Events

• 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
• 1567 – Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles.
• 1607 – One hundred English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America.
• 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.
• 1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.
• 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world’s first university museum.
• 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
• 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).
• 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.
• 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
• 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
• 1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies.
• 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
• 1940 – Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico.
• 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
• 1948 – Arab-Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.
• 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.
• 1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.
  • Battle of Pichincha Day (Ecuador).
• 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.
• 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
• 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
• 1992 – The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town.
• 1993 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.
  • Independence Day.
• 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
• 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
• 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
• Lubiri Memorial Day (Buganda).

People (Births)

• 15 BC – Germanicus, Roman general (d. 19).
• 1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Polish-German physicist and engineer, developed the Fahrenheit scale (d. 1736).
• 1887 – Mick Mannock, Irish soldier and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1918).
• 1916 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (d. 2002).
• 1924 – Philip Pearlstein, American soldier and painter.
• 1937 – Maryvonne Dupureur, French runner and educator (d. 2008).
• 1945 – Richard Ottaway, English lieutenant and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
• 1946 – Irena Szewińska, Russian-Polish sprinter.
• 1964 – Liz McColgan, Scottish educator and runner.
• 1964 – Adrian Moorhouse, English swimmer.
• 1974 – Sébastien Foucan, French runner and actor.
• 1988 – Monica Lin Brown, American sergeant.
• 1994 – Daiya Seto, Japanese swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1136 – Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar (b. c. 1070).
• 1456 – Ambroise de Loré, French commander (b. 1396).
• 1806 – John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, Scottish field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Argyllshire (b. 1723).
• 1861 – Elmer E. Ellsworth, American colonel (b. 1837).
• 1915 – John Condon, Irish-English soldier (b. 1896).
• 1941 – Lancelot Holland, English admiral (b. 1887).
• 1945 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German field marshal and pilot (b. 1892).
• 1950 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, English field marshal and politician, 43rd Governor-General of India (b. 1883).
• 1959 – John Foster Dulles, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 52nd United States Secretary of State (b. 1888).
• 2012 – Klaas Carel Faber, Dutch-German SS officer (b. 1922).
• 2014 – John Vasconcellos, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (b. 1932).