1941 – “Citizen Kane,” directed and starring Orson Welles, premiered in New York.
0305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor
0408 – Theodosius II succeeded to the throne of Constantinople.
1308 – King Albert was murdered by his nephew John, because he refused his share of the Habsburg lands.
1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
1486 – Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabella to fund an expedition to the West Indies.
1704 – Boston Newsletter publishes 1st newspaper advertisement
1707 – England, Wales and Scotland were united to form Great Britain.
1795 – Kamehameha, King of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and conquors island of Oʻahu at Battle of Nuʻuanu (approx. date)
1805 – The state of Virginia passed a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk either imprisonment or deportation.
1844 – Whig convention nominates Henry Clay as presidential candidate
1867 – Reconstruction in the South began with black voter registration.
1877 – U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.
1883 – William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) had his first Wild West Show.
1884 – The construction of the first American 10-story building began in Chicago, IL.
1889 – Asa Candler published a full-page advertisement in The Atlanta Journal, proclaiming his wholesale and retail drug business as “sole proprietors of Coca-Cola … Delicious. Refreshing. Exhilarating. Invigorating.” Mr. Candler did not actually achieve sole ownership until 1891 at a cost of $2,300.
1898 – The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines.
1905 – In New York, radium was tested as a cure for cancer.
1912 – In London’s Kensington Gardens, a statue of Peter Pan was erected.
1915 – A German submarine sank the U.S. ship Gulflight.
1919 – Mount Kelud (Indonesia) erupts, boiling crater lake which broke through crater wall killing 5,000 people in 104 small villages
1925 – The world’s largest trade union is founded, The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has more than 300 million members.
1927 – Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
1931 – The Empire State Building in New York was dedicated and opened. It was 102 stories tall and was the tallest building in the world at the time.
1934 – The Philippine legislature accepted a U.S. proposal for independence.
1936 – Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie leaves Ethiopia as Italy invades
1937 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.
1941 – “Citizen Kane,” directed and starring Orson Welles, premiered in New York.
1944 – The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, made its first flight.
1945 – Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escaped from the Fuehrerbunker as the Red Army advanced on Berlin.
1945 – Admiral Karl Doenitz succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich. This was one day after Hitler committed suicide.
1945 – Adolf Hitler’s death is announced on German radio, As the Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, the German people are informed that “our leader, Adolf Hitler, has fallen for Germany, fighting to his last breath against Bolshevism.”
1948 – The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed.
1952 – US Marines take part in an atomic explosion training in Nevada
1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form the American Motors Corporation
1957 – US gives Poland credit of $95 million
1958 – James Van Allen reported that two radiation belts encircled Earth.
1960 – Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers was taken prisoner.
1961 – Fidel Castro announced there would be no more elections in Cuba.
1964 – 1st BASIC program runs on a computer (Dartmouth)
1967 – Anastasio Somoza Debayle became president of Nicaragua.
1968 – In the second day of battle, U.S. Marines, with the support of naval fire, continue their attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.
1971 – The National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) went into service. It was established by the U.S. Congress to run the nation’s intercity railroads.
1977 – 36 people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations.
1981 – The Japanese government announced that it would limit passenger car exports to the United States over the next three years.
1986 – The Tass News Agency reported the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
1989 – Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins: US Supreme Court rules employers have legal burden to prove non- discriminatory reasons for not hiring or promoting
1992 – On the third day of the Los Angeles riots resulting from the Rodney King beating trial. King appeared in public to appeal for calm, he asked, “Can we all get along?”
1993 – Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa is assassinated along with 17 others by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in Colombo
1999 – On Mount Everest, a group of U.S. mountain climbers discovered the body of George Mallory. Mallory had died in June of 1924 while trying to become the first person to reach the summit of Everest. At the time of the discovery it was unclear whether or not Mallory had actually reached the summit.
2000 – President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares existence of “a state of rebellion”, after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at height of EDSA III rebellion
2000 – The “Barbie for President” doll was released in stores.
2001 – Chandra Levy was last seen in Washington, DC. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park on May 22, 2002. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.
2010 – Car bomb fails to go off in Times Square, New York City
2013 – 15 people are killed by multiple bomb attacks across Iraq
2014 – Hundreds march through Nigerian capital calling for the release of schoolgirls abducted by Islamic militants, Boko Haram, who oppose Western education
2018 – Violent May Day protests in Paris by far-left Black Blocs group result in 200 arrests
2019 – Naruhito officially succeeds his father Akihito as the Emperor of Japan after the latter abdicated due to ill health
2019 – US Attorney General William Barr testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, defending his handling of the Mueller Report
2020 – Canadian PM Justin Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 types of assault-style weapons in response to recent Nova Scotia shooting
2020 – Tweets by Elon Musk saying Tesla’s share price is too high wipe $14 billion off the carmaker’s value
2022 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood” in interview on Italian TV, prompting outrage from Israel
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
