1351 Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman (died), Moroccan sultan (born 1297)
1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII’s reign.
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus (died), Polish mathematician and astronomer (born 1473)
1544 William Gilbert (born), English physician, physicist, and astronomer (died 1603)
1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
1607 – 100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first English colony in America.
1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
1671 Gian Gastone de’ Medici (born), Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1737)
1686 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (born), Polish-German physicist and engineer, developed the Fahrenheit scale (died 1736)
1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded.
1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.
1810 Abraham Geiger (born), German rabbi and scholar (died 1874)
1813 South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).
1819 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (born) (died 1901)
1830 Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
1844 Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
1846 Mexican–American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.
1856 John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
1861 American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
1870 Jan Smuts (born), South African politician, 2nd Prime Minister of South Africa (died 1950)
1878 Lillian Moller Gilbreth (born), American psychologist and engineer (died 1972)
1879 H. B. Reese (born), American candy maker, created Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (died 1956)
1883 The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
1885 Susan Sutherland Isaacs (born), English psychologist (died 1948)
1886 Paul Paray (born), French organist, composer, and conductor (died 1979)
1891 William F. Albright (born), American archeologist, philologist, and scholar (died 1971)
1895 Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theater to be knighted.
1895 Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr. (born), American publisher, founded Advance Publications (died 1979)
1909 Wilbur Mills (born), American politician (died 1992)
1911 Barbara West (born), English survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (died 2007)
1915 World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1921 The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.
1930 Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
1935 The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
1938 Tommy Chong (born), Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1940 Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico.
1940 Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
1941 Bob Dylan (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Traveling Wilburys)
1941 George Lakoff (born), American linguist
1941 World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
1943 Gary Burghoff (born), American actor
1944 Patti LaBelle (born), American singer-songwriter and actress (Labelle)
1945 Priscilla Presley (born), American actress and businesswoman
1948 Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.
1955 Rosanne Cash (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and author
1958 United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
1959 John Foster Dulles (died), American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 52nd United States Secretary of State (born 1888)
1960 Guy Fletcher (born), English keyboard player, guitarist, and producer (Dire Straits and The Notting Hillbillies)
1961 American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for “disturbing the peace” after disembarking from their bus.
1962 Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
1963 Ivan Capelli (born), Italian race car driver
1965 Jens Becker (born), German bass player (Grave Digger, Running Wild, and X-Wild)
1967 Steven Shane McDonald (born), American bass player and actor (Redd Kross, Off!, and Green and Yellow TV)
1969 Rich Robinson (born), American guitarist and songwriter (The Black Crowes)
1970 The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.
1974 Duke Ellington (died), American pianist and composer (born 1899)
1976 The Judgement of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.
1976 The London to Washington, D.C., Concorde service begins.
1991 Gene Clark (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Byrds and Dillard & Clark) (born 1944)
1991 Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
1993 Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
1994 Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
1999 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
2000 Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
2001 –Temba Tsheri, a 15-year-old Sherpa, becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
2010 Paul Gray (died), American bass player and songwriter (Slipknot and Unida) (born 1972)
2012 Mark McConnell (died), American drummer (Madam X and Blackfoot) (born 1961
EO Smith
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