• 1291 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England.
• 1497 - Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
• 1503 - Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there.
• 1534 - Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.
• 1768 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
• 1774 - Louis XVI becomes King of France.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the 13 colonies of the United States meet in Philadelphia and raise the Continental Army to defend the new republic. They place it under command of George Washington of Virginia.
• 1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
• 1801 - First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
• 1824 - The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
• 1837 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
• 1857 - Indian Mutiny: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys revolt against their commanding officers at Meerut.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Colonel Emory Upton leads a 10-regiment "Attack-in-depth" assault against the Confederate works at The Battle of Spotsylvania, which, though ultimately unsuccessful, would provide the idea for the massive assault against the Bloody Angle on May 12. Upton was wounded slightly but immediately is promoted to Brigadier general.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill in Kentucky, who lingers until his death on June 6.
• 1869 - The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
• 1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
• 1877 - Romania declares itself independent from Turkey, following the Senate adoption of Mihail Kogălniceanu's Declaration of Independence. This act is recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian War of Independence.
• 1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
• 1922 - The United States annexes the Kingman Reef.
• 1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.
• 1933 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
• 1940 - World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
• 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
• 1940 - World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1940 - World War II: Invasion of Iceland by the United Kingdom.
• 1941 - World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
• 1941 - World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in order to try and negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Germany.
• 1942 - World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.
• 1954 - Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.
• 1960 - The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
• 1969 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
• 1970 - The Boston Bruins win their first Stanley Cup since 1941 when Bobby Orr makes an overtime winning goal followed by a leap in the air that would become one of the most famous photographs in hockey - ("The Goal").
• 1979 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
• 1981 - François Mitterrand takes office as the first Socialist President of France.
• 1982 - WABC stopped playing music on May 10, 1982 a date known as "the day the music died". The main reason was due to FM Radio having better sound.
• 1993 - In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 188 workers, mostly young women.
• 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
• 1994 - ERL is born.
• 1996 - Excel Communications, Inc. becomes the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), trading under the symbol (ECI).
• 1996 - A "rogue storm" near the summit of Mount Everest kills eight climbers, making this the deadliest day in the mountain's history. Among the dead are experienced climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, both of whom were leading paid expeditions to the summit.
• 1997 - Pope John Paul II visits Lebanon.
• 2001 - In Ghana, a stampede at a football game kills over 120 spectators.
• 2002 - F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
• 2003 - The May 2003 tornado outbreak sequence takes place.
• 2005 - A hand grenade allegedly thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 65 feet (20 metres) from U.S. President George W. Bush while he was giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and doesn't detonate.

Births