Events Pre-1600 330 – Constantine the Great dedicates the much-expanded and rebuilt city of Byzantium, changing its name to New Rome and declaring it the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.; 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sūtra is published, the earliest dated and printed book known. 973 – In the first coronation ceremony ever held for an English monarch, Edgar the Peaceful is crowned King of England, having ruled since 959 AD. His wife, Ælfthryth, is crowned queen, the first recorded coronation for a Queen of England. 1068 – Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, is crowned Queen of England.; 1258 – Louis IX of France and James I of Aragon sign the Treaty of Corbeil, renouncing claims of feudal overlordship in one another's territories and separating the House of Barcelona from the politics of France.; ; ; 1560 – The Ottoman naval forces inflict a defeat on a Spanish fleet in the battle of Djerba. This marks the highpoint of Ottoman naval dominance in the Mediterranean, which starts declining five years later after the failed siege of Malta.
1601–1900 1713 – Great Northern War: After losing the Battle of Helsinki to the Russians, the Swedish and Finnish troops burn the entire city, so that it would not remain intact in the hands of the Russians. 1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons. 1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement. 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.Dr. Surendra Nath Sen, pages 71–73 "Eighteen Fifty-Seven", Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. 1858 – Minnesota becomes the 32nd U.S. state. 1878 - Hödel assassination attempt by anarchist Max Hödel targeting the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I. 1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California. 1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor. 1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.Cleveland, Grover. The Government and the Chicago Strike of 1894 . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1913. Page 4
1901–present 1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1953 – In the deadliest of a series of tornadoes, an F5 tornado kills 114 in Waco, Texas. 1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage. 1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed. 1973 – Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes in Semey, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), killing all 63 aboard. 1985 – Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire. 1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II. 1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board. 1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format. 1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran. 2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia. 2009 – An American soldier in Iraq opens fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, killing five other US soldiers and wounding three. 2009 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. 2010 – David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country's first coalition government since the Second World War. 2011 – An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain. 2011 – The Istanbul Convention is signed in Istanbul, Turkey. 2013 – Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey. 2014 – Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, DRC, in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers. 2016 – One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad. 2022 – The Burmese military executes at least 37 villagers during the Mon Taing Pin massacre in Sagaing, Myanmar. 2022 – Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is killed while covering a raid in Jenin. Israel eventually admitted and apologized for the murder, after initial denials. 2024 – Start/Middle of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms. 2024 – The 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is held in Malmö, Sweden. Nemo from Switzerland win with their song "The Code", making them the contest's first non-binary winner.
Births Pre-1600 1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyō (died 1637) 1578 – Sophie Axelsdatter Brahe, Danish noblewoman (died 1646)
1601–1900 1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, German organist (died 1739) 1752 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist (died 1840) 1797 – José Mariano Salas, Mexican general and politician (died 1867) 1811 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician (died 1893) 1811 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese-American showmen, the original conjoined twins (died 1874) 1852 – Charles W. Fairbanks, American journalist and politician, 26th United States Vice President (died 1918) 1854 – Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer (died 1932) 1869 – Archibald Warden, English tennis player (died 1943) 1871 – Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer and author (died 1943) 1875 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter (died 1912) 1881 – Al Cabrera, Spanish-Cuban baseball player and manager (died 1964) 1881 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (died 1944) 1881 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer (died 1963) 1888 – Irving Berlin, Belarusian-American pianist and composer (died 1989)"Big Russian Encyclopedia: Irving Berlin" Ministry of Culture, Russian Federation 1888 – Willis Augustus Lee, American admiral (died 1945) 1889 – Paul Nash, British painter (died 1946) 1890 – Willie Applegarth, English-American sprinter (died 1958) 1890 – Helge Løvland, Norwegian decathlete (died 1984) 1894 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (died 1991) 1895 – Jacques Brugnon, French tennis player (died 1978) 1895 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher and speaker (died 1986) 1895 – William Grant Still, American composer and conductor (died 1978) 1896 – Josip Štolcer-Slavenski, Croatian composer and academic (died 1955) 1897 – Robert E. Gross, American businessman (died 1961)
1901–present 1901 – Rose Ausländer, poet and author (died 1988) 1901 – Gladys Rockmore Davis, American painter (died 1967) 1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player and manager (died 1993) 1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (died 1989) 1905 – Lise de Baissac, Mauritian SOE agent, war hero (died 2004) 1905 – Catherine Bauer Wurster, American architect and public housing advocate (died 1964) 1907 – Rip Sewell, American baseball player and coach (died 1989) 1911 – Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (died 1985) 1912 – Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistani author and screenwriter (died 1955) 1912 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (died 2001) 1916 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish author and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002) 1918 – Richard Feynman, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988) 1924 – Antony Hewish, English astronomer and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) 1925 – Edward J. King, American politician, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (died 2006) 1927 – Bernard Fox, British actor (died 2016) 1927 – Gene Savoy, American explorer, author, and scholar (died 2007) 1928 – Arthur Foulkes, 9th governor-general of the Bahamas 1929 – Gerhard Klingenberg, Austrian actor (died 2024) 1930 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist and academic (died 2002) 1930 – Basil H. Losten, American Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarch (died 2024) 1932 – Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer (died 2026) 1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American religious leader 1934 – Jim Jeffords, American lawyer and politician (died 2014) 1934 – Jack Twyman, American basketball player (died 2012) 1937 – Ildikó Újlaky-Rejtő, Hungarian Olympic and world champion foil fencer 1941 – Eric Burdon, English musician 1941 – Ian Redpath, Australian cricketer and coach (died 2024) 1943 – Nancy Greene Raine, Canadian skier and politician 1945 – Hilda Pérez Carvajal, Venezuelan biologist 1947 – Butch Trucks, American drummer (died 2017) 1948 – Nirj Deva, British politician 1948 – Pam Ferris, Welsh actress 1950 – Jeremy Paxman, English journalist and author 1950 – Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Indian actor (died 2014) 1951 – Ed Stelmach, Canadian farmer and politician, 13th Premier of Alberta 1954 – John Gregory, English footballer and manager 1955 – James L. Dolan, American businessman 1957 – Mike Nesbitt, Northern Irish journalist and politician 1958 – Sayuri Kume, Japanese singer-songwriter"5月11日は「異邦人」久保田早紀の誕生日". News Online. Nippon Broadcasting System. 5 May 2018. 1963 – Natasha Richardson, English actress (died 2009) 1964 – Tim Blake Nelson, American actor 1964 – Bobby Witt, American baseball player 1967 – Alberto García Aspe, Mexican footballer and manager 1969 – Mitch Healey, Australian rugby league player and coach 1969 – Simon Vroemen, Dutch runner 1970 – Harold Ford Jr., American lawyer and politician/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000262 1974 – Stanley Gene, Papua New Guinean rugby league player 1975 – Francisco Cordero, Dominican baseball player 1976 – Kardinal Offishall, Canadian rapper and record producer/executive[ Kardinal Offishall > Overview] Allmusic. Accessed on November 16, 2009. 1977 – Pablo Gabriel García, Uruguayan footballer 1977 – Victor Matfield, South African rugby player, coach, and sportscaster 1977 – Bobby Roode, Canadian professional wrestler 1978 – Laetitia Casta, French model and actress 1978 – Judy Ann Santos, Filipino actress 1981 – Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player 1981 – JP Karliak, American actor, voice actor and comedian 1982 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and singer (died 2013) 1983 – Matt Leinart, American football player 1983 – Steven Sotloff, American-Israeli journalist (died 2014) 1983 – Holly Valance, Australian actress, singer and model 1984 – Andrés Iniesta, Spanish footballer 1985 – Beau Ryan, Australian rugby league player and television host 1986 – Abou Diaby, French footballer 1986 – Miguel Veloso, Portuguese footballer 1987 – Lim Seul-ong, South Korean singer and actor 1988 – Jeremy Maclin, American football player 1988 – Brad Marchand, Canadian ice hockey player 1989 – Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer 1989 – Cam Newton, American football player 1992 – Thibaut Courtois, Belgian footballer 1992 – Pablo Sarabia, Spanish footballerPablo Sarabia 1992 – Bryan Rust, American ice hockey player 1992 – Bobi, Portuguese Rafeiro do Alentejo, oldest recorded dog (died 2023) 1993 – Maurice Harkless, American-Puerto Rican basketball player 1993 – Miguel Sanó, Dominican baseball player 1994 – Hagos Gebrhiwet, Ethiopian runner 1994 – Nene Macdonald, Papua New Guinean rugby league player 1995 – Gelson Martins, Portuguese footballer 1995 – Sachia Vickery, American tennis player 1995 – Shira Haas, Israeli actress 1996 – Adin Hill, Canadian ice hockey player 1997 – Coi Leray, American rapper and singer