Events Pre-1600 113 – Roman emperor Trajan dedicates a column celebrating and depicting his victory over the Dacians. 254 – Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I, becoming the 23rd pope of the Catholic Church, and immediately takes a stand against Novatianism. 907 – Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule. 1157 – A church council presided over by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos in the Palace of Blachernae investigates the orthodoxy of the patriarch of Antioch, Soterichos Panteugenos. 1191 – Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus; 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. 1497 – Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.Brief of Pope Alexander VI excommunicating Savonarola: The History of Girolamo Savonarola and of His Times, Pasquale Villari, Leonard Horner, trans., London, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1863, Volume 2, pp.392–394. 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. 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, conquer the city of Kuopio from Russians after the Battle of Kuopio. 1809 – British contingents under Arthur Wellesley force a French army under general Soult to retreat in the battle of Oporto. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 1933 – President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 1937 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom are crowned 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 . 1949 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, United States, kills eight people and injures more than 200. 2015 – Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3,500. 2017 – The WannaCry ransomware attack impacts over 400,000 computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom's National Health Services and Telefónica computers. 2018 – Paris knife attack: A man is fatally shot by police in Paris after killing one and injuring several others. 2024 – Middle/end of the May 2024 solar storms, the most powerful set of geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.
Births Pre-1600 1325 – Rupert II, Elector Palatine (died 1398) 1401 – Emperor Shōkō of Japan (died 1428) 1479 – Pompeo Colonna, Catholic cardinal (died 1532) 1496 – Gustav I of Sweden (died 1560) 1590 – Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1621)
1601–1900 1606 – Joachim von Sandrart, German art-historian and painter (died 1688) 1622 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, French-Canadian soldier and politician, third Governor General of New France (died 1698) 1626 – Louis Hennepin, Flemish priest and missionary (died 1705) 1670 – Augustus II the Strong, Polish king (died 1733) 1700 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect and engineer, designed the Palace of Caserta and Royal Palace of Milan (died 1773) 1725 – Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (died 1785) 1739 – Johann Baptist Wanhal, Czech-Austrian organist and composer (died 1813) 1754 – Franz Anton Hoffmeister, German composer and publisher (died 1812) 1755 – Giovanni Battista Viotti, Italian violinist and composer (died 1824) 1767 – Manuel Godoy, Spanish field marshal and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (died 1851) 1774 – Ellis Cunliffe Lister, English politician (died 1853) 1776 – José de La Mar, Peruvian military leader, President of Peru (died 1830) 1777 – Mary Reibey, Australian businesswoman (died 1855) 1803 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (died 1873) 1804 – Robert Baldwin, Canadian lawyer and politician, third Premier of West Canada (died 1858) 1806 – Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish philosopher and politician (died 1881) 1812 – Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (died 1888) 1814 – Adolf von Henselt, German pianist and composer (died 1889) 1820 – Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse, social reformer, and statistician (died 1910) 1825 – Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, French lawyer and explorer (died 1878) 1828 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (died 1882) 1829 – Pavlos Carrer, Greek composer and educator (died 1896) 1839 – Tôn Thất Thuyết, Vietnamese mandarin (died 1913) 1840 – Alejandro Gorostiaga, Chilean colonel (died 1912) 1842 – Jules Massenet, French composer (died 1912) 1845 – Gabriel Fauré, French pianist, composer, and educator (died 1924) 1850 – Henry Cabot Lodge, American historian and politician (died 1924) 1850 – Frederick Holder, Australian politician, 19th Premier of South Australia (died 1909) 1859 – William Alden Smith, American lawyer and politician (died 1932) 1859 – Frank Wilson, English-Australian politician, ninth Premier of Western Australia (died 1918) 1863 – Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Bengali writer, painter, violin player and composer, technologist and entrepreneur (died 1915) 1867 – Hugh Trumble, Australian cricketer and accountant (died 1938) 1869 – Carl Schuhmann, German gymnast, wrestler, and weightlifter (died 1946) 1872 – Anton Korošec, Slovenian priest and politician, tenth Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (died 1940) 1873 – J. E. H. MacDonald, English-Canadian painter (died 1932) 1874 – Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian pediatrician and immunologist (died 1929) 1875 – Charles Holden, English architect, designed the Bristol Central Library (died 1960) 1880 – Lincoln Ellsworth, American explorer (died 1951) 1885 – Paltiel Daykan, Lithuanian-Israeli lawyer and jurist (died 1969) 1886 – Ernst A. Lehmann, German captain and pilot (died 1937) 1889 – Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (died 1967) 1889 – Otto Frank, German-Swiss businessman and Holocaust survivor; father of diarist Anne Frank (died 1980) 1892 – Fritz Kortner, Austrian-German actor and director (died 1970) 1895 – William Giauque, Canadian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1982) 1895 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian-American philosopher and author (died 1986) 1897 – Earle Nelson, American serial killer and rapist (died 1928) 1899 – Indra Devi, pioneer of Yoga (died 2002) 1900 – Helene Weigel, Austrian-German actress (died 1971)
1901–present 1903 – Wilfrid Hyde-White, English actor (died 1991) 1907 – Leslie Charteris, English author and screenwriter (died 1993) 1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (died 2003) 1908 – Nicholas Kaldor, Hungarian-English economist (died 1986) 1910 – Johan Ferrier, Surinamese educator and politician, first President of Suriname (died 2010)