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• 1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury - Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
• 1493 - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Demarcation Line .
• 1494 - Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus ( 1451 1— May 20, 1506) was an explorer and trader who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas in 1492 under the flag of Castilian Spain. He believed that the earth was a relatively small sphere, and argued that a ship cou lands in JamaicaThis article is about the country. For others uses, see Jamaica (disambiguation). Jamaica is a country in the Caribbean Sea, located south of Cuba and to the west of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated. Jamaica ( In Detail).
• 1626Events September 30 Nurhaci , chieftain of the Jurchens and founder of the Qing Dynasty dies and is succeeded by his son Hong Taiji. Spanish establish a trading colony on Taiwan. Peter Minuit, director of the New Netherland colony, begins a policy of "pur - DutchDutch redirects here. For other uses, see Dutch (disambiguation). The Netherlands ( Dutch: Nederland is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a constitutional monarchy. It is located in northwestern Europe and borders the North Sea, Belgium explorer Peter MinuitPeter Minuit ( 1580 1638), born in Wesel, Duchy of Cleves (present-day Germany), was the first general director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. He is most famous for the purchase of the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans (Algonkins), on arrives in New NetherlandNew Netherland ( Dutch Nieuw-Nederland Latin: Nova Belgica was the territory claimed by the Netherlands on the eastern coast of North America in the 17th century. New Netherland was part of the Dutch colonization of the Americas. The coast was previously (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
• 1675Events January 5 The Battle of Turckeim August 10 Building of the Royal Greenwich Observatory began November 11 Guru Gobind Singh becomes the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs. Cassini discovers Saturn's Cassini Division Battle of Fehrbellin Births March 31 Pope Be - King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Greenwich Observatory .
• 1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
• 1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
• 1855 - American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville - The battle ends with a Union retreat.
• 1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, begins its first season.
• 1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, killing 8 and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
• 1904 - Construction begins on the Panama Canal.
• 1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
• 1912 - Italy occupies the island of Rhodes.
• 1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which had transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
• 1924 - The 1924 Summer Olympics open in Paris, France.
• 1930 - British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison.
• 1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins to serve an eleven year sentence for tax evasion.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea - The battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from American and Japanese aircraft carriers.
• 1945 - World War II: Liberation of the concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg by the British Army.
• 1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
• 1946 - In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people were killed in the riot.
• 1948 - Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.
• 1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea
• 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
• 1961 - American civil rights movement: The " Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
• 1964 - The soap opera Another World debuts on NBC in the United States.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings - The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, 9 are wounded.
• 1974 - An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000 metre peak.
• 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1989 - Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and was acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, were later overturned on appeal.
• 1990 - Latvia proclaims independence.
• 1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
• 1996 - José María Aznar is appointed Prime Minister of Spain, thus ending 13 years of Socialist rule.
• 1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
• 1999 - Several tornadoes hit the Midwestern part of the United States during the night killing at least 45 people.
• 1999 - In California, Manuel Babbitt is executed for the 1980 murder of Leah Schendel . While on death row Babbitt was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he received in the Vietnam War.
• 2002 - An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.
• 2003 - The Outbreak of 2003 begins. Ninety-four tornadoes begin the week-long outbreak.