Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

• 1430 – Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
• 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy, on the orders of Pope Alexander VI.
• 1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
• 1568 – The Netherlands declare their independence from Spain.
• 1568 – Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
• 1609 – Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.
• 1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
• 1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
• 1706 – Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal Villeroi.
• 1788 – South Carolina ratifies the Constitution as the 8th American state.
• 1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Cathedral of Milan.
• 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").
• 1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna.
• 1844 – Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith, and Bahá'ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
• 1846 – Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
• 1873 – The Canadian Parliament establishes the North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
• 1900 – American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
• 1907 – The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
• 1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
• 1915 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1934 – American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
• 1934 – The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
• 1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
• 1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
• 1945 – World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.
• 1948 – Thomas C. Wasson, US Consul-General assassinated in Jerusalem.
• 1949 – The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.
• 1951 – Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China.
• 1958 – Explorer 1 ceases transmission.
• 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and blockades the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.
• 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
• 1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
• 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.
• 2002 – The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
• 2004 – Part of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others.
• 2006 – Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
• 2008 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

May 22

• 334 BC – The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.
• 853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt
• 1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin near Aleppo.
• 1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
• 1455 – Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
• 1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
• 1807 – Most of the English town of Chudleigh is destroyed by fire
• 1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
• 1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20.
• 1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
• 1840 – The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 1843 – Thousands of people and their cattle head west via wagon train from Independence, Missouri to what would later become the Oregon Territory. It is part of the Great Migration. They follow what is now known as the Oregon Trail.
• 1844 – Persian Prophet The Báb announces his revelation, founding Bábism. He announces to the world the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest". He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith.
• 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
• 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").
• 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
• 1871 – The U.S. Army issued an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.
• 1872 – Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
• 1897 – The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened
• 1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner, SS Ionic.
• 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
• 1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the continental US during the 20th century.
• 1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246; the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating practices during a shift change at a busy junction.
• 1936 – Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) is founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.
• 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• 1942 – Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
• 1942 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.
• 1942 – World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
• 1947 – Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.
• 1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.
• 1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
• 1963 – Assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Gregoris Lambrakis, who will die five days afterwards.
• 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an "end to poverty and racial injustice" in America.
• 1967 – The L'Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels, Belgium, burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.
• 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
• 1969 – Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.
• 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
• 1987 – Hashimpura massacre in Meerut city of India.
• 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
• 1990 – Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.
• 1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.
• 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
• 1997 – Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.
• 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
• 2002 – In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
• 2002 – American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
• 2003 – In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
• 2004 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide, which kills one resident.
• 2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes struck 19 states and one Canadian province.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

May 21

• 293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
• 878 – Syracuse, Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
• 879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
• 996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1502 – The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova.
• 1554 – A royal Charter is granted to Derby School in Derby, England.
• 1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
• 1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
• 1758 – Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
• 1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
• 1851 – Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
• 1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
• 1863 – Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.
• 1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
• 1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
• 1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
• 1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
• 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
• 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
• 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
• 1911 – Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
• 1917 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
• 1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
• 1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".
• 1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
• 1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
• 1937 – A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
• 1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.
• 1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• 1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition – a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
• 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
• 1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
• 1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
• 1972 – Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
• 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
• 1981 – Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison.
• 1982 – Falklands War: British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton lead to the Battle of San Carlos.
• 1990 – Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agree to merge into the Republic of Yemen.
• 1991 – Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
• 1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
• 1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
• 1996 – The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
• 1996 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
• 1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
• 2001 – French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
• 2003 – An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.
• 2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure.
• 2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

May 20

• 325 – The First Council of Nicea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church is held.
• 526 – An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia.
• 685 – The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
• 1217 – The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
• 1293 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
• 1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship  Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).
• 1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
• 1521 – Battle of Pampeluna: Ignatius Loyola is seriously wounded.
• 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
• 1609 – Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
• 1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.
• 1802 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution
• 1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
• 1835 – Otto is named the first modern King of Greece.
• 1840 – York Minster is badly damaged by fire
• 1845 – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in Britain, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
• 1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church – in the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
• 1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
• 1875 – Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations which led to the establishment of the International System of Units.
• 1882 – The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed.
• 1883 – Krakatoa begins to erupt. The volcano's final and most notable explosion occurs on August 26.
• 1891 – History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.
• 1896 – The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others.
• 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.
• 1908 – Budi Utomo organization was founded in Dutch East Indies.
• 1916 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting (Boy with Baby Carriage).
• 1920 – Montreal, Quebec radio station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America.
• 1927 – Treaty of Jedda: the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• 1927 – At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.
• 1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
• 1940 – Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
• 1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
• 1949 – In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.
• 1949 – The Kuomintang regime declares martial law in Taiwan.
• 1956 – In Operation Redwing (shot Cherokee), the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean;
• 1965 – PIA Flight 705, a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720 – 040 B, crashes while descending to land at Cairo International Airport, killing 119 of the 125 passengers and crew.
• 1969 – The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
• 1980 – In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
• 1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually.
• 1985 – Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
• 1989 – The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.
• 1990 – The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
• 1996 – Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
• 2002 – The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).

Historical Events on this Day in History

May 19

• 1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.
• 1535 – French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage).
• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.
• 1568 – Queen Elizabeth I of England orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 1643 – Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.
• 1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
• 1749 – King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• 1780 – New England's Dark Day: A combination of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover causes complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 10:30 A.M.
• 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour.
• 1828 – U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
• 1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England.
• 1848 – Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million.
• 1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
• 1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
• 1911 – Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.
• 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1921 – The U.S. Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration.
• 1922 – The Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union is established.
• 1934 – Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister.
• 1943 – World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
• 1950 – A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan explodes in the harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city.
• 1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail.
• 1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
• 1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".
• 1971 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1986 – Firearm Owners Protection Act signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
• 1991 – Croatians vote for independence in a referendum.
• 1997 – The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts.
• 2007 – President of Romania Traian Băsescu survives an impeachment referendum and returns to office from suspension.
• 2010 – The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders.