Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May
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May 1: May Day; International Workers' Day; Beltane in Ireland and Scotland; Yom HaShoah (Israel and Judaism, 2011) begins at sunset
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- 880 – The Nea Ekklesia church in Constantinople was consecrated, and would go on to set the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.
- 1707 – Under the terms of the Acts of Union, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, a single kingdom encompassing the entire island of Great Britain with a single parliament and government based in Westminster.
- 1753 – Carl Linnaeus (pictured) published his Species Plantarum, which, with his earlier work Systema Naturae, is considered the beginning of modern botanical nomenclature.
- 1865 – Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina signed a treaty creating an alliance against Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance.
- 1947 – Italian separatist Salvatore Giuliano and his gang fired into a crowd of May Day marchers near Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily, killing 11 and wounding 33.
More anniversaries: April 30 – May 1 – May 2
May 2: Yom HaShoah (Israel and Judaism, 2011); Teachers' Day in Iran; Flag Day in Poland
- 1611 – Robert Barker, the King's Printer, made the first printing of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible (title page pictured).
- 1757 – Konbaung forces captured the city of Pegu, Burma, to end the Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War.
- 1866 – Chincha Islands War: Both Spanish and Peruvian forces claimed victory in the Battle of Callao.
- 1952 – The world's first ever jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet 1, made its first commercial flight, from London to Johannesburg.
- 1995 – Croatian War of Independence: Serb forces began firing rockets on the Croatian capital of Zagreb, killing 7 and injuring at least 175 others.
- 2003 – A mob of Indian Muslims killed eight Hindu Arayan fishermen in Kerala, India.
More anniversaries: May 1 – May 2 – May 3
May 3: Constitution Day in Poland and Japan, World Press Freedom Day
- 1791 – The Polish Constitution of May 3, one of the earliest codified national constitutions in the world, was adopted by the Sejm.
- 1939 – Subhas Chandra Bose (pictured) formed the All India Forward Bloc of the Indian National Congress in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces began invading Tulagi and nearby islands in the Solomon Islands, enabling them to threaten and interdict the supply and communication routes between the United States and Australia and New Zealand.
- 1951 – The Royal Festival Hall, the first post-war building to become listed Grade I, opened as the venue for the Festival of Britain.
- 1963 – Police in Birmingham, Alabama, US, used high-pressure water hoses and dogs on civil rights protesters, bringing intense scrutiny on racial segregation in the South.
More anniversaries: May 2 – May 3 – May 4
May 4: Declaration of Independence Day in Latvia (1990); Star Wars Day
- 1471 – Wars of the Roses: Yorkist Edward IV defeated a Lancastrian army in the Battle of Tewkesbury.
- 1814 – Ferdinand VII abolished the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism.
- 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy engaged Allied naval forces at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other.
- 1970 – The Ohio National Guard opened fire at Kent State University students protesting the United States invasion of Cambodia, killing four and injuring nine.
- 1979 – Margaret Thatcher (pictured) became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the defeat of James Callaghan's incumbent Labour government in the previous day's general election.
More anniversaries: May 3 – May 4 – May 5
May 5: Cinco de Mayo; Liberation Day in Denmark, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands; Children's Day in Japan and South Korea
- 553 – The Second Council of Constantinople, considered by many Christian churches to have been the fifth Christian Ecumenical Council, began to discuss the topics of Nestorianism and Origenism, among others.
- 1789 – The Estates-General convened in Versailles to discuss a financial crisis in France, triggering a series of events that led to the French Revolution.
- 1891 – New York City's Carnegie Hall, built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert conducted by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
- 1949 – Ten European countries signed the Treaty of London, creating the Council of Europe (Palace of Europe pictured), today one of the oldest international organisations working for European integration.
- 1994 – Armenia and Azerbaijan signed the Bishkek Protocol, a provisional ceasefire treaty to end hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, with both sides agreeing, among others, to grant a wide-ranging autonomy to the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
More anniversaries: May 4 – May 5 – May 6
May 6: Festival of Mazu (Southeast Asia, 2010); St George's Day in Bulgaria; Đurđevdan in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; Yuri's Day in Russia
- 1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, scored a Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville near Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia.
- 1882 – The United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, implementing a ban on Chinese immigration to the United States that eventually lasted for over 60 years until the 1943 Magnuson Act.
- 1937 – The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire (pictured) and was destroyed while trying to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing over 30 people on board.
- 1991 – Time magazine published "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", an article highly critical of the Scientology organization; leading to years of legal conflict which ended when the Church of Scientology's petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case was denied in 2001.
- 1994 – The Channel Tunnel, a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) rail tunnel, officially opened beneath the English Channel, connecting Folkestone, England, and Coquelles, France.
More anniversaries: May 5 – May 6 – May 7
May 7: Radio Day in Russia and Bulgaria
- 1272 – The first session of the Second Council of Lyon was held to discuss, among others, the pledge by Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to end the Great Schism and reunite the Eastern church with the West.
- 1895 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented his radio receiver, refined as a lightning detector, to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.
- 1915 – World War I: The German submarine Unterseeboot 20 torpedoed and sank the ocean liner RMS Lusitania (pictured), killing 1,198 on board.
- 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: During the Kiev Offensive, Polish troops, with the help of a symbolic Ukrainian force, captured Kiev, only to be driven out by the Soviet Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
- 1960 – Cold War: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that his country was holding American pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union six days earlier.
More anniversaries: May 6 – May 7 – May 8
May 8: World Fair Trade Day (2010); Mother's Day in several countries (2011);Victory in Europe Day; World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
- 1794 – The Reign of Terror: Branded a traitor, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, a former royal tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined on the same day.
- 1886 – In Atlanta, American pharmacist John Pemberton first sold his carbonated beverage Coca-Cola (pictured) as a patent medicine, claiming that it cured a number of diseases.
- 1945 – Most armed forces under German control ceased active operations by 23:01 CET after the German Instrument of Surrender was formally ratified, marking the end of World War II in Europe.
- 1963 – In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam opened fire into a crowd of Buddhists protesting against a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesākha, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.
- 1984 – The Soviet Union announced the boycott of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, citing security concerns and stated that "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria [were] being whipped up in the United States".
More anniversaries: May 7 – May 8 – May 9
May 9: Yom Hazikaron (Israel, 2011); Victory Day in various Eastern European countries; Europe Day/Schuman Day in the European Union
- 328 – Athanasius became the Patriarch of Alexandria.
- 1671 – Irish-born Colonel Thomas Blood (pictured) was caught trying to steal the English Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
- 1901 – The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, exactly 26 years (1927) before it moved to Canberra's Provisional Parliament House, and exactly 87 years (1988) before it moved into the over AU$1.1 billion Parliament House in Canberra.
- 1946 – Italian King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated, hoping to influence the vote on a referendum to decide whether Italy should retain the monarchy or become a republic.
- 1950 – Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard was first published, describing his self-improvement techniques known as Dianetics, which later became part of the wider subject of Scientology.
More anniversaries: May 8 – May 9 – May 10
May 10: Mother's Day in El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico; Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel, 2011); Constitution Day in the Federated States of Micronesia
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small force of American Patriots led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captured, without significant injury or incident, the small British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga in New York.
- 1824 – The National Gallery in London opened to the public, in the former townhouse of the collector John Julius Angerstein.
- 1833 – Lê Văn Khôi broke out of prison to start a revolt against Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mạng, primarily to avenge the desecration of the grave of his adopted father Lê Văn Duyệt, former viceroy of the southern part of Vietnam.
- 1857 – The Sepoy Mutiny against the company rule by the British East India Company, began.
- 1924 – J. Edgar Hoover (pictured) became the director of the Bureau of Investigation, which would later become the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
More anniversaries: May 9 – May 10 – May 11
- 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeated the Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian "Pragmatic Army" at the Battle of Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands in present day Belgium.
- 1792 – Merchant sea captain Robert Gray (pictured) first entered the Columbia River, becoming the first recorded European to navigate the largest river flowing into the Pacific Ocean from North America.
- 1812 – In the lobby of the British House of Commons, Spencer Perceval became the first, and to date only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated.
- 1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle near Hanford, California, that inspired Frank Norris' muckraking novel The Octopus.
- 1946 – The United Malays National Organisation, today Malaysia's largest political party, was founded, originally to oppose the constitutional framework of the Malayan Union.
More anniversaries: May 10 – May 11 – May 12
May 12: Jerusalem Day (Israel, 2010); International Nurses Day
- 1551 – The National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.
- 1885 – North-West Rebellion: Louis Riel and the Métis rebels were decisively defeated by Canadian forces under Major-General Frederick Middleton in Batoche, Saskatchewan.
- 1926 – The Trades Union Congress, a federation of British trade unions, announced that it would end its week-long general strike "in defence of [coal] miners' wages and hours".
- 1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3 (replica pictured), the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, to an audience of scientists in Berlin.
- 1975 – The Cambodian navy seized the American container ship SS Mayaguez in recognized international waters, but claimed as territorial waters by Cambodia.
- 2008 – An earthquake measuring about 8.0 Ms struck the Sichuan province of China, killing at least 69,000 people, injuring at least 374,000, and leaving at least 4.8 million others homeless.
More anniversaries: May 11 – May 12 – May 13
May 13: Ascension Thursday (Christianity, 2010); Rotuma Day in Fiji
- 1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason.
- 1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico after a series of disputes in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, starting the Mexican–American War.
- 1917 – Our Lady of Fátima: Ten-year-old Lúcia Santos (pictured middle) and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian apparition near Fátima, Portugal.
- 1958 – Algerian War: A group of French military officers led a coup in Algiers, demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
- 1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca shot and critically wounded Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City.
- 2005 – Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops fired into a crowd of protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan, killing anywhere from 187, the official count of the government, to a reported 5,000 people.
More anniversaries: May 12 – May 13 – May 14
May 14: Feast day of Saint Matthias and Saint Mochuda (Roman Catholic Church); Sanja Matsuri begins in Tokyo
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- 1264 – Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle of Lewes and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
- 1607 – An expedition led by Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher Newport, and John Smith established Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
- 1940 – The Yermolayev Yer-2, a long-range Soviet medium bomber, had its first flight.
- 1943 – World War II: The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur (pictured) was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, killing 268 people aboard.
- 1948 – David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at the present-day Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, officially establishing a new Jewish state in parts of the former British Mandate of Palestine.
- 1951 – Trains ran on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.
More anniversaries: May 13 – May 14 – May 15
May 15: Armed Forces Day in the United States (2010); Independence Day in Paraguay; Teachers' Day in Mexico and South Korea; Nakba Day in Palestinian communities
- 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issued the papal bull ad extirpanda, authorizing the use of torture on heretics during the Medieval Inquisition.
- 1602 – English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold became the first known European to discover Cape Cod.
- 1836 – English astronomer Francis Baily first observed "Baily's beads", a phenomenon during a solar eclipse in which the rugged lunar limb topography allows beads of sunlight to shine through (example pictured).
- 1928 – Mickey and Minnie Mouse made their film debut in the animated cartoon Plane Crazy.
- 1932 – Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated in an attempted coup d'état by radical elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
More anniversaries: May 14 – May 15 – May 16
May 16: Ascension Day (various Western Christian churches, 2010); Teacher's Day in Malaysia
- 1204 – Fourth Crusade: Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was crowned the first Latin Emperor in Constantinople.
- 1877 – President Patrice de Mac-Mahon dismissed Jules Simon and installed Albert, Duc de Broglie as Prime Minister, triggering a political crisis in the French Third Republic.
- 1918 – The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces during the ongoing World War I.
- 1929 – The first ceremony of the Academy Awards was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
- 1975 – Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, Sikkim (flag pictured) abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its 22nd state.
- 2003 – In the deadliest terrorist attack in Morocco's history, a series of suicide bombings in Casablanca killed 33 civilians and 12 out of the 14 bombers.
More anniversaries: May 15 – May 16 – May 17
May 17: Constitution Day in Norway (1814); Galician Literature Day in Galicia, Spain
- 1590 – Anne of Denmark (pictured) was crowned Queen consort of Scotland in the abbey church at Holyrood Palace.
- 1943 – World War II: Royal Air Force Dam Busters successfully deployed bouncing bombs on German dams in Operation Chastise.
- 1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal".
- 1980 – On the eve of the Peruvian general election, the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacked a polling location in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho, starting the internal conflict in Peru.
- 2009 – Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected the first female President of Lithuania, receiving 68.18 percent of the vote.
More anniversaries: May 16 – May 17 – May 18
May 18: Victoria Day in Canada (2009); International Museum Day
- 1896 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding the legality of racial segregation in public transportation under the "Separate but equal" doctrine.
- 1944 – World War II: Polish forces under Lieutenant General Władysław Anders captured Monte Cassino, Italy, after a four-month battle.
- 1948 – The first session of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China convened in the then-Chinese capital of Nanjing.
- 1980 – A popular uprising against the nationwide martial law imposed by South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan's government began in Gwangju, but it was ultimately crushed by the South Korean army about nine days later.
- 1980 – The stratovolcano Mount St. Helens erupted (pictured), killing 57 people in southern Washington State, reducing hundreds of square miles to wasteland, and causing over a billion U.S. dollars in damage.
More anniversaries: May 17 – May 18 – May 19
May 19: Shavuot (Judaism, 2010); Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey
- 1643 – Thirty Years' War: The French, led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, scored a decisive victory against the Spanish in Rocroi, France.
- 1780 – A combination of thick smoke, fog, and heavy cloud cover caused complete darkness to fall on parts of Canada and the New England area of the United States by noon.
- 1802 – Napoléon Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic, established the Légion d'honneur order (pictured) as a reward to commend civilians and soldiers.
- 1848 – Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that was previously signed to end the Mexican–American War, officially ceding present-day California, Nevada, Utah, and other territory to the United States.
- 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk traveled to Samsun to establish the Turkish National Movement to resist the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, marking the start of the Turkish War of Independence.
More anniversaries: May 18 – May 19 – May 20
May 20: National Day in Cameroon (1972); Independence Day in East Timor (2002); National Day of Hatred in Cambodia
- 325 – The First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, was formally opened in present-day Iznik, Turkey.
- 685 – The Picts defeated the Northumbrians near Dunnichen, severely weakening the latter's power in northern Great Britain.
- 1293 – Sancho IV, King of Castile and León, established what is now the Complutense University of Madrid, today one of Spain's top public universities.
- 1570 – The first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (world map pictured) by cartographer Abraham Ortelius, was issued.
- 1927 – By the Treaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom recognized the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud over Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become Saudi Arabia.
- 2002 – East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, becoming the first new sovereign state of the 21st century.
More anniversaries: May 19 – May 20 – May 21
May 21: Buddha's Birthday (2010); Navy Day in Chile
- 1758 – French and Indian War: Ten-year-old Mary Campbell was taken captive from her Pennsylvania home by members of the Native American group Lenape, believed to have been the first white child to travel to the Connecticut Western Reserve.
- 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal (pictured), linking Greater Manchester in North West England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the largest navigation canal in the world at the time.
- 1927 – Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, American aviator Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, flying from Roosevelt Field near New York City to Le Bourget Airport near Paris.
- 1998 – Indonesian President Suharto resigned following the collapse of support for his three-decade-long reign.
- 2006 – The Montenegrin independence referendum was held in Montenegro, with 55.5 percent of the voters favouring independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
More anniversaries: May 20 – May 21 – May 22
May 22: Unity Day in Yemen (1990); World Biodiversity Day
- 1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: Austrian forces under Archduke Charles prevented Napoleon I and his French troops from crossing the Danube near Vienna at the Battle of Aspern-Essling.
- 1826 – HMS Beagle departed on its first voyage from Plymouth for a hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of South America.
- 1960 – The Great Chilean Earthquake, measuring 9.5 Mw, devastated Valdivia, Chile, and generated destructive tsunamis that reached Hawaii the following day.
- 1964 – During a speech at the University of Michigan, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (pictured) presented the goals of his Great Society domestic social reforms to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.
- 1972 – Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and officially became a republic.
- 1980 – Pac-Man, an arcade game that became virtually synonymous with video games and an icon of 1980s popular culture, made its debut in Japan.
More anniversaries: May 21 – May 22 – May 23
May 23: Pentecost (Christianity, 2010)
- 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola of Florence was executed for heresy, uttering prophecies, sedition, and other crimes.
- 1533 – The marriage of Henry VIII of England and his first wife Catherine of Aragon was annulled.
- 1568 – The Dutch Revolt broke out when rebels led by Louis of Nassau invaded Friesland at the Battle of Heiligerlee.
- 1706 – War of the Spanish Succession: Led by the Duke of Marlborough, the allied forces of England, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark defeated the Franco-Bavarian army in Ramillies, present-day Belgium.
- 1934 – American criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (pictured) were ambushed and killed by police on a desolate road near their hideout in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
- 1949 – The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany came into effect as the de facto constitution of West Germany.
- 2008 – To resolve a 29-year-old territorial dispute, the International Court of Justice awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore.
More anniversaries: May 22 – May 23 – May 24
May 24: Whit Monday (Christianity, 2010); Victoria Day in Canada (2010); Independence Day in Eritrea; Aldersgate Day (Methodism); Saints Cyril and Methodius Day in Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia
- 1626 – Director-General Peter Minuit of New Netherland acquired Manhattan from Native Americans in exchange for trade goods valued at 60 guilders.
- 1738 – At a Moravian Church meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, John Wesley (pictured) experienced a spiritual rebirth, leading him to launch the Methodist movement.
- 1930 – English aviatrix Amy Johnson landed in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to successfully fly from England to Australia.
- 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood in eleven minutes at the Battle of the Denmark Strait.
- 1960 – Cordón Caulle in the Andes of Ranco Province, Chile, began to erupt, less than two days after the Valdivia earthquake struck the region.
More anniversaries: May 23 – May 24 – May 25
May 25: National Day in Argentina (1810); Independence Day in Jordan (1946); Liberation Day in Lebanon (2000) and in various African countries (1963)
- 1659 – Richard Cromwell resigned as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
- 1810 – The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires (pictured), marking the end of the May Revolution.
- 1926 – Anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
- 1946 – Abdullah bin Husayn, Emir of the Emirate of Transjordan, was proclaimed King of the renamed "Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan".
- 1961 – During a speech to a joint session of the United States Congress, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo space program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".
- 2009 – North Korea conducted a nuclear test and several other missile tests that were widely condemned by the international community and led to sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.
More anniversaries: May 24 – May 25 – May 26
May 26: Independence Day in Guyana (1966) and Georgia (1918); Mother's Day in Poland; National Sorry Day in Australia
- 1828 – Kaspar Hauser (pictured), a foundling with suspected ties to the Royal House of Baden, first appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany.
- 1896 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average, representing twelve stocks from various American industries, was first published by journalist Charles Dow as a stock market index.
- 1918 – The Democratic Republic of Georgia was proclaimed following the breakup of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
- 1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in Moscow, concluding the first round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
- 2006 – An earthquake measuring about 6.3 Mw struck near the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta on the southern side of the island of Java, killing at least 5,700 people, injuring at least 36,000, and leaving at least 1.5 million homeless.
More anniversaries: May 25 – May 26 – May 27
May 27: Children's Day in Nigeria
- 1153 – Malcolm IV became King of Scotland at the age of twelve.
- 1703 – Russian Tsar Peter I founded Saint Petersburg after reconquering the Ingrian land from Sweden during the Great Northern War.
- 1896 – The St. Louis – East St. Louis tornado, one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history, struck St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing more than 255 people and injuring at least 1,000 others.
- 1908 – Day celebrated as establishment of the second manifestation of God within the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
- 1919 – The flying boat NC-4 arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, becoming the first fixed-wing aircraft to complete a transatlantic flight under its own power.
- 1937 – The Golden Gate Bridge (pictured), at the time the world's longest suspension bridge span, connecting the San Francisco to Marin County, California, opened.
- 1942 – Czech resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Prague ambushed and mortally wounded Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of Reich Security Main Office and the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
More anniversaries: May 26 – May 27 – May 28
May 28: Vesak (Buddhism, 2010); Republic Day in Armenia and Azerbaijan
- 585 BC – According to Greek historian Herodotus, a solar eclipse abruptly ended the Battle of Halys between the Lydians and the Medes.
- 1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Spanish Armada (a galleass pictured), with 130 ships and over 30,000 men, set sail from Lisbon for the English Channel in an attempt to invade England.
- 1892 – Aided by a group of professors from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, Preservationist John Muir founded the environmental organization Sierra Club in San Francisco.
- 1936 – English mathematician Alan Turing submitted his paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" for publication, introducing the Turing machine, a basic abstract symbol-manipulating device that can simulate the logic of any computer algorithm.
- 1975 – Sixteen West African countries signed the Treaty of Lagos, establishing the Economic Community of West African States to promote economic integration.
More anniversaries: May 27 – May 28 – May 29
May 29: International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers; Democracy Day in Nigeria
- 1167 – A 1,600-man force of the Holy Roman Empire led by Christian of Buch and Rainald of Dassel defeated a 10,000-man Papal States army.
- 1453 – Constantinople fell to the besieging Ottoman army led by Sultan Mehmed II, ending the Byzantine Empire.
- 1911 – English dramatist W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan dies while saving a young woman from drowning in his lake.
- 1913 – The Rite of Spring, a ballet with music by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, was first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
- 1953 – New Zealand explorer Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest (pictured).
- 1985 – A wall at Brussels' Heysel Stadium collapsed under the pressure of football fans escaping a riot before the European Cup Final between England's Liverpool F.C. and Italy's Juventus F.C., killing 39 people and injuring over 600 others.
More anniversaries: May 28 – May 29 – May 30
May 30: Trinity Sunday (Western Christianity, 2010); Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago; Lod Massacre Remembrance Day in Puerto Rico
- 1431 – Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc (pictured) was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, after being convicted of heresy in a politically motivated trial.
- 1815 – The East Indiaman ship Arniston was wrecked during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, present-day South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives.
- 1854 – The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law, establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, repealing the 1820 Missouri Compromise, and allowing settlers in those territories to determine if they would permit slavery within their boundaries.
- 1922 – The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring a sculpture of the sixteenth U.S. President Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, opened.
- 1967 – Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu announced the establishment of Biafra, a secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria, an event that sparked the Nigerian Civil War one week later.
More anniversaries: May 29 – May 30 – May 31
May 31: Memorial Day in the United States (2010); World No Tobacco Day; Feast of the Visitation in Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism
- 1279 BC – According to estimates accepted by most Egyptologists today, Ramesses II became Pharaoh of Egypt.
- 1223 – Mongol invasions: Mongol forces defeated a combined army of Kiev, Galich, and the Cumans on the banks of the Kalchik River in present-day Ukraine.
- 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, English naval administrator and Member of Parliament Samuel Pepys (pictured) recorded his last entry in his diary, one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period.
- 1889 – The South Fork Dam near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, US, failed, unleashing a torrent of 18.1 million cubic meters (4.8 billion gallons) of water that killed over 2,200 people.
- 1981 – An organized mob of police and government-sponsored paramilitias began burning the public library in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, destroying over 97,000 unique books and manuscripts in one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the 20th century.
More anniversaries: May 30 – May 31 – June 1
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