Events Pre-1600 1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first royal charter. 1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great. 1250 – Mamluks under Baybars murder the Ayyubid sultan Turanshah for fear of losing their privileges. 1388 – The surrender of the Acropolis of Athens to Nerio Acciaioli ends the Catalan presence in the Duchy of Athens. 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 Lochleven Castle.
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. 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. 1829 – After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of 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. 1867 – Albert Günther publishes the first study to recognise that the New Zealand tuatara is not a lizard. 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 – World War II: 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 1,000 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 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. 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 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: 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, Nigeria. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2. 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 mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted fugitive, is killed by the United States Navy SEALs 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. 2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.
Births Pre-1600 1360 – Yongle Emperor of China (died 1424) 1402 – Eleanor of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (died 1445) 1451 – René II, Duke of Lorraine (died 1508) 1458 – Eleanor of Viseu (died 1525) 1476 – Charles I, Duke of Münsterberg-Oels, Count of Kladsko, Governor of Bohemia and Silesia (died 1536) 1533 – Philip II, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (died 1596) 1551 – William Camden, English historian and topographer (died 1623) 1567 – Sebald de Weert, Dutch captain, vice-admiral of the Dutch East India Company (died 1603) 1579 – Tokugawa Hidetada, Japanese shōgun (died 1632)
1601–1900 1601 – Athanasius Kircher, German priest and scholar (died 1680) 1660 – Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (died 1725) 1695 – Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, Italian-French painter and architect (died 1766) 1702 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian and theosopher (died 1782) 1707 – Jean-Baptiste Barrière, French cellist and composer (died 1747) 1729 – Catherine the Great of Russia (died 1796) 1737 – William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Irish-English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (died 1805) 1740 – Elias Boudinot, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the Continental Congress (died 1821) 1750 – John André, English soldier and spy (died 1780) 1752 – Ludwig August Lebrun, German oboe player and composer (died 1790) 1754 – Vicente Martín y Soler, Spanish composer (died 1806) 1772 – Novalis, German author and poet (died 1801) 1773 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian philosopher and poet (died 1845) 1797 – Abraham Pineo Gesner, Canadian physician and geologist (died 1864) 1802 – Heinrich Gustav Magnus, German chemist and physicist (died 1870) 1806 – Catherine Labouré, French nun and saint (died 1876) 1810 – Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer and conductor (died 1874) 1813 – Caroline Leigh Gascoigne, English novelist and poet (died 1883) 1815 – William Buell Richards, Canadian lawyer and judge, 1st Chief Justice of Canada (died 1889) 1822 – Jane Miller Thengberg, Scottish-Swedish governess and educator (died 1902) 1828 – Désiré Charnay, French archaeologist and photographer (died 1915) 1830 – Otto Staudinger, German entomologist and author (died 1900) 1844 – Elijah McCoy, Canadian-American engineer (died 1929) 1859 – Jerome K. Jerome, English author and playwright (died 1927) 1860 – John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist, physician, and academic (died 1936) 1860 – Theodor Herzl, Austro-Hungarian Zionist philosopher, journalist and author (died 1904) 1865 – Clyde Fitch, American playwright (died 1909) 1867 – Giuseppe Morello, Italian-American mobster (died 1930) 1872 – Ichiyō Higuchi, Japanese writer (died 1896) 1873 – Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Lithuanian poet, critic, and translator (died 1944) 1879 – James F. Byrnes, American stenographer and politician, 49th United States Secretary of State (died 1972) 1880 – Bill Horr, American football player, discus thrower, and coach (died 1955) 1881 – Harry J. Capehart, American lawyer, politician, and businessperson (died 1955) 1882 – Isabel González, Puerto Rican activist who helped pave the way for Puerto Ricans' American citizenship (died 1971) 1884 – John Boland, American politician (died 1958) 1885 – Hedda Hopper, American actress and gossip columnist (died 1966) 1886 – Gottfried Benn, German author and poet (died 1956) 1887 – Vernon Castle, English-American dancer (died 1918) 1887 – Eddie Collins, American baseball player and manager (died 1951) 1889 – Ki Hajar Dewantara, Indonesian philosopher, academic, and politician (died 1959) 1890 – E. E. Smith, American engineer and author (died 1965) 1892 – Manfred von Richthofen, German captain and pilot (died 1918) 1894 – Norma Talmadge, American actress of the silent era (died 1957) 1894 – Joseph Henry Woodger, English biologist, philosopher, and academic (died 1981) 1895 – Lorenz Hart, American playwright and lyricist (died 1943) 1897 – John Frederick Coots, American songwriter (died 1985) 1898 – Henry Hall, English bandleader, composer, and actor (died 1989)
1901–present 1902 – Brian Aherne, English actor (died 1986) 1903 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician, activist, and author (died 1998) 1905 – Charlotte Armstrong, American author (died 1969) 1907 – Pinky Lee, American comedian and television host (died 1993) 1910 – Alexander Bonnyman Jr., American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1943) 1910 – Edmund Bacon, American urban planner, architect, educator, and author (died 2005) 1912 – Axel Springer, German journalist and publisher, founded Axel Springer AG (died 1985) 1912 – Marten Toonder, Dutch comic strip creator (died 2005) 1912 – Nigel Patrick, English actor and director (died 1981) 1915 – Doris Fisher, American singer-songwriter (died 2003) 1915 – Peggy Mount, English actress (died 2001) 1917 – Văn Tiến Dũng, Vietnamese general and politician, 6th Minister of Defence for Vietnam (died 2002) 1920 – Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, Scottish pianist and composer (died 1980) 1921 – B. B. Lal, Indian archaeologist (died 2022) 1921 – Satyajit Ray, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1992) 1922 – Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor and director (died 2007) 1922 – A. M. Rosenthal, Canadian-born American journalist and author (died 2006) 1923 – Patrick Hillery, Irish physician and politician, 6th President of Ireland (died 2008) 1924 – Theodore Bikel, Austrian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 2015) 1924 – Hugh Cortazzi, English soldier, historian, and diplomat, British Ambassador to Japan (died 2018) 1925 – John Neville, English-Canadian actor (died 2011) 1927 – Ray Barrett, Australian actor and singer (died 2009) 1927 – Michael Broadbent, British wine critic and writer (died 2020) 1929 – Édouard Balladur, Turkish-French economist and politician, 162nd Prime Minister of France (died 2026) 1929 – Link Wray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005) 1929 – Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan (died 1972) 1930 – Yoram Kaniuk, Israeli painter and critic (died 2013)