1344A Latin Christian fleet defeats a Turkish fleet in the battle of Pallene during the Smyrniote crusades.
1373Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love.
1501Amerigo Vespucci, this time under Portuguese flag, sets sail for western lands.
1568Mary, Queen of Scots, is defeated at the Battle of Langside, part of the civil war between Queen Mary and the supporters of her son, James VI.
1612Sword duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on the shores of Ganryū Island. Kojiro dies at the end.
1619Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.
1654A Venetian fleet under Admiral Cort Adeler breaks through a line of galleys and defeats the Turkish navy.
1779War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria acquires the Innviertel.
1780The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in the Cumberland River area of what would become the U.S. state of Tennessee, providing for democratic government and a formal system of justice.
1791The British under Charles Cornwallis defeat a Mysorean army under Tipu Sultan in the battle of Arakere.
1804Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.
1858Montenegrin forces under Grand Duke Mirko Petrović-Njegoš defeat an Ottoman army under Hussein Pasha in the battle of Grahovac. The battle is a significant step towards formal independence and quickly becomes a part of national folklore.
1861The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1861Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
1862Southern slave Robert Smalls steals the steamboat Planter, spirits it through Confederate lines and hands it to the United States Navy, who quickly commission it as the gunboat and appoint Smalls as captain, thus making him the first black man to command a United States ship.
1888With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), the Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery.
1909The first edition of the Giro d'Italia, a long-distance multiple-stage bicycle race, begins in Milan; the Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the eventual winner.
1912The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
1917Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
1940World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins, as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1943World War II: Operations Vulcan and Strike force the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia.
1945World War II: Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is published in Ogonyok magazine.
1948Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre occurs, a day prior to the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
1949Aeroflot Flight 17 crashes on approach to Severny Airport in Novosibirsk, killing 25.
1950The inaugural Formula One World Championship race takes place at Silverstone Circuit. The race was won by Giuseppe Farina, who would go on to become the inaugural champion that year.
1951The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
1952The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
1954The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.
1958During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, the US Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
1958May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
1958Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over by sea and by land during a ten-year journey.
1960Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
1967Dr. Zakir Husain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
1969In the aftermath of the 1969 Malaysian general election, Sino-Malay sectarian violence erupts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1972A fire occurs in the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators result in 118 fatalities (many victims leaping to their deaths).
1980An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
1981Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
1985Police bomb MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia, killing six adults and five children, and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
1990The Dinamo–Red Star riot takes place at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia, between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije (fans of Red Star Belgrade).
1992Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.
1995Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to ascend Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
1996Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
1998Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
1998India carries out two nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
1999Kosovo War: NATO bombs the village of Koriša, killing at least 87 people.
2000A fireworks storage depot explodes in a residential neighborhood in Enschede, Netherlands, killing 23 people and injuring 950 others.
2005Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan: Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates.
2006São Paulo violence: Rebellions occur in several prisons in Brazil.
2011Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others.
2012Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
2013American physician Kermit Gosnell is found guilty in Pennsylvania of murdering three infants born alive during attempted abortions, involuntary manslaughter of a woman during an abortion procedure, and other charges.
2014An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.
Nacimientos (155)
1024Hugh of Cluny, French abbot and saint (died 1109)
1794Louis Léopold Robert, French painter (died 1835)
1795Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist and chronologist (died 1875)
1804Per Gustaf Svinhufvud af Qvalstad, treasurer of Tavastia province, manor host, and paternal grandfather of President of Finland P. E. Svinhufvud (died 1866)
1811Juan Bautista Ceballos, President of Mexico (1853) (died 1859)
1822Francis, Duke of Cádiz, King Consort of Queen Isabella II of Spain (died 1902)
1830Zebulon Baird Vance, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of North Carolina (died 1894)
1832Juris Alunāns, Latvian philologist and author (died 1864)
1833Major-General Sir Francis Edward Archibald Chamier, CB, CIE, IMM** British-Indian officer during the British Raj (died 1923)
1840Alphonse Daudet, French author, poet, and playwright (died 1897)
1842Arthur Sullivan, English composer (died 1900)
1856Tom O'Rourke, American boxer and manager (died 1938)
1857Ronald Ross, Indian-English physician and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1932)
1868Sumner Paine, American target shooter (died 1904)