305 AD, May 1
Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.

325, May 20
First Council of Nicaea -- first "Ecumenical Council" (from Greek oikumene, "worldwide") of the Christian Church took place during the reign of emperor Constantine. The conference was called to "settle" the question of Arianism.

328, May 9
Athanasius elected bishop of Alexandria.

330, May 11
Byzantium (present-day Istanbul) is renamed Constantinople during a dedication ceremony.

337, May 22
Died: Constantine I or Constantine the Great (Flavius Valerius Constantinus) of the Roman Empire.

526, May 20
An Earthquake kills ~300,000 in Syria and Antiochia (Antioch-on-the-Orontes (modern Antakya, Turkey)).

558, May 7
In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian immediately orders the dome rebuilt.

612, May 3
Born: Constantine III, -- Byzantine Emperor.

996, May 21
Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1085, May 25
Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors who had conquered Spain in the Islamic crusades 360 years earlier.

1092, May 9
Built by Bishop Remigius, Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated in Lincoln, England.

1153, May 24
Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

1176, May 22
Hashshashins attempt the murder of Saladin during battle near Aleppo, Syria.

1191, May 12
Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre.

1204, May 16
Baldwin I crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

1264, May 12, 14
-- May 12: The Battle of Lewes begins in Sussex.
-- May 14: Simon de Montfort becomes the de facto ruler of England after winning the Battle of Lewes and capturing Prince Edward, son of Henry III of England who had gone into hiding.

1291, May 10
Scottish nobles agree to recognize the authority of King Edward I of England.

1328, May 1
Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton -- England recognizes Scotland as an independent nation after the Wars of Scottish Independence.

1416, May 30
The Catholic Church burns Jerome of Prague as a heretic.

1429, May 9
Joan of Arc defeats the English troops besieging Orleans.

1430, May 23
Joan of Arc is captured by Burgundians at Compiegne and sold to the English.

1431, May 30
In Rouen, France, 19-year old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake.

1455, May 22
Wars of the Roses: -- Battle of St. Albans -- Richard, Duke of York defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.

1469, May 3
Born: Niccolò Machiavelli, historian and political author (died: 1527).

1471, May 4
Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury -- Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.

1483, May 14
Coronation of Charles VIII of France, son of King Louis XI.

1487, May 24
Imposter Lambert Simnel is crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin.

1493, May 4
Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Demarcation Line of their previous claims.

1494, May 3
Christopher Columbus discovers Jamaica.

1497, May 10
Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cadiz, Spain for his first voyage to the New World. (Most historians doubt that this voyage ever took place.)

1497, May 13
Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.

1497, May 20
John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (some documents give a May 2 date).

1498, May 20
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta to become the first person to ever sail from Europe to India.

1502, May 9
Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the "New World".

1503, May 10
Christopher Columbus discovers the Cayman Islands and he names them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles found there.

1506, May 20
Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain.

1519, May 2
Died: Leonardo da Vinci, inventor, painter.

1521, May 25
The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.

1527, May 6
Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance.

1527, May 16
Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.

1532, May 16
Sir Thomas More, unable to honorably endorse King Henry VIII's divorce of his aging wife, resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.

1533, May 23
By a special act of Parliament the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.

1533, May 28
England's Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.

1534, May 10
Jacques Cartier allegedly discovers Newfoundland but most people believe that the east coast of Canada was explored by Vikings more than 500 years earlier (see Eric the Red).

1535, May 19
French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's 2 sons (who Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).

1536, May 19
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England is beheaded for adultery.

1539, May 30
Searching for gold, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay, Fla., with 600 soldiers.

1541, May 8
Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River naming it Rio de Espiritu Santo.

1541, May 23
Jacques Cartier departs Saint-Malo France on his third voyage.

1542, May 21
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.

1543, May 24
Died: Nicolas Copernicus, astronomer and mathematician.

1568, May 13, 16, 19
-- May 13: Battle of Langside: -- forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, her half-brother.
-- May 16: Mary flees to England.
-- May 19: Queen Elizabeth I has Mary arrested and the tragedy begins.

1574, May 30
Henry III becomes King of France.

1588, May 12
During the Wars of Religion, Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city.

1588, May 30
The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.

1590, May 17
Anne of Denmark is crowned queen of Scotland.

1602, May 15
Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to discover Cape Cod.

1607, May 13
Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.

1618, May 15
Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).

1626, May 4, 24
-- May 4: Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island, NYC) to become director-general of the colony.
-- May 24: Minuit made his famous deal with the Indians, getting them to relinquish claims to Manhattan for 60 gilders worth of "trade goods." [Minuit's payment has often been translated as: "about $24 worth of trinkets."]

1637, May 26
Pequot War: an allied Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, killing approximately 500 inhabitants.

1641, May 17
Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, founds the Ville Marie de Montreal in New France (present-day Montreal, Canada).

1643, May 14
Four year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

1643, May 19
Delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation.

1646, May 5
King Charles I of England surrenders to the Scottish Presbyterian Army at Newark.

1647, May 27
The first recorded American execution of a "witch" took place in Massachusetts.

1652, May 18
Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.

1671, May 9
Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught because he is too drunk to run with the loot. Later, he was condemned to death but then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.

1673, May 17
Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

1689, May 12
King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg and provokes war with France.

1689, May 24
The Act of Toleration passes the English Parliament protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded).

1699, May 1
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley.

1701, May 23
After being convicted of murdering William Moore and for piracy, Captain William Kidd (Captain Kidd) is hanged in London.

1707, May 1
The Act of Union joins England, Wales, and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1714, May 1
George I of the House of Hanover is chosen to succeed to the throne of Kingdom of Great Britain upon the death of Queen Anne.

1718, May 15
James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.

1740, May 2
Born: Elias Boudinot, American President of the Continental Congress (1782-83) (died: 1821).

1745, May 11
War of Austrian Succession: In the Battle of Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.

1756, May 15
England declares war on France to begin the Seven Years' War.

1758, May 6
Born: Maximilian Robespierre, (Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre) leader in the French Revolution; (died: July 28, 1794).

1761, May 22
The first life insurance policy in the U.S. was issued, in Philadelphia.

1762, May 5
Peace treaty is reached between Russia and Prussia.

1763, May 7
Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.

1765, May 29
Patrick Henry denounced the British Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses. Responding to a cry of "Treason!" from the chamber floor he declared, "If this be treason, make the most of it!"

1768, May 20
Dolley Madison, former First Lady of the United States (died: July 12, 1849).

1770, May 16
14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year old Louis-Auguste (who later becomes king of France).

1774, May 10
Louis-Auguste becomes king Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette is queen.

1775, May 10
American Revolutionary War: -- Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.

1775, May 17
American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.

1776, May 4
Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to George III, two months before the Declaration of Independence.

1780, May 12
American Revolutionary War: Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.

1787, May 13
Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1787, May 14, 24, 25
-- May 14: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates meet to revise the Articles of Confederation but there are not enough delegates to make a quorum.
-- May 24: Enough delegates had arrived.
-- May 25: The Convention was called to order. After much haggling, members realized that the Articles couldn't be saved, so they decide to devise a new agreement of unity: the U.S. Constitution.

1788, May 23
South Carolina becomes the 8th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1789, May 7
In New York, the first inaugural ball was held to honor President and Mrs. George Washington.

1790, May 1
The U.S. completes its first census in accordance with the new Constitution.

1790, May 29
Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1792, May 17
The New York Stock Exchange was formed by brokers meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street.

1795, May 15
First Coalition: -- Napoleon Bonaparte enters Milan, Italy, in triumph.

1796, May 10
Napoleon wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the River Adda in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.

1796, May 14
Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.

1797, May 12
The First Coalition cannot stop Napoleon from conquering Venice.

1800, May 9
Born: John Brown, American abolitionist (hanged: Dec. 2, 1859).

1801, May 10
The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the U.S. (President Thomas Jefferson accepts the challenge and the rest is history.)

1802, May 3
Washington, D.C. was incorporated as a city.

1803, May 18
Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.

1804, May 14
Lewis and Clark depart Camp Dubois, Illinois, and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.

1804, May 18
Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.

1805, May 26
In Milan's cathedral, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned king of Italy.

1806, May 30
Andrew Jackson kills a man in a duel after the man had publicly accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.

1807, May 22
Three years after his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton, former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr is indicted for treason.

1809, May 5
-- Mary Dixon Kies becomes the first woman to be awarded a U.S. patent (which was for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread).
-- The Swiss canton of Aargau denies Jews citizenship.

1809, May 17
Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French empire.

1810, May 25
Argentina began its revolt for independence against Spain.

1811, May 15
Paraguay gains independence from Spain.

1814, May 4
Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.

1814, May 30
-- The First Treaty of Paris is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent.
-- The exile of Napoleon I of France to Elba is made official.

1814, May 5
War of 1812: The British attack Fort Ontario at Oswego, NY.

1818, May 10
Died: Paul Revere, engraver, gold- and silversmith, American patriot.

1819, May 22
The SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. (The ship arrived in Liverpool, England on June 20).

1819, May 24
Born: Queen Victoria, in London.

1820, May 12
Born: In Florence, Italy, the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. (Died: August 13, 1910).

1821, May 5
Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena (about half-way between Africa and South America).

1830, May 26
The Indian Removal Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. (This law and later illegal acts by the government led to the Trail of Tears in 1838-39)

1832, May 7
Greece becomes independent. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria, is chosen King.

1832, May 21
The first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore.

1833, May 7
Born: Johannes Brahms, composer (died: 1897).

1835, May 5
The first railway in continental Europe is opened between Brussels and Mechelen, Belgium.

1836, May 15
Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular solar eclipse.

1837, May 10
Panic of 1837: NYC banks fail; unemployment reaches record levels.

1840, May 1
The Penny Black postage stamp is put on sale in the U.K.

1840, May 7
-- The Great Natchez Tornado occurred. To date, it is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history. 317 people were killed.
-- Born: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (died: Nov. 6, 1893).

1840, May 21
New Zealand was declared a British colony.

1843, May 22
The first major wagon train headed for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail.

1844, May 24
Samuel F. B. Morse formally opened America's first electrical telegram line. He sent the message, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland. (The incident was reported the next day in the Baltimore Patriot.)

1845, May 20
Capt. John Franklin sails from the River Thames with the HMS Erebus and Terror beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

1846, May 8, 13 Mexican-American War:
-- May 8: In the Battle of Palo Alto, north of the Rio Grande, General Zachary Taylor defeats Mexican forces in the first major action.
-- May 13: The U.S. formally declared that a state of war existed with Mexico.

1846, May 17
The Saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.

1846, May 24
During the Mexican-American War General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey, Mexico.

1847, May 7
In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.

1848, May 19
Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by Mexico thus formally ending the war and ceding Texas, California and most of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $15 million dollars.

1848, May 29
Wisconsin became the 30th state of the U.S.

1854, May 30
The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas.

1856, May 6
Born: Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis (died: September 23, 1939).

1856, May 21
Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.

1856, May 22
U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the U.S. Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner was unable to return to duty for three years while he recovered. Brooks became a hero across the South but resigned his congressional seat in July.

1858, May 11
Minnesota is admitted into the U.S. as the 32nd state.

1861, May 6
American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.

1861, May 7
American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.

1861, May 8
American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.

1861, May 13
American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the U.K. issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.

1861, May 20 American Civil War:
-- The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va.
-- North Carolina voted to secede from the Union.

1862, May 5
The Mexican army defeats the French army in the Battle of Puebla (on May 9 this day was made into the Cinco de mayo holiday).

1862, May 11
American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.

1862, May 15
President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA).

1862, May 20
President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.

1863, May 2
American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends in a defeat for the Army of the Potomac under Union General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.

1863, May 10
Died: (from wounds received on May 2) Stonewall Jackson. After the victory at Chancellorsville and while reconnoitering at night with members of his staff, his group was mistaken for the enemy and he was shot by his own soldiers.

1863, May 18
American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins (ends July 4 in Union victory).

1863, May 21
American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson -- Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.

1863, May 28
American Civil War: The first black regiment from the North left Boston to join the fight.

1864, May 5-24 (American Civil War)
-- May 5: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
-- May 7: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves south.
-- May 8: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House begins. Gen. Robert E. Lee tries to cut off Grant's advance toward Richmond: Over 150,000 total forces clash with 30,000 casualties, most at the "Bloody Angle".
-- May 11: Confederate Gen. JEB Stuart is mortally wounded (died the next day) at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
-- May 13: Battle of Resaca begins as Union Gen. Sherman heads to Atlanta.
-- May 15: The Battle of Resaca ends inconclusively as Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston withdraws and Sherman continues toward Atlanta. | Also: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight with Confederate Army to force Union Gen. Franz Sigel from the Shenandoah Valley.
-- May 12-16: Battle of Bermuda Hundred in Virginia; over 3,000 Confederates and l,200 Union troops are killed in this Union victory.
-- May 21: Grant finally breaks off the engagement at Spotsylvania Court House and proceeds toward Richmond.
-- May 24: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
[Note: The battles of May, 1864, all but finished the Confederate army.]

1864, May 26
Montana is established as a United States territory.

1865, May 5
In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the U.S. took place.

1865, May 10
American Civil War: Union troops capture Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia.

1865, May 12-13
American Civil War: -- Battle of Palmito Ranch -- In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the civil war ends with a Union victory.

1865, May 23
A parade is held down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the end of the American Civil War.

1865, May 26
American Civil War: Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River. General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.

1867, May 3
The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.

1868, May 6
Born: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (died: July 4, 1918).

1868, May 16, 26
-- May 16: The U.S. Senate acquits President Andrew Johnson by one vote of the most serious charge at his impeachment trial.
-- May 26: The Senate acquited the President of all remaining charges.

1868, May 22
The "Great Train Robbery" took place near Marshfield, Ind., as seven members of the Reno gang made off with $96,000 in loot.

1868, May 30
Memorial Day (then known as "Decoration Day") is observed in the U.S. for the first time (it was proclaimed on May 5 by General John Logan).

1869, May 10
The First Transcontinental Railroad linking the eastern and western U.S., is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah).

1869, May 15
In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1870, May 12
Manitoba entered Confederation as a Canadian province.

1872, May 22
Reconstruction: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

1873, May 23
The Canadian Parliament established the North West Mounted Police which was renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.

1874, May 20
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

1875, May 17
Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.

1876, May 1
Colorado is admitted to statehood as the 38th state.

1877, May 5
Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the U.S. Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

1877, May 6
Realizing that his people were weakened by cold and hunger, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to U.S. troops in Nebraska.

1877, May 10
Romania declares itself independent from Turkey, recognized on March 26, 1881, after the end of the Romanian independence war.

1879, May 26
Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.

1881, May 21
The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.

1881, May 24
Some 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario.

1882, May 6
Congress passed, over President Arthur's veto, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. for 10 years.

1882, May 9
Born: Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist, (died Aug. 24, 1967).

1883, May 1
Buffalo Bill Cody put on his first Wild West Show.

1883, May 24, 30
-- May 24: The Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
-- May 30: Twelve people are crushed to death in a human stampede when a rumor is circulated that the bidge is going to collapse.

1884, May 8
The 33rd president of the U.S., Harry S. Truman, was born near Lamar, MO.

1886, May 1
The start of the general strike which eventually won the eight-hour workday in the U.S. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labour Day in most industrialized countries.

1886, May 4
Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Ill., killing 8 and wounding 60. [Police fired into the crowd.]

1886, May 8
Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would be named "Coca-Cola."

1886, May 15
Poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, Mass.

1887, May 9
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.

1889, May 6
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

1889, May 31
More than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

1891, May 5
The Music Hall (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening.

1892, May 2
Born: Manfred von Richthofen, (The Red Baron) German pilot, "ace of aces" in WW I (died: April 21, 1918, shot down by Canadian pilot).

1892, May 5
The U.S. Congress passes the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act: All Chinese in the U.S. must register or risk deportation.

1893, May 5
Panic of 1893: Crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a depression.

1894, May 1
-- Japan declares war on China over the fate of Korea.
-- Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington D.C.

1895, May 25
In London, playright Oscar Wilde was convicted and sentenced to prison on a morals charge.

1896, May 18
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" is constitutional.

1896, May 26
Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia.

1898, May 1
Spanish-American War: The Battle of Manila Bay -- The U.S. Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet after Commodore George Dewey gave the order, "You may fire when ready, Gridley."

1898, May 3
Born: Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel. (She was born in Kiev, Ukraine and emigrated with her family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA).

1899, May 24
The first public parking garage in the U.S. is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.

1900, May 17
Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.

1901, May 1
The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.

1902, May 8
In Martinique, the volcano Mount Pelee erupts and destroys the town of St. Pierre, killing over 30,000 people. Only a small handful of St. Pierre's residents survived the blast.

1902, May 15
In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore claimed to have been the first person to fly a powered aircraft (a steam-powered glider).

1902, May 17
Archaeologist Spyridon Stais finds the Antikythera mechanism.

1902, May 20
The U.S. ended its three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma.

1903, May 29
Born: In Eltham, England: Leslie Townes Hope, better known as Bob Hope.

1904, May 4
The U.S. began building the Panama Canal.

1904, May 5
Cy Young (Denton True Young) pitched the American League's first perfect game as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0.

1904, May 11
Surrealist artist Salvador Dali (Salvador Domenec Felip Jacint Dalí Domenech) was born in Figueras, Spain.

1904, May 14
The first Olympic games held in the U.S. opened in St. Louis, as part of the World's Fair commemorating the centenary of the Louisiana Purchase.

1905, May 15
Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when 110 acres (in what later would become downtown) are auctioned off.

1906, May 19
The Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America, were organized.

1908, May 10
Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virgina).

1908, May 26
At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia (Iran), the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. (The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.)

1908, May 30
Born: Mel Blanc, voice for Barney Rubble, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, others (died: 1989).

1909, May 7
Born: Edwin H. Land, inventor and founder of the Polaroid Corporation.

1910, May 4
The Royal Canadian Navy is created.

1910, May 6
George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.

1910, May 11
Glacier National Park in Montana is established.

1910, May 18
The earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1911, May 15
The U.S. Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.

1911, May 30
At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.

1912, May 3
The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1912, May 5
The 1912 Summer Olympics open in Stockholm, Sweden.

1912, May 13
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established.

1913, May 13
Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a four engine aircraft.

1913, May 30
First Balkan War: A peace treaty is signed in London ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation.

1913, May 31
The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for popular election of U.S. Senators, was declared ratified and in effect. (The 17th amendment profoundly altered the political nature of U.S. government by removing the only protection of states rights. After 1913, Senators became the voter's 2nd and 3rd Representative but with 6-year terms instead of 2-years.)

1914, May 8
Paramount Pictures is formed.

1914, May 14
The Hellenic Holocaust starts, according to an official document from Talaat Bey (Minister of the Interior) to the prefect of Smyrna.

1915, May 7
Prior to U.S. entry into World War I the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat killing 1,198.

1915, May 9
World War I: The Second Battle of Artois, French meet Germans.

1916, May 20
The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage").

1917, May 18
World War I: The Selective Service Act passes the U.S. Congress giving the President the power to draft soldiers.

1917, May 29
The 35th U.S. president, John F.Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass.

1918, May 13, 15
-- May 13: The first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. (On some of the stamps, the airplane was printed upside-down, making them valuable collector's items.)
-- May 15: The first regular airmail service in the world began, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

1918, May 16
The Sedition Act is passed by Congress, making it a crime to criticize the U.S. government. (The last time Congress had been so dumb was when it passed The Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.)

1918, May 26
The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.

1919, May 16
Naval Curtiss NC-4, a U.S. Navy aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read, departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1920, May 2
The first game of the National Negro Baseball League is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1920, May 16
In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.

1921, May 9
Born: Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter with White Rose during WW II in Nazi Germany.

1921, May 19
The Emergency Quota Act passes the United States Congress establishing national quotas on immigration. (Whatever happened to THAT concept?)

1922, May 5
In The Bronx, construction begins on Yankee Stadium.

1922, May 30
In Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.

1924, May 10
J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1924, May 21
14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, (Leopold and Loeb) two students at the Univ. of Chicago. The students committed the murder to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to pull off a perfect crime.

1925, May 5
Scopes Trial: Dayton, Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

1925, May 12
Born: Yogi Berra, ex-NY Yankee and Baseball Hall of Famer. -- (Yogi-isms)

1926, May 18
Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Gospel Church, vanished while visiting a beach in Venice Calif.; she reappeared a month later, claiming to have been kidnapped.

1927, May 14
The luxury liner Cap Arcona is launched from Blohm & Voss shipyard, Hamburg.

1927, May 20
-- At 7:52 A.M Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (he lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 10:22 P.M. the next day).
-- Treaty of Jedda: Saudi Arabia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

1928, May 15
Mickey Mouse makes his first motion picture appearance.

1929, May 28
The first all-color talking motion picture, On with the Show, opened in New York.

1930, May 4
British police in India arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison.

1930, May 15
Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyo.

1931, May 1
The Empire State Building is opened in New York City.

1932, May 4
In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone (Alphonse Gabriel Capone) begins to serve an eleven year sentence.... for income tax evasion.

1932, May 20-21
Amelia Earhart takes off for Paris from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland in a Lockheed Vega, intending to be the first female to duplicate Lindbergh's solo flight. She arrived in Londonderry, Ireland on May 21.

1932, May 29
World War I veterans began arriving in Washington, D.C., to demand cash bonuses they weren't scheduled to receive for another 13 years.

1933, May 2
-- The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness monster is reported.
-- Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.

1933, May 10
In Germany, the Nazi Party introduces censorship with massive public book burnings.

1933, May 12
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration were established to provide help for the needy and farmers.

1933, May 18
New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

1934, May 23
Near their hide-out at Black Lake, Louisiana, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed and shot dead by Texas Rangers.

1934, May 28
The Dionne quintuplets -- Annette, Cecile, Emile, Marie and Yvonne -- were born to Elzire and Oliva Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.

1935, May 6
New Deal: Executive Order 7034 signed by President Roosevelt creates the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

1935, May 19
T.E. Lawrence, a.k.a. "Lawence of Arabia," died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.

1935, May 25, 30
-- May 25: At Forbes Field in Pittsburg against the Pirates, Babe Ruth, in a Boston Braves uniform, hit the 714th and final home run of his career.
-- May 30: Babe Ruth played his last baseball game.

1936, May 9
Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.

1936, May 27
The Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage.

1937, May 6
Hindenburg disaster: The hydrogen-filled German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, N.J. The disaster killed 36.

1937, May 7
Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He-51 biplanes arrive in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.

1937, May 12
George VI of the U.K. was coronated King at Westminster Abbey.

1937, May 27
The newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrains. The next day in Washington, D.C., President Roosevelt pushed a button signaling the start of vehicular traffic.

1937, May 28
Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.

1938, May 17
Congress passed the Vinson Naval Act, providing for a two-ocean navy.

1938, May 26
The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.

1939, May 2
Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record stands for 57 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it.

1939, May 14
Lina Medina of Peru becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at 5 years old.

1939, May 17
Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns.

1939, May 20
Regular transatlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Europe.

1939, May 22
World War II: -- Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed the "Pact of Steel" committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance.

1940, May 1
The 1940 Summer Olympics are canceled because of war in Europe.

1940, May 10 (World War II)
-- Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
-- Winston Churchill appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1940, May 13 (World War II)
-- Nazi Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse River.
-- In his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

1940, May 20
Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

1940, May 24
Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1940, May 26
World War II: The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began.

1941, May 1
World War II: Germany attacks Tobruk in northern Africa.

1941, May 6
At California's March Field Bob Hope performed his first USO show.

1941, May 9
World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by United Kingdom's Royal Navy. On board was the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptergraphers later use to break coded German messages.

1941, May 10 (World War II)
-- The U.K.'s House of Commons is destroyed by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
-- Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.

1941, May 21
World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first U.S. ship sunk by a German U-boat.

1941, May 24, 27 World War II:
-- May 24: In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewman on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
-- May 27: The British navy sank Bismarck, killing 2,300 Germans.

1941, May 27
Amid rising world tensions, President Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency."

1942, May 4
World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins as planes are launched by American and Japanese aircraft carriers. [Its the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier-based aircraft.]

1942, May 5
World War II: Sales of sugar, suspended in the U.S. for the war effort, resumed under a rationing program.

1942, May 6
World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.

1942, May 8
World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in naval history where two enemy fleets fought without visual contact between warring ships.

1942, May 12
World War II: In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates its first major offensive of the war. During the battle, the Soviets take the city of Kharkov back from the German Army.

1942, May 14
World War II: The U.S. created the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).

1942, May 15
World War II: To support the war, gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.

1942, May 29
-- Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" in Los Angeles for Decca Records.
-- Actor John Barrymore died in Hollywood at age 60.

1942, May 30
World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.

1943, May 11
World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands to expel occupying Japanese forces.

1943, May 13
World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.

1943, May 15
Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).

1943, May 16
Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising ends.

1943, May 17 (World War II)
-- The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams begins.
-- The U.S. Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop a computer: it became the ENIAC.

1943, May 19
In an address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the war against Japan.

1943, May 24
Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp.

1943, May 29
Norman Rockwell's portrait of Rosie the Riveter appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

1944, May 3
World War II: U.S. wartime rationing of most grades of meat ended.

1944, May 17
Type IX U-boat: U-884 is launched.

1944, May 18
World War II: -- Battle of Monte Cassino -- Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.

1945, May 2
The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag building.

1945, May 3
World War II: Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.

1945, May 4
-- World War II: The British army liberates the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, Germany.
-- The North Germany army in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany surrenders to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1945, May 5 (World War II:)
-- A Japanese bomb, launched by balloon, explodes near Lakewood, Oregon, killing a woman and five children who were examining it during a church picnic (the bomb exploded as the children were dragging it from the woods).
-- German troops in the Netherlands and Denmark complete their surrender.
-- Mauthausen concentration camp is liberated.
-- Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.

1945, May 6
World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).

1945, May 7
World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.

1945, May 8
VE Day, German forces agreed to an unconditional surrender. -- President Truman announced on the radio that the war in Europe had ended.

1945, May 9
World War II: -- Hermann Goering is captured by the U.S. Army; Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling (Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling); Soviet Union marks V-E Day.

1945, May 23
World War II: -- Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

1946, May 4
In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison, in which five people were killed.

1946, May 9
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II.

1946, May 17
President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

1946, May 25
Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein.

1947, May 3
The post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.

1947, May 22
Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.

1948, May 1
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il Sung as president.

1948, May 3
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks (or anyone else) were legally unenforceable.

1948, May 14
-- Israel declares itself to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.
-- In Blackburn, England, more than 40,000 men are fingerprinted in an attempt to find the murderer of a three-year-old girl.

1948, May 15
Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia all attack Israel and 56 years later, the violence continues.

1948, May 16
Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.

1948, May 17
The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.

1948, May 18
The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.

1948, May 26
The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.

1949, May 9
Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.

1949, May 11
-- Siam changes its name to Thailand.
-- Israel became the 59th nation admitted to the United Nations.

1949, May 12
The Soviet Union ends its blockade of Berlin, signaling success for the U.S.-Britain-France Berlin Airlifts.

1949, May 20
The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.

1950, May 1
Guam is organized as a U.S. commonwealth.

1950, May 9
Robert Schuman presents a plan for the creation of an organized Europe. The proposal, known as the Schuman declaration, is considered to be the beginning of the European Union.

1951, May 18
The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan.

1952, May 2
The first commercial jet plane, the BOAC Comet, is put into service.

1952, May 7
The concept for the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.

1953, May 2
Hussein of Jordan takes the throne.

1953, May 11
The Waco Tornado: An F5 tornado hit in the downtown section of Waco, Texas, killing 114.

1953, May 18
Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted a North American F-86 Canadair over Rogers Dry Lake, Calif. (She was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier.)

1953, May 29
Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.

1954, May 6
Brit Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

1954, May 10
Bill Haley and the Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.

1954, May 13
President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act. (The development opened the midwestern U.S. and central Canada to ocean-going ships. Eisenhower viewed the open seaway, along with his plan for an interstate highway system, as an essential national security matter.)

1954, May 17
The U.S. Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, declaring that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.

1955, May 9
Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.

1955, May 14
Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries led by the Soviet Union sign a mutual-defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

1956, May 1
The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.

1956, May 21
Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.

1957, May 3
Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles, California.

1957, May 15
Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

1958, May 8
V.P. of the U.S. Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by American haters in Lima, Peru.

1958, May 12
A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.

1958, May 15
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

1958, May 24
United Press International (UPI) was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1958, May 30
The bodies of several unidentified soldiers killed in action during World War II and the Korean War are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

1960, May 1
-- Benin gains independence as Dahomey.
-- American pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured when his U-2 spyplane is shot down over the Soviet Union.

1960, May 10
The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus completes the first under water circumnavigation of the earth.

1960, May 11
In Buenos Aires four Israeli Mossad agents abducted fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who was using the assumed name "Ricardo Klement." (In Israel, he was tried, convicted and hanged for WW II crimes against Jews.)

1960, May 15
Sputnik 4 is launched into Earth orbit.

1960, May 16
A Big Four (U.S., U.K., U.S.S.R. and France) summit in Paris ends abruptly with a demand from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologize for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union. [The Soviets had captured a U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers.]

1960, May 22
The Great Chilean Earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, affected Southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded and caused a tsunami which ran through the Pacific Ocean and devastated Hilo, Hawaii, 6500 miles from the epicenter.

1960, May 23
Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion announces that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured.

1960, May 26
U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. accused the Soviets of hiding a microphone inside a wood carving of the Great Seal of the United States that had been presented to the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

1961, May 4
James Farmer and 13 other Freedom Riders left Washington, D.C., by bus for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation practices aboard interstate buses and at bus terminals. [The U.S.S.C. had ruled in 1960 that such segregation was illegal.]

1962, May 24
Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he made three orbits in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

1962, May 31
World War II Nazi SS official, Adolf Eichmann, was hanged at Ramla prison in Israel (to be accurate, the execution took place a few minutes after midnight making June 1 the official date of death).

1963, May 15
Mercury program: NASA launches the last mission of the program, Mercury 9. (On June 12, NASA Administrator James Webb told Congress the program was complete).

1964, May 19
The State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had been found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

1964, May 27
Died: Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first prime minister.

1967, May 1
Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu.

1967, May 22
The Innovation department store in the center of Brussels (Belgium) burned, killing 323 and injuring another 150.

1968, May 21
The nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Scorpion, with 99 men aboard was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found at 10,000' on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

1968, May 24
The Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, Missouri, is dedicated.

1969, May 2
The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs for New York on her maiden voyage.

1969, May 16
Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus. The probe sends back atmospheric data the following day before being crushed by pressure.

1969, May 18, 22, 26
-- May 18: Apollo program: -- Apollo 10 launches.
-- May 22: The lunar module flies within 9 miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
-- May 26: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful mission.

1970, May 4
Ohio National Guardsmen, believing they were being fired on, "returned" fire into a group of anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. [Several Guardsmen testified that they heard gunfire-like sounds.]

1970, May 8
Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York's Wall Street.

1970, May 15
Phillip L. Gibbs and James E. Green, two black students at Jackson State Univ. in Miss., were killed when police opened fire during student protests.

1970, May 17
Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

1970, May 26
The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.

1971, May 1
Amtrak -- which combined and streamlined the operations of 18 intercity passenger railroads -- went into service.

1972, May 15
In Laurel, Maryland, a disturbed, out-of-work janitor named Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while Wallace is campaigning to be president.

1972, May 22
-- President Nixon began a visit to the Soviet Union, during which he and Kremlin leaders signed the SALT I arms limitation treaty.
-- Ceylon adopts a new constitution and changes its name to Sri Lanka.

1972, May 28
The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.

1973, May 8
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement who were occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants.

1973, May 11
Charges in the "Pentagon Papers" case against Daniel Ellsberg were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct.

1973, May 14
Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

1973, May 17
Watergate scandal: Hearings begin in the U.S. Senate and are televised.

1974, May 9
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee opens public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.

1974, May 17
Los Angeles, California police raid Symbionese Liberation Army headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1974, May 18
Under project Smiling Buddha, India becomes the 6th nation to successfully detonate a nuclear weapon.

1975, May 12, 14
-- May 12: Mayaguez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
-- May 14: U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the ship.

1975, May 16
India annexes Sikkim, after approval of Sikkim voters.

1976, May 24
Britain and France opened transatlantic Concorde service to Washington, D.C.

1977, May 24
In a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny [Nikolay Viktorovich Podgorny (1903-1983)] from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo.

1977, May 26
George H. Willig (an amatuer acrobat) scaled the outside of the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center; he was arrested at the top of the 110 story building. (His "sentence:" provide free performances for children in Central Park.)

1978, May 1
-- Japan's Naomi Uemura, traveling by dogsled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
-- Ernest Morial was inaugurated as the first black mayor of New Orleans.

1978, May 10
Britain's Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18 years of marriage.

1979, May 4
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1979, May 10
The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.

1980, May 9
In Florida, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture slammed into the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, collapsing a 1,400-foot section and sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death below.

1980, May 18
Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington state killing 57 and causing US$ 3 billion in damage.

1982, May 1
The 1982 World's Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee.

1982, May 2
HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War.

1982, May 30
-- Major League Baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr. plays the first of 2,632 consecutive games. His streak ends on September 20, 2000.
-- Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany's admission in 1955.

1984, May 28
President Ronald Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War. (However, the remains were later identified through DNA testing to be Air Force First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, and were sent to St. Louis for hometown burial.)

1985, May 13
MOVE: In a stand-off with law enforcement, Philadelphia's mayor ordered officers to storm the group's headquarters. Police dropped a bomb onto the building, causing a raging fire that burned an entire city block. The homes of 250 city residents were destroyed and 11 MOVE members were killed.

1985, May 27
In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged documents ratifying an agreement to return control of Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

1986, May 2
The 1986 World Exposition opens in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

1987, May 11
In Lyon, Klaus Barbie goes on trial for crimes committed during WW II.

1987, May 17
Iran-Iraq War: The USS Stark (FFG-31) is struck by a missile from an Iraqi Mirage fighter killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

1988, May 15
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviets begins to withdraw from Afghanistan.

1988, May 16
California v. Greenwood: By 6-2, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage.

1989, May 30
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1990, May 15
Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.

1992, May 7
-- Michigan was the last state needed to ratify a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Thus the 27th Amendment should have barred Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises but the sleazy bastards stayed late one night and passed a law providing an annual "cost of living adjustment." (Guess what? Apathetic voters re-elected them!)
-- The space shuttle Endeavour launches on its maiden voyage.

1992, May 22
After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts the Tonight Show for the last time.

1993, May 27
Five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy; some three dozen paintings were ruined or damaged.

1994, May 6
Elizabeth II of the U.K. and French President Francois Mitterrand inaugurate the opening of the Chunnel - a tunnel under the English Channel linking England and France by land for the first time since the end of the Great Ice Age.

1994, May 9
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

1994, May 19
Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64.

1995, May 11
In NYC, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.

1997, May 2
The Labour Party's Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ending 18 years of Conservative Party rule. At 44, he is the youngest prime minister in 185 years.

1997, May 22
Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial for fraternizing, having an affair and adultery with an enlisted man.

1998, May 4
A federal judge in California gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

1998, May 11
In the Rajasthan Desert, India conducts its first underground nuclear tests violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and inflaming its rival neighbor Pakistan (who already has nuclear weapons because she violated the treaty earlier).

1998, May 18
The U.S. Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft. (Microsoft is found guilty of abusing a monopoly but in 2001, the Bush Administration let the company settle for a slap on the wrist.)

1998, May 30
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.

2000, May 2
GPS access equivalent to the U.S. military made available to regular citizens.

2000, May 12
The Tate Modern (museum of modern art) opens in London.

2001, May 19
One child policy: -- Zhonghua Sun is put to death by People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.

2002, May 9
In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.

2002, May 10
FBI agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

2002, May 12
Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first U.S. President, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

2002, May 22
American civil rights movement: -- 16th Street Baptist Church bombing -- A jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls.

2002, May 26
The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.

2004, May 1
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union.