350 – The Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.
713 – The Byzantine emperor Philippicus is blinded, deposed and sent into exile by conspirators of the Opsikion army in Thrace. He is succeeded by Anastasios II, who begins the reorganization of the Byzantine army.
1098 – After 5-month siege in First Crusade, the Crusaders seize Antioch (now in modern Turkey)
1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain.
1608 – Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
1621 – Dutch West India Company (WIC) receives charter for The West Indies (The Americas, Caribbean and West Africa)
1781 – Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending raid by Banastre Tarleton (British).
1808 – Jefferson Davis, American colonel and politician, President of the Confederate States of America (d. 1889) was born.
1840 – Michael O’Laughlen, American conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1867) was born.
1851 – 1st baseball uniforms worn, NY Knickerbockers wear straw hat, white shirt & blue long trousers
1862 – A 3000-strong riot occurred at Wardsend Cemetery in the Sheffield, England, against rumours of bodysnatching from the grounds.
1864 – Ransom E. Olds, American businessman, founded Oldsmobile and REO Motor Car Company (d. 1950) was born.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor – Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.
1866 – The Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States.
1875 – Georges Bizet, French composer, dies at 36
1885 – In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escapes the North-West Mounted Police.
1888 – The poem “Casey at the Bat”, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.
1889 – The transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway is completed.
1889 – The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
1899 – Johann Baptist Strauss, Austria, composer (Waltz King), dies at 73
1906 – Josephine Baker, American dancer/Parisian night club owner (Folies-Bergere) born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 1975)
1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.
1918 – US Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart rules child labor laws unconstitutional
1924 – Franz Kafka, Czech writer (Trial, Amerika, Metamorphosis), dies at 40
1924 – Jimmy Rogers, Ruleville, Mississippi, Blues musician (Muddy Waters’ Band), (d. 1997) born
1925 – Tony Curtis, [Bernard Schwartz], Bronx, NY, actor (Some Like It Hot) Born
1926 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet and academic (d. 1997) was born.
1929 – Chuck Barris, American game show host and producer, created The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game was born.
1931 – Raúl Castro, Cuban statesman, current President of Cuba, born
1935 – One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario.
1940 – World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
1940 – Franz Rademacher proposes plans to make Madagascar the “Jewish homeland”, an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.
1942 – Curtis Mayfield, American singer-songwriter and producer (The Impressions) (d. 1999) was born.
1943 – A mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory beat up everyone perceived to be Hispanic, starting the week-long Zoot Suit Riots.
1946 – Michael Clarke, American drummer (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Firefall) (d. 1993) was born.
1946 – Ian Hunter, England, rocker (Mott the Hoople-All the Young Dudes) Born
1946 – 1st bikini bathing suit displayed (Paris)
1947 – Mickey Finn, British guitarist and percussionist (T. Rex) (d. 2003) Born
1952 – Billy Powell, American keyboard player and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (d. 2009) was born.
1959 – Singapore was declared a self-governing state even though it was still a part of the British Empire.
1959 – US President Eisenhower routes Canadian premier Diefenbaker a message off the Moon
1959 – A riot takes place in one of the Ecuador’s largest cities, Guayaquil, with a population of 275,000. The government blamed the riot on Communist influences. President Ponce instated martial law throughout the country earlier, while the Communist Party challenged the President’s decree.
1961 – Clarence Gideon is arrested and charged with breaking into a poolroom in Florida. His case managed to change one the chief principles of American criminal justice .In Gideon v. Wainwright, in the Supreme Court it was ruled that a fair trial “cannot be realized if the poor man charged with [the] crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.” Due to Clarence Gideon’s perseverance, every criminal suspect is entitled to representation by a lawyer.
1961 – JFK & Khrushchev meet in Vienna
1962 – Air France Boeing 707 crashes on takeoff from Paris, kills 130
1962 – Lee Harvey Oswald arrives by train in Oldenzaal, Netherlands
1963 – The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attack protesting Buddhists in Huế, South Vietnam, with liquid chemicals from tear-gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments.
1963 – Pope John XXIII [Angelo G Roncalli], Pope (1958-63), dies at 81
1964 – Kerry King, American guitarist and songwriter (Slayer) was born.
1965 – The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.
1965 – Mike Gordon, American singer, bass player, and director (Phish, Rhythm Devils, and SerialPod) was born.
1967 – Jason Jones, Canadian actor was born.
1967 – Anderson Cooper Vanderbilt, American repeater CNN, Mole CIA … Birthed
1968 – Valerie Solanas, the author of SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.
1968 – Poor Peoples March on Washington
1969 – Last episode of Star Trek airs on NBC (Turnabout Intruder)
1970 – 1st artificial gene synthesized
1970 – Ray Davies of Kinks travels round trip NY-London to change 1 word in “Lola,” (Coca-Cola to Cherry Cola) because of BBC coml reference ban
1971 – John Hodgman, American author and actor was born.
1972 – A Protestant march against the creation of “no-go” areas in Londonderry ends in a bloody battle between marchers and soldiers on the Craigavon Bridge.
1972 – “Hot Rod Lincoln,” by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen hits #9
1975 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor, director, producer, and bandleader (b. 1906) died.
The Magna Carta, written in iron gall ink on parchment in medieval Latin
1976 – US presented with oldest known copy of Magna Carta
1977 – US & Cuba talk about diplomatic relations
1977 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director (b. 1906) dies
1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.
1979 – Ex-president Idi Amin of Uganda flees to Libya
1981 – Pope John Paul II released from hospital after assassination attempt
1982 – The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street. He survives but is permanently paralyzed.
1984 – Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for the Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.
1986 – Rafael Nadal, Manacor, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spanish tennis player, born
1986 – Al Horford, American basketball player (Atlanta Hawks) Born
1989 – The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
1989 – Ayatollah Khomeini who had led the 1979 revolution and overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Persia and became the country’s Supreme Leader of the new Islamic Republic of Iran dies.
1990 – Robert Noyce, American physicist and businessman, co-founded the Intel Corporation (b. 1927) died.
1990 – Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (b. 1949) Dies
1992 – World’s largest environmental summit opens (Rio De Janeiro Brazil)
1994 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, physicist, dies at 89
2001 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-born actor (b. 1915) Dies
2004 – Frances Shand Kydd, mother of Diana, Princess of Wales (b. 1936) Dies
2005 – ‘The Knight of Sainte-Hermine’ by Alexandre Dumas is published in France by Editions Phébus, completed by Claude Schopp, 135 years after the author’s death.
2005 – Harold Cardinal, Cree political leader, writer, and lawyer (b. 1945) died
2006 – Johnny Grande, original accordion/piano/keyboard player for Bill Haley’s Comets (b. 1932) Dies
2009 – David Carradine, American actor (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) (b. 1936) Died
2009 – Koko Taylor, American blues musician, popularly known as the “Queen of the Blues.” (b. 1928) Dies
2008 – Over four hundred children in Texas who had been taken from a polygamist sect began returning to their families after a court ruled the officials who had conducted the raid on the ranch did not provide sufficient evidence that the children were in immediate danger. The court also placed restrictions on the return of the children, mandating that the parents take parenting classes and comply with all possible chide abuse investigations.
2011 – Controversial doctor, Jack Kevorkian, died at the age of eighty-three. Kevorkian was known as “Doctor Death” and had spent eight years in prison for aiding in assisted suicides of one hundred and thirty people. He was released from prison in 2007 and a movie about him and his life was made in 2010. Kevorkian advocated assisted suicide for terminally ill patients and his trial and conviction of murder for assisting a suicide sparked much debate on the subject.
2013 – Deacon Jones, American NFL Hall of Fame Defensive End, dies from natural causes at 73
2013 – The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland.
2014 – President Obama announces his plan for a $1 billion fund to increase deployment of US troops to Europe