1510 – The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan kills all the officials invited to a banquet and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.
1551 – National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.
1588 – French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry I, Duke of Guise enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs.
1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is sentenced to death for high treason.
1689 – King William’s War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.
1743 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.
1812 – Edward Lear, English author, poet, and illustrator (d. 1888) was born.
1820 – Florence Nightingale, Florence Italy, nurse (Crimean War) Born
1862 – U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: Two divisions of James B. McPherson’s XVII Corps turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton’s defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in “the Bloody Angle”.
1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Palmito Ranch: The first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1870 – The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.
1885 – North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
1895 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, India, philosopher (Songs of Life) [NS=May 22] Born
1916 – James Connolly, Scottish-born Irish socialist revolutionary (Easter Rising) (b. 1868) died.
1918 – Julius Rosenberg, American spy (d. 1953) was birthed.
1921 – Farley Mowat, Canadian environmentalist and author (d. 2014) was born.
1928 – Burt Bacharach, KC Mo, composer (I’ll Never Fall in Love Again) Born
1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Jr., is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs’ home.
1933 – The Agricultural Adjustment Act is enacted to restrict agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies.
1935 – Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (founders of Alcoholics Anonymous) meet for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Siberling.
1936 – Tom Snyder, Milwaukee Wisc, newscaster (Tommorow, NBC Weekend News) Born
1937 – George Carlin, Bronx, comedian (7 dirty words, AM & FM, Carwash) Born
1937 – The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Westminster Abbey.
1942 – World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: In eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.
1942 – World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.
1942 – Ian Dury, Upminster Essex, rocker (Blockheads)/actor (Judge Dredd) Born
1945 – Ian McLagan, English rocker (Faces), born in Hounslow, Middlesex, (d. 2014) Born
1948 – Steve Winwood, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith) was born.
1949 – After blocking all road traffic into West Berlin for 11 months after diplomatic meetings around the world the Soviet Union has lifted the blockade of road and rail links. The Blockade of West Berlin had been broken by a U.S. / British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin’s two million citizens.
1949 – The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new German state: The Federal Republic of Germany.
1950 – Billy Squier, Mass, heavy metal guitarist (Don’t Say No) Born
1950 – Gabriel Byrne, actor (Hello Again, Cool World), born in Dublin, Ireland
1950 – Jocko Marcellino, rocker (Sha Na Na) Born
1955 – Austria regains its independence as the Allied occupation following World War II ends.
1956 – Homer Simpson, fictional character from the long running television show “The Simpsons” – Born
1958 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
1958 – Eric Singer, American drummer and songwriter (Kiss, Avantasia, Badlands, and Eric Singer Project) was born.
1961 – Billy Duffy, English guitarist and songwriter (The Cult, Theatre of Hate, and The Nosebleeds) was born.
1962 – Brett Gurewitz, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Bad Religion, Daredevils, and Error) was born.
1962 – Emilio Estevez, actor (Breakfast Club, Young Guns, Mighty Ducks, REPO MAN), born in NYC, New York
1966 – Stephen Baldwin, American actor, director, and producer born.
1968 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral, east of Lai Khe in South Vietnam on the night of 12/13 May, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides and beginning the Battle of Coral–Balmoral.
1968 – Tony Hawk, American skateboarder, billionaire, and actor was born.
1971 – The Rolling Stones singer, Mick Jagger, marries Bianca Perez Morena de Macias at a civil ceremony in the local town hall in the French Mediterranean town of St Tropez
1973 – The Pentagon Papers trial which was focussed on THE FIRST AMENDMENT and The Governments Authority to control information and the Publics access to that information has now ended and with a verdict of NOT GUILTY for the defendants Daniel Ellsburg and Anthony J Russo Jr , but many of the answers given by defendants and testimony by witnesses raise many more questions concerning the Watergate Affair. ( This eventually led to Impeachment proceedings against President Nixon ) Daniel Ellsberg was a contributor but gave most of the Pentagon Papers to New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan, with Ellsberg’s friend Anthony Russo assisting in their copying
1975 – Mayaguez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
1981 – Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign for political prisoner status to be granted to Provisional IRA prisoners.
1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an “agent of Moscow”.
1986 – NBC debuts the current well-known peacock as seen in the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration.
1992 – Robert Reed, actor (Brady Bunch), dies of AIDs at 59
2001 – Perry Como, American singer (b. 1912) Dies
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro’s 1959 revolution.
2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.
2007 – Riots in which over 50 people are killed and over 100 are injured take place in Karachi upon the arrival in town of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.
2008 – Robert Rauschenberg, American artist (b. 1925) Dies
2014 – H. R. Giger, Swiss Oscar-winning surrealist artist, dies from injuries from a fall at 74
2015 – 7.3-magnitude earthquake, 6 major aftershocks hit Nepal.