- 1281 Flemish Earl Gwijde Dampierre takes financial responsibility of Brugge
- 1529 30 Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood ritual, burned at stake
- 1644 Battle of Shanhai Pass: Li Zicheng's army defeated by combined Ming and Manchu force
- 1660 Denmark & Sweden sign The Treaty Of Copenhagen, ends Second Northern War
- 1679 Habeas Corpus Act passes in England, strengthening a person's right to challenge unlawful arrest and imprisonment
- 1689 Anthonie Heinsius succeeds G Fagel as Grand Pensionary of Holland
- 1692 Court of Oyer and Terminer ("to hear and determine") established by Governor of Massachusetts to hear accusations of witchcraft
Event of Interest
1703 Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great
Opening of Euston Station
1849 Opening of the Great Hall at Euston station in London
- 1850 Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois, destroyed by tornado
- 1854 Marine Telegraph from Fort Point to San Francisco completed
- 1856 Doctor William Palmer (the Rugeley Poisoner) found guilty of poisoning in Stafford, England
- 1862 Battle of Hanover Court House, Virginia (Slash Church, Peake's Station)
- 1863 US Civil War: Confederate gunboat CSS Chattahoochee steam boiler explosion kills 19 crew members on the Apalachicola River, near Blountstown, Florida
- 1863 US Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana by Union forces begins; lasts 48 days, longest American military siege
- 1864 Skirmish at Salem Church (Haw's Shop), Virginia
Historic Discovery
1873 Heinrich Schliemann discovers "Priam's Treasure" a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia
- 1878 6th Preakness: C Holloway aboard Duke of Magenta wins in 2:41.75
Cricket History
1878 Australian cricket fast bowler Fred Spofforth takes 10-20 (6-4 and 4-16) in quick-fire 9 wicket tour match win over the MCC in London
Royal Coronation
1883 Alexander III crowned Tsar of Russia in Moscow
- 1893 Audath Yisroel forms at Kattowitz (Katowice) Poland
- 1895 British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector
- 1896 Bay District Race Track in San Francisco closes
- 1896 Tornado hit St Louis, killing 255, leaving thousands homeless
- 1898 Arthur Pinero's "Trelawney of the Wells" premieres in London
- 1900 Lord Roberts' army fights the Vaal in South Africa
- 1902 27th Preakness: L Jackson aboard Old England wins in 1:45.8
- 1903 37th Belmont: John Bullman aboard Africander wins in 2:21.75
Event of Interest
1903 Queen Wilhelmina opens Berlages Merchants bureau in Amsterdam
Battle of Tsushima
1905 Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive clash between modern steel battleships in history
Music History
1906 1st outlining of Gustav Mahler's 6th symphony, in Essen, Germany
Event of Interest
1916 President Woodrow Wilson addresses the League to Enforce Peace, founded in 1915, and gives public support to the idea of a league of nations
Election of Interest
1927 Tomáš Masaryk re-elected President of Czechoslovakia for a second time
- 1930 Richard Drew invents masking tape
- 1931 1st full scale wind tunnel for testing airplane at Langley Field, Virginia
- 1931 Swiss Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer make 1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon from Augsburg, Germany
- 1933 Austrian communist party banned
- 1933 Century of Progress Exposition opens in Chicago
- 1933 Federal Securities Act signed
Event of Interest
1933 Martin Heidegger gives his inaugural rectoral address on “The Self-Assertion of the German University”, taken by some take as supporting the Nazi regime
- 1933 Trailing 11-3, Yanks score 12 runs in 8th & beat White Sox 15-11
- 1933 Walt Disney's short film "3 Little Pigs" released (Academy Award Best Animated film 1934)
Baseball Record
1937 New York Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell wins his MLB record 24th consecutive game in a 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field; streak starts July 17, 1936
Cricket History
1938 Cricket batting genius Don Bradman scores 145 not out for Australia v Hampshire at Southampton, completing 1,000 runs before the end of May for the second time, the only touring batsman to England ever to perform the feat
Miracle of Dunkirk
1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII
- 1940 World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops
- 1941 FDR declares state of emergency after a German U-boat sinks the American flagged SS Robin Moor
- 1941 German battleship Bismarck sunk by British naval force
- 1942 Dorie Miller awarded navy cross for deeds at Pearl Harbor
- 1942 Italian army begin siege of French western Fort Bir Hachim
Event of Interest
1942 Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich is mortally wounded by a grenade thrown by Czech rebels in Prague during Operation Anthropoid; he would die a week later
Event of Interest
1944 Jean-Paul Sartres' "Huis Clos" premieres in Paris
- 1948 Arabs blow up Jewish synagogue Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid
Sports History
1948 Hank Greenberg buys an interest in the Cleveland Indians
- 1949 Martin Canine, cartoon character, spoofs Martin Kane
Sports History
1949 MLB Cleveland Indians start 12-17, owner Bill Veeck arranges a "Second Opening Day"
- 1950 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Wallace Stevens
Musical Finale
1950 Morton Gould and Dorothy Field's colonial-era musical "Arms and the Girl", starring Nanette Fabray and Pearl Bailey, closes at 46th St Theater, NYC, after 134 performances
Event of Interest
1951 Chinese Communists force Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing
- 1952 European Defense Community forms
- 1953 Dutch social democratic/Dutch Liberal Party win municipal elections
- 1955 "The Red Buttons Show", last airs on NBC-TV
- 1955 Boston Red Sox Norm Zauchin gets 10 RBIs, beating Senators 16-0
- 1956 French raid in Algiers
- 1956 US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
- 1957 Toronto's CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n' Roll music format
Little Rock Crisis
1958 Ernest Green becomes the 1st African-American to graduate from Little Rock's Central High School
- 1958 Maiden flight of the F-4 Phantom II
- 1958 Vanguard SLV-1 launched for Earth orbit (failed)
- 1960 Baltimore manager Paul Richards devises oversized catcher's mitt, used by Baltimore Oriole Clint Courtney
- 1960 Military coup overthrows democratic government of Turkey
- 1961 1st black light is sold
- 1961 60th Women's French Championships: Ann Haydon beats Yola Ramirez (6-2, 6-1)
- 1961 Fiorentina of Italy win 1st European Cup Winner's Cup against Glasgow Rangers 4-2 in Florence (2nd leg)
- 1961 French Championships Men's Tennis : Manuel Santana beats Nicola Pietrangeli (4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2)
Sports History
1961 Ralph Boston of US, sets then long jump record at 27' ½"
Election of Interest
1963 Jomo Kenyatta elected 1st Prime Minister of Kenya
- 1964 European Cup Final, Praterstadion, Vienna: Internazionale beats Real Madrid, 3-1 for their first title
- 1965 10th European Cup Final, San Siro, Milan: Jair da Costa scores winner as defending champions Internazionale beat Benfica, 1-0
- 1966 55th German F-104 Starfighter crashes
- 1966 6 French fighters crash above Spain
- 1967 Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and count them in the national census
- 1967 British folk-jazz fusion group Pentangle gives debut performance at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England
Sports History
1968 George Halas retires from coaching, finishing with 318 regular-season wins and 6 NFL titles
- 1968 NL awards Montreal & SD major league franchises
- 1968 The meeting of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (National Union of the Students of France) takes place. 30,000 to 50,000 people gather in the Stade Sebastien Charlety.
Television Finale
1969 Jerry Lewis Show second run, last airs on NBC-TV
- 1969 Walt Disney World construction begins at Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- 1970 British expedition climbs south face of Annapurna I in the Himalayas in north-central Nepal, 10th highest mountain
- 1970 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1971 23rd Walker Cup: Britain-Ireland, 13-11
Cannes Film Festival
1971 24th Cannes Film Festival: "The Go-Between" directed by Joseph Losey wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
Imagine
1971 John Lennon records the song "Imagine" at his Ascot Sound home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England
Musical Finale
1972 Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, Betty Comden and Adolph Green's musical "Applause", starring Lauren Bacall, closes at Palace Theater, NYC, after 896 performances, winning 4 Tony Awards
- 1972 Indianapolis 500: Mark Donohue wins after leading only the final 13 laps; owner Roger Penske's first of eighteen Indy 500 victories
- 1972 Jimmy Castor Bunch's "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" hits #6
- 1973 American athlete Rick Wohlhuter runs world record 880 yards in 1:44.6
Venus and Mars
1975 Paul McCartney & Wings release their "Venus and Mars" album
- 1975 Stanley Cup Final, The Aud, Buffalo, NY: Philadelphia Flyers win back-to-back titles; shutting out Buffalo Sabres, 2-0 for a 4-2 series win; goaltender Bernie Parent wins 2nd consecutive Conn Smyth trophy as playoff MVP
- 1975 Worst motor vehicle disaster in UK; brakes fail on a bus full of elderly women and it plunges 17 feet off the road at Dibble's Bridge, Yorkshire, killing 33; a similar accident occurred there killing 11 in 1925
- 1976 Musical whodunit "Something's Afoot" opens at Lyceum Theater, NYC; runs for 61 performances
- 1977 30th Cannes Film Festival: "Padre Padrone" directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani wins the Palme d'Or
Music History
1977 The Sex Pistols release "God Save the Queen", sparking major controversy and leading to a ban on the song by the BBC
- 1979 Indianapolis 500: Polesitter Rick Mears takes lead for the final time with 18 laps to go, to win his first of four Indy 500 races
Event of Interest
1979 Pope John Paul II ordains John J O'Connor as a bishop
- 1980 South Korean police ends people's uprising; 2,000 killed
- 1980 The Gwangju Massacre: South Korean airborne and army troops retake city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 possibly many more
- 1981 25th European Cup: Liverpool beats Real Madrid 1-0 at Paris
- 1981 34th Cannes Film Festival: "Man of Iron" directed by Andrzej Wajda wins the Palme d'Or
Ronald Reagan is Shot
1981 John Hinckley attempts suicide by overdosing on Tylenol
- 1981 Lenny Randle tries to blow a slow roller foul but umpire says no
- 1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1982 Musical "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?", after successful runs in Chicago and Philadelphia, opens at Alvin Theatre, NYC; runs for 5 performances
- 1982 New owners headed by John McMullen buy NHL's Colorado Rockies and move the team to the New Jersey Meadowlands under the new name NJ Devils
- 1983 Former EPA official Rita Lavelle indicted for contempt of Congress
- 1984 Beth Henley's "Miss Firecracker contest" premieres in NYC
Indy 500
1984 Indianapolis 500: 1979 champion Rick Mears wins second Indy 500 two laps ahead of the field after contenders Tom Sneva and Mario Andretti drop out in second half of the race
Sports History
1984 Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria wins 3 singles tennis matches in one day; Italian Open 1984, beats Virginie Ruzici, Carling Basset and Chris Evert in the final 6-3 6-3; only 7th player to beat Evert on clay
- 1985 Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997
Event of Interest
1985 Inaugural bands parade for President Reagan
- 1986 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1986 Norway Showcase groundbreaking
- 1986 President Reagan orders 2 Poseidon-class submarines be dismantled
- 1987 31st European Cup: Porto beats Bayern Munich 2-1 at Vienna
- 1987 Christian evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker appear on "Nightline" after PTL scandal
Sports History
1987 New York Yankees knuckleballer Phil Niekro is 3rd pitcher to make 700th start, joining Cy Young and Don Sutton
- 1988 Senate ratified a treaty eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles
- 1990 Caesar Gaviria Trujillo chosen President of Colombia
- 1990 Indianapolis 500: Dutchman Arie Luyendyk takes lead with 32 laps to go to earn first-ever victory in championship-level competition; average speed 185.981 mph is a record that stands until 2013
- 1990 Radical Democratic Party holds 1st political meetings in Moscow
- 1991 Austrian Boeing 767-300 explodes at Bangkok, 223 die
Sports History
1993 Baseball player Dale Murphy ends his career after 398 HRs
- 1993 Mafia bombs Uffizi Museum in Florence, killing 6
The Flintstones
1994 "The Flintstones" live action movie based in the 1960s cartoon, starring John Goodman (as Fred), Rick Moranis (as Barney), and Rosie O'Donnell (as Betty) premieres
Television Finale
1994 Final broadcast of TV talk show "The Arsenio Hall Show"
Radio History
1994 Larry King ends his radio show
- 1994 NHL Eastern Conference Final: New York Rangers beat New Jersey Devils, 4 games to 3
Event of Interest
1994 Writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after 20 years in exile
Film & TV History
1995 Actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia
- 1997 1st all female (20 British women) team reach the North Pole
- 1997 Indianapolis 500: Dutchman Arie Luyendyk wins from pole position for his second Indy victory; Treadway Racing finishes 1-2 with Luyendyk's teammate Scott Goodyear runner-up
- 1997 Judge finds Pamela Lee not guilty of breaking a contract
- 1997 Major league revenue sharing begins, NY Yanks pay out most $28M
- 1997 Marv Albert pleads innocent to charges of sexual assault
Treaty of Interest
1997 Russian President Boris Yeltsin signs a historic treaty with NATO
- 1998 Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
Event of Interest
1999 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo
- 2000 NHL Western Conference Final: Dallas Stars beat Colorado Avalanche, 4 games to 3
- 2000 Super Rugby Final, Canberra: Crusaders claim their 3rd consecutive title with a 20-19 win over the ACT Brumbies; flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens kicks 5 penalties for the winners
- 2001 Indianapolis 500: race rookie Hélio Castroneves of Brazil leads for the final 52 laps to win first of 4 Indy 500s; Penske Racing sweeps 1st-2nd with Gil de Ferran the runner-up
Senior PGA Championship
2001 Senior PGA Championship, Ridgewood CC, NJ: 5-time British Open champion Tom Watson wins first of 6 Champions Tour major titles with a 1 stroke win over Jim Thorpe
Madagascar
2005 DreamWorks releases computer-animated film "Madagascar" with voices by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett-Smith
- 2006 "Pan's Labyrinth" fantasy film on the Spanish Civil War written and directed by Guillermo del Toro debuts at Cannes
- 2006 Earthquake strikes Java, Indonesia at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta, killing over 6,600 people
- 2006 NHL Western Conference Final: Edmonton Oilers beat Anaheim Ducks, 4 games to 1
Sports History
2006 Super Rugby Final, Christchurch: Canterbury Crusaders retain title with a 19-12 win over the Wellington Hurricanes; Dan Carter kicks 4 penalties & a conversion for the winners
- 2006 WLAF World Bowl 14, LTU arena, Düsseldorf: Frankfurt Galaxy beats Amsterdam Admirals, 22-7
- 2007 60th Cannes Film Festival: "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" directed by Cristian Mungiu wins the Palme d'Or
- 2007 Indianapolis 500: Scotsman Dario Franchitti declared the winner with 34 laps remaining when race halted by torrential rain
- 2007 Senior PGA Championship, Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Ocean Course: Denis Watson of Zimbabwe wins his lone major title by a 2 stroke margin from Eduardo Romero of Argentina
- 2009 NHL Western Conference Final: Detroit Red Wings beat Chicago Black Hawks, 4 games to 1
- 2009 South Africa enters the global recession; the first recession for South Africa in 17 years
- 2009 UEFA Champions League Final, Rome: Barcelona beats Manchester United, 2-0; first Spanish treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League
- 2011 NHL Eastern Conference Finals: Boston Bruins beat Tampa Bay Lightning, 4 games to 3
- 2012 58th British Academy Television Awards: "Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle" Best Comedy, "The Fades" Best Drama
- 2012 65th Cannes Film Festival: "Amour" directed by Michael Haneke wins the Palme d'Or
- 2012 A NATO airstrike kills a family of eight, including six children, in Afghanistan
- 2012 Indianapolis 500: Dual champion (2007, 10) Dario Franchitti of Scotland wins his record tying 3rd title; teammate Scott Dixon finishes second, sweeping a 1-2 finish for Chip Ganassi Racing
- 2012 IPL Cricket Final, M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by 5 wickets; Manvinder Bisla top scores, 89 (48)
