This Day in History

may 11th

330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.

868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book.

912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1310 – Philip IV of France has fifty-four members of the Knights Templar burned at the stake, ostensibly for heresy.

1502 – Christopher Columbus departs Cádiz on his fourth and final voyage to the Americas.

1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City.

1672 – Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Dutch Republic.

1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch–Hanoverian army.

1792 – Robert Gray commands the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River.

1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.

1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.

1833 – The Lady of the Lake strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks with the loss of up to 265 passengers and crew.

1846 – President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War. It is approved on May 13.

1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.

1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State.

1862 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River.

1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.

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.

1891 – Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia (later Nicholas II) suffers a critical head injury in an sword attack by a Japanese policeman. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark.

1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.

1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.

1918 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.

1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.

1942 – William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.

1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.

1944 – World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis powers on the Gustav Line.

1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of its crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under its own power.

1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945.

1953 – The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak kills 114.

1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.

1963 – Racist bombings in Birmingham, Alabama disrupt nonviolence in the Birmingham campaign and precipitate a crisis involving federal troops.

1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage.

1972 – The United States performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site, which was part of Operation Grommet.

1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.

1985 – Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.

1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

1995 – More than 170 countries extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.

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 Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.

1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster kills eight people.

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.

1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.

2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.

2011 – An Earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Spain.

2013 – Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

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 attempting to defuse a hostile incident.

2016 – More than 120 people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.

May 13th

1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions which are later transcribed in her Revelations of Divine Love.

1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, are officially married at Greenwich.

1568 – Battle of Langside: The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.

1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.

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 early Tennessee.

1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.

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 Mexico.

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.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca: The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.

1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.

1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.

1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery.

1909 – The first Giro d'Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.

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.

1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.

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.

1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.

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 is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.

1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.

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.

1954 – The original Broadway production of The Pajama Game opens and runs for another 1,063 performances. Later received three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Best Choreography.

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 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with 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 to end a stand-off, 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 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 – Kermit Gosnell, a U.S. abortion physician, is found guilty in Pennsylvania of three counts of murder of newborn infants, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and various other charges.[1][2] In total, more than 100 babies were killed at Gosnell's abortion clinic.

2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.

2018 – Nine people die after the suicide bombing of three Indonesian churches in Surabaya, Indonesia.

May 15th

495 BC – A newly constructed temple in honour of the god Mercury was dedicated in ancient Rome on the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills. To spite the senate and the consuls, the people awarded the dedication to a senior military officer, Marcus Laetorius.

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 has great influence among the Lombard nobility.

908 – The three-year-old Constantine VII, the son of Emperor Leo VI the Wise, is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire by Patriarch Euthymius I at Constantinople.

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.

1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third husband.

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 Treaty of Westphalia is signed.

1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.

1730 – Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1776 – American Revolution: The Fifth Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.

1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.

1792 – War of the First Coalition: France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.

1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5–6 meters, during one of the first attempted manned flights.

1796 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.

1800 – King George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity.

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.

1848 – Serfdom is abolished in the Habsburg Galicia, as a result of the 1848 revolutions. The rest of monarchy followed later in the year.

1849 – Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily.

1850 – The Bloody Island massacre takes place in Lake County, California, in which a large number of Pomo Indians are slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry.

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.

1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.

1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.

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.

1867 – Canadian Bank of Commerce opens for business in Toronto, Ontario. The bank would later merge with Imperial Bank of Canada to become what is CIBC in 1961.

1869 – Women's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.

1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 miles off Port Arthur and sinks Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons, with 496 crew and Yashima.

1905 – Las Vegas is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

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.

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.

1925 – Al-Insaniyyah, the first Arabic communist newspaper, is founded.

1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, "Plane Crazy".

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.

1934 – Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.

1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus.

1940 – World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.

1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft.

1941 – Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak.

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.

1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.

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.

1966 – After a policy dispute, Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of South Vietnam's ruling junta launches a military attack on the forces of General Tôn Thất Đính, forcing him to abandon his command.

1969 – People's Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by the University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot.

1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals.

1970 – Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.

1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

1972 – In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while he is campaigning to become President.

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.

1976 – Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes in Viktorovka, Chernihiv Raion, killing all 52 people on board.

1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.

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 premier.

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.

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.

2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

May 17th

1395 – Battle of Rovine: The Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army.

1521 – Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.

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.

1642 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve (1612–1676) founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.

1673 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

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.

1869 – Imperial Japanese forces defeat the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate in the Battle of Hakodate to end the Boshin War.

1875 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.

1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.

1900 – The children's novel the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States. The first copy is given the author's sister.

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 Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.

1933 – Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.

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.

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 Chuck E. Cheese's 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), 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 plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.

2018 – The United States Senate confirmed Gina Cheri Haspel to lead the Central Intelligence Agency becoming the first woman to hold the post on a full-time basis.

May 19th

639 – Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace.

715 – Pope Gregory II is elected.

1051 – Henry I of France is married to Anne of Kiev.

1268 – Principality of Antioch falls after sack of Antioch by Baibars.

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.

1568 – Queen Elizabeth I of England orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1997 – The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts.

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.

May 21st

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.

996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

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.

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 imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.

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 – Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki, on the island of Kyūshū, Japan's southernmost main island, erupts, creating the deadliest Megatsunami that kills 14,524 people, as also a Pyroclastic flow in 1991.

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 is abolished in Colombia, South America.

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.

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 Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.

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 – The Yuba City bus disaster occurs in Martinez, California. Twenty-nine are killed making it the deadliest road accident in U.S. history.

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 – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer buys United Artists from Transamerica Corporation for $380 million because the 1980 film Heaven's Gate failed so badly at the box office for $44 million.

1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.

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.