1994 – The Rwandan genocide begins – The assassination of Rwandan President, Juvénal Habyarimana, and Burundian President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, triggered a mass slaughter of ethnic Tutsis with up to 1 million victims.
0648 BC- Earliest total solar eclipse; chronicled by Greeks
0046 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus.
0402 – Battle at Pollentia: Roman army under Stilicho beats Visigoten
0774 – Charlemagne confirms his father Pepin the Short’s grant of land in 754 to the Pope of territories belonging to Ravenna in central Italy
1199 – English King Richard I was killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.
1320 – The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
1385 – John, Master of the Order of Aviz, is made king John I of Portugal
1453 – Turkish forces under Sultan Mehmed II begin the siege of the Byzantine Empire capitol of Constantinople (now İstanbul), which falls May 29
1607 – An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrived at the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico for supplies before continuing on their journey. On May 14, they went ashore and founded Jamestown, Virginia, as the first permanent English colony in America.
1652 – Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp at the Cape of Good Hope, which eventually becomes Cape Town.
1663 – King of England Charles II signs the Carolina Charter, gifting land in the American Southeast to eight friends who had helped him regain the throne
1757 – British King George II dismisses minister William Pitt the Elder, Secretary of State for the Southern Department
1772 – Catherine the Great Empress of Russia, ends tax on men with beards, enacted by Tsar Peter the Great in 1698
1789 – The first U.S. Congress began regular sessions at the Federal Hall in New York City.
1793 – During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic, and the period known as the Reign of Terror begins
1814 – Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor.
1830 – Joseph Smith and 5 others officially organize the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church ) in Fayette, New York
1832 – Indian Wars: Black Hawk War begins – The Sauk warrior Black Hawk enters into war with the United States.
1848 – Jews of Prussia granted equality
1862 – The American Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.
1865 – At the Battle of Sayler’s Creek, a third of Lee’s army was cut off by Union troops pursuing him to Appomattox.
1875 – Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the multiple telegraph, which sent two signals at the same time.
1893 – Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.
1896 – The first modern Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece.
1903 – In Holland, railroad and dock workers go out on strike, but the government passes anti-strike bills, calls out troops, and promptly ends the strike on the 13th April
1909 – Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson claimed to be the first men to reach the North Pole.
1916 – Charlie Chaplin became the highest-paid film star in the world when he signed a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year. He was 26 years old.
1917 – The U.S. Congress approved a declaration of war on Germany and entered World War I on the Allied side.
1919 – Gandhi orders a General Strike.
1924 – Four planes left Seattle on the first successful flight around the world.
1927 – William P. MacCracken, Jr. earned license number ‘1’ when the Department of Commerce issued the first aviator’s license.
1930 – Hostess Twinkies invented by bakery executive James Dewar
1931 – First Scottsboro (Ala) trial begins – 9 blacks accused of rape
1938 – The United States recognized the German conquest of Austria.
1941 – German forces invaded Greece and Yugoslavia.
1943 – Lou Jansen, leader of illegal Dutch political party (CPN) arrested
1944 – Jewish nursery at Izieu-Ain, France, overrun by Nazis
1945 – Most of the Jewish prisoners remaining at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany are forced out on death marches.
1953 – Iranian Premier Mossadegh demanded that the shah’s power be reduced.
1957 – Trolley cars in New York City completed their final runs.
1965 – The first commercial communications satellite is launched – Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird, facilitated the first live TV broadcast of a spacecraft splashdown when Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
1967 – In South Vietnam, 1,500 Viet Cong attacked Quangtri and freed 200 prisoners.
1968 – 94.5% of East German voters approve new socialist constitution
1972 – Bomb explosion at the Cuban Trade Commission in Montreal kills one person.
1973 – America launches the Pioneer 11 (Pioneer G) probe to study Jupiter & Saturn
1980 – Post It Notes introduced
1981 – A Yugoslav Communist Party official confirmed reports of intense ethnic riots in Kosovo.
1983 – The U.S. Veteran’s Administration announced it would give free medical care for conditions traceable to radiation exposure to more than 220,000 veterans who participated in nuclear tests from 1945 to 1962.
1984 – Members of Cameroon’s Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
1985 – William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the hospital.
1987 – Dennis Levine began a two-year jail term for insider trading.
1988 – Mathew Henson was awarded honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Henson had discovered the North Pole with Robert Peary.
1992 – US Supreme Court rules a Nebraska farmer was entrapped by postal agents into buying mail-order child pornography
1994 – The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvnal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
1997 – Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) announced that he would retire from the National Hockey League (NHL) following the playoffs of the current season.
1998 – Pakistan successfully tested medium-range missiles capable of attacking neighboring India.
2004 – Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment.
2005 – Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes the Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.
2013 – 22 people are killed and 60 are injured by a suicide bombing at an election campaign tent in Baquba, Iraq
2016 – First baby born with DNA from 3 parents through mitochondrial transfer in Mexico
2020 – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces state of emergency in seven prefectures and a nearly $1 trillion stimulus package as COVID-19 cases climb
2022 – Hermits Peak fire, New Mexico’s largest wildfire starts in Mora County, as a supposedly controlled burn off by US Forest Service, goes onto displace 100 people, burn 341,000 acres, 62 million trees
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
