- 1091 Battle at Monte Levunium: Byzantium Emperor Alexius I beats Petshegene force invading from the north
Siege of Orleans
1429 Joan of Arc arrives at the siege of Orleans
Singeing the King of Spain's Beard
1587 English naval officer Francis Drake sails into Cadiz, Spain and sinks the Spanish fleet, thereby "Singeing the King of Spain's Beard" and delaying the Spanish invasion by a year
Siege of Schenkenschans
1636 Prince Frederick Henry occupies Schenkenschans fortress after a nine-month siege during the Dutch Revolt
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
1701 Drenthe, Netherlands, adopts Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is May 12, 1701
- 1706 Emperor Jozef I becomes monarch of Cologne and Bavaria
- 1707 English and Scottish parliaments accept Act of Union; creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain (comes into being 1st May)
- 1715 English Astronomer John Flamsteed observes Uranus for 6th time
- 1751 The New York Gazette and Post Boy carries first public report of a cricket match played in America; New York XI v London XI on the site of what is today the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan, NYC
Watt's Steam Engine Patent
1769 Scottish engineer James Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser enrolled (Patent 913)
- 1781 French fleet occupies Tobago during American War of Independence
- 1781 French fleet stops the Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope
Darwin Sights the Andes
1834 Charles Darwin's expedition sees the top of the Andes Mountains from Patagonia
- 1845 Macon B. Allen & Robert Morris Jr are 1st African Americans to open a law practice in the US
- 1853 Comet C/1853 G1 (Schweizer) approaches within 0.0839 AUs of Earth
- 1854 Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University), in Hinsonville, Pennsylvania, receives its charter from Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, making it the 1st degree-granting Black college in US
- 1857 US Army, Pacific Div HQ permanently forms at Presidio (San Francisco)
- 1861 Maryland's House of Delegates votes against seceding from Union (US Civil War)
- 1862 100,000 federal troops prepare to march into Corinth, Mississippi
- 1863 Battle of Grand Gulf, Mississippi: Union navy ironclad warships attack Confederate fortifications
- 1864 -30] Skirmish at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas
Battle of Gate Pā
1864 Battle of Gate Pā (Pukehinahina): 1,700 British troops suffer their worst defeat of the New Zealand Wars at the hands of 230 entrenched Māori warriors in Tauranga
- 1864 The Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York
Columbia Bank Robbery
1872 Jesse James' gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, killing bank employee Robert A.C. Martin during the crime
The Elektromote
1882 The "Elektromote" - forerunner of the trolleybus - is tested by Werner von Siemens in Berlin
- 1886 1st public Dutch electricity service begins
Stanley Meets Emin Pasha
1888 Old Kavallison, Congo: Henry Morton Stanley meets Emin Pasha
- 1892 Charlie Reilly is baseball's 1st pinch hitter
- 1894 The 500-strong Commonwealth of Christ (Coxey's Army) arrives in Washington, D.C., to protest against unemployment; Coxey arrested for trespassing at Capitol
- 1901 Antisemitic riot in Budapest
- 1902 Congress extends the Chinese Exclusion Act (of 1882) prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers from territories to the mainland, a rule clearly aimed at Chinese in the Philippines
- 1903 Limestone slide at Turtle Mountain drops 30 million cubic metres (82 million tons) on to town of Frank, Alberta, Canada, kills 70-90 residents
- 1905 2" rain falls in 10 mins in Taylor, Texas
Brazza Lands in Libreville
1905 Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza lands in Libreville, Gabon
Roosevelt Visits Amsterdam
1910 Ex-US President Theodore Roosevelt visits Amsterdam
- 1912 108°F (42°C), Tuguegarao, Philippines (Oceania record)
Tod und Teufel
1912 Frank Wedekind's play "Tod und Teufel" premieres in Berlin
Easter Proclamation of 1916
1916 Irish republicans abandon the post office in Dublin and surrender unconditionally, marking the end of the Easter Rising
Speaker Ties Record
1918 Tris Speaker ties career outfield record of 4 unassisted double plays
- 1920 Duke Kahanamoku wins his 2nd gold medal of the day in the winning American 4 x 200m freestyle relay team with Perry McGillivray, Pua Kealoha and Norman Ross in world record 10:04.4
- 1922 1st official International Weightlifting Federation Champ in Tallinn, Estonia
- 1926 France and US reach accord on repayment of WW I
- 1927 Construction of Spirit of St Louis (the monoplane which Charles Lindburgh was to fly across the Atlantic) is completed
- 1930 123 runs are scored in 7 major league games
- 1930 North Sea floodgate at Ijmuiden (biggest in world) officially opens
- 1930 Telephone connection Britain-Australia goes into service
Ferrell No-Hits Browns
1931 Cleveland Indians pitcher Wes Ferrell no-hits St Louis Browns, 9-0 at League Park II, Cleveland
- 1932 1st broadcast of "One Man's Family" on NBC radio, longest-running dramatic serial on US radio (ends 1959)
- 1934 Pittsburgh is last major league baseball city to play a home game on a Sunday, as the Pirates host the Cincinnati Reds
- 1936 1st pro baseball game in Japan is played Nagoya defeats Daitokyo, 8-5
- 1937 Symbolic 'Golden Rivet', completing the Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, is driven (later replaced with a more structurally sound steel version)
- 1939 Whitestone Bridge connecting the New York boroughs of Bronx and Queens opens
- 1940 1st radio broadcast of "Young Dr Malone" on CBS
- 1940 Norwegian King Haakon & government flee to Britain
- 1940 Robert Sherwood's play "There Shall be No Night" premieres in NYC
- 1942 Japanese troop march into Lashio, cutting off Burma Road
- 1942 Jews forced to wear a Jewish Star in Netherlands & Vichy-France
- 1943 German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested by the Gestapo
Present Laughter
1943 Noël Coward's comic play "Present Laughter" premieres in London
- 1943 US 34th Division occupies Hill 609, North Tunisia
- 1944 Raid by Dutch Resistance on the National Printing Office in The Hague to procure 10,000 Dutch identity cards.
Hacksaw Ridge
1945 Conscientious objector Desmond Doss saves 75 wounded soldiers in the Battle of Okinawa at Hacksaw Ridge. Later depicted in the Oscar-winning film "Hacksaw Ridge".
- 1945 First food drop by RAF above Nazi-occupied Holland (Operation Manna)
- 1945 German armies in Italy sign an unconditional surrender to the Western Allies to be carried out on 2 May
- 1945 Japanese army evacuates Rangoon, British Burma
- 1945 US Army liberates 31,601 people from the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in Germany
- 1945 Venice and Mestre captured by the Allies
- 1946 28 former Japanese leaders indicted in Tokyo as war criminals
- 1951 China seizes the assets of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, a joint venture between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government's requisitioning of the tanker Yung Hao
- 1953 6th Cannes Film Festival: "The Wages of Fear" directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
- 1953 Milwaukee Braves' Joe Adcock is 1st to homer into Polo Grounds center field bleachers
- 1953 The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV
- 1955 Giovanni Gronchi elected third President of Italy
- 1956 WLUC TV channel 6 in Marquette, MI (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1956 WSPA TV channel 7 in G'ville-Spartanburg, SC (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 WWBT TV channel 12 in Richmond, VA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1957 1st military nuclear power plant dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
- 1961 ABC's "Wide World of Sports" debuts
- 1962 16th Tony Awards: "A Man For All Seasons" (play) & "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (musical) win
- 1963 KRE-AM in Berkeley CA changes call letters to KPAT
Golf Tournament
1963 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Marilynn Smith beats Mickey Wright by 1 shot in 18-hole playoff
Music History
1965 Canadian folk singer-songwriter Joni Anderson (soon to be known as Joni Mitchell) meets American folk singer and future husband Chuck Mitchell at a gig in Toronto, Ontario
- 1965 Earthquake hits Seattle; 5 die
- 1965 Malta becomes 18th member of Council of Europe
Respect
1967 Aretha Franklin releases her single "Respect" (written by Otis Redding); Billboard Song of the Year, 1967
- 1968 Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado's hippie musical "Hair" opens at Biltmore Theater, NYC; runs for 1750 performances
- 1970 US and South Vietnamese forces launch an incursion into Cambodia, expanding the Vietnam War
- 1971 Boeing receives contract for Mariner 10, Mercury exploration
- 1971 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Event of Interest
1974 US President Richard Nixon said he will release edited tapes made in the White House
- 1975 Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge are the last two United States servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War
- 1975 Ethiopia nationalizes all land
The Fall of Saigon
1975 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war
Baseball Record
1981 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton is 1st lefty to strike out 3,000 batters
- 1981 NFL Draft: South Carolina running back George Rogers first pick by New Orleans Saints
- 1982 Alfredo Magana elected President of El Salvador
Murder of Interest
1982 American mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski murders pharmacist Paul Hoffman by beating him with a tire iron
Event of Interest
1983 Harold Washington sworn in as Chicago's 1st African American mayor
- 1985 17th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-B): Challenger 7 launches
Sports History
1985 New York Yankees fire manager Yogi Berra 16 games into season, despite assurance from owner George Steinbrenner that he would be kept for the whole season. Billy Martin named as replacement.
- 1985 Ranger Larry Parrish is 5th to hit 3 HRs in a game in both leagues
- 1985 Tony Tubbs beats defending champion Greg Page by unanimous decision in 15 rounds at Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo for WBA heavyweight boxing title
- 1986 800,000 books destroyed by fire in Los Angeles Central Library
Baseball Record
1986 Boston Red Sox Roger Clemens strikes out 20 Seattle Mariners
Sports History
1986 NFL Draft: Auburn running back Bo Jackson first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sports History
1987 Chicago Cub Andre Dawson hits for cycle
Sports History
1990 Dan Quisenberry (all-time AL save king, 238) announces his retirement
- 1990 US 66th manned space mission STS 31 (Discovery 10) returns from space
- 1990 Wrecking cranes begin tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate
Don't Rock the Jukebox
1991 "Don't Rock the Jukebox" single released by Alan Jackson (ASCAP Award Country Song of the Year, 1992; Billboard Song of the Year, 1991)
- 1991 Cyclone strikes the Chittagong district in Bangladesh, killing 139,000 people and leaving 10 million homeless
- 1991 Earthquake in Georgia, kills 100
- 1992 American country singer Doug Stone, 35, undergoes quadruple bypass surgery
Rodney King Riots
1992 Jury acquits Los Angeles Police Department officers on charges of excessive force in the beating of Rodney King; the decision sparks massive riots in the city
- 1992 Sheena Easton collapses on stage while performing in "Man of LaMancha"
Music History
1992 Voting ends on choice of Elvis Presley postage stamp [1]
- 1994 Ferry boat smashes into Mombasa Harbor Kenya, kills over 300
- 1994 Israel & PLO sign economic accord
- 1994 Last day of voting in 1st multi-racial elections in South Africa
- 1995 Final TV broadcast of "Empty Nest" on NBC TV
- 1995 KC Royal John Nonely is 70th to HR on his 1st at bat
- 1995 Longest sausage ever, at 28.77 miles, made in Kitchener, Ontario
- 1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Fresno, California on KFRR 104.1 FM
- 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 comes into force; agreement outlaws production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons among its signatories
- 1997 MLB Kansas City Royals Chili Davis is 75th to hit 300 HRs
- 1999 Avala TV Tower near Belgrade is destroyed in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
- 2002 The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years
9/11 Attack on NY's World Trade Towers
2004 Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office
- 2004 Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production
- 2005 New Zealand's first civil union takes place
- 2005 Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation
- 2006 NFL Draft: North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams first pick from Houston Texans
- 2007 2nd Republic protest in support of state secularism held in Istanbul, Turkey
- 2012 International Chemical Weapons Convention deadline for chemical weapon stockpiles comes into effect
- 2013 7 people are killed after a Boeing 747 crashes in Bagram, Afghanistan
- 2015 German Measles is declared eradicated from North and South America - 1st world region to do so
- 2015 Indonesia executes 8 prisoners, including 7 foreigners, for drug offences at Besi Prison on the island of Nusakambangan
- 2016 "H.O.L.Y" single released by Florida Georgia Line (Billboard Song of the Year, 2016)
- 2016 Iranian run-off elections give moderates and reforms a majority in parliament
- 2017 3 tornadoes hit south east of Dallas, Texas, killing 5
Film & TV History
2018 Animated series "The Simpsons" surpasses 635-episode count of "Gunsmoke"'; highest number of episodes of any series on TV
Sports History
2018 Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal equals his Open-era record for most wins at the same event (11 Monte Carlo) with his 11th Barcelona ATP title
- 2018 Sweden's official Twitter account confirms Swedish meatballs actually originated in Turkey
- 2018 UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigns amid immigration scandal involving the Windrush generation
- 2019 Indonesia announces plan to relocate its capital from Jakarta due to the city sinking, according to a government minister
- 2019 Islamic State releases video showing leader Bakr al-Baghdadi for first time in five years
- 2019 Over 300 people declared to have died through overwork in Indonesia's one-day election on April 17th, with over 2,000 fallen sick
- 2019 Over 700 people infected with measles in the US, highest number for 25 years
- 2019 Sports Illustrated features a Muslim model, Halima Aden, in a Burkini for the first time in their swimsuit edition
- 2020 A mile-wide asteroid named 1998 OR2 passes within 3.9 million miles of Earth
- 2020 Fire at an Icheon warehouse, South Korea, kills 38
- 2020 UK official death toll reaches 26,000 deaths from COVID-19 as care home and community deaths included
- 2020 US GDP falls 4.8% for the financial quarter, officially ending the country's growth streak. Worst contraction since 2008.
- 2020 World record for the longest single lightning flash of 477miles (768km) across US states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi according to World Meteorological Organization [1]
- 2021 Brazil's official COVID-19 death toll passes 400,000, with daily fatalities at 3,000, down from 4,000
Event of Interest
2021 US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter at the Carters’ home in Plains, Georgia; Carter (96) did not attend the Biden's inauguration due to health concerns
- 2021 World's longest pedestrian bridge at 516 metres (1,700 feet) opens inside northern Portugal's Arouca Geopark
The Rise and Fall of Boris Becker
2022 London court sentences retired tennis star Boris Becker to 2-1/2 years in prison for hiding assets during bankruptcy proceedings
- 2022 Six-story building collapses in the Chinese city of Changsha, killing 26, with one woman surviving six days in the rubble [1]
- 2022 World's longest glassed-bottomed bridge, the Bach Long (White Dragon), 632m long, opens in Moc Chau Island mountain park and resort, Vietnam [1]
- 2023 72-hour ceasefire in Sudan breaks down between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, as air and artillery strikes on Khartoum resume [1]
Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Concert
2023 Country singer Willie Nelson hosts first of two-night 90th birthday concerts for himself at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California; guest performers include Lyle Lovett; Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, George Strait; Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Norah Jones, Chris Stapleton, Beck, Edie Brickell, Tom Jones, and Ziggy Marley, among others
