1519 – Leonardo Da Vinci, artist/scientist, dies at 67
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
1559 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation.
1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
1611 – The King James Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.
1670 – King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
1729 – Catherine the Great, Russian wife of Peter III of Russia (d. 1796) was born.
1808 – Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
1863 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.
1865 – US President Johnson offers $100,000 reward for capture of Jefferson Davis
1866 – Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
1878 – US stops minting 20 cent coin
1885 – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
1918 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
1919 – 1st US air passenger service starts
1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.
1927 – Despite the prohibition law to stop alcohol consumption the sale of hip flasks continues to grow which many say is encouraging the sale of alcohol and women’s pressure groups are trying to ban the sale of hip flasks
1929 – Link Wray, American rock guitarist (d. 2005) Born
1930 – President Hoover in a speech said that the stock market crash of last year was just a temporary setback and would soon pass and that the economy would soon bounce back ( this was 6 months after the stock market crash and the great depression of the 1930s would continue and worsen over the next 5 years )
1932 – Comedian Jack Benny’s radio show airs for the first time.
1933 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
1933 – Bunk Gardner, rocker (Mothers Of Invention) Born
1934 – Nazi-Germany begins People’s court
1945 – World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building.
1945 – World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.
Born:
1945 – Bianca Perez Morena de Macias Jagger, Nicaragua, model and socialite
1945 – Bob Henrit, English pop drummer (Kinks-Waterloo Sunset)
1945 – Goldy McJohn, rocker (Steppenwolf)
1945 – Randy Cain, US soul singer (4 Gents/Delfonics)
1945 – Judge Dread, English musician (d. 1998)
1946 – Lesley Gore, Tenafly NJ, singer (It’s My Party)
1946 – The “Battle of Alcatraz” takes place; two guards and three inmates are killed.
1948 – Larry Gatlin, Seminole Tx, country singer (Gatlin Bros-Broken Lady)
1949 – Arthur Miller wins Pulitzer Prize for “Death of a Salesman”
1950 – Lou Gramm, Rochester NY, rocker (Foreigner) Born
1955 – Jay Osmond, rocker (Osmond Brothers) Born
1955 – Pulitzer prize awarded Tennessee Williams for (Cat on Hot Tin Roof)
1957 – Joseph McCarthy, American politician (b. 1908) died.
1960 – House investigating committee, looking into “payola” questions
1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later.
1969 – Police forces in the United States are cracking down on student protests on campuses across the US using a number of means at their disposal including warrants and an increased police presence. The universities include some of the most well known institutions including Columbia, Harvard, Cornell and Stanford Universities.
1971 – Anti War demonstrators in the Capitol were foiled by mass arrests from flying squads of police using tear gas and batons to break up large crowds of protesters and arrested over 6000 protesters who were trying to stop traffic flowing in the capitol, in the afternoon a large number of National Guards and Army and Marines to help with controlling the demonstrations.
1972 – J. Edgar Hoover, American 1st director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (b. 1895) died.
1974 – Former VP Spiro Agnew disbarred
1979 – “Quadrophenia” premieres in London
1980 – Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in Wall (Part II)” is banned in South Africa
1982 – Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men
1984 – Bob Clampett, American animator, producer, and director (b. 1913) died.
1986 – The Chernobyl Disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster
1993 – Julio Gallo, wine maker (Gallo), dies in a car accident at 82
1994 – Michael Bolton found plagiarized Isley Bros “Love is Wonderful Thing”
1997 – Police arrest transsexual prostitute Atisone Seiuli with Eddie Murphy
1997 – Republic of Texas security chief Robert Scheidt surrenders
1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union’s monetary policy.
2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
2004 – Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.
2007 – President Bush vetoed a proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq. The Congressional bill linked a timetable for the withdrawal of troops to funding for the war. The veto was only the second time President Bush used that power, despite rejecting the bill he indicated that a compromise should be made.
2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.
2009 – Jack Kemp, former United States Congressman and 1996 Vice Presidential Candidate (b. 1935) dies
2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man is “killed” by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (3 years later the world has yet to see the Proof of this event!)
2011 – An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick from the bacteria outbreak.
2012 – Edvard Munch’s famous painting ‘The Scream’ sells at auction for $119,922,500
2013 – Rhode Island becomes the tenth US state to legalize same-sex marriage
2013 – Jeffrey John “Jeff” Hanneman , American guitarist (Slayer) dies from liver failure at 49