Events Pre-1600 455 – Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome. 1215 – Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Zhongdu. 1223 – Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River: Mongol armies of Genghis Khan led by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus' and Cumans. 1293 – Mongols depart Java after the failed Mongol invasion against King Kertanegara of Singhasari. 1578 – King Henry III lays the first stone of the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), the oldest bridge of Paris, France.Lasteyrie, R. de (1882). "Documents inédits sur la construction du Pont-Neuf," Mémoires de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'Ile de France , vol. 9 (1882), p. 47.
1601–1900 1610 – The pageant London's Love to Prince Henry on the River Thames celebrates the creation of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales.David M. Bergeron, 'Creating Entertainments for Prince Henry's Creation (1610)', Comparative Drama, vol. 42, No. 4 (Winter 2008), pp. 433–449. 1669 – Citing poor eyesight as a reason, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary. 1775 – American Revolution: The Mecklenburg Resolves are adopted in the Province of North Carolina. 1790 – Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 1790 – The United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790. 1795 – French Revolution: The Revolutionary Tribunal is suppressed. 1805 – French and Spanish forces begin the assault against British forces occupying Diamond Rock, Martinique. 1813 – In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth reach Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains. 1847 – Qajar Iran and the Ottoman Empire determine their international boundary in the second treaty of Erzurum. 1859 – The Great Clock at the Houses of Parliament (now known as the Elizabeth Tower) starts keeping time. 1862 – American Civil War: Peninsula Campaign: Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston and G.W. Smith engage Union forces under George B. McClellan outside the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. 1864 – American Civil War: Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: The Army of Northern Virginia engages the Army of the Potomac. 1879 – Gilmore's Garden in New York City is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue. 1884 – The arrival at Plymouth of Tāwhiao, King of Maoris, to claim the protection of Queen Victoria. 1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam fails and sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
1901–present 1902 – Second Boer War: The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the war and ensures British control of South Africa. 1906 – The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24. 1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), convenes for the first time. 1910 – The South Africa Act comes into force, establishing the Union of South Africa. 1911 – The RMS Titanic is launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 1911 – The President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz flees the country during the Mexican Revolution. 1916 – World War I: Battle of Jutland: The British Grand Fleet engages the High Seas Fleet in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive. 1921 – The Tulsa race massacre kills at least 39, but other estimates of black fatalities vary from 55 to about 300. 1924 – Hope Development School fire kills 24 people, mostly disabled children. 1935 – A 7.7 earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan killing 40,000. 1941 – Anglo-Iraqi War: The United Kingdom completes the re-occupation of Iraq and returns 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II. 1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia. 1947 – Ferenc Nagy, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Hungary, resigns from office after blackmail from the Hungarian Communist Party accusing him of being part of a plot against the state. This grants the Communists effective control of the Hungarian government.The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungary 1944-1953, Part 2.Communist take-over, 1946–1949 1951 – The Uniform Code of Military Justice takes effect as the legal system of the United States Armed Forces. 1955 – The U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown v. Board of Education decision by ordering district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation "at all deliberate speed." 1961 – The South African Constitution of 1961 becomes effective, thus creating the Republic of South Africa, which remains outside the Commonwealth of Nations until 1 June 1994, when South Africa is returned to Commonwealth membership. 1961 – In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet society. 1962 – The West Indies Federation dissolves. 1970 – The 7.9 Ancash earthquake shakes Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and a landslide buries the town of Yungay, Peru. Between 66,794 and 70,000 were killed and 50,000 were injured. 1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30. 1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War. 1973 – Indian Airlines Flight 440 crashes near Palam Airport in Delhi, killing 48. 1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed. 1985 – United States–Canada tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead. 1986 – The Ariane 2 rocket is launched on its maiden flight, carrying Intelsat VA F-14, but the mission ends in failure. 1991 – Bicesse Accords in Angola lay out a transition to multi-party democracy under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II peacekeeping mission. 1997 – The Confederation Bridge opens, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick. 2003 – Air France retires its fleet of Concorde aircraft. 2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was "Deep Throat". 2008 – Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, with a wind-legal (+1.7 m/s) 9.72 seconds. 2008 – Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-124 carrying the second portion of the Japanese Kibō module to the International Space Station. 2010 – Israeli Shayetet 13 commandos board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla while still in international waters trying to break the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip; nine Turkish citizens on the flotilla were killed in the ensuing violent affray. 2013 – The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries. 2013 – A record breaking 2.6 mile wide tornado strikes near El Reno, Oklahoma, United States, causing eight fatalities (including three storm chasers) and over 150 injuries. 2016 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launch the Manbij offensive, in order to capture the city of Manbij from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 2017 – A car bomb explodes in a crowded intersection in Kabul near the German embassy during rush hour, killing over 90 and injuring 463. 2019 – A shooting occurs inside a municipal building at Virginia Beach, Virginia, leaving 13 people dead, including the shooter, and four others injured. 2026 – An explosion at a Ta'ang National Liberation Army base kills 46 people.
Births
Pre-1600 1443 (or 1441) – Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (died 1509) 1462 – Philipp II, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (died 1504) 1469 – Manuel I of Portugal (died 1521) 1535 – Alessandro Allori, Italian painter (died 1607) 1556 – Jerzy Radziwiłł, Catholic cardinal (died 1600) 1577 – Nur Jahan, Empress consort of the Mughal Empire (died 1645)
1601–1900 1613 – John George II, Elector of Saxony (died 1680) 1640 – Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (died 1673) 1641 – Patriarch Dositheos II of Jerusalem (died 1707) 1725 – Ahilyabai Holkar, Queen of the Malwa Kingdom under the Maratha Empire (died 1795) 1732 – Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, Austrian archbishop (died 1812) 1753 – Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, French lawyer and politician (died 1793) 1754 – Andrea Appiani, Italian painter and educator (died 1817) 1773 – Ludwig Tieck, German poet, author, and critic (died 1853) 1801 – Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist and scholar (died 1887) 1812 – Robert Torrens, Irish-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of South Australia (died 1884)Croucher, Rosalind F. (2008) 'Delenda Est Carthago!' Sir Robert Richard Torrens and his attack on the evils of conveyancing and dependent land titles: a reflection on the sesquicentenary of the introduction of his great law reforming initiative Alex Castles Memorial Legal History Lecture for Flinders University Law School, Adelaide, 26 August 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2020. 1815 – Adye Douglas, English-Australian cricketer and politician, 15th Premier of Tasmania (died 1906) 1818 – John Albion Andrew, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1867) 1819 – Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, and journalist (died 1892) 1827 – Kusumoto Ine, first Japanese female doctor of Western medicine (died 1903) 1835 – Hijikata Toshizō, Japanese commander (died 1869) 1838 – Henry Sidgwick, English economist and philosopher (died 1900) 1842 – John Cox Bray, Australian politician, 15th Premier of South Australia (died 1894) 1847 – William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie, Canadian-Irish businessman and politician, Lord Mayor of Belfast (died 1924) 1852 – Francisco Moreno, Argentinian explorer and academic (died 1919) 1852 – Julius Richard Petri, German microbiologist, invented the Petri dish (died 1921) 1857 – Pope Pius XI (died 1939) 1858 – Graham Wallas, English socialist, social psychologist, and educationalist (died 1932) 1860 – Walter Sickert, English painter (died 1942) 1863 – Francis Younghusband, Indian-English captain and explorer (died 1942) 1866 – John Ringling, American entrepreneur; one of the founders of the Ringling Brothers Circus (died 1936) 1875 – Rosa May Billinghurst, British suffragette and women's rights activist (died 1953) 1879 – Frances Alda, New Zealand-Australian soprano (died 1952) 1882 – Sándor Festetics, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of War (died 1956) 1883 – Lauri Kristian Relander, Finnish politician, 2nd President of Finland (died 1942) 1885 – Robert Richards, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of South Australia (died 1967) 1887 – Saint-John Perse, French poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975) 1892 – Michel Kikoine, Belarusian-French painter (died 1968) 1892 – Erich Neumann, German lieutenant and politician (died 1951) 1892 – Konstantin Paustovsky, Russian poet and author (died 1968) 1892 – Gregor Strasser, German lieutenant and politician (died 1934) 1894 – Fred Allen, American comedian, radio host, game show panelist, and author (died 1956) 1898 – Norman Vincent Peale, American minister and author (died 1993) 1900 – Lucile Godbold, American athlete (died 1981)
1901–present 1901 – Alfredo Antonini, Italian-American conductor and composer (died 1983) 1908 – Don Ameche, American actor (died 1993) 1909 – Art Coulter, Canadian-American ice hockey player (died 2000) 1911 – Maurice Allais, French economist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2010) 1912 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American experimental physicist (died 1997) 1912 – Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson, American politician (died 1983)