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1494 - Christopher Columbus first spots Jamaica.

1791 - The May Constitution of Poland (first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Polish Diet.

1808 - Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.

1808 - Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are fired upon near Príncipe Pío hill.

1810 - Lord Byron swims the Hellespont.

1849 - The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German revolutions of 1848.

1860 - Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.

1867 - The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.

1901 - Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, FL.

1916 - Easter Rising leaders are executed in Dublin.

1923 - Lieutenants John McCready & Oakley Kelly land their Fokker T-2 aircraft in San Diego, California becoming the first people to cross the United States non-stop in a fixed-wing aircraft. The pair had taken off the previous day from Long Island, New York. Their journey lasted 26 hours and 50 minutes.

1928 - Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.

1933 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.

1937 - Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

1939 - The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

1945 - World War II: Sinking of the floating-jails Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in the Lübeck Bay.

1946 - World War II: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.

1951 - London's Royal Festival Hall opens.

1951 - The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

1952 - U.S. Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.

1956 - The judo World Championships are first held.

1957 - Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.

1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.

1960 - The Off-Broadway musical comedy, The Fantasticks, opens in New York City's Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.

1960 - The Anne Frank House opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

1973 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.

1991 - The Declaration of Windhoek is signed.

1997 - In Dublin, Ireland, Katrina and the Waves win the forty-second Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Love Shine A Light".

1999 - Oklahoma City is slammed by an F5 tornado killing 42 people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from the Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak.

1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70.

2000 - The sport of Geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.

2003 - New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.

2006 - Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors.

2006 - Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.

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612 - Constantine III, Byzantine Emperor (d. 641)

1415 - Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (d. 1495)

1428 - Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal and statesman (d. 1495)

1446 - Margaret of York, wife of Charles I, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1503)

1469 - Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author (d. 1527)

1662 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect (d. 1736)

1695 - Henri Pitot, Italian-born French engineer (d. 1771)

1713 - Alexis Clairault, French mathematician (d. 1765)

1761 - August von Kotzebue, German dramatist (d. 1819)

1826 - Charles, Crown Prince of Sweden-Norway (d. 1872)

1835 - Alfred Austin, English poet (d. 1913)

1844 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, English theatrical impresario (d. 1901)

1849 - Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)

1857 - George Gore, baseball player (d. 1933)

1859 - Andy Adams, American author (d. 1935)

1860 - John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist (d. 1936)

1860 - Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician (d. 1940)

1861 - Emmett Dalton, American outlaw (d. 1937)

1867 - J.T. Hearne, English cricketer (d. 1944)

1873 - Pavlo Skoropadsky, Ukrainian general (d. 1945)

1874 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (d. 1934)

1874 - V. Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer (d. 1954)

1877 - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (d. 1925)

1886 - Marcel Dupré, French composer (d. 1971)

1888 - Beulah Bondi, American actress (d. 1981)

1891 - Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet (d. 1969)

1892 - George Paget Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)

1893 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (d. 1975)

1895 - Cornelius Van Til, philosopher and Christian apologist (d. 1987)

1898 - Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)

1902 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)

1903 - Bing Crosby, American singer (d. 1977)

1905 - Sebastian Shaw, English actor (d. 1994)

1906 - Anna E. Roosevelt, American radio personality (d. 1975)

1906 - Mary Astor, American actress (d. 1987)

1910 - Norman Corwin, American radio pioneer

1912 - Virgil Fox, American organist (d. 1980)

1913 - William Inge, American playwright (d. 1973)

1915 - Stu Hart, Canadian professional wrestler and trainer (d. 2003)

1916 - Léopold Simoneau, French Canadian tenor (d. 2006)

1919 - Betty Comden, American lyricist

1919 - John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)

1919 - Pete Seeger, American folk singer

1921 - Joe Ames, American singer

1921 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)

1923 - Ralph Hall, American politician

1928 - Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)

1932 - Robert Osborne, American film historian

1933 - James Brown, American singer

1933 - Steven Weinberg, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

1935 - Ron Popeil, American inventor

1937 - Frankie Valli, American singer (The Four Seasons)

1938 - Chris Cannizzaro, Baseball player

1940 - Clemens Westerhof, Dutch football manager

1941 - Edward "Monk" Malloy, Former University of Notre Dame President

1942 - Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast

1945 - Davey Lopes, baseball player and coach

1946 - Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player

1947 - Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)

1950 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (d. 1991)

1950 - Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer

1951 - Christopher Cross, American musician

1951 - Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian writer

1952 - Allan Wells, British athlete

1955 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer (d. 2004)

1959 - David Ball, British musician (Soft Cell)

1959 - Uma Bharati, Indian politician

1959 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author

1960 - Amy Steel, American actress

1961 - Joe Murray, Cartoonist

1962 - Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder

1963 - Jeff Hornacek, Basketball player

1965 - Rob Brydon, Welsh comedian

1966 - Darren Morgan, Welsh snooker player

1971 - Josey Scott, lead singer of Saliva

1972 - Celeste, American adult actress

1974 - Dulé Hill, American actor

1975 - Maksim Mrvica, Croatian pianist

1978 - Paul Banks, American vocalist (Interpol)

1983 - Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer

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1152 - Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England (b. 1105)

1160 - Peter Lombard, Italian scholar and bishop (b. c.1100)

1270 - King Béla IV of Hungary (b. 1206)

1294 - John I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1252/1253)

1481 - Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1432)

1598 - Anna Guarini, Italian singer (b. 1563)

1606 - Henry Garnet, English Jesuit (executed) (b. 1555)

1622 - Pedro Páez, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1564)

1679 - James Sharp, English archbishop (assassinated) (b. 1613)

1693 - Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier (b. 1607)

1704 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (b. 1644)

1724 - John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard (b. 1662)

1750 - John Willison, Scottish minister and writer (b. 1680)

1752 - Samuel Ogle, British provincial Governor of Maryland (b. c.1692)

1758 - Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)

1763 - George Psalmanazar, British imposter (b. 1679)

1764 - Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (b. 1712)

1779 - John Winthrop, American astronomer (b. 1714)

1793 - Martin Gerbert, German theologian and historian (b. 1720)

1839 - Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (b. 1771)

1856 - Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b. 1803)

1942 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)

1958 - Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)

1987 - Dalida, French singer (b. 1933)

1988 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)

1988 - Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) (b. 1907)

1989 - Christine Jorgenson, American transexual (b. 1926)

1989 - Edward Ochab, Polish Communist politician (b. 1906)

1988- Chris Johnson, Jew that moved to America

1991 - Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born writer (b. 1933)

1994 - Ezra Taft Benson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)

1996 - Jack Weston, American movie and television actor (b.1924)

1996 - Alex Kellner, baseball player (b. 1924)

2002 - Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, British politician (b. 1910)

2003 - Suzy Parker, American actress (b. 1932)

2004 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (b. 1932)

2004 - Darrell Johnson, baseball player (b. 1928)

2006 - Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (b. 1949)

2006 - Earl Woods, father of golfer Tiger Woods (b. 1932)

2006 - Karel Appel, Dutch painter (b. 1921

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World Press Freedom Day.

Constitution Day in Poland and Japan.

Discoflux (Discordianism).

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Liturgical Feast days
Roman Catholicism

Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, aka the Invention of the True Cross.
Saint Apostle Philip
Saint Apostle James the Lesser
Saint Alexander I
Saint Juvenal of Narni (d. 369)
Saint Ansfrid (c. 1008)
Saints Eventius and Alexander, Saint Theodulus (martyrs of 119)
Saint Emily Bicchiere (1238 - 1314
Antonia and Alexander (martyrs of 313)
Black Madonna of Częstochowa Queen and Protector of Poland (since April 1, 1656)