Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

June 2

• 455 – Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks
• 1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city. The second siege would later start on June 7.
• 1615 – First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
• 1676 – Franco-Dutch War: France ensured the supremacy of its naval fleet for the remainder of the war with its victory in the Battle of Palermo.
• 1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.
• 1763 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
• 1774 – Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.
• 1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.
• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptures Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, from the British.
• 1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States.
• 1848 – The Slavic congress in Prague begins.
• 1855 – The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.
• 1866 – Fenian raids: Fenians are victorious in both the Battle of Ridgeway and the Battle of Fort Erie.
• 1876 – Hristo Botev, a national revolutionary of Bulgaria, is killed in Stara Planina
• 1886 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.
• 1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention: the radio.
• 1909 – Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
• 1910 – Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
• 1919 – Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.
• 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
• 1925 – Because of a lineup revision by Miller Huggins, Wally Pipp is replaced by Lou Gehrig at first base for the New York Yankees, beginning a streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, topped only by Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995. Exactly 16 years later to the day, in 1941, Gehrig dies from Amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
• 1941 – World War II: German paratoopers murder Greek civilians in the village of Kondomari.
• 1946 – Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia is exiled.
• 1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, the first major international event to be televised.
• 1955 – The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
• 1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.
• 1966 – Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world.
• 1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.
• 1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.
• 1979 – Pope John Paul II first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
• 1983 – After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane's doors open. Because of this incident, numerous new safety regulations are put in place.
• 1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12. Petersburg, Indiana, is the hardest-hit town in the outbreak, with 6 deaths.
• 1995 – United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.
• 1997 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
• 1999 – The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.
• 2003 – Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
• 2004 – Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!
• 2008 – Al-Qaeda detonates a suicide car bomb at the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.
• 2010 – Derrick Bird goes on a killing spree in Cumbria, killing 13 and injuring 11, see Cumbria shootings.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

June 1

• 193 – Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is assassinated.
• 987 – Hugh Capet is elected King of France.
• 1204 – King Philip Augustus of France conquers Rouen.
• 1215 – Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing.
• 1252 – Alfonso X is elected King of Castile and León.
• 1298 – Residents of Riga and Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Livonian Order in the Battle of Turaida.
• 1495 – Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
• 1533 – Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England.
• 1648 – The Roundheads defeat the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War.
• 1660 – Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1670 – In Dover, England, Charles II of Great Britain and Louis XIV of France sign the secret treaty of Dover, which will force England into the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1679 – The Scottish Covenanters defeat John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog.
• 1779 – Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, is court-martialed for malfeasance.
• 1792 – Kentucky is admitted as the 15th state of the United States.
• 1794 – The battle of the Glorious First of June is fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars.
• 1796 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th state of the United States.
• 1812 – War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
• 1813 – James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: "Don't give up the ship!"
• 1815 – Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
• 1831 – James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
• 1855 – American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua.
• 1857 – Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal is published.
• 1861 – American Civil War, Battle of Fairfax Court House (June 1861), first land battle of American Civil War after Battle of Fort Sumter, first Confederate combat casualty.
• 1862 – American Civil War, Peninsula Campaign: Battle of Seven Pines (or the Battle of Fair Oaks) ends inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory.
• 1868 – Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.
• 1879 – Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War.
• 1890 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
• 1910 – Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition leaves England.
• 1916 – Louis Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
• 1918 – World War I, Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
• 1921 – Tulsa Race Riot: civil unrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 1922 – The Royal Ulster Constabulary is founded.
• 1929 – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.
• 1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
• 1941 – The Farhud, a pogrom of Iraqi Jews, takes place in Baghdad.
• 1943 – British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
• 1946 – Ion Antonescu, "Conducator" (leader) of Romania during World War II, is executed.
• 1958 – Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months.
• 1960 – New Zealand's first official television broadcast commences at 7.30pm from Auckland.
• 1963 – Kenya gains internal self-rule (Madaraka Day).
• 1974 – Flixborough disaster: an explosion at a chemical plant kills 28 people.
• 1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
• 1978 – The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed.
• 1979 – The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power.
• 1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
• 1990 – George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production.
• 1993 – Dobrinja mortar attack: 13 are killed and 133 wounded when Serb mortar shells are fired at a soccer game in Dobrinja, west of Sarajevo.
• 1999 – American Airlines Flight 1420 slides and crashes while landing at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 people on a flight from Dallas to Little Rock.
• 2001 – Nepalese royal massacre : Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shoots and kills several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya.
• 2001 – Dolphinarium massacre: A Hamas suicide bomber kills 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv.
• 2003 – The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam.
• 2009 – Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew are killed.
• 2009 – General Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

May 31

• 1279 BC – Rameses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
• 526 – A devastating earthquake strikes Antioch, Turkey, killing 250,000.
• 1223 – Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River – Mongol armies of Genghis Khan led by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus and Cumans.
• 1578 – Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets in London.
• 1578 – King Henry III lays the first stone of the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), the oldest bridge of Paris.
• 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary.
• 1678 – The Godiva procession through Coventry begins.
• 1775 – American Revolution: The Mecklenburg Resolutions are allegedly adopted in the Province of North Carolina.
• 1790 – Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
• 1790 – The United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790.
• 1790 – French Revolution: the Revolutionary Tribunal is suppressed.
• 1805 – French and Spanish forces begin the assault against British forces occupying Diamond Rock
• 1813 – In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains.
• 1854 – The civil death procedure is abolished in France.
• 1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.
• 1862 – American Civil War Peninsula Campaign: Battle of Seven Pines or (Battle of Fair Oaks) – Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston & G. W. Smith engage Union forces under George B. McClellan outside Richmond, Virginia.
• 1864 – American Civil War Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor – The Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee engages the Army of the Potomac under Ulysses S. Grant & George G. Meade.
• 1866 – In the Fenian Invasion of Canada, John O'Neill leads 850 Fenian raiders across the Niagara River at Buffalo, New York/Fort Erie, Ontario, as part of an effort to free Ireland from the United Kingdom. Canadian militia and British regulars repulse the invaders in over the next three days, at a cost of 9 dead and 38 wounded to the Fenian's 19 dead and about 17 wounded.
• 1884 – Arrival at Plymouth of Tawhiao, King of Maoris, to claim protection of Queen Victoria
• 1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam break sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
• 1902 – Second Boer War: The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the war and ensures British control of South Africa.
• 1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the NAACP, convenes for the first time.
• 1910 – Creation of the Union of South Africa.
• 1911 – The hull of the ocean liner RMS Titanic is launched.
• 1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz flees the country during the Mexican Revolution.
• 1916 – World War I: Battle of Jutland – The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive.
• 1921 – Tulsa Race Riot: A civil unrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, the official death toll is 39, but recent investigations suggest the actual toll may be much higher.
• 1924 – The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China", whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect.
• 1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
• 1929 – The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, "The Karnival Kid", is released.
• 1935 – A 7.7 Mw earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan: 40,000 dead.
• 1941 – A Luftwaffe air raid in Dublin, Ireland, claims 38 lives.
• 1941 – Anglo-Iraqi War: The United Kingdom completes the re-occupation of Iraq and returns 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.
• 1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
• 1961 – The Union of South Africa becomes the Republic of South Africa.
• 1961 – In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet society.
• 1962 – The West Indies Federation dissolves.
• 1962 – Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.
• 1970 – The Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed.
• 1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30.
• 1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.
• 1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System completed.
• 1981 – Burning of Jaffna library, Sri Lanka, It is one of the violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the twentieth century.
• 1985 – 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
• 1991 – Bicesse Accords in Angola lay out a transition to multi-party democracy under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II mission.
• 2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was Deep Throat.
• 2009 – Anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder shoots and kills physician George Tiller during church services in Wichita, Kansas.
• 2010 – In international waters, armed Shayetet 13 commandos, searching for possible smuggled weapons, boarded ships trying to break the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, resulting in 9 civilian deaths when the crew of the MV Mavi Marmara attacked them with baseball bats and metal rods.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

May 30

• 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. The Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall. The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometers.
• 1416 – The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy.
• 1431 – Hundred Years' War: in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. Because of this the Catholic Church remember this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
• 1434 – Hussite Wars (Bohemian Wars): Battle of Lipany – effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great.
• 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.
• 1631 – Publication of La Gazette, first French newspaper.
• 1635 – Thirty Years' War: the Peace of Prague (1635) is signed.
• 1642 – From this date all honors granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament.
• 1806 – Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.
• 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition – the Treaty of Paris (1814) is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent. Napoleon Bonaparte is exiled to Elba.
• 1815 – The East Indiaman ship Arniston is wrecked during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, present-day South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives.
• 1832 – End of the Hambach Festival in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
• 1832 – The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is opened.
• 1834 – Joaquim António de Aguiar issue a law extinguishing "all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices and any other houses of the regular religious orders", earning him the nickname of "The Friar-Killer".
• 1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill, London with Prince Albert.
• 1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
• 1859 – Westminster's Big Ben rang for the first time in London.
• 1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time (By "Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic" John A. Logan's proclamation on May 5).
• 1871 – The Paris Commune falls.
• 1876 – Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V.
• 1879 – New York, New York's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
• 1883 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that crushes twelve people.
• 1899 – Female Old West outlaw Pearl Hart robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.
• 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 – First Balkan War: the Treaty of London, 1913 is signed ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation.
• 1914 – The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
• 1917 – Alexander I becomes king of Greece.
• 1922 – In Washington, D.C. the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.
• 1925 – May 30 Movement: Shanghai Municipal Police Force shot 13 protesting workers to death.
• 1941 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the Athenian Acropolis, tear down the Nazi swastika.
• 1942 – World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.
• 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 Lord Cobham.
• 1961 – Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
• 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 rule of Ngo Dinh Diem.
• 1966 – Former Congolese Prime Minister Evariste Kimba and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu.
• 1966 – Launch of Surveyor 1 the first US spacecraft to achieve landing on an extraterrestrial body.
• 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, 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 May 1968 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 Tel Aviv, Israel members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport Massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others.
• 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: the 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
• 1998 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
• 1998 –Nuclear Testing: Pakistan conducts an underground test in the Kharan Desert. It is reported to be a plutonium device with yield of 20kt.
• 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 fled the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards.

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

May 29

• 363 – Roman Emperor Julian defeats the Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the Sassanid capital, but is unable to take the city.
• 1167 – Battle of Monte Porzio – A Roman army supporting Pope Alexander III is defeated by Christian of Buch and Rainald of Dassel
• 1176 – Battle of Legnano: The Lombard League defeats Emperor Frederick I.
• 1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France.
• 1414 – Council of Constance.
• 1453 – Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire. Although the date of May 29, 1453, is that of the Julian Calendar, the event is commemorated in Istanbul on this day of the present Gregorian calendar.
• 1660 – English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of Great Britain.
• 1677 – Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Natives.
• 1727 – Peter II becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1733 – The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City.
• 1780 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Waxhaws Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton massacres Colonel Abraham Buford's continentals allegedly after the continentals surrender. 113 Americans are killed.
• 1790 – Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.
• 1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen are massacred by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.
• 1848 – Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
• 1861 – The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce was founded, in Hong Kong.
• 1864 – Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time.
• 1867 – The Austro-Hungarian agreement known as Ausgleich ("the Compromise") is born through Act 12, which establishes the Austro-Hungarian Empire; on June 8 Emperor Franz Joseph is crowned King of Hungary.
• 1868 – The assassination of Michael Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia, in Belgrade.
• 1886 – Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal.
• 1900 – N'Djamena is founded as Fort-Lamy by French commander Émile Gentil
• 1903 – May coup d'etat: Alexander Obrenovich, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.
• 1913 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, provoking a riot.
• 1914 – Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the loss of 1,024 lives.
• 1918 – Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarapat.
• 1919 – Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil.
• 1919 – The Republic of Prekmurje founded
• 1924 – AEK Athens FC is established on the anniversary of the siege of Constantinople by the Turks.
• 1931 – Born October 19, 1899 in Sardinia, Michele "Mike" Schirru, Anarchist against Fascism, U.S. Citizen is executed by Italian military firing squad for intent to kill Benito Mussolini. The U.S. Government did nothing to help Schirru.
• 1932 – World War I Veterans begin to assemble in Washington, D.C. in the Bonus Army to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945.
• 1939 – Albanian fascist leader Tefik Mborja is appointed as member of the Italian Chamber of Fasces and Corporations.
• 1940 – The first flight of the F4U Corsair.
• 1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history, for Decca Records in Los Angeles.
• 1945 – First combat mission of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator heavy bomber.
• 1948 – Creation of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
• 1950 – The St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia .
• 1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday.
• 1954 – First of the annual Bilderberg conferences.
• 1964 – The Arab League meets in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian question, leading to the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
• 1969 – General strike in Córdoba, Argentina, leading to the Cordobazo civil unrest.
• 1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California.
• 1982 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Canterbury Cathedral.
• 1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster: At the European Cup final in Brussels, Belgium, 39 association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses after Liverpool F.C. fans breach a fence separating them from Juventus F.C. fans.
• 1985 – Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
• 1988 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
• 1989 – Signing of an agreement Egypt - U.S. manufacturing parts of the fighter F-16 in Egypt.
• 1990 – The Russian parliament elects Boris Yeltsin president of the Russian SFSR.
• 1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.
• 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
• 2001 – U.S. Supreme Court rules that disabled golfer Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments.
• 2004 – The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.