- 1086 Abbot Dauferio, also known as Desiderius, becomes Pope Victor III
- 1153 Malcolm IV becomes King of Scots
- 1218 The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt
- 1276 Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral
Philip IV Occupies Flanders
1300 French King Philip IV occupies Flanders and captures the Count of Flanders, Guy of Dampierre
- 1370 The Hanseatic League signs a peace treaty with King Valdemar IV of Denmark
- 1487 Imposter Lambert Simnel crowned as King Edward VI in Dublin
- 1595 Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library
- 1621 The Protestant Union is formally dissolved
- 1660 English king Charles II visits Netherlands
- 1667 French troops attack into Southern Netherlands
- 1689 English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants
- 1697 English King William III travels through northern Europe
Aldersgate Day
1738 John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement, celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day
Louis Mandrin Sentenced
1755 Smuggler Louis Mandrin considered the French Robin Hood is sentenced to be broken on the wheel, a medieval form of torture and execution that breaks the bones of the subject
Adams Sparks Tax Revolt
1764 Samuel Adams writes instructions for Boston Town Meeting opposing the Sugar Act, laying groundwork for colonial resistance to taxation without representation
President Hancock
1775 John Hancock is unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress
- 1798 Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins
Beethoven and Bridgewater Perform
1803 Ludwig van Beethoven and black violinist George Bridgewater perform a concert together at the Augarten, Vienna [1]
- 1815 English surveyor George Evans is the first European to discover the Lachlan River, Australia
Battle of Pichincha
1822 Battle of Pichincha, Simón Bolívar secures the independence of Ecuador from Spain
- 1824 Pope Leo XII proclaims a Universal Jubilee in an attempt to strengthen a closer bond between the Pope and the Christian people
- 1829 Pope Pius VIII issues his program for pontificate
- 1830 "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is first published by Boston firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon
- 1830 First regular passenger rail service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line features horse-drawn railcars connecting Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills
- 1832 The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference
1st Telegraph Message
1844 Samuel Morse taps out "What hath God wrought" in the world's first telegraph message
Patron's Medal for Ludwig Leichhardt
1847 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt is awarded the Patron's Medal by the Royal Geographical Society, London in recognition of 'the increased knowledge of the great continent of Australia' gained by his Moreton Bay-Port Essington journey
- 1854 Escaped slave Anthony Burns is arrested by US Deputy marshals in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act
Pottawatomie Massacre
1856 Pottawatomie Massacre: John Brown and abolitionist settlers kill five pro-slavery settlers in Franklin County, Kansas
- 1861 Alexandria, Virginia, occupied by Union troops
Butler Declares Slaves Contraband
1861 Union Major General Benjamin Butler declares escaped slaves "contraband of war", after three slaves escaped to Fort Monroe - will become Union policy and change the course of the war [1]
- 1862 Beardslee field telegraph used for 1st time
1862 Westminster Bridge across The Thames in London opens, becoming the second such bridge after an earlier bridge fell into decay
- 1866 Berkeley, California named (for George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne)
- 1870 Memoria of Jackson Kemper, 1st Missionary Bishop in US
Alexandra Palace Opens
1873 Alexandra Palace opens on Queen Victoria's 54th birthday with a grand celebration including concerts, recitals and fireworks
- 1873 Leo Delibes' opera "Le Roi l'a Dit" ("The King Has Spoken") premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris
- 1878 CA Parker (Harvard) wins 1st American bike race at Beacon Park in Boston
- 1881 Overloaded Canadian river ferry "Princess Victoria" sinks near London, Ontario, 180 die
- 1881 Turkey cedes Thessaly and Arta back to Greece.
- 1884 Anti-Monopoly and the Greenback parties unite to form the People's Party in the US
- 1887 Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar grants E African Association at East African harbors
- 1890 Geo Train and Sam Wall circumnavigate the world in a record 67 days, from Tacoma to Tacoma
- 1890 Tivoli Theater of Varieties opens in London
Lowell Observatory Views Mars
1894 Lowell Observatory, Arizona, first begins observations of Mars with an eighteen-inch telescope, leads its builder Percival Lowell to conclude there are canals on Mars
- 1895 Henry Irving becomes the first actor to receive a knighthood
- 1899 First auto repair shop opens in Boston
- 1901 Seventy-eight miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales
- 1902 Cleve's Bill Bradley is 1st ALer to hit a HR run in 4 consecutive games, not duplicated until Babe Ruth does it June 25, 1918
- 1902 Empire Day 1st celebrated in Britain
- 1908 Belgium Catholic socialist/liberal parliamentary election
- 1908 John Masefields "Tragedy of Nan" premieres in London
- 1909 Bristol University granted Royal Charter
Edison Invents Telescribe
1915 Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations
- 1916 Conscription begins in Britain
- 1916 French driven out of Fort Douaumont after 500 killed or injured
- 1916 Last British-Indian contract workers arrive in Suriname
- 1916 US pilot William Thaw shoots down a German Fokker
- 1918 British officer General Poole lands at Murmansk, the Russian port on the Barents Sea
- 1918 Cleveland starter Stan Coveleski sets club record for most innings pitched (19) in a complete game as the Indians beat the New York Yankees, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds, NYC
- 1920 Undercover police in Chicago raid the bleachers at Cubs Park (now known as Wrigley Field) and arrest 47 fans for gambling; meanwhile Grover Cleveland Alexander pitches a complete game shut-out as Cubs defeat Philadelphia Phillies, 6-0 [1]
- 1921 Bulhoek Massacre: police commissioner Colonel Theodore Truter leads 6 squadrons and artillery detachment against Israelite religious sect collected at annual gathering on land of leader Enoch Mgijima at Ntabalanga; 190 killed
- 1921 First Parliament for Northern Ireland elected
- 1921 The first Comrades Marathon takes place in Durban, South Africa, created by WWI veteran Vic Clapham to commemorate the South African soldiers killed during the war
- 1922 Record temperature in Netherlands for May recorded: 35.6°C (96°F)
- 1922 Russian-Italian trade agreement signed
- 1924 Canada grants women the right to vote in federal elections, though First Nations women still unable to without giving up their status [1]
Paavo Nurmi Sets Record
1926 Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi sets world 3000m record (8:25.4) in Berlin, Germany
- 1928 Italian aviator Umberto Nobile flies airship Italia over North Pole again (crashes onto ice pack a day later)
1928 Record 12 future Baseball Hall of Famers take the field as NY Yankees beat Philadelphia A's, 9-7 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia; managers Miller Huggins & Connie Mack, umpire Tom Connolly also HOF'ers
- 1929 Chicago WS pitcher Ted Lyons and Detroit's George Uhle go 21 innings before Tigers get a run to win, 6-5; longest game (3 hours, 31 mins) ever at Comiskey Park, Chicago
1st Woman Flies UK to Australia
1930 Amy Johnson becomes the 1st woman to fly solo from United Kingdom to Australia
Nine HRs in One Week
1930 NY Yankees' legendary slugger Babe Ruth homers in both games of a doubleheader (beat Philadelphia A's 10-6 & 11-1); gives him 9 HR's in one week
- 1931 The first air-conditioned train is introduced on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
- 1934 Colombia and Peru sign an accord regarding the river city of Leticia in the Amazon
- 1935 First Major League night baseball game, Reds beat Philadelphia 2-1 in Cincinnati
- 1936 Dutch bishops forbid membership of Nazi party
- 1936 Tony Lazerri 2 grand slams (11 RBIs); Ben Chapman sets record by reaching 1st 7 times safely, MLB New York Yankees beat Philadelphia A's 25-2
- 1940 1st night game at St Louis Sportsman Park (Indians 3, Browns 2)
Germany Issues Halt Order
1940 Adolf Hitler and General von Rundstedt issue a Halt Order stopping German armed divisions and allowing British and French armies to evacuate through Calais and Dunkirk
- 1940 Dutch army demobilizes
- 1940 German tanks reach Arras, France
- 1940 NY Giants swat Boston Bees, 8-1, in 1st night game at Polo Grounds, NYC
- 1941 German athlete Rudolf Harbig runs world record 1,000m in 2:21.5 at Dresden, Germany
- 1941 German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battlecruiser HMS Hood; 1,416 die, and 3 survive
Stroop Report
1943 Final entry in the Stroop Report, detailing the destruction of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto, compiled by Nazi officers, later used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials
German U-boats Stopped
1943 German Admiral Donitz stops U-boat operations in the Atlantic Ocean - turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic
- 1943 U-441 shoots Sunderland seaplane down over Gulf of Biskaje
- 1944 Icelandic voters severe all ties with Denmark
Bill Dickey for the Yankees
1946 Bill Dickey replaces Joe McCarthy as New York Yankees manager
Beggar's Opera
1948 Benjamin Britten's "Beggar's Opera" premieres at Arts Theatre, Cambridge, England
- 1951 Racial segregation in Washington, D.C. restaurants ruled illegal
- 1951 US performs nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll (atmospheric tests)
Catholic Encyclical
1953 Pope Pius XII publishes the encyclical Doctor Mellifluus to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
- 1954 Dr Peter Murray Marshall becomes 1st African American to head an American Medical Association unit (New York County)
- 1954 First rocket to reach 150 miles (241 km) in altitude blasts off from White Sands, New Mexico
- 1954 German airline Lufthansa forms
- 1954 IBM announces vacuum tube "electronic" brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour
- 1956 1st Eurovision Song Contest: Lys Assia for Switzerland wins singing "Refrain" in Lugano
- 1956 Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna
- 1957 Anti-American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan
- 1957 Heavy earthquake strikes Colombia
- 1958 United Press Association and International News Service merge to form United Press International
- 1959 Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in Great Britain
- 1959 First house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania)
- 1960 One millionth Dutch telephone installed
- 1961 27 Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi
- 1961 Cyprus joins the Council of Europe.
- 1961 NASA Explorer Ionosphere research mission fails to reach Earth orbit
Sweet Georgia Brown
1962 The Beatles record "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Swanee" in Hamburg, Germany to close out their contract with producer Bert Kaempfert; Tony Sheridan later dubs vocal over tracks
Carpenter Orbits Earth
1962 US astronaut Scott Carpenter aboard Aurora 7 (Mercury-Atlas 7) orbits the Earth three times in a flight just under five hours [1]
Hud
1963 "Hud", directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, premieres in Hollywood, California
- 1963 1st Lockheed A-12 to crash, CIA pilot Ken Collins ejects safely
- 1964 18th Tony Awards: "Luther" (play) & "Hello, Dolly!" (musical) win
Killebrew’s 471-Foot Blast
1964 Longest home run, 471 feet, at Baltimore Memorial Stadium by Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins
- 1964 Panic in Lima Peru soccer stadium, kills 300
1964 The Beatles' 4th appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", features an interview and pre-recorded performance of "You Can't Do That"
- 1965 Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional
- 1967 AFL grants a franchise to Cincinnati Bengals
- 1967 French film "Belle de Jour" is released, directed by Luis Buñuel and starring Catherine Deneuve
- 1968 American boxer Bob Foster defeats holder Dick Tiger for the world light-heavyweight Championship at Madison Square Gardens, New York (goes on to defend title x 14)
- 1968 FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City
May 68
1968 French President Charles de Gaulle proposes a referendum on regional reform and changes to the Senate, while student protesters set fire to the Paris Bourse during the unrest of May 1968
- 1968 Haiti closes down shortwave station 4VEH for 40 days
- 1968 Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull arrested for drug possession in England
- 1969 "Sugar, Sugar" single released by cartoon band The Archies (Billboard Song of the Year, 1969)
- 1969 The Beatles' "Get Back" single goes #1 and stays #1 for 5 weeks
- 1970 British guitarist Peter Green quits Fleetwood Mac to join a religious cult
- 1970 The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union
- 1971 A commuter bus plunges into Panama Canal, killing 38 of 43 aboard
- 1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1973 George [Earl] Jellicoe resigns as British Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords
1974 27th Cannes Film Festival: "The Conversation" directed by Francis Ford Coppola wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
Diamond Dogs
1974 RCA releases "Diamond Dogs", David Bowie's 8th studio album, recorded in London and the Netherlands, with cover design by artist Guy Peellaert, it peaks in the U.S. charts at No. 5, and goes to No. 1 in the U.K. and Canada
- 1975 Dutch government of De Uyl decides to obtain an F-16
- 1975 Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 18 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, destined for the Salyut 4 space station
- 1976 First commercial SST flight to North America as Concorde arrives in Washington, DC
- 1976 In the Judgment of Paris, wine testers rate wines from California higher than their French counterparts, challenging the notion of France being the foremost producer of the world's best wines
Ali vs. Dunn
1976 Muhammad Ali TKOs Richard Dunn in 5 for heavyweight boxing title in Munich
- 1977 USSR President Podgorny resigns
- 1978 American management consultant Marilyn Loden first coins the term "glass ceiling" to describe invisible career barriers for women
- 1978 Dutch Investment bill (WIR) law goes into effect
- 1979 32nd Cannes Film Festival: "Apocalypse Now" directed by Francis Ford Coppola and "Die Biechtrommel" directed by Volker Schlondorff jointly awarded the Palme d'Or
- 1979 Billy Martin issues a public apology to Reno sportswriter Ray Hagar
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1980 "Kagemusha" directed by Akira Kurosawa wins the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival
- 1980 "Rock Lobster" single by B-52s hits #56
- 1980 Iran rejects a call to World Court to release US hostages
- 1980 Stanley Cup Final, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: In first Finals appearance, NY Islanders beat Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4 in OT for a 4 games to 2 series win
- 1981 Hostage situation ends at the Central Bank in Barcelona, Spain
- 1982 Liberation of Khorramshahr; Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq War
- 1983 Fred Sinowatz succeeds Bruno Kreisky as Chancellor of Austria
- 1983 Supreme Court rules government can deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminated against students
- 1984 Det Tigers win AL record 17th straight road game
- 1986 Reginald Huffstetler treads water for 985 hrs
- 1986 Stanley Cup Final, Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta: Montreal Canadiens beat Calgary Flames, 4-3 for 4-1 series victory
- 1987 Golden Gate Bridge 50th anniversary: Over 800K people show up, 300K walk on bridge at same time, span temporarily flattens from weight (San Francisco, California)
- 1988 Britain's Parliament passes Section 28 as law prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality. Repealed in 2001/2004.
- 1988 John Moschitta set record for fast talking: 586 words per minute
- 1988 Power outage in Boston Garden in NHL's Stanley Cup finals
- 1989 French Nazi war criminal Paul Touvier arrested at the Society of Saint Pius X monastery in Nice
Rangers Fire Esposito
1989 NY Rangers fire general manager and head coach Phil Esposito
- 1989 NY Yankee hurler Lee Gutterman sets record of pitching 30-2/3 innings before giving up his 1st run of season
- 1989 Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded £600,000 in damages after winning a libel action against satirical magazine Private Eye (later reduced to £60,000 on appeal).
- 1989 Weird Al Yankovic records three tracks for his UHF movie soundtrack
- 1990 A car carrying American Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney explodes in Oakland, California, critically injuring both
- 1990 Stanley Cup Final, Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Edmonton Oilers beat Boston Bruins, 4-1 for a 4-1 series win; Oilers' 5th Cup win in 7 years
- 1992 Despite trailing 7-1, NY Yanks tie Milwaukee Brewers & then score 1 in 9th to avoid 5th straight extra inning game
- 1992 Thai Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon resigns after 48 days in office
1993 46th Cannes Film Festival: "Ba wang bie ji" directed by Chen Kaige and "The Piano" directed by Jane Campion jointly awarded the Palme d'Or
- 1993 Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia after 30-year civil war
- 1993 Kim Basinger files for bankruptcy to avoid paying a $7.4 million settlement
- 1993 Kurd rebellion kills 33 soldiers and 5 citizens in Turkey
Second Chances
1993 Star Trek episode "Second Chances" airs, guest-starring Mae Jemison, the first real-life astronaut to appear on the show
- 1994 "Poison" singer Bret Michaels is involved in a car crash
- 1996 "Spy Hard" starring Leslie Nielsen is released
- 1997 Actor Tim Allen arrested for drunk driving in Michigan
- 1997 STS 84 (Atlantis 19), lands
- 1997 Telstar-5 Proton Launch, Successful
- 1998 51st Cannes Film Festival: "Mia aioniotita kai mia mera / Eternity and a Day" by Theo Angelopoulos wins the Palme d'Or
- 2000 Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
- 2001 Democrats gain control of the US Senate for the first time since 1994 when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont abandons the Republican Party and declares himself an independent
- 2001 Fifteen-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest
- 2001 The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 people and injures more than 200 in one of Israel's deadliest peacetime civilian disasters
- 2002 Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
McCartney Rocks Red Square
2003 Paul McCartney performs in his first-ever concert in Russia, in Moscow's Red Square, to a crowd of over 100,000 people
- 2003 Super Rugby Final, Eden Park, Auckland: Auckland Blues beat defending champion Canterbury Crusaders, 21-17 for their 3rd title
- 2004 North Korea bans mobile phones
- 2009 62nd Cannes Film Festival: "The White Ribbon" directed by Michael Haneke wins the Palme d'Or
- 2009 Manchester United wins 1-0 at Hull City Stadium to win English Premier League title for 3rd consecutive season, for a second time; equals Liverpool's record of 18 league titles
- 2010 Andrew Wakefield, doctor at the center of MMR vaccination scare, struck off the UK medical register after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct
- 2013 Popular game "Flappy Bird" is released on the App Store for iOS and later becomes the most downloaded free game in the App Store, during which period creator Dong Nguyen earns $50,000 a day
- 2013 Rafael Correa is sworn into a third term as President of Ecuador
- 2014 Yingluck Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand, is detained by the army after a military coup
- 2015 68th Cannes Film Festival: "Dheepan" directed by Jacques Audiard wins the Palme d'Or
- 2016 Bill Cosby is ordered to stand trial in a sexual assault case in Norristown
- 2016 Kaduna state in Nigeria declares a state of emergency due to 'Tomato Ebola', as moth destroys 80% of tomato crops
- 2017 UEFA Europa League won by Manchester United 2-0 against Ajax in Stockholm
- 2018 Actor Morgan Freeman accused of sexual harassment by several women in CNN report
- 2018 At least 14 children reported mauled to death by wild dogs near Khairabad, India after closure of slaughterhouses
- 2018 Bangladeshi police reported to have shot 52 suspected drug traffickers in anti-narcotics crackdown in 10 days
- 2018 Record US fentanyl seizure of 120lbs (54kg) confirmed by police in Nebraska in April, enough to kill 26 million people, one of largest drug busts in US history
Trump Cancels Korea Summit
2018 US President Donald Trump cancels summit with North and South Korea because of hostile statements from North Korea
Trump Pardons Jack Johnson
2018 US President Donald Trump posthumously pardons boxer Jack Johnson for racially orientated criminal conviction - transporting a white woman across state lines [1]
- 2018 US President Donald Trump signs into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act easing financial regulations and reducing oversight for banks
- 2018 World's largest cat-proof fence (44 km / 27.3 miles) completed at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, central Australia to protect endangered species
- 2019 Brazil's Supreme Court votes to make homophobia and transphobia crimes
Johnson Backs Cummings
2020 British PM Boris Johnson refuses to sack his senior aide Dominic Cummings, after it is revealed he broke the country's lockdown rules to drive across the country
- 2020 Millions of cicadas in a once in 17-year event about to emerge from the earth in the US south posing crop danger and noise issues, according to scientists from Virginia Tech
- 2020 The New York Times prints front page with nearly 1,000 names of people who have died from COVID-19, as the US toll nears 100,000
- 2021 Constitutional crisis deepens in Samoa after Speaker of the House shuts out Fiame Naomi Mata’afa from being sworn in as the country's first woman leader in 56 years [1]
Suu Kyi in Court
2021 Deposed Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi appears in court against charges laid by the military government
- 2021 India's official COVID-19 death toll passes 300,000 (303,720), the third country to do so, with experts saying it is a vast undercount [1]
- 2022 19 children and two teachers shot and killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old gunman
- 2022 American rock band Aerosmith cancels planned Las Vegas concerts in June and July as singer Steven Tyler returns to drug rehab
- 2022 Leaders of the Quad nations, America, Australia, India and Japan meet in Tokyo, focusing on Chinese aggressions in the Indo-Pacific [1]
DeSantis Runs for President
2023 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' launch of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Twitter is marred by glitches and outages [1]
Censorship in Florida
2023 Former US Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's poem, “The Hill We Climb” is placed on a restricted reading list at Bob Graham Education Center, Miami Lakes, amid increasing censorship across Florida
- 2023 Man with paralysis walks naturally for the first time in 12 years after a Swiss team created a neurological link between the brain and spinal cord, findings published in "Nature" [1]
Wagner Leaves Bakmut
2023 Mercenary Wagner Group says it is handing over the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, after capturing it for Russia, in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war so far [1]
- 2023 Test for a possible alien transmission to earth to see if humans can decode it, sent from ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, the spacecraft orbiting Mars [1]
- 2025 78th Cannes Film Festival: Iranian director Jafar Panahi's "Un Simple Accident" wins the Palme d'Or [1]
