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1120 - Richard III of Capua anointed as prince a fortnight before his untimely death

1328 - Philip VI is crowned King of France.

1647 - First recorded execution of a witch in the American colonies.

1703 - Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

1813 - War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.

1849 - The Great Hall of Euston station, London opened.

1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.

1883 - Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.

1895 - Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for sodomy.

1896 - The F4-strength St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri and East Saint Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and incurring $2.9 billion in damages (1997USD).

1901 - In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded.

1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.

1907 - A Bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California.

1919 - The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.

1919 - Charles Strite patents the pop-up toaster.

1923 - The first 24 hours of Le Mans race ends.

1924 - The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded.

1927 - The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make Ford Model As.

1930 - The 1,046 feet (319 meters) tall Chrysler Building in New York (tallest man-made structure at the time) opens to the public.

1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.

1933 - New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.

1933 - The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

1933 - The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.

1935 - New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).

1936 - The RMS ''Queen Mary'' begins her maiden voyage.

1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.

1939 - DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics
27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.

1940 - World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knoechlein, is eventually hanged for war crimes.

1941 - World War II: U.S. President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".

1941 - World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300 men.

1942 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.

1960 - In Turkey, a military coup removed President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.

1963 - Folk music singer Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album, which features "Blowin' in the Wind" and several other of his best-known songs.

1964 - Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies in office.

1965 - Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombardments of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.

1968 - Future U.S. president George W. Bush enlists in the Texas Air National Guard.

1974 - Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.

1977 - An Aeroflot plane crashes, killing 69 people.

1980 - The Gwangju Massacre: airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.

1987 - FC Porto wins the European Cup, defeating Bayern München by 2-1 in Prater Stadion in Wien.

1995 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.

1996 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.

1997 - The F5-strength Jarrell Tornado slams into the small town of Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.

1998 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.

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.

2006 - The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600 people.

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1332 - Ibn Khaldun, Arab historian (d. 1406)

1519 - Girolamo Mei, Italian humanist historian (d. 1594)

1576 - Caspar Schoppe, German scholar (d. 1649)

1601 - Antoine Daniel, Jesuit missionary and one of Canadian Martyrs (d. 1648)

1623 - William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)

1626 - William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)

1651 - Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)

1652 - Liselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orléans (d. 1722)

1738 - Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)

1756 - King Maximilian I of Bavaria (d. 1825)

1794 - "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)

1818 - Amelia Bloomer, suffragette (d. 1894)

1819 - Julia Ward Howe, American composer (d. 1910)

1836 - Jay Gould, American financier (d. 1892)

1837 - Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)

1837 - Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter (d. 1887)

1864 - Ante Trumbić, Croatian politician (d. 1938)

1867 - Arnold Bennett, British novelist (d. 1931)

1871 - Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)

1876 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (d. 1945)

1879 - Hans Lammers, SS officer (d. 1962)

1884 - Max Brod, Austrian author (d. 1968)

1888 - Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)

1894 - Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)

1894 - Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)

1897 - John Cockcroft, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)

1904 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)

1907 - Rachel Carson, American biologist and science writer (d. 1964)

1911 - Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States (d. 1978)

1911 - Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem

1911 - Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)

1912 - John Cheever, American author (d. 1982)

1912 - Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)

1912 - Terry Moore, baseball player (d. 1995)

1913 - Wols, German painter

1915 - Herman Wouk, American writer

1918 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister of Japan

1921 - Caryl Chessman, American robber and rapist (d. 1960)

1922 - Christopher Lee, English actor

1923 - Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

1923 - Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur

1925 - Tony Hillerman, American writer

1930 - John Barth, American novelist

1930 - William S. Sessions, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

1933 - Ted Rogers, Canadian entrepreneur

1934 - Harlan Ellison, American author

1935 - Lee Meriwether, former Miss America and actress

1935 - Ramsey Lewis, American jazz and pop pianist

1936 - Louis Gossett Jr., American actor

1936 - Marcel Masse, French Canadian politician

1937 - Allan Carr, American film producer and writer (d. 1999)

1943 - Cilla Black, English singer turned presenter

1943 - Bruce Weitz, American actor

1944 - Alain Souchon, French singer and songwriter

1945 - Bruce Cockburn, Canadian musician

1946 - Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish musician (d. 2005)

1947 - Branko Oblak, Slovenian football player

1948 - Wubbo de Boer, Dutch civil servant

1951 - Ana Belén, Spanish singer and actress

1955 - Richard Schiff, American actor

1957 - Eric Bischoff, American professional wrestling personality

1957 - Siouxsie Sioux, English musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees )

1958 - Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter

1958 - Linnea Quigley, American actress

1961 - Peri Gilpin, American actress

1964 - Adam Carolla, American comedian and radio/television personality

1967 - Paul Gascoigne, former British footballer

1968 - Jeff Bagwell, baseball player

1968 - Frank Thomas, baseball player

1970 - Tim Farron, British politician

1970 - Joseph Fiennes, English actor

1970 - Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist

1971 - Paul Bettany, English actor

1971 - Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, American singer (d. 2002)

1971 - Monika Schnarre, Canadian supermodel

1974 - Derek Webb, American singer and songwriter (Caedmon's Call)

1974 - Danny Wuerffel, American football player

1975 - Andre 3000, American musician (OutKast)

1975 - Jadakiss, American rapper (The Lox)

1979 - Mile Sterjovski, Australia

1975 - Jamie Oliver, British chef and television personality

1981 - Marcos Miloy, Angolan footballer

1985 - Chien-Ming Chiang, Taiwanese baseball player

1983 - Bobby Convey, American football (soccer) player

2006 - Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, Daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

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366 - Procopius, Roman usurper (executed)

866 - Ordoño I, King of Asturias

927 - Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria

1444 - John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (b. 1404)

1508 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)

1525 - Thomas Muentzer, German rebel leader

1541 - Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (executed) (b. 1473)

1564 - John Calvin, French religious reformer (b. 1509)

1610 - François Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France (b. 1578)

1615 - Marguerite de Valois, "Queen Margot", 1st wife of Henry IV of France (b. 1553)

1661 - Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, Scottish religious dissident (executed) (b. 1607)

1675 - Gaspard Dughet, French painter (b. 1613)

1690 - Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (b. 1626)

1702 - Dominique Bouhours, French critic (b. 1628)

1707 - Marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1641)

1781 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (b. 1716)

1797 - François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary and early socialist (b. 1760)

1831 - Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)

1840 - Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)

1896 - Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)

1910 - Robert Koch, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)

1926 - Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (b. 1904)

1947 - Ed Konetchy, baseball player (b. 1885)

1949 - Robert Ripley, American cartoonist (Ripley's Believe It or Not!) (b. 1890)

1953 - Jesse Burkett, Baseball player (b. 1868)

1960 - James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator (b. 1877)

1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician (b. 1889)

1967 - Ernst Niekisch, German politician (b. 1889)

1969 - Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (b. 1926)

1986 - Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher and comparative religion scholar (b. 1921)

1987 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)

1989 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)

1991 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (b. 1904)

1992 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (b. 1890)

1993 - Mary Philbin, American actress (b. 1903)

1993 - Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)

2000 - Crawford Murray MacLehose of Beoch, British Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)

2000 - Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)

2001 - Ramon Bieri, American actor (b. 1929)

2003 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)

2006 - Craig Heyward, American football running back (b. 1966)

2006 - Paul Gleason, American actor (b. 1939)

2006 - Alex Toth, American cartoonist (b. 1928)

2006 - Rob Borsellino, American columnist (b. 1949)

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Lag Ba'omer in Judaism (2005)

Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:

Venerable Bede

Saint Julius the Veteran

Pope John I

Hildebert

Bruno, Bishop of Würzburg

Eutropius

Mother's Day in Bolivia (Día de la Madre)

Children's Day in Nigeria