- 295 Eighth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
- 850 Günther becomes bishop of Cologne
- 1139 Second Lateran Council (10th ecumenical council) opens in Rome
1290 Round Table tournament held near Winchester, England, in imitation of King Arthur, to commemorate betrothal of daughter of Edward I, and attended by the king
Siege of Constantinople
1453 Four Christian ships break the siege of Constantinople and enter the Golden Horn lifting the morale of the defenders and embarrassing Sultan Mehmed II
- 1505 Jews are expelled from Orange, Burgundy, by Philibert of Luxembourg
Cartier Sails for Newfoundland
1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail with two ships from Saint-Malo for Newfoundland, tasked by Francis I to look for gold and riches [1]
Sun Dog in Stockholm
1535 Stockholm experiences the atmospheric optical phenomenon called a Sun Dog or parhelion over the city, prompting omens against King Gustav Vasa
Only Shakespeare Performance of Macbeth
1611 Only documented performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" during the playwright's lifetime occurs at the Globe Theatre, London, in notes reviewing the play by astrologer Simon Forman [1]
- 1650 Dutch East India Company (VOC) management sets new guidelines
Cromwell Dissolves Parliament
1653 Oliver Cromwell and 40 musketeers forcibly dissolve the English Rump Parliament, after it failed to establish a caretaker government. In Cromwell's words "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... In the name of God, go!" [1]
- 1657 Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet
Siege of Derry
1689 The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry
- 1702 Comet C/1702 H1 passes within 0.0437 AU of Earth
- 1715 Nicholas Rowe's play "The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey" premieres in London
Geodesic Mission to Lapland
1736 French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis begins Lapland expedition to measure latitude and shape of the earth, joined by fellow scientists Anders Celsius, Charles Etienne Louis Camus, Alexis Clairaut, and Pierre-Charles Le Monnier
- 1777 New York adopts a new constitution as an independent state
- 1785 Thomas Warton is appointed the eighth British Poet Laureate by King George III
French Revolutionary Wars
1792 Amidst the French Revolution, France declares war on Austria and Prussia, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars
- 1799 Friedrich von Schiller's play "Wallensteins Tod" premieres in Weimar
Battle of Abensberg
1809 Napoleon I and French forces defeat Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
- 1810 The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain
- 1818 Napoleon Bonaparte bids emotional farewell to his old guard at Palace of Fontainebleau
- 1828 Frenchman René Caillié is the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu and returns to win a 10,000 franc prize from the Société de Géographie
- 1836 The Wisconsin Territory is established
1st Pasteurization Test
1862 First pasteurization test is completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
- 1865 Crosby Opera House opens in Chicago, Illinois; destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871
- 1871 US 3rd Enforcement Act confirms ability of President to suspend writ of habeas corpus
- 1879 First mobile home (horse-drawn) used in a journey from London to Cyprus
On Freemasonry
1884 Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical "On Freemasonry"
- 1894 136,000 miners in Ohio strike for higher wages
- 1898 The US Assay Office opens in Deadwood, Dakota Territory
- 1899 David Beatty is appointed executive officer of the HMS Barfleur, a small battleship and flagship of the China Station
- 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St. Louis
- 1908 Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League
- 1910 Cleveland Naps Addie Joss 2nd no-hitter, beats Chicago, 1-0
- 1910 Halley's Comet reaches its 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km from the Sun
- 1912 Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts officially opens, Red Sox beat visitibg New York Highlanders 7-6 in 11 innings
- 1912 Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan opens, Tigers beat visiting Cleveland Indians 6-5
- 1914 Ludlow Massacre: Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) security team and Colorado National Guard soldiers kill 21 workers, women and children during mine strike in Ludlow, Colorado
- 1914 US President W Wilson, having dispatched more naval ships to Mexico, asks a joint session of Congress to approve armed force if necessary; Congress approves
- 1915 Ottoman soldiers lay siege to the Armenian city of Van during World War I
- 1915 The Armenians rise and seize the Turkish town of Van, which they hold until Russians relieve them on 19 May; thousands of Armenians are killed
- 1916 Chicago Cubs play their 1st game at Weeghman Park (now Wrigley Field) and beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6
- 1916 German-British naval battle off the Belgian coast
The Red Baron
1918 Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day
- 1919 King Nicholas of Montenegro abdicates under duress
- 1919 Polish forces capture Vilnius in Lithuania from the Soviet Army
- 1920 Big Show ends a two-year run on NBC radio
- 1920 Phillies manager Gravvy Cravath puts himself in as pinch hitter, his 3- run homer beats NY Giants 3-0
- 1920 Tornadoes kill 219 people in Alabama and Mississippi
- 1926 First check sent by radio facsimile transmission across the Atlantic
- 1931 British House of Commons agrees to allow sports to be played on Sunday
Himmler Appointed Chief of Police
1934 Heinrich Himmler is appointed chief of all German police including the Prussian secret state police
- 1935 "Your Hit Parade" begins broadcasting (becomes #1 quickly)
- 1936 Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
- 1939 Ted Williams' first MLB hit comes off of NY Yankees fellow future HOF'er Red Ruffing in Boston's 2-0 opening day defeat at Yankee Stadium, NYC
- 1940 1st electron microscope demonstrated (RCA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [1]
- 1941 100 German bombers attack Athens
- 1941 Dodgers start to wear liners in their caps
- 1942 Nazi German occupiers forbid Dutch access to their beach
- 1943 Braves manager Casey Stengel is struck by a taxi, fractures a leg
- 1944 Dutch Communist Party resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death
- 1944 NFL legalizes coaching from bench
- 1945 Cleveland Browns organization formed by Arthur "Mickey" McBride
- 1945 Nazi German occupiers flood Beemster & Fencer
- 1945 Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin
- 1945 US 7th army captured German city of Nuremberg
- 1945 US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
- 1946 First baseball broadcast in Chicago, Cardinals vs. Cubs
Make Mine Music
1946 Walt Disney's animated film anthology "Make Mine Music" premieres in New York City
- 1947 Frederik IX becomes King of Denmark
- 1948 NYC hikes subway fare from 5 cents to 10 cents
- 1948 Walter P. Reuther UAW President shot & wounded at his home in Detroit
- 1949 American jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 1st race, in Albany, California
- 1951 4th Cannes Film Festival: "Miss Julie" directed by Alf Sjoberg and "Miracle in Milan" directed by Vittorio De Sica jointly awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
- 1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll
- 1951 Velsen city council demands investigation of police collaborators
- 1958 Morocco demands departure of Spanish troops
- 1958 Stanley Cup Final, Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Montreal Canadiens' 3-peat; beat Boston Bruins, 5-3 for a 4-2 for series win
- 1961 American Harold Graham makes 1st rocket belt flight
X-15 Altitude Record
1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong flies the experimental X-15 aircraft to an altitude of 63,250 meters
- 1962 New Orleans Citizens Co gives free 1-way ride to blacks to move North
- 1962 OAS-leader ex-general Salan arrested in Algiers
- 1963 -30] All Africa Conferences of Churches opens in Kampala Uganda
- 1964 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools
- 1965 People's Republic China offers North Vietnam military aid
- 1966 WDCA TV channel 20 in Washington, D.C. (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1967 French author Régis Debray caught in Bolivia
- 1967 Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes in Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126
- 1967 NY Met pitcher Tom Seaver wins his 1st game, helps beat Cubs, 6-1
- 1967 US Surveyor 3 lands on the Moon
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Rivers of Blood
1968 British politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech
- 1968 British rock band billed as "Roundabout" debuts in Kastrup, Denmark; after a brief tour of Scandinavia, they change their name to "Deep Purple"
- 1968 South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes at Windhoek, 122 killed
- 1969 23rd Tony Awards: "The Great White Hope" (play) & "1776" (musical) win
Tony Awards
1969 Al Pacino wins a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?"
- 1969 Bombs planted by Loyalists members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers explode at Silent Valley reservoir in County Down and at an electricity pylon at Kilmore, County Armagh
- 1970 Bruno Kreisky becomes 1st socialist chancellor of Austria
- 1971 Barbra Streisand records "We've Only Just Begun"
- 1971 US Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation
- 1972 Kallicharran scores his 2nd Test century in his 2nd Test Cricket
- 1972 NASA Apollo 16's John Young and Charles Duke land on the Moon with Boeing Lunar Rover 2
- 1972 Virgil Thomson's final opera, "Lord Byron," with a libretto by Jack Larson, is first performed at Lincoln Center in New York City
- 1973 Canadian ANIK A2 becomes the first commercial satellite in orbit
- 1973 Mass murderer Ed Kemper attempts to dispose of his mother's vocal chords in a domestic waste disposal unit
- 1974 'The Troubles', the Northern Ireland conflict between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British security forces, and civil rights groups, claims its 1000th victim
- 1975 29th Tony Awards: "Equus" (play) & "The Wiz" (musical) win
- 1977 Al Pacino wins a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel"
Annie Hall
1977 Film "Annie Hall," written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen alongside Diane Keaton, is released; wins Academy Award for Best Picture in 1978
- 1977 Supreme Court rules "Live Free or Die" may be covered on NH licenses
- 1978 Korean Air Lines Flight 902 veers off course into Soviet airspace and is fired upon by Soviet jet fighters; crash lands on the frozen Korpijärvi Lake
1979 US President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit that swims up to his fishing boat in Plains, Georgia
- 1980 Climax of the Berber Spring in Algeria sees hundreds of Berber political activists arrested
Castro Opens Mariel Port
1980 Cuban President Fidel Castro announces he is opening the Mariel Port for Cubans to leave, about 125,000 leave in next 5-6 months
- 1980 Cubans begin arriving in the US from the Mariel boatlift
- 1981 "Fire and Smoke" single released by Earl Thomas Conley (Billboard Song of the Year 1981)
- 1981 Rocker Papa John Phillips arrested for drug possession
- 1981 The final episode of the TV show "Soap" airs
- 1982 Atlanta Braves become the first team in MLB history to win the first 12 games of a season
- 1982 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode bombs in Belfast, Derry, Armagh, Ballymena, Bessbrook and Magherafelt; 2 civilians are killed and 12 injured
- 1983 Soyuz T-8 launched; mission aborted when capsule fails to dock (lands 2 days later)
- 1984 Renmark Rowing Club sets a world record for a marathon rowed in 24 hours, covering 132 miles
- 1984 Russian offensive in Panshirvallei Afghanistan
- 1985 ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas
- 1985 Carlos Lopes runs world record marathon (2:07:12)
- 1985 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Mark Williams
- 1985 Karyn Marshall of NYC lifted 303 lbs in a clean & jerk lift
- 1986 Chicago Bulls forward Michael Jordan sets NBA playoff record with 63 points in a game
- 1986 Double-decker ferry sinks in stormy weather in Bangladesh, killing 200 people
- 1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1986 Vladimir Horowitz performs in Moscow, Russia, his first appearance in his Russian homeland since 1925
- 1987 Sri Lankan Civil War: Tamils shoot 122 Sinhalese dead
- 1987 US deports Karl Linnas to USSR, charged with Nazi war crimes
- 1988 Aaron Broten scores the first playoff hat trick in NJ Devils history
- 1988 Baltimore Orioles set worst record to start a season 0-14 (will go 0-21)
- 1988 MLB New York Yankees HR 9,999 (D Winfield) 10,000 (C Washington) 10,001 (J Clarke)
- 1988 US accuses Renamo of killing 100,000 Mozambiquians
Trial of Oliver North
1989 Iran-Contra trial: Case against former White House aide Oliver North goes to the jury
- 1990 Brian Holman of the Oakland Athletics pitches 8 2/3 perfect innings before Ken Phelps spoils the bid with a home run
- 1990 Former MLB baseball player and manager Pete Rose pleads guilty to hiding $300,000 in income
- 1991 First non-stop flight from Schiphol to Flamingo Airport, Bonaire in the Caribbean
- 1991 Mark Lenzi becomes the first diver to score more than 100 points on a single dive, earning 101.85 points
- 1991 Raghib "Rocket" Ismael signs with Toronto Argonauts for $26.2 million
- 1992 100th episode of American sitcom "Murphy Brown" airs
- 1992 Expo '92 opens in Seville, Spain
- 1992 Joan Lunden breaks her left shoulder after being thrown from a horse
Madonna's Record Deal
1992 Madonna signs a $60 million deal with Time Warner
Shania Twain
1993 Mercury Nashville Records releases "Shania Twain," the debut studio album by Shania Twain
- 1993 Uranus passes Neptune in its orbit, an event that occurs about once every 171 years
- 1994 Danny Harold Rolling sentenced to death in Florida for killing 5
- 1994 Pakistani cricket batsmen Sohail & Inzamam make world record ODI partnership of 263 against NZ in Sharjah
- 1994 Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze, Bosnia, 47 killed
- 1994 Space shuttle STS-59 (Endeavour 6), lands
- 1996 1996 NFL Draft: Keyshawn Johnson from USC first pick by New York Jets
- 1996 Chicago Bulls win record 72 games in a season
- 1997 "Present Laughter" closes at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
- 1997 27th Easter Seals Telethon raises $47,392,682
- 1997 Cubs beat NY Mets, ending the NL's worst opening losing streak of 14 straight games
- 1997 First baseball game in Hawaii, Cardinals beat Padres in doubleheader
- 1997 Mark McGwire is 4th to HR on Detroit Tiger left field roof (others are Frank Howard, Harmon Killibrew, & Cecil Fielder)
- 1998 German terrorist group Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, disbands after 28 years
- 1998 TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France, crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53
- 1999 Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School, Colorado
- 2002 NFL Draft: Fresno State quarterback David Carr #1 pick by Houston Texans
- 2004 Twelve mortar rounds are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92
- 2007 A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and then himself
- 2008 Danica Patrick driving for Andretti Green Racing wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi; first female driver in history to win an IndyCar Series race
- 2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes, killing 11 and causing the rig to sink, causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and an environmental disaster
- 2012 40 people are killed and 27 injured after a tractor trailer collided with a bus in Alamo, Mexico
Most Beautiful at Every Age
2012 People magazine name Eva Mendes as one of 2012's Most Beautiful at Every Age
- 2012 Plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, kills 127 people
- 2013 193 people are killed and 11,826 are injured after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Lushan County, China
- 2013 5 snowboarders are killed by an avalanche in Loveland Pass, Colorado
- 2013 Giorgio Napolitano is re-elected President of Italy
- 2015 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Anthony Doerr's for his novel "All the Light We Cannot See" and to Elizabeth Kolbert for "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History"
- 2017 Terrorist attack on police van on Champs Élysées, Paris 1 police officer killed, 2 injured
- 2018 Actress Allison Mack arrested on charges of sex trafficking in relation to sex cult NXIVM in New York
- 2018 Arsène Wenger announces he will leave London EPL club Arsenal after 22 years as manager
Charles to Succeed Elizabeth
2018 Commonwealth countries decide Prince Charles will succeed Queen Elizabeth as the next head of the Commonwealth
Frida Kahlo Barbie Banned
2018 Mexican court bars sales of controversial Frida Kahlo Barbie doll
- 2020 Price of US oil turns negative for the first time in history; West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand decreases
- 2020 The last three cruise ships still afloat amid COVID pandemic, finally dock at the ports of Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; and Los Angeles California
- 2020 Three US states, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, are the first to announce the end of some COVID-19 restrictions
- 2021 All six EPL clubs withdraw from the controversial European Super League just 3 days after it was announced - Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham
Derek Chauvin Convicted
2021 Former police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in a case that prompted huge nationwide racial justice protests [1]
Idriss Déby Killed in Battle
2021 President of Chad for three decades, Idriss Déby is killed on a battlefield fighting rebels near the capital, N'Djamena
- 2021 Record number of new COVID-19 cases reported (5.24 million) in one week around the world according to WHO, with a third in India [1]
- 2022 Online streaming service Netflix reports its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, losing 200,000 subscribers from January through March [1]
- 2023 136 people massacred in village of Karma, Burkina Faso, one of the country worst attacks on civilians, blamed on the country's security forces [1]
Petro Meets Biden
2023 Colombian President Gustavo Petro meets with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington [1]
Starship Rocket Launch
2023 SpaceX's Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built with 33 booster engines, launches on its first test flight from Boca Chica, Texas, and explodes four minutes into the flight amid criticism that Elon Musk rushed the launch [1] [2]
- 2023 Total solar eclipse in Exeter, Western Australia, blocks out the sun for 58 seconds [1]
- 2024 Jukebox musical "Hell's Kitchen" with music and lyrics by Alicia Keys debuts on Broadway starring Maleah Joi Moon, Shoshana Bean, and Kecia Lewis
- 2024 NASA engineers successfully repair and recode Voyager 1 from 15 billion miles away after five month gap in not receiving data [1]
- 2024 US House passes a bipartisan $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and a bill against TikTok [1]
