70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. The Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall. The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometres.
1431 – Hundred Years’ War: in Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. The Roman Catholic Church remembers this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.
1642 – From this date all honors granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament.
1806 – Future U.S. President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson’s wife of bigamy.
1834 – Joaquim António de Aguiar issues a law extinguishing “all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices and any other houses of the regular religious orders”, earning him the nickname of “The Friar-Killer”.
1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with Prince Albert.
1854 – The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern “Memorial Day”) is observed in the United States for the first time (by “Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic” John A. Logan’s proclamation on May 5).
1908 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor and singer (d. 1989) was born.
1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..
1931 – Larry Silverstein, American real estate developer was born.
1937 – Memorial Day massacre: Chicago police shoot and kill 10 labor demonstrators.
1958 – Memorial Day: the remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
1964 – Tom Morello, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and activist (Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, The Nightwatchman, and Axis of Justice) was born.
1968 – Charles de Gaulle reappears publicly after his flight to Baden-Baden, Germany, and dissolves the French National Assembly by a radio appeal. Immediately after, less than one million of his supporters march on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is the turning point of May 1968 events in France.
1972 – In Tel Aviv, Israel, members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others.
2003 – Depayin massacre: at least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy are killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi fled the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards.
2012 – Former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
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