- 535 St Agapitus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 609 Pope Boniface I turns the Pantheon in Rome into a Catholic church
- 641 Eligius (Saint Eloy) becomes bishop of Doornik-Noyon
- 1106 Henry I of Limburg loses the duchy of Lower Lorraine to Godfrey of Louvain
- 1110 Crusaders march into Beirut causing a bloodbath
- 1277 As Vizier Mehmet I of Karaman issues a firman (decree) ordering only the Turkish language to be used, not Arabic or Persian
- 1364 Peter Coutherel banished from Leuven
- 1497 Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola for leading the expulsion of the Medici's from Florence
- 1559 Exhumed corpse of heretic David Jorisz burned in Basel
Queen of Scots Defeated
1568 Mary Queen of Scots is defeated at Battle of Langside
- 1588 King Henri III flees Paris
Colonists Land at Jamestown
1607 English colonists led by John Smith establish Jamestown at a second landing near the James River in Virginia - first permanent English settlement in North America
- 1624 Dutch Admiral Hermites' Nassau fleet blockades Lima, Peru
- 1637 Cardinal Richelieu of France reputedly creates the table knife
- 1638 Construction of the Red Fort begins at Shahjahanabad, Mughal Empire (now Dehli, India)
- 1643 Battle of Grantham: English parliamentary armies beat royalists
- 1643 Heavy earthquake strikes Santiago, Chile; kills a third of the population
- 1652 Ingen Ryuki invited to become the abbot of Sofokuji temple in Nagasaki
- 1654 Venetian fleet under Norwegian Admiral Cort Adeler beats Turkish fleet the near the Dardanelles, sinking 15 Turkish galleys
Mozart's 1st Opera
1767 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's first opera "Apollo et Hyacinthus", written when he was 11 years old, premieres in Salzburg
First Fleet Departs
1787 First Fleet headed by Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of convicts for Botany Bay, Australia [1]
Congress Votes for War
1846 US Congress votes in favor of President James K. Polk’s request to declare war on Mexico over border disputes
- 1848 First performance of Finland's national anthem "Maamme", composed by Fredrik Pacius, Swedish words by Johan Ludvig Runeberg
British Neutrality
1861 Queen Victoria announces Britain's position of neutrality during the US Civil War
- 1861 The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia
- 1864 -16] Atlanta Campaign: Battle of Resaca, Georgia
- 1865 Battle of Palmito Ranch, near Brownsville, Texas: final engagement of the American Civil War, Private John Jefferson Williams of B Company, 34th Regiment Indiana Infantry is last man killed
- 1874 Pope Pius IX encyclical "On Greek-Ruthenian rite"
- 1876 Amersfoort-Zutphen railway in the Netherlands opens
- 1877 Caesar Franck's symphonic poem "Lesson Eolides" premieres
- 1878 Danvers State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, opens—later serves as inspiration for Arkham Sanitorium in the work of H.P. Lovecraft, which in turn inspired Arkham Asylum of the D.C. Batman universe
- 1882 Toba indians kill 20 members of French expedition in Argentina, including explorer Jules Nicolas Crevaux
- 1884 Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) forms in New York
- 1888 DeWolf Hooper 1st recites "Casey at Bat"
- 1888 Princess Isabel of Brazil acting as regent signs the "Lei Auréa" (Golden Law) abolishing slavery in Brazil
Britain, Germany Trade African Territories
1890 British PM Lord Salisbury offers Heligoland islands to Germany in exchange for Zanzibar, Uganda & Equatoria (becomes Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty that July)
Jeffries Retires Undefeated
1905 World heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries retires undefeated after 7 title defences; returns in 1910 to be beaten by Jack Johnson
- 1906 Bezalel Art School opens in Jerusalem
- 1909 Christian National Labor Workers (CNV) party begins in Netherlands
- 1909 First Giro d'Italia takes place in Milan - Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna is the winner
- 1911 NY Giant Fred Merkle is 1st to get 6 RBIs in an inning (1st)
- 1912 Royal Flying Corps forms in Great Britain
1st Four-Engine Plane
1913 1st four-engined aircraft built and flown (Igor Sikorsky, Russia)
- 1915 US Secretary of State Bryan sends a note to Germany demanding that Germany disavow the attacks on the Lusitania and make immediate reparations; however, the note is written only to 'pacify exited public opinion', according to Bryan
- 1916 1st observance of Indian (Native American) Day
- 1916 Lafayette Escadrille, an American air force unit under French command comprised of volunteers to fight for France, see first combat at the Battle of Verdun
- 1917 1st appearance of Mary to 3 shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal
- 1918 1st US airmail stamps issued (24 cents)
- 1923 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Willa Cather for her World War I-based novel "One of Ours"
- 1927 "Black Friday" on Berlin Stock Exchange
- 1927 VVOG soccer team forms in Harderwijk
- 1931 Paul Doumer elected President of France
- 1936 Quiroga government takes office in Spain
- 1939 SS St Louis departs Hamburg, Germany with 937 Jewish refugees, bound for Havana, Cuba; authorities refused to admit them, and most of the passengers returned to Europe [1]
- 1940 British bomb factory at Breda, Netherlands
Queen Wilhelmina Flees
1940 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina flees to England
- 1940 German breakthrough at Grebbelinie
Churchill's First Speech as PM
1940 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons
Bormann Heads Chancellery
1941 Martin Bormann is named head of Nazi Chancellery in Germany
- 1941 Trial against resistance fighter comte d'Estienne d'Orves begins
- 1941 Willy Lewis' US jazz band performs in Switzerland
- 1942 Helicopter makes its 1st cross-country flight
- 1942 Pitcher Jim Tobin belts 3 HRs in a game
- 1943 German & Italian forces in Africa surrender
- 1943 German occupiers attempt to confiscate all radios in the Netherlands
- 1945 US troops conquer Dakeshi Okinawa
- 1946 Sarwate & Banerjee add 249 for 10th wkt for Indians v Surrey
- 1946 US sentences 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death
- 1946 Winston Churchill welcomed in Rotterdam
- 1947 US Senate approves the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions
- 1949 1st British-produced jet bomber, the Canberra, makes its 1st test flight
- 1950 Diner's Club issues its 1st credit cards
- 1950 First ever race of the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship is run at Silverstone, England and won by Giuseppe Farina of italy in an Alfa Romeo
Nehru Indian Premier
1952 Jawaharlal Nehru becomes premier of India
- 1952 Ron Necciai of Pittsburgh Pirate's Bristol Twins Class D farm team, strikes out 27 in 9-innings, as he no-hits Welch Minors; 4 Minors do reach base
- 1952 The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting
- 1954 Chinese Middle School students in Singapore take part in anti-National Service riots
- 1954 Labour Party wins British municipal elections
- 1954 Robin Roberts gives up a HR then retires next 27 men in a row
- 1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
Mantle Hits 3 HRs
1955 Mickey Mantle hits 3 consecutive HRs of at least 463'
Musial 8th to 3,000
1958 MLB player Stan Musial is 8th to get 3,000 hits
- 1958 MLB San Francisco Giants teammates Willie Mays & Darryl Spencer each hit 2 HRs & a triple, and combine for 10 RBI in a 16-9 win over the Dodgers at Los Angeles
- 1958 Pierre Pflimlin forms French government
Nixon Attacked in Venezuela
1958 The motorcade carrying US Vice President Richard Nixon is attacked in Caracas, Venezuela; several of Nixon's staff are injured
- 1958 The trade mark Velcro is registered
Television Finale
1959 Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle last airs on NBC-TV
- 1960 1st launch of Delta satellite launching vehicle; it failed
- 1960 Phillies lose 3rd consecutive 1-0 game
- 1960 WOLE TV channel 12 in Aguadillo, PR
Sports History
1962 LPGA Western Open Women's Golf, Montgomery CC: Mickey Wright wins on the 4th hole of a sudden-death playoff with Mary Lena Faulk
- 1962 Ossie Davis' comedic stage farce "Purlie Victorious", starring the playwright, closes the Longacre, Theatre, NYC, after 261 performances
- 1965 Several Arab nations break ties with West Germany after it established diplomatic relations with Israel
Music History
1966 The Rolling Stones release "Paint it Black" in the UK
- 1966 US Federal education funding is denied to 12 school districts in the South because of violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
- 1967 Dutch counterculture movement Provo disbands
- 1967 Octagonal boxing ring is tested to avoid corner injuries
- 1967 Zakir Husain is elected the third President of India
Event of Interest
1968 1,000,000 French demonstrate against Charles De Gaulle & Georges Pompidou
- 1969 Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 1971 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane seriously injured in a car accident
- 1972 115 die in nightclub atop 7-story Sennichi department store (Osaka Japan)
- 1972 Battle at Springmartin: following a loyalist car bombing of a Catholic-owned pub in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast, clashes erupt between PIRA, UVF and British Army
- 1972 Milwaukee Brewers beat Minnesota Twins, 4-3, in 22 innings (started 5/12)
Sports History
1973 Bobby Riggs beats Margaret Smith Court in Mother's Day match in California
- 1975 Hail stones as large as tennis balls hit Wernerville, Tennessee
Film & TV History
1977 Howard Stern begins broadcasting at WRNW, Briarcliff Manor NY
Event of Interest
1979 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and family sentenced to death in Tehran
- 1980 Cincinnati Red Ray Knight hits 2 HRs in 5th inning vs NY Mets
Assassination Attempt
1981 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca in St Peter's Square, Vatican City
- 1982 Braniff Airlines files for bankruptcy
- 1982 Chicago Cubs win their 8,000th (beat Astros)
- 1982 Soyuz T-5 is launched-Berezovoi & Lebedev for 211 days in space
Sports History
1983 Reggie Jackson is 1st major leaguer to strike out 2,000 times
Sports History
1984 Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff's last competitive match
- 1985 Carlton Fisk becomes 5th catcher to steal 100 bases
- 1985 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police drop explosive device on house occupied by revolutionary Black separatist group "Move", killing 11, during stand-off after a shoot-out; ensuing fire destroys 61 homes
Event of Interest
1989 Approximately 2,000 students begin a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China to force a dialogue with the government ahead of a visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Sports History
1989 Minnesota Twin Kirby Puckett becomes 35th to hit 4 doubles in a game
- 1989 Trinidad & Tobago ties US 1-1, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup
Music History
1991 "Michael Jackson: Magic & Madness" goes on sale
- 1991 Apple releases Macintosh operating System 7, codenamed the "Big Bang"
- 1992 3 astronauts simultaneous walked in space for the 1st time
- 1992 Concrete foundation for ballpark at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) is poured, In downtown Cleveland, Ohio
Film & TV History
1992 Frank Stallone beats Geraldo Rivera in boxing on Howard Stern Show
- 1992 Li Hongzhi gave the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.
- 1993 6th annual businessperson run held in Wall Street
Film & TV History
1993 Arsenio Hall's 1,000th show retrospective seen in Netherlands
- 1993 CBS' soap opera "Knots Landing" ends 14 year-run with 334th show in Netherlands and US
Sports History
1993 KC Royal George Brett hits his 300th HR
Sports History
1995 Team New Zealand beats Team Dennis Conner 5-0 to win the America's Cup for the first time
TV Show Appearance
1996 O.J. Simpson appears on British TV discussing his not guilty verdict
- 1996 Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
Sports History
1997 Eddie Murray is 6th baseball player to play in 3,000 games
- 1998 India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, in addition to the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
- 1998 Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped
- 1999 Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected 10th President of Italy
- 2000 In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage
Election of Interest
2001 Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing "House of Freedoms" coalition wins the Italian general election
- 2004 The final episode of "Frasier" on NBC is watched by 33 million people
- 2005 The Andijan Massacre occurs in Uzbekistan
- 2007 5th Republic protest in support of state secularism held in İzmir, Turkey
- 2007 At 16 years, 65 days Matthew Briggs debuts for Fulham in a 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough; youngest player to appear in an English Premier League match
- 2007 Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins.
Album Release
2008 Jason Mraz releases his third studio album, "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things."
Music Concert
2010 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Debbie Harry, Lady Gaga, Shirley Bassey, Nile Rodgers and Chic
- 2011 Portugal slips into double-dip recession after the economy contracts by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2011, with a 0.6% contraction in the last quarter of 2010, it is reported today
- 2011 Romania officially leaves the recession after 2 years following economic growth of an annualised 1.6% in the first quarter
- 2012 49 dismembered bodies are found on a Mexican highway as part of the Mexican drug war
- 2012 Manchester City beats QPR 3-2 at City of Manchester Stadium to win English Premier League title on goal difference from Manchester United; Citizens recover from 2–1 down with 2 stoppage-time goals; first EPL title decided on goal difference
- 2012 Manchester City win the English Premier League for the first time
- 2012 Torrential rain in Hunan Province, China, destroys a bridge, 3,500 homes and displaces 28,000 people
Event of Interest
2013 Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield departs the International Space Station to return to Earth
- 2014 301 miners are killed by an underground explosion and mine fire in Soma Mine, Manisa, Turkey
- 2014 Unidentified shipwreck is discovered off the northern coast of Haiti by marine archaeologist Barry Clifford
Coloring Book
2016 Chance the Rapper releases his third mixtape "Coloring Book" on Apple Music - first album to chart on Billboard Top 100 based only on streams (Grammy for Best Rap Album)
- 2017 22-year-old UK blogger halts spread of global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying "kill switch"
- 2017 Bus plunges off cliff near Marmaris, Turkey, killing at least 23, injuring 11
Canonization
2017 Portuguese children Francisco and Jacinta Marto (died 1919 & 1920 aged 10 & 9 in flu epidemic) canonized by Pope Francis at Fátima - the youngest Catholic saints not to die as martyrs
- 2018 Arsène Wenger guides Arsenal to a 1-0 win at Huddersfield in his final game as Gunners manager after 22 years in charge
- 2018 China's first domestically built aircraft carrier begins sea trials in Dalian, China
- 2018 Family of six carry out 3 church bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia, killing at least 13. Islamic State claims responsibility.
Sports History
2018 Liverpool's Egyptian soccer forward Mohamed Salah scores in a 4-0 win against Brighton to set the EPL goal scoring record (32) for a 38-game season
- 2018 Manchester City ends the EPL season with a 1-0 win at Southampton having smashed 11 Premier League records including biggest title winning margin (19 points) and most points (100)
Film & TV History
2019 Actress Felicity Huffman pleads guilty for her part in the US college admissions scandal
- 2019 China retaliates against the US as their trade war escalates, raising tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods affecting over 4,000 items
- 2019 Diary of Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt's last days rediscovered and displayed for the 400th anniversary of his execution
Anti Omar al-Bashir Protest
2019 Former President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir is charged in connection with the deaths of protesters the previous month
- 2019 New study on the moon shows it is still shrinking with recent moonquakes as it cools, published in journal "Nature Geoscience"
- 2019 Sri Lanka imposes a nationwide curfew from 9pm to 4am to curb violence against Muslims after the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks
Sports History
2019 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Greystone G &CC: Steve Stricker wins his first career major title by 6 strokes ahead of Billy Andrade, Paul Goydos & David Toms
- 2020 Every African country records cases of COVID-19 as The Kingdom of Lesotho becomes the last country on the continent to record a case
- 2021 American CDC says people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can stop wearing masks
- 2021 Gaza conflict has killed 103 people in Palestine, including 27 children, through Israeli airstrikes, more than 1000 rockets fired into Israel by Gaza militants killing seven, city of Lod center of street fighting [1]
- 2021 World's largest iceberg 'A-76' at 1,667-square-miles (4,320 square km) calves off the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica [1]
Not Like Us
2024 Kendrick Lamar's diss track "Not Like Us" becomes his 4th #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart [1]
