1924 – Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a “thrill killing” committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. The killers were students at the University of Chicago.
0878 – Syracuse is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily
0996 – Sixteen year old Otto III was crowned the Roman Emperor.
1281 – Kublai Khan’s second invasion of Japan begins with an attack on Tsushima Island but meets fierce resistance; his troops are forced to withdraw
1471 – King Henry VI was killed in the tower of London. Edward IV took the throne.
1536 – The Reformation was officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.
1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1790 – Paris was divided into 48 zones.
1819 – Bicycles were first seen in the U.S. in New York City. They were originally known as “swift walkers.”
1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated to be the Circassian Day of Mourning.
1881 – American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton
1891 – Peter Jackson and Jim Corbett fought for 61 rounds only to end in a draw.
1894 – 22-year-old French Anarchist Émile Henry is executed by guillotine. His last words were reputed to be “Courage, camarades! Vive l’anarchie!”
1920 – Mexican President Venustiano Carranza is executed by army generals after fleeing an armed rebellion in Mexico
1922 – The cartoon, “On the Road to Moscow,” by Rollin Kirby won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first cartoon awarded the Pulitzer.
1924 – Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a “thrill killing” committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. The killers were students at the University of Chicago.
1927 – Charles A. Lindberg completed the first solo nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip began May 20.
1932 – After flying for 17 hours from Newfoundland, Amelia Earhart lands near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, becoming the 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman
1945 – Nazi SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler captured
1961 – Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, AL.
1968 – The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1979 – Violent clashes follow the lenient sentencing for Harvey Milk’s murderer – Milk, the first openly gay U.S. politician, had been shot and killed together with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. The assassin, Dan White, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter only, triggering the White Night Riots.
1985 – Israel exchanges 1,150 prisoners with the PFLP-GC in return for 3 Israeli soldiers
1991 – In Madras, India, the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bouquet of flowers that contained a bomb.
1998 – An expelled student, Kipland Kinkel, in Springfield, OR, killed 2 people and wounded 25 others with a semi-automatic rifle. Police also discovered that the boy had killed his parents before the rampage.
1996 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
1998 – In Miami, FL, five abortion clinics were hit by an butyric acid-attacker.
2001 – The Enron Corporation’s power generating venture in India, the Dabhol Power Company, serves formal notice that it will terminate its power supply contract and pull out
2012 -120 people are killed and 350 injured by a suicide bomb in Sana’a, Yemen
2014 – Russian President Putin signs agreements with China in Beijing in relation to trade and infrastructure
2017 – Barnum & Bailey Circus performs for the last time at the Nassau Coliseum in NYC after 146 years
2018 – US Justice Department says it is expanding its internal investigation into whether FBI infiltrated Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign
2019 – Protests across American cities defending abortion rights after several US states pass new abortion laws
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
