 1851 – Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.[5] 1865 – The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance. 1866 – The Memphis Race Riots begin. In three days time, 46 blacks and two whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[6] 1885 – The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business. 1886 – Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries. 1894 – Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.[7] 1898 – Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381 Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths.[8] 1900 – The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history. 1901–present 1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives. 1919 – German troops enter Munich to suppress the Bavarian Soviet Republic. 1925 – The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members. 1929 – The 7.2 Mw Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran–Turkmenistan border region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121. 1930 – "Pluto" is officially proposed for the name of the newly discovered dwarf planet Pluto by Vesto Slipher in the Lowell Observatory Observation Circular. The name quickly catches on.[9] 1931 – The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City. 1945 – World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin. 1945 – World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army. 1946 – Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians. 1947 – Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11 persons are killed and 33 wounded. 1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public. 1957 – A Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes while attempting to return to Blackbushe Airport in Yateley, killing 34.[10] 1960 – Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis. 1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections. 1970 – Vietnam War: Protests erupt following the announcement by Richard Nixon that the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces would attack Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign. 1971 – Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.[11] 1975 – The Särkänniemi Amusement Park opens in Tampere, Finland.[12] 1978 – Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone. 1982 – Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War. 1994 – Three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix.[13] 1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.[14] 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended". 2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin. 2009 – Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.[15] 2011 – Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. 2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) resumes the Deir ez-Zor campaign in order to clear the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border.[16][17] 2019 – Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli district of India: Sixteen army soldiers, including a driver, killed in an IED blast. Naxals targeted an anti-Naxal operations team.[18] 2019 – Naruhito ascends to the throne of Japan succeeding his father Akihito, beginning the Reiwa period.[19] Holidays and observances Christian feast day: Andeolus Augustin Schoeffler, Jean-Louis Bonnard (part of Vietnamese Martyrs) Benedict of Szkalka Brioc James the Less (Anglican Communion) Joseph the Worker (Roman Catholic) Blessed Klymentiy Sheptytsky (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) Marcouf Philip the Apostle (Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church) Richard Pampuri Sigismund of Burgundy Ultan May 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Earliest day on which Mother's Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in May. (Samoa) Earliest day on which Mother's Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in May. (Hong Kong, Hungary, Lithuania, Mozambique, Portugal, Spain, Romania) Earliest day on which National Day of Prayer can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Thursday in May. (United States) Earliest day on which World Asthma Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Tuesday in May. (International) Armed Forces Day (Mauritania) Constitution Day (Argentina, Latvia, Marshall Islands) Commemoration of the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat following the foundation of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti (India): Maharashtra Day International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day Lei Day (Hawaii) International Workers' Day or Labour Day (International), and its related observances: Earliest day on which Labour Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of May. (Barbados, Dominica) Law Day (United States), formerly intended to counterbalance the celebration of Labour Day. (United States) Loyalty Day, formerly intended to counterbalance the celebration of Labour Day. (United States) May Day (beginning of Summer) observances in the Northern hemisphere (see April 30): Beltane (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans in the Northern hemisphere) Earliest day on which Beltane can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in May. (Ireland, Scotland) Calan Mai (Wales) Samhain (Celtic neopagans and Wiccans in the Southern Hemisphere)
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April 30 is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 245 days remain until the end of the year. Events Pre-1600 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends.[1] 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois. 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers.[2] 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII. 1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile. 1598 – Juan de Oñate begins the conquest of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. 1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. 1601–1900 1636 – Eighty Years' War: Dutch Republic forces recapture a strategically important fort from Spain after a nine-month siege. 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States. 1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation. 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana. 1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation. 1863 – A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico. 1871 – The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory. 1885 – Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use. 1897 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.[3] 1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor. 1901–present 1905 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich. 1925 – Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for US$146 million plus $50 million for charity. 1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States. 1937 – The Commonwealth of the Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative. 1939 – The 1939–40 New York World's Fair opens. 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address. 1943 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Seraph surfaces near Huelva to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans. 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building. 1945 – World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9000 American and British airmen. 1947 – In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam. 1948 – In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established. 1956 – Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia. 1957 – Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery entered into force. 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned. 1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom. 1973 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned. 1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Dương Văn Minh. 1980 – Beatrix is inaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands following the abdication of Juliana. 1980 – The Iranian Embassy siege begins in London. 1982 – The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India. 1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free. 1994 – Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy. 1999 – Neo-Nazi David Copeland carries out the last of his three nail bombings in London at the Admiral Duncan gay pub, killing three people and injuring 79 others.[4] 2000 – Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide. 2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. 2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks. 2009 – Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 2009 – Seven civilians and the perpetrator are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix. 2012 – An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 103 people. 2013 – Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix. 2014 – A bomb blast in Ürümqi, China kills three people and injures 79 others. 2021 – Forty-five men and boys are killed in the Meron stampede in Israel.[5][6] Holidays and observances Armed Forces Day (Georgia) Birthday of the King Carl XVI Gustaf, one of the official general flag flying days of Sweden. Camarón Day (French Foreign Legion) Children's Day (Mexico) Christian feast day: Adjutor Aimo Amator, Peter and Louis Donatus of Evorea Eutropius of Saintes Marie Guyart (Anglican Church of Canada) Marie of the Incarnation (Ursuline) Maximus of Rome Blessed Miles Gerard Pomponius of Naples Pope Pius V[42] Quirinus of Neuss Sarah Josepha Hale (Episcopal Church) Suitbert the Younger April 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Consumer Protection Day (Thailand) Honesty Day (United States) International Jazz Day (UNESCO)[43] Martyrs' Day (Pakistan) May Eve, the eve of the first day of summer in the Northern hemisphere (see May 1): Beltane begins at sunset in the Northern hemisphere, Samhain begins at sunset in the Southern hemisphere. (Neo-Druidic Wheel of the Year) Carodejnice (Czech Republic and Slovakia) Walpurgis Night (Central and Northern Europe) National Persian Gulf Day (Iran) Reunification Day (Vietnam) Rincon Day (Bonaire)[44] Russian State Fire Service Day (Russia) Teachers' Day (Paraguay)
