Events

Up to 1950 
 585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
 1453 – The last Christian service takes place in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, before it becomes a Mosque.
 1503 – James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor are married by Pope Alexander VI according to Papal Bull.
 1503 – The Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England is signed. It lasts 10 years.
 1539 – Hernando de Soto lands in Florida.
 1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port).
 1754 – French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party at Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette Couty in southwestern Pennsylvania.
 1774 – American Revolutionary War: The first Continental Congress convenes.
 1812 - The Peace of Bucharest ends the Russo-Turkish War, giving more territory to Russia.
 1830 – US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act.
 1863 – American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts, to fight for the Union.
 1864 - The Montana Territory is created out of the northeastern part of the Idaho Territory.
 1871 - The Paris Commune falls.
 1892 – In San Francisco, California, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club.
 1900 – The Orange Free State is declared a British colony.
 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Togo Heihachiro and the Imperial Japanese Navy.
 1907 - The first Isle of Man TT motorbike race is held.
 1918 – The first Republic of Armenia declares its statehood.
 1918 – Independence day in the Azerbaijan Republic.
 1926 – Military dictatorship established in Portugal to suppress the unrest of the First Republic.
 1930 – The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.
 1932 - In the Netherlands, building work on the Afluitdijk is completed, and Zuiderzee Bay is converted to the freshwater Ijsselmeer.
 1934 – The Glyndebourne festival in England is inaugurated.
 1934 - The Dionne Quintuplets are born near Callander, Ontario, Canada.
 1936 – Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication.
 1937 – The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC, who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span.
 1937 – Neville Chamberlain becomes British Prime Minister.
 1940 – World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany.
 1940 – World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik. First allied infantry victory in WW2.
 1942 – World War II: In retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people.

1951  2000 
 1951 - British radio comedy programme The Goon Show is broadcast on the BBC for the first time.
 1952 – In Greece, women are given the right to vote.
 1959 – NASA's Mercury space programme: Two monkeys survive a space flight.
 1961 – Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
 1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed.
 1970 - The University of Brussels is split in two over a language dispute, creating one Dutch language one and one French language one.
 1974 – Northern Ireland's power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement collapses following a general strike by loyalists.
 1975 – Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, thus creating the Economic Community of West African States.
 1977 – In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 people inside.
 1979 - Konstantinos Karamanlis signs the full treaty of accession with the European Economic Community.
 1982 – Falklands War: British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green.
 1987 – 19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet Union air defenses and lands a private plane in Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained and is not released until August 3, 1988.
 1987 – A robot probe finds the wreckage of the USS Monitor near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
 1991 – Ethiopia: End of the Derg regime and of the Ethiopian Civil War.
 1993 – Eritrea and Monaco join the UN.
 1993 - Edmund Stoiber becomes Prime Minister of Bavaria.
 1995 – The Russian town of Neftegorsk is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that kills at least 2,000 people, 2/3 of total population.
 1996 - Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal, Susan McDougal and former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud.
 1998 – Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
 1999 – In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's newly restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.
 2000 – The volcano Mount Cameroon erupts.

From 2001 
 2003 – Peter Hollingworth resigns as Governor-General of Australia.
 2004 – Ayad Allawi is selected to lead an interim government in Iraq.
 2004 – The cable TV channels TechTV and G4 merge.
 2008 – Nepal becomes a Republic.
 2010 - A train crash in West Bengal, India, kills 141 people.
 2011 - A referendum is held in Malta on the introduction of divorce in the country. Most voters support the proposal.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1140 – Xin Qiji, Chinese poet (d. 1207)
 1371 – John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1419)
 1524 – Selim II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1574)
 1641 – Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Slovenian polymath (d. 1693)
 1656 - Anton Florian, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1721)
 1660 – King George I of Great Britain (d. 1727)
 1676 - Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (d. 1754)
 1692 – Joseph Butler, English philosopher (d. 1752)
 1692 – Geminiano Giacomelli, Italian composer (d. 1741)
 1738 – Joseph Ignace Guillotin, French physician (d. 1814)
 1743 - Johann David Wyss, Swiss minister and writer (d. 1818)
 1759 – William Pitt the Younger, British Prime Minister (d. 1806)
 1763 – Manuel Alberti, Argentine priest and politician (d. 1811)
 1764 - Edward Livingston, 11th United States Secretary of State (d. 1836)
 1779 – Thomas Moore, Irish writer (d. 1852)
 1786 - Louis McLane, 12th United States Secretary of State (d. 1857)

1801  1900 
 1807 – Louis Agassiz, Swiss geologist (d. 1873)
 1818 – P.G.T. Beauregard, American Confederate General (d. 1893)
 1836 – Alexander Mitscherlich, German chemist (d. 1918)
 1841 - Sakaigawa Namiemon, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1887)
 1853 – Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919)
 1854 – German Riesco Erazuriz, President of Chile (d. 1916)
 1858 – Carl Richard Nyberg, Swedish inventor (d. 1939)
 1872 – Marian Smoluchowski, Polish physicist (d. 1917)
 1877 – Maximilian Voloshin, Russian poet and painter (d. 1932)
 1879 – Milutin Milankovic, Serbian geophysicist (d. 1958)
 1883 - Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Indian poet and politician (d. 1966)
 1883 - Clough Williams-Ellis, British architect (d. 1978)
 1884 – Edvard Beneš, Czechoslovakian politician (d. 1948)
 1888 – Jim Thorpe, American athlete (d. 1953)
 1888 – Kaarel Eenpalu, Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1942)
 1889 – Richard Réti, Austrian-Czech chess player (d. 1929)
 1892 – Josef Dietrich, Nazi officer (d. 1966)
 1900 - Pak Hon-Yong, Korean politician (d. 1956)
 1900 - Taffy Abel, American ice hockey player (d. 1964)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Roy Dowling, Australian naval officer (d. 1969)
 1906 - Wolf Albach-Retty, Austrian-German actor (d. 1967)
 1908 – Ian Fleming, British writer, creator of James Bond (d. 1964)
 1910 – T-Bone Walker, American singer (d. 1975)
 1910 – Rachel Kempson, British actress (d. 2003)
 1911 – Thora Hird, British actress (d. 2003)
 1912 – Patrick White, Australian writer (d. 1990)
 1912 - Ruby Payne-Scott, Australian radio astronomer and physicist (d. 1981)
 1915 - Joseph Greenberg, American linguist (d. 2001)
 1916 - Ray Fox, American NASCAR engine builder and team owner (d. 2014)
 1916 – Walker Percy, American writer (d. 1990)
 1917 – Papa John Creach, American musician (d. 1994)
 1917 - Barry Commoner, American biologist and politician (d. 2012)
 1918 – Johnny Wayne, Canadian comedian (d. 1990)
 1921 - Tom Uren, Australian politician (d. 2015)
 1923 – György Ligeti, Hungarian composer (d. 2006)
 1923 – N. T. Rama Rao, Indian actor, movie director and politician (d. 1996)
 1924 - Edward du Cann, English politician (d. 2017)
 1925 – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone and conductor (d. 2012)
 1925 – Bülent Ecevit, Turkish politician (d. 2006)
 1928 - Sally Forrest, American actress (d. 2015)
 1930 – Frank Drake, American astronomer and astrophysicist
 1930 - Edward Seaga, 5th Prime Minister of Jamaica (d. 2019)
 1931 - Gordon Willis, American cinematographer (d. 2014)
 1931 – Carroll Baker, American actress
 1932 - Chiquito de la Calzada, Spanish singer and actor (d. 2017)
 1933 - Zelda Rubinstein, American actress (d. 2010)
 1934 - Bill Baillie, New Zealand long-distance runner
 1934 – Dionne Quintuplets
 1935 - Anne Reid, English actress
 1936 – Betty Shabazz, American activist (d. 1997)
 1938 – Jerry West, American basketball player
 1939 - Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist (d. 2012)
 1939 - Theodore J. Sophocleus, American politician (d. 2018)
 1941 - Beth Howland, American actress (d. 2015)
 1942 – Stanley B. Prusiner, American neurologist
 1944 - Jean-Pierre Léaud, French actor and director
 1944 – Gladys Knight, American singer and actress
 1944 - Sondra Locke, American actress (d. 2018)
 1944 – Rudy Giuliani, American politician, 107th Mayor of New York City
 1945 - Patch Adams, American doctor and activist
 1945 - John Fogerty, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
 1947 – Zahi Hawass, Egyptian Egyptologist
 1949 - Sue Holderness, English actress

1951  1975 
 1952 - Denis Akiyama, Canadian actor (d. 2018)
 1953 - Arto Lindsay, American guitarist, singer and producer
 1954 – Andy Hamilton, English comedian
 1954 - John Tory, 65th Mayor of Toronto
 1955 – John McGeoch, Scottish musician (d. 2004)
 1956 – Francis Joyon, French sailor
 1957 - Ben Harland, American basketball player and coach
 1958 - Jerry Douglas, American country musician
 1959 - Steve Strange, Welsh singer (d. 2015)
 1960 – Mark Sanford, American politician, former Governor of South Carolina
 1961 – Michelle Collins, British actress
 1964 – David Baddiel, British comedian and television presenter
 1965 - Mary Coughlan, Irish politician
 1966 - Ashley Laurence, American actress
 1967 - Emma Kennedy, British actress
 1967 - Glen Rice, American basketball player
 1968 
 Kylie Minogue, Australian singer and actress
 Tetsu Nagasawa, Japanese footballer & manager
 1969 – Justin Kirk, American actor
 1969 – Rob Ford, 64th Mayor of Toronto (d. 2016)
 1970 - Glenn Quinn, Irish actor (d. 2002)
 1971 – Marco Rubio, American politician and United States Senator for Florida
 1971 – Ekaterina Gordeeva, Russian figure skater
 1971 – Charles Warrington, American professional wrestler
 1971 - Isabelle Carré, French actress
 1972 - Chiara Mastroianni, French actress and singer
 1972 – Doriva, Brazilian footballer
 1974 – Hans-Jörg Butt, German footballer

From 1976 
 1977 - Elisabeth Hasselbeck, American talk show host and author
 1978 – Tomohiko Ito, Japanese footballer
 1979 - Monica Keena, American actress
 1980 – Mark Feehily, Irish singer (Westlife)
 1980 – Miguel Pérez, Spanish footballer
 1981 – Adam Green, American musician
 1981 – Gábor Talmácsi, Hungarian motorcycle racer
 1982 - Alexa Davalos, French-American actress
 1983 – Megalyn Echikunwoke, American actress
 1983 – Steve Cronin, American soccer player
 1983 – Humberto Sanchez, Dominican baseball player
 1983 - Roman Atwood, American YouTube personality
 1985 – Colbie Caillat, American singer
 1985 – Carey Mulligan, English actress
 1986 - Seth Rollins, American professional wrestler
 1986 – Charles N'Zogbia, French footballer
 1988 - Craig Kimbrel, American baseball player
 1988 - Meisa Kuroki, Japanese singer, model and actress
 1990 – Kyle Walker, English footballer
 1991 - Alexandre Lacazette, French footballer
 1992 - Huang Qiushuang, Chinese gymnast
 1993 - Jonnie Peacock, English athlete
 1994 - John Stones, English footballer
 1994 - Son Yeon-jae, South Korean gymnast
 1998 – Riho Sayashi, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
 1999 – Cameron Boyce, American actor (d. 2019)

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 576 - Germain of Paris, French bishop and saint (b. 496)
 1023 - Wulfstan, English archbishop
 1357 – King Alfonso IV of Portugal (b. 1291)
 1672 - John Trevor, Welsh politician (b. 1626)
 1750 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (b. 1720)
 1758 - Ernest Augustus II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (b. 1737)
 1787 – Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1719)
 1805 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist (b. 1743)
 1811 – Henry Dundas, Scottish politician (b. 1742)
 1816 – Ras Wolde Selassie, Ethiopian warlord (b. 1745)
 1836 - Anton Reicha, Bohemian composer (b. 1770)
 1843 – Noah Webster, American writer and lexicographer (b. 1758)
 1849 – Anne Brontë, English writer (b. 1820)
 1864 – Simion Barnutiu, Romanian philosopher and politician (b. 1808)
 1872 - Princess Sophie of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria (b. 1805)
 1878 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)
 1895 - Walter Q. Gresham, United States Secretary of State (b. 1832)

1901  2000 
 1916 – Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (b. 1856)
 1925 – Joao Pinheiro Chagas, Portuguese politician (b. 1863)
 1927 – Boris Kustodiev, Russian painter (b. 1878)
 1936 - Bertha Pappenheim, Austrian-German women's rights activist (b. 1859)
 1940 – Prince Frederik Charles of Hesse (b. 1868)
 1940 - Walter Connolly, American actor (b. 1887)
 1946 - Carter Glass, American politician (b. 1858)
 1948 – Unity Mitford, British Fascist sympathiser (b. 1914)
 1952 - Philippe Desranleau, Canadian archbishop (b. 1882)
 1953 - Tatsuo Hori, Japanese author and poet (b. 1904)
 1968 – Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, Soviet sniper (b. 1908)
 1968 - Kees van Dongen, Dutch painter (b. 1877)
 1971 - Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor (b. 1924)
 1972 – King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)
 1975 - Ezzard Charles, American boxer (b. 1921)
 1981 - Stefan Wyszynski, Polish cardinal (b. 1901)
 1981 – Mary Lou Williams, American singer (b. 1910)
 1983 - Erastus Corning 2nd, 72nd Mayor of Albany, New York (b. 1909)
 1984 – Eric Morecambe, British comedian (b. 1926)
 1993 - Ugo Locatelli, Italian footballer (b. 1916)
 1994 - Julius Boros, American golfer (b. 1920)
 1998 – Phil Hartman, Canadian actor and comedian (b. 1948)
 1999 - Henry Carlsson, Swedish footballer (b. 1917)
 2000 - Donald Davies, English physicist (b. 1924)

From 2001 
 2001 – Francisco Varela, Chilean biologist and philosopher (b. 1946)
 2003 – Oleg Makarov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1933)
 2003 – Ilya Prigogine, Russian-Belgian physicist, philosopher and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1917)
 2003 – Martha Scott, American actress (b. 1912)
 2004 - Umberto Agnelli, Swiss-Italian businessman and politician (b. 1934)
 2006 – Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian ski jumper (b. 1920)
 2008 – Beryl Cook, English painter (b. 1926)
 2010 – Gary Coleman, American actor (b. 1968)
 2013 – Viktor Kulikov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1921)
 2014 - Maya Angelou, American novelist, poet and activist (b. 1928)
 2014 - Bob Houbregs, Canadian basketball player (b. 1932)
 2014 - Azlan Shah of Perak, 9th Yang-di Pertuan Agong (Head of State) of Malaysia and Sultan of Perak (b. 1928)
 2014 - Malcolm Glazer, American businessman and sports team owner (Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United) (b. 1928)
 2014 - Ciro de Quadros, Brazilian physician (b. 1940)
 2015 - Reynaldo Rey, American actor and comedian (b. 1940)
 2016 - Giorgio Albertazzi, Italian actor (b. 1923)
 2016 - Stanley Burke, Canadian television journalist (b. 1923)
 2016 - David Cañada, Spanish cyclist (b. 1975)
 2016 - Bryce Dejean-Jones, American basketball player (b. 1992)
 2016 - Marion Lambert, Belgian-Swiss art collector (b. 1943)
 2016 - Harambe, American-bred Western lowland gorilla (b. 1999)
 2017 - John Noakes, English television presenter (b. 1934)
 2017 - Frank Deford, American sportswriter, novelist and radio broadcaster (b. 1938)
 2017 - Ervin E. Dupper, American politician (b. 1923)
 2017 - Graham Webb, British cyclist (b. 1944)
 2018 - Pippo Caruso, Italian composer (b. 1935)
 2018 - Neale Cooper, Scottish footballer (b. 1963)
 2018 - Serge Dassault, French businessman (b. 1925)
 2018 - Semavi Eyice, Turkish art historian (b. 1922)
 2018 - Cornelia Frances, British-Australian actress (b. 1941)
 2018 - Dick Quax, Dutch-New Zealand athlete and politician (b. 1948)
 2018 - Jens Christian Skou, Danish physician (b. 1918)
 2018 - Michel Stolker, Dutch cyclist (b. 1933)
 2018 - Ola Ullsten, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1931)
 2018 - María Dolores Pradera, Spanish actress and singer (b. 1924)
 2018 - Michel Stolker, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1933)
 2019 - Khoo Kay Kim, Malaysian historian (b. 1937)
 2019 - Apolo Nsibambi, 8th Prime minister of Uganda (b. 1940)
 2019 - Edward Seaga, 5th Prime minister of Jamaica (b. 1930)
 2019 - Carmine Caridi, American actor (b. 1934)
 2019 - Dennis Etchison, American novelist, editor and screenwriter (b. 1943)
 2019 - Jean Juventin, French politician (b. 1928)
 2019 - Walter Wolfgang, German-British socialist and peace activist (b. 1923)

Observances 
 Republic Day (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nepal)
 Flag Day (Philippines)
 Armed Forces Day (Croatia)
 Downfall of the Derg (Ethiopia)

Days of the year