Events Pre-1600 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople begins. 1192 – Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem marries Henry II, Count of Champagne. 1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. 1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire. 1292 – Election of Count Adolf of Nassau as King of the Romans in the Dominican monastery of Frankfurt. 1494 – On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.
1601–1900 1609 – Daimyō (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa. 1640 – King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament. 1654 – Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh. 1762 – Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg. 1789 – In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614. 1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread. 1821 – Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. 1821 – The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian, is published. 1835 – The first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen. 1862 – Cinco de Mayo: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County. 1865 – American Civil War: The Confederate government is declared dissolved at Washington, Georgia. 1866 – Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York. 1877 – American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles. 1886 – Workers marching for the eight-hour day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are shot at by Wisconsin National Guardsmen in what becomes known as the Bay View Massacre.Wisconsin Labor History Society. (n.d.). Bayview tragedy, 1886. Wisconsin Labor History. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org/our-events/bayview-tragedy-1886/ 1887 – The Peruvian Academy of Language is founded. 1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
1901–present 1904 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball. 1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder. 1912 – The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda is published. 1920 – US authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder. 1930 – The 1930 Bago earthquake, the first of two major earthquakes in southern Burma, kills as many as 7,000 in Yangon and Bago. 1936 – March of the Iron Will: Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1940 – World War II: Norwegian campaign: Norwegian squads in Hegra Fortress and Vinjesvingen capitulate to German forces after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms. 1941 – Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day. 1945 – World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation. 1945 – World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon. 1945 – World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles in that war in which American and German troops fought cooperatively. 1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 1955 – The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect. 1961 – Project Mercury: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight. 1964 – The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day. 1972 – Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy. 1973 – Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, an as-yet-unbeaten record. 1980 – Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege. 1981 – Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital (Northern Ireland) after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. 1985 – Ronald Reagan visits the military cemetery at Bitburg and the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he makes a speech. 1987 – Iran–Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States. 1991 – A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man. 1994 – The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism. 2006 – The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army. 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashes after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 aboard, making it the deadliest aircraft disaster in Cameroon. 2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis. 2023 – The World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency.
Births Pre-1600 1210 – Afonso III of Portugal (died 1279) 1282 – Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (died 1348) 1310 – Preczlaw of Pogarell, Cardinal and Bishop of Wrocław (died 1376) 1352 – Rupert of Germany, Count Palatine of the Rhine (died 1410) 1479 – Guru Amar Das, Indian 3rd Sikh Guru (died 1574) 1504 – Stanislaus Hosius, Polish cardinal (died 1579) 1530 – Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery, French nobleman (died 1574) 1542 – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire (died 1623) 1582 – John Frederick, Duke of Württemberg (died 1628)
1601–1900 1684 – Françoise Charlotte d'Aubigné, French wife of Adrien Maurice de Noailles (died 1739) 1747 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1792) 1749 – Jean-Frédéric Edelmann, French pianist and composer (died 1794) 1764 – Robert Craufurd, Scottish general and politician (died 1812) 1800 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (died 1864) 1813 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and author (died 1855) 1818 – Karl Marx, German philosopher, sociologist, and journalist (died 1883) 1826 – Eugénie de Montijo, French wife of Napoleon III (died 1920) 1830 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (died 1906) 1832 – Hubert Howe Bancroft, American ethnologist and historian (died 1918) 1833 – Ferdinand von Richthofen, German geographer and academic (died 1905) 1834 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter and architect (died 1873) 1843 – William George Beers, Canadian dentist and patriot (died 1900) 1846 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916) 1858 – John L. Leal, American physician (died 1914) 1859 – Charles B. Hanford, American Shakespearean actor (died 1926) 1864 – Nellie Bly, American journalist and author (died 1922) 1865 – Helen Maud Merrill, American litterateur and poet (died 1943) 1866 – Thomas B. Thrige, Danish businessman (died 1938) 1869 – Fabián de la Rosa, Filipino painter and educator (died 1937) 1869 – Hans Pfitzner, German composer and conductor (died 1949) 1873 – Leon Czolgosz, American assassin of William McKinley (died 1901) 1874 – Thomas Bavin, New Zealand-Australian politician, 24th Premier of New South Wales (died 1941) 1882 – Sylvia Pankhurst, English women's suffrage movement leader and socialist activist (died 1960) 1883 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, English general and politician, 43rd Governor-General of India (died 1950) 1883 – Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler, American mathematician (died 1966) 1884 – Chief Bender, American baseball player and coach (died 1954) 1889 – Herbie Taylor, South African cricketer and soldier (died 1973) 1890 – Christopher Morley, American journalist and author (died 1957) 1892 – Dorothy Garrod, British archaeologist (died 1968) 1898 – Elsie Eaves, American engineer (died 1983) 1898 – Blind Willie McTell, American Piedmont blues singer and guitar player (died 1959) 1900 – Helen Redfield, American geneticist (died 1988)
1901–present 1901 – Janne Mustonen, Finnish politician (died 1964) 1903 – James Beard, American chef and author (died 1985) 1905 – Floyd Gottfredson, American author and illustrator (died 1986) 1907 – Daryna Dmytrivna Polotniuk, Bukovinian (Ukrainian) journalist and author (died 1982) 1910 – Leo Lionni, American author and illustrator (died 1999) 1911 – Andor Lilienthal, Russian-Hungarian chess player (died 2010) 1911 – Pritilata Waddedar, Indian educator and activist (died 1932) 1913 – Duane Carter, American race car driver (died 1993) 1914 – Tyrone Power, American actor (died 1958) 1915 – Alice Faye, American actress and singer (died 1998) 1916 – Zail Singh, Indian politician, 7th President of India (died 1994) 1919 – Georgios Papadopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1999) 1921 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999) 1922 – Irene Gut Opdyke, Polish nurse and humanitarian (died 2003) 1923 – William C. Campbell, American golfer (died 2013) 1923 – Cathleen Synge Morawetz, Canadian mathematician (died 2017) 1925 – Leo Ryan, American soldier, educator, and politician (died 1978) 1927 – Pat Carroll, American actress (died 2022) 1929 – Ilene Woods, American actress (died 2010) 1932 – Stan Goldberg, American illustrator (died 2014) 1933 – Collie Smith, Jamaican cricketer (died 1959) 1934 – Henri Konan Bédié, Ivorian politician, 2nd President of Côte d'Ivoire (died 2023) 1934 – Victor Garland, Australian accountant and politician, 26th Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs (died 2022) 1935 – Eddie Linden, Scottish poet and magazine editor (died 2023) 1935 – Bernard Pivot, French journalist, talk show host, and producer (died 2024) 1936 – Sandy Baron, American actor and comedian (died 2001) 1937 – Beryl Burton, English racing cyclist (died 1996)Clifford, Tim, (7 May 1996), Beryl Burton Obituary, The Independent. Retrieved 20 July 2015 1937 – Delia Derbyshire, English musician, arranger and composer (died 2001) 1938 – Michael Murphy, American actor 1939 – Ray Gosling, English journalist, author, and activist (died 2013) 1939 – Bill Watts, American professional wrestler and promoter 1940 – Lance Henriksen, American actor 1942 – Jean Corston, Baroness Corston, English lawyer and politician 1942 – Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1998) 1943 – Michael Palin, English actor and screenwriter 1943 – Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish journalist and author 1944 – Bo Larsson, Swedish footballer (died 2023) 1944 – John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor and screenwriter 1944 – Roger Rees, Welsh-American actor and director (died 2015) 1945 – Kurt Loder, American journalist, author, and critic 1946 – Jim Kelly, American actor, athlete, and martial artist (died 2013) 1948 – Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter 1950 – Maggie MacNeal, Dutch singer