- 1256 Augustinian monastic order constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae
- 1303 Flemings conquers Middelburg
- 1415 Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance
Battle of Tewkesbury
1471 Battle of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, final battle between the Houses of Lancaster and York: Prince of Wales, Edward of Westminster killed and King Edward IV returns to his throne, restoring political stability to England until his death in 1483
- 1493 Spanish Pope Alexander VI divides America between Spain and Portugal
Carthusian Martyrs Executed
1535 Five Carthusian monks from London Charterhouse monastery hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England
- 1540 Venice and Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople
- 1572 Veere sides with Geuzen
- 1626 Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherlands
- 1634 Johan van Walbeeck's fleet departs to West Indies
- 1652 Battle of Etampes: French army under Turenne beats Fronde rebels
- 1686 Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines
Music Premiere
1728 George Frideric Handel's opera "Tolomeo, re di Egitto" premieres in London
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1780 American Academy of Arts & Science founded in Boston, James Bowdoin, John and Samuel Adams founding members
- 1780 Charles Bunbury on Diomed wins 1st Epsom Derby
Herschel Observes a Red Glow
1783 William Herschel reports seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus
Siege of Seringapatam
1799 Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam ends the Siege of Seringapatam when the city is assaulted and the Sultan of Mysore Tipu Sultan is killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris
Decree of Valencia
1814 King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decree of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism
- 1818 Netherlands & Britain sign treaty against illegal slave handling
- 1839 The Cunard Steamship Company Ltd forms San Bonifacio
- 1843 Great Britain annexes Natal
- 1846 US state Michigan ends death penalty
- 1847 NY State creates a Board of Commissioners of Emigration
- 1858 War of Reform (Mexico); Liberals establish capital at Vera Cruz
- 1859 The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.
- 1861 At Gretna, Louisiana, one of 1st guns of Rebel navy is cast
- 1862 -5] Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia
Event of Interest
1864 General Ulysses S. Grant's Union Army at Potomac attacks Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Rappahannock River
- 1865 Battle of Citronelle, Alabama; Richard Taylor surrenders
- 1866 Woodward's Gardens opens to the public in San Francisco
- 1868 World's largest book, the Kuthodaw Inscription Shrines recording whole of Buddhist scriptures on 729 marble tablets completed and opened to the public in Mandalay, Burma
- 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings play their 1st official baseball game, a win against the Great Western Base Ball Club, 45-9
- 1869 The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.
- 1871 1st baseball league game (National Association of Baseball Players), (Ft Wayne 2, Cleveland 0) Deacon Jim White gets 1st hit, a double
Thomas Edison's Phonograph
1878 Thomas Edison's Phonograph shown for 1st time at Grand Opera House
- 1883 John Gordon Cashmans publishes 1st edition "Vicksburg Evening Post" (Mississippi)
- 1886 Haymarket riot in Chicago; bomb kills 7 policemen
- 1888 Italy & Spain sign military covenant
- 1893 Cowboy Bill Pickett invents bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground
- 1895 Wilhelm Kienzl's opera "Der Evangelimann" (The Evangelist), 1st performed at the Neues Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin, Germany
- 1896 1st edition of London Daily Mail (halfpenny)
- 1896 Grease fire ignites half ton of dynamite at Cripple Creek, Colorado
- 1897 23rd Kentucky Derby: Buttons Garner aboard Typhoon II wins in 2:12.5
- 1897 Fire in Paris bazaar at Rue Jean Goujon kills 200
- 1898 24th Kentucky Derby: Willie Simms aboard Plaudit wins in 2:09
- 1899 25th Kentucky Derby: Fred Taral aboard Manuel wins in 2:12
Rolls Meets Royce
1904 Charles Rolls meets Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. Go on to form the car manufacturer Roll-Royce. [1]
- 1904 Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal
- 1910 Canadian Currency Act, 1910, receives Royal Assent
Royal Canadian Navy Established
1910 Wilfrid Laurier passes the Naval Service Act, which creates the Royal Canadian Navy
- 1912 Italian mariners occupy Turkish Island of Rhodes
- 1915 Italy drops Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary & Germany
- 1916 At request of US, Germany curtails its submarine warfare
- 1916 Ned Daly, Willie Pearse, Michael O'Hanrahan and Joseph Plunkett are executed by British authorities following the Easter Rising, at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin
- 1917 A flotilla of US destroyer ships arrive in Queenstown, Ireland, to aid in convoying ships to England
- 1919 1st legal Sunday baseball game in NYC, 35,000 watch the Phillies beat the NY Giants 4-3
- 1919 Demonstrates organised by students erupt in China, after news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intend to give Shangtung to Japan
- 1922 KNX-AM in Los Angeles CA begins radio transmissions
- 1923 Bloody street battles between Nazis, socialist & police in Vienna
- 1923 New York state revokes its Mullan-Gage Act Prohibition law; federal Volstead Act still in place
- 1924 German Republic election: fascists & communists win
- 1924 VIII Summer Olympic Games open at Olympic Stadium of Colombes, Paris, France
- 1925 League of Nations conference on arms control & poison gas usage
- 1927 1st balloon flight over 40,000 feet (Scott Field, Illinois)
- 1927 Nicaragua agrees to a US supervised presidential election in 1928
Baseball History
1929 Lou Gehrig hits 3 consecutive HRs, Yankees 11, Tigers 9
- 1931 Mustafa Kemal Pasja becomes Turkish president
Pulitzer Prize
1933 Pulitzer prize awarded to Archibald MacLeish (Conquistador)
- 1935 61st Kentucky Derby: Willie Saunders aboard Omaha wins in 2:05
- 1936 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harold L Davis (Honey in the Horn)
- 1938 Douglas Hyde (a protestant) becomes 1st president of Eire
- 1940 21 "not neutral" Nazis & communists arrested in Netherlands
- 1940 66th Kentucky Derby: Carroll Bierman aboard Gallahadion wins in 2:05
- 1942 Battle of Coral Sea begins (1st naval battle fought solely in air) between Japanese, US and Australian navies and air forces
- 1942 Food 1st rationed in US
- 1942 German occupiers imprison 450 prominent Dutch as hostages
- 1942 Pulitzer prize awarded to Ellen Glasgow (In this our Life)
- 1943 NL Ford Frick demonstrates revised balata ball to reporters by bouncing it on his office carpet ball proves to be 50% livelier
Film Release
1944 MGM releases film adaptation of "Gaslight", starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and an 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut
- 1945 German forces in Bavaria surrender unconditionally to American commander Jacob L. Devers
Event of Interest
1945 German forces in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands surrender unconditionally to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at Luneburg Heath
- 1946 5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco bay
- 1946 72nd Kentucky Derby: Warren Mehrtens aboard Assault wins in 2:06.6
- 1946 Wash's Cecil Travis gets 6 straight hits before being stopped
- 1948 The Hague Court of Justice convicts Nazi SS officer in the Netherlands Hans Rauter of Crimes against Humanity (executed 24 March 1949)
- 1949 Plane carrying the entire Torino Serie A soccer squad crashes on the outskirts of Turin, Italy; 31 killed; Torino awarded League title at the request of their rivals
Event of Interest
1953 Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for "The Old Man and The Sea"
- 1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
- 1956 Queen Juliana unveils National Monument to Dams in Amsterdam
- 1956 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
- 1957 83rd Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack aboard Iron Liege wins in 2:02.2
- 1957 Alan Freed hosts "Rock n' Roll Show" 1st prime-time network rock show, cancelled after 4 episodes
Event of Interest
1957 Anne Frank Foundation forms in Amsterdam
Grammy Awards
1959 First Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win
- 1959 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Archibald MacLeish (J.B.)
- 1960 1st great Delta dam closes, North-South Beveland
- 1961 1st on-the-road Spacemobile lecture given.
- 1961 CORE begins freedom rides from Washington, D.C.
- 1961 Malcolm Ross & Victor Prather reach 34,668 m (record) in balloon
- 1961 South Africa ANC leader John Nkadimeng arrested
- 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
- 1963 89th Kentucky Derby: Braulio Baeza aboard Chateaugay wins in 2:01.8
- 1963 Pitcher Bob Shaw sets record of 5 balks in a game
- 1964 "Another World" premieres on TV in the US
- 1964 70 GATT-countries confer in Geneva
- 1964 KIII TV channel 3 in Corpus Christi, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1964 Pulitzer prize awarded to Richard Hofstadter (Anti-intellectualism)
Baseball Record
1965 Willie Mays 512th HR breaks Mel Ott's 511th NL record
- 1966 Soviet government signs accord about building Fiat factory in USSR
- 1967 Lunar Orbiter 4 launched by US; begins orbiting Moon May 7
- 1968 1st ABA championship: Pitts Pipers beat NO Buccaneers, 4 games to 3
- 1968 94th Kentucky Derby: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Forward Pass wins
- 1968 Dancer Image disqualified due to drugs after winning 94th Kent Derby in 2:02½
- 1969 Charles Gordone's "No Place to be Somebody" premieres in NYC
- 1969 Stanley Cup Final, St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, MO: John Ferguson scores the winner as Montreal Canadiens edge St Louis Blues, 2-1 for a 4 game series sweep
- 1970 National Guard kills 4 student anti-war protesters at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio
- 1970 Pulitzer prize awarded to Erik H Erikson (Gandhi's Truth)
Event of Interest
1970 Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin confirms the existence of Russian military advisors in Egypt
- 1972 "The Don't Make A Wave Committee," a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to the "Greenpeace Foundation"
- 1972 Vietcong forms revolutionary government in Quang Tri, South Vietnam
- 1973 1st TV network female nudity-Steambath (PBS)-Valerie Perrine
- 1973 BPAA US Women's Bowling Open won by Millie Martorella
- 1973 Longest baseball game in Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, Phillies beat Braves 5-4 in 20 innings
- 1973 Patriarch Shenuda II of Kopitisch church visits the pope
- 1973 Wings release "Red Rose Speedway" in UK
Kentucky Derby
1974 100th Kentucky Derby: Puerto Rican jockey Ángel Cordero Jr. wins aboard Cannonade for first of 3 Derby victories
- 1975 Ed Bullins' "Taking of Miss Jane" premieres in NYC
- 1975 Houston's Bob Watson scores baseball's one-millionth run of all time
- 1975 Italian film "Seven Beauties" directed by Lina Wertmüller, starring Giancarlo Giannini, and Shirley Stoler released - first film directed by a women to be nominated for an Academy Award
Music Premiere
1976 Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner's musical "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" opens at Mark Hellinger, NYC; runs for 7 performances
Election of Interest
1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1979 NASA launches Fltsatcom-2
- 1980 Dodgers bat out of order against Phillies in 1st inning
- 1980 White Sox 1st baseman Mike Squires catches final inning of 11-1 loss to Brewers, becoming 1st lefty to catch since Cubs Dale Long in 1958
- 1981 Rockline premieres on KLOS FM in Los Angeles
- 1981 Silvana Cruciata runs 15k female world record (49:44.0)
- 1981 Yankee Ron Davis strikes out 8 consecutive Angels, ran record of 13 strikeouts of last 14 faced, also saved Gene Nelsons 1st win, 4-2
- 1982 British destroyer HMS Sheffield hit by Exocet rocket off Falkland Islands: 20 of her crew died.
- 1982 NHL Prince of Wales Conference Final: New York Islanders beat Quebec Nordiques, 4 games to 0
- 1982 Twins rookie outfielder Jim Eisenreich, who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, removes himself, due to taunts from Red Sox bleacher fans
- 1983 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Sports History
1984 Dave Kingman's fly ball never comes down (stuck in Metrodome ceiling)
- 1984 Itaipu Dam begins generating electricity on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, - the world's second largest generator of electricity (considered one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world) [1]
- 1985 111th Kentucky Derby: Puerto Rican jockey Ángel Cordero Jr.wins aboard Spend A Buck for his third Derby triumph
- 1985 30th Eurovision Song Contest: Bobbysocks! for Norway wins singing "La det swinge" in Gothenburg
- 1986 President Babrak Karmal resigns as party leader of Afghanistan
- 1988 PEPCON chemical plant in Henderson, Nevada explodes killing 2 and injuring 372 causing damage within 10-mile (16 km) radius
- 1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1989 Junior Felix of Toronto Blue Jays becomes 53rd MLB player to hit HR on 1st at bat
- 1989 NASA launches Magellan probe to Venus from Space Shuttle Atlantis
- 1989 NASA launches space shuttle Atlantis (STS-30) from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Music History
1990 Angela Bowie reveals that ex-husband David Bowie slept with Mick Jagger
- 1990 Latvia's parliament votes 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence
- 1990 MLB Baltimore Orioles Gregg Olson sets relief pitcher record of 41 consecutive scoreless innings
- 1990 Pakistan beat Australia by 36 runs to win Austral-Asia Cup, Sharjah
- 1991 117th Kentucky Derby: Chris Antley wins aboard Strike the Gold, the first of 2 Derby victories
- 1991 36th Eurovision Song Contest: Carola for Sweden wins singing "Fangad av en stormvind" in Rome
- 1991 ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Doug Kent
- 1991 Indians' Chris James sets club record for most RBIs in a game (9)
- 1991 NY Mets M Sasser & Mark Carreon are 8th to hit consecutive pinch HRs
- 1991 US politician Mo Udall, Representative for Arizona (1961-91), resigns due to Parkinson disease
Event of Interest
1991 US President George H. W. Bush is hospitalized for erratic heartbeat
- 1992 "I Saw the Light" single released by Wynonna (Billboard Song of the Year, 1992)
Rodney King Riots
1992 US Army and Marine Corps forces arrive in Los Angeles to end rioting following the acquittal of four police officers over the beating of Rodney King
Music History
1994 Singer Courtney Love cleared of drug charges
- 1996 122nd Kentucky Derby: Jerry Bailey wins aboard Grindstone, his second Derby victory (1993 Sea Hero)
- 1996 Greg Pavlik one-hits Tigers making the Rangers 1st AL team to pitch back-to-back one-hitters since the Washington Senators in 1917
Agreement of Interest
1998 A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
- 1998 The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, designed by Renzo Piano to celebrate indigenous Kanak culture, is inaugurated near Nouméa, New Caledonia [1]
Film Premiere
1999 "The Mummy" film directed by Stephen Sommers starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah premieres in the US
Baseball Record
2002 Barry Bonds hits his 400th home run as an SF Giant, in a 3-0 win over Cincinnati. Bonds is first player with 400 homers for one team and 100 with another (Pirates)
- 2002 English FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (73,963): Arsenal beats Chelsea, 2-0 for 8th title
- 2007 Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7m wide EF-5 tornado
- 2007 The Scottish National Party wins the Scottish general election and becomes the largest party in the Scottish Parliament for the first time ever
Agreement of Interest
2008 Seth MacFarlane reaches an agreement worth $100 million with Fox to keep "Family Guy" and "American Dad" on television until 2012, making MacFarlane the world's highest paid television writer
Film & TV History
2010 Julia Louis-Dreyfus receives the 2,407th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, although on the original star her name is spelled incorrectly
- 2012 14 decapitated bodies and 9 hung from a bridge are found in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
- 2013 139th Kentucky Derby: Joel Rosario aboard Orb wins in 2:02.89
- 2013 39 people are killed at a funeral in Wukari, Nigeria
- 2013 5 US soldiers are killed by a bomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan
- 2013 77 people are killed by the Syrian Army in Baniyas
Sports History
2013 Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Robert Guerrero to retain his WBC Welterweight title
