480: Julius Nepos, last legitimate Western Roman Emperor, dies
1204: Election of Baldwin I as Emperor of Rumania
1247: Death of Richard de Bures, 17th Master of the Templars
1271: Prince Edward and the English arrive at Acre (8th Crusade)
1386: Treaty of Windsor
1432: Charges of Witchcraft dismissed against Margery Jourdemain, John Virley, and John Ashwell, in England
1476: Charles, Duke of Burgundy, reviews his troops near Lausanne, Switz.
1492: Death of Lorenzo de Medici "The Magnificent"
1502: Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on his fourth and final voyage to the New World.
1607: 1st Episcopal celebration of the Eucharist in America, Jamestown
1641: Execution of the Earl of Strafford
1671: Thomas Blood, the Irish adventurer better known as Captain Blood, stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.
1740: Giovanni Paisiello was born in Taranto. In his lifetime his operas, more than a hundred of them, were acclaimed the most. But Paisiello also composed a lot of symphonies, quartets and some keyboard concertos. born
1754: The first American newspaper cartoon was published. The illustration in Benjamin Franklin's "Pennsylvania Gazette" showed a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join or die."
1785: British inventor Joseph Bramah patented the beer-pump handle.
1793: European explorer Alexander Mackenzie began a journey from Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean via the Bella Coola River, the first to use a route north of Mexico.
1800: Abolitionist John Brown in Torrington, Connecticut. Brown was convicted by the Commonwealth of Virginia of treason, murder and inciting slaves to rebellion; he was hanged on December 2, 1859. born
1825: The first gas-lit theater in America opened. It was the Chatham Theatre in New York City.
1868: A little town in Northwestern Nevada was named Reno after General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer of the Civil War. The town was first settled by the Washoe Indians who used the area for festivals and ceremonies.
1873: Howard Carter, the Egyptologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen born
1882: Henry J. Kaiser, built Liberty Ships, Jeeps born
1907: Igor Stravinsky's youthful Symphony in E-flat was performed privately. The concert was arranged by Stravinsky's teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. No composer ever tended his own P-R as much as Stravinsky and he did a good job of downplaying anyone else's influence on his music.
1913: The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified.
1914: Country singer Hank Snow born
1918: CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace born
1926: Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to make an airplane flight over the North Pole.
1927: Canberra replaced Melbourne as the capital of Australia.
1930: A starting gate was used for the first time in a Triple Crown race. The gate was rolled into place at the Preakness at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Gallant Fox won the race.
1933: Singer Lloyd Price born
1934: Actor-writer Alan Bennett born
1936: Actor Albert Finney born
1936: Actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson born
1936: The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale in New York City.
1936: Italy annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome.
1937: Musician Sonny Curtis (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) born
1939: Musician Nokie Edwards (The Ventures) born
1940: Producer-director James L. Brooks ("As Good As It Gets") born
1940: Vivien Leigh made her American stage debut, starring with Laurence Olivier in "Romeo and Juliet.""
1941: Musician Pete Birrell (Freddie and the Dreamers) born
1942: Singer Tommy Roe born
1944: Singer-musician Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco) born
1944: Jimmie Davis, who wrote the song "You Are My Sunshine," became the Governor of Louisiana.
1945: Musician-producer Steve Katz (Blood, Sweat and Tears) born
1945: US officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1946: Actress Candice Bergen born
1946: Singer Clint Holmes born
1947: Actor Anthony Higgins born
1949: Singer-songwriter Billy Joel born
1949: Prince Louis II of Monaco died shortly after delegating his powers to Prince Rainier, who began his reign on April 11, 1950.
1950: Rock singer-musician Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick) born
1951: Actress Alley Mills ("The Wonder Years") born
1960: Baseball player Tony Gwynne born
1960: The United States became the first country to use the birth control pill legally.
1961: In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast wasteland."
1962: Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) born
1974: The House Judiciary Committee opened its hearing on the possible impeachment of President Nixon
1975: Singer Tamia born
1976: Ulrike Meinhof, a leader of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, hanged herself in prison.
1977: Rock musician Dan Regan (Reel Big Fish) born
1978: The bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome.
1979: Eighteen people were killed when troops opened fire on terrorist occupying San Salvador cathedral in El Salvador.
1980: Actress Rosario Dawson born
1980: A Liberian freighter rammed a bridge in Florida's Tampa Bay, collapsing part of the span and dropping 35 people to their deaths. A new $240 million Sunshine Skybridge opened seven years later, on April 30, 1987.
1980: Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury met for the first time in Ghana.
1983: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called a general election for June 9, eleven months earlier than she was required to, and the result was a larger majority in Parliament for the Conservatives.
1984: In a nationally broadcast address, President Reagan appealed to the public and Congress to support his policies in Central America.
1985: Capping a 10-day European tour with a speech before Portugal's assembly in Lisbon, President Reagan lashed out at the leaders of the Soviet Union and Nicaragua.
1986: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, said he'd been told by Soviet officials that they were working to encase the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor in concrete.
1987: All 183 people aboard a Polish jetliner were killed when the plane, bound for New York, crashed and burned in Warsaw after the pilot made an emergency return.
1988: Education Secretary William J. Bennett announced he would leave his position in mid-September.
1989: President Bush complained that Panama's elections were marred by "massive irregularities," and he called for worldwide pressure on General Manuel Antonio Noriega to step down as military leader.
1990: President Bush and congressional leaders announced plans for emergency budget talks, with tax increases and spending cuts on the negotiating table.
1990: The Soviet Union held its Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square, celebrating the defeat of the Nazis during World War II.
1991: President Bush met at the White House with U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who relayed Iraq's rejection of a U.S.-backed proposal for a U.N. civilian force in northern Iraq.
1991: William Kennedy Smith was charged with rape, nearly six weeks after Patricia Bowman accused him of attacking her at the Kennedy family estate in West Palm Beach, Florida (he was acquitted at trial).
1992: President Bush, back in Washington after a visit to riot-torn Los Angeles, promised in a radio speech that he would work with the Democrat-controlled Congress on proposals to help American cities.
1992: A methane gas explosion roared through the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, killing 26 miners. The bodies of 11 men were recovered. Further recovery was called off due to the danger of a cave-in.
1993: The White House said President Clinton had directed Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher to contact US allies to discuss how they could ensure Serbia's promise to cut supplies to the Bosnian Serbs.
1994: South Africa's newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president. Madnela promised a South Africa for "all its people, black and white."
1995: President Clinton arrived in Moscow for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
1995: The city of Kinshasa, Zaire, was placed under quarantine after an outbreak of the Ebola virus.
1995: The United States returned 13 Cuban boat people to their homeland, the first refugees to be sent back under a new policy bitterly protested by Cuban-Americans.
1996: The National Party, which inflicted apartheid on South Africa then helped break the hated system, decided to quit Nelson Mandela's two-year-old government of national unity, effective June 30.
1996: In dramatic video testimony to a hushed courtroom in Little Rock, Arkansas, President Clinton insisted he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan at the heart of the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
1997: During a visit to a rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain.
1998: Indonesian President Suharto left his troubled country for a summit in Egypt with a warning his army would quell violence over his 32-year rule and the worsening economy.
1999: A chartered bus carrying members of a casino club on a Mother's Day gambling excursion flipped off a highway in New Orleans, killing 22 people.
1999: Furious Chinese demonstrators hurled rocks and debris into the U.S. Embassy in a second day of protests against NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
2000: Failed Republican presidential candidate John McCain decided to endorse former rival George W. Bush at their Tuesday summit, despite misgivings about the Texan's agenda.
2000: Former Governor Edwin Edwards, who was known for nod-and-a-wink politics but always evaded prosecutors, was convicted for the first time, on charges he extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen applying for riverboat casino licenses. The former four-term Democratic governor was found guilty along with his son Stephen of fraud and racketeering. (Edwards was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined a quarter of a million dollars.)
2000: A draft statement prepared by a U.N. conference on nuclear disarmament singled out Israel for being the only country in the Middle East that hasn't signed onto the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
