Events Pre-1600 1381 – Beginning of the Peasants' Revolt in England. 1416 – The Council of Constance, called by Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy. 1431 – Hundred Years' War: In Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. 1434 – Hussite Wars: Battle of Lipany: End of the war, the Utraquist defeat and annihilate Taborite forces. 1510 – During the reign of the Zhengde Emperor, Ming dynasty rebel leader Zhu Zhifan is defeated by commander Qiu Yue, ending the Prince of Anhua rebellion. 1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives. 1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold. 1574 – Henry III becomes King of France. 1588 – The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.
1601–1900 1631 – Publication of Gazette de France, the first French newspaper. 1635 – Thirty Years' War: The Peace of Prague is signed. 1642 – From this date all honors granted by Charles I of England are retroactively annulled by Parliament. 1723 – Johann Sebastian Bach assumes the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting his first new cantata, , in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after Trinity. 1796 – War of the First Coalition: In the Battle of Borghetto, Napoleon Bonaparte manages to cross the Mincio River against the Austrian army. This crossing forces the Austrians to abandon Lombardy and retreat to the Tyrol, leaving the fortress of Mantua as the sole remaining Austrian stronghold in Northern Italy. 1806 – Future U.S. President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel. 1814 – The First Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1792 extent, and restoring the House of Bourbon to power. 1815 – The East Indiaman Arniston is wrecked during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, in present-day South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives. 1834 – Minister of Justice Joaquim António de Aguiar issues a law seizing "all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices and any other houses" from the Catholic religious orders in Portugal, earning him the nickname of "The Friar-Killer". 1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with Prince Albert. 1845 – The Fatel Razack, coming from India, lands in the Gulf of Paria in Trinidad and Tobago carrying the first Indians to the country. 1854 – The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law, establishing the U.S. territories of Kansas and Nebraska. 1862 – American Civil War: The Siege of Corinth ends in a Union victory, with General Henry Halleck capturing the critical rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi from retreating Confederate forces under General P. G. T. Beauregard. 1866 – Bedrich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride premieres in Prague. 1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time after a proclamation by John A. Logan, head of the Grand Army of the Republic (a veterans group). 1876 – Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murad V. 1876 – The secret decree of Ems Ukaz is issued by Russian Tsar Alexander II in the German city of Bad Ems, aimed at stopping the printing and distribution of Ukrainian-language publications in the Russian Empire. 1883 – In New York City, 12 people are killed in a stampede on the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge. 1899 – Pearl Hart, a female outlaw of the Old West, robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.
1901–present 1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race. 1913 – The Treaty of London is signed, ending the First Balkan War between the Balkan allies and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans cede all their European territories west of a straight line between Enos and Media and Albania becomes an independent nation. 1914 – The new, and then the largest, Cunard ocean liner , 45,647 tons, sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City. 1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. 1925 – May Thirtieth Movement: Shanghai Municipal Police Force shoot and kill 13 protesting workers. 1937 – Memorial Day massacre: Chicago police shoot and kill ten labor demonstrators. 1941 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb the Athenian Acropolis and tear down the German flag. 1942 – World War II: One thousand British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany. 1943 – The Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Zigeunerfamilienlager (Romani family camp) at Auschwitz concentration camp. 1948 – A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless. 1958 – Memorial Day: The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. 1959 – The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham. 1961 – The long-time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 1961 – Viasa Flight 897 crashes after takeoff from Lisbon Airport, killing 61. 1963 – A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination during the Buddhist crisis is held outside South Vietnam's National Assembly, the first open demonstration during the eight-year presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem. 1966 – Former Congolese Prime Minister, Évariste Kimba, and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu. 1967 – The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war. 1968 – Charles de Gaulle reappears publicly after his flight to Baden-Baden, West Germany, and dissolves the French National Assembly by a radio appeal. Immediately after, less than one million of his supporters march on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is the turning point of the May 1968 events in France. 1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars. 1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout the United Kingdom. 1972 – In Ben Gurion Airport (at the time: Lod Airport), Israel, members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others. 1974 – The Airbus A300 passenger aircraft first enters service. 1975 – The European Space Agency is established. 1979 – Downeast Airlines Flight 46 crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17. 1982 – Cold War: Spain joins NATO. 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 10-metre high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators. 1990 – Croatian Parliament is constituted after the first free, multi-party elections, today celebrated as the National Day of Croatia. 1998 – The 6.5 Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province of northern Afghanistan with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), killing around 4,000–4,500. 1998 – Nuclear Testing: Pakistan conducts an underground test in the Kharan Desert. It is reported to be a plutonium device with yield of 20kt TNT equivalent. 1999 – 53 people are killed in a stampede at the Nyamiha metro station in Minsk, Belarus. 2003 – Depayin massacre: At least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy are killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi flees the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards. 2008 – Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted. 2008 – TACA Flight 390 overshoots the runway at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and crashes, killing five people. 2012 – Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War. 2013 – Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage. 2020 – Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches from Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch from the United States since 2011 and the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. 2024 – Donald Trump is convicted of falsifying business records in his New York trial, the first time a former President of the United States has been found guilty in a criminal case.
Births Pre-1600 1010 – Ren Zong, Chinese emperor (died 1063) 1201 – Theobald IV, count of Champagne (died 1253) 1423 – Georg von Peuerbach, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1461) 1464 – Barbara of Brandenburg, Bohemian queen (died 1515) 1580 – Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza (died 1634) 1599 – Samuel Bochart, French Protestant biblical scholar (died 1667)
1601–1900 1623 – John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (died 1686) 1686 – Antonina Houbraken, Dutch illustrator (died 1736) 1718 – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (died 1793) 1719 – Roger Newdigate, English politician (died 1806) 1757 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1844) 1768 – Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty, French general (died 1815) 1797 – Georg Amadeus Carl Friedrich Naumann, German mineralogist and geologist (died 1873) 1800 – Henri-Marie-Gaston Boisnormand de Bonnechose, French cardinal (died 1883) 1814 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian philosopher and theorist (died 1876) 1814 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian-French mathematician and academic (died 1894) 1819 – William McMurdo, English general (died 1894) 1820 – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Quebec (died 1890) 1835 – Alfred Austin, English author, poet, and playwright (died 1913) 1844 – Félix Arnaudin, French poet and photographer (died 1921) 1845 – Amadeo I, Spanish king (died 1890) 1846 – Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (died 1920) 1862 – Mirza Alakbar Sabir, Azerbaijani philosopher and poet (died 1911) 1869 – Grace Andrews, American mathematician (died 1951) 1874 – Ernest Duchesne, French physician (died 1912) 1875 – Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher and academic (died 1944) 1879 – Colin Blythe, English cricketer and soldier (died 1917) 1879 – Konstantin Ramul, Estonian psychologist and academic (died 1975) 1881 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (died 1968) 1882 – Wyndham Halswelle, English runner and soldier (died 1915) 1883 – Sandy Pearce, Australian rugby league player (died 1930) 1884 – Siegmund Glücksmann, German soldier and politician (died 1942) 1885 – Villem Grünthal-Ridala, Estonian poet and linguist (died 1942) 1886 – Laurent Barré, Canadian lawyer and politician (died 1964) 1886 – Randolph Bourne, American theorist and author (died 1918) 1887 – Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor and illustrator (died 1964) 1887 – Emil Reesen, Danish pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1964) 1890 – Roger Salengro, French soldier and politician, French Minister of the Interior (died 1936) 1892 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (died 1972) 1894 – Hubertus van Mook, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (died 1965) 1895 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (died 1956) 1896 – Howard Hawks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1977) 1897 – Frank Wise, Australian politician, 16th Premier of Western Australia (died 1986)