• 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
• 1230 - William de Braose, 10th Baron Abergavenny is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great.
• 1335 - Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.
• 1568 - Mary I of Scotland escapes from Loch Leven Castle, where she'd been imprisoned by Sir William Douglas.
• 1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
• 1672 - John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
• 1808 - Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
• 1816 - Marriage of Léopold of Saxe-Coburg and Charlotte Augusta.
• 1829 - After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of the HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering for the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.
• 1866 - Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
• 1876 - The April Uprising breaks out in Bulgaria.
• 1885 - Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
• 1885 - Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
• 1885 - The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium.
• 1889 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, which gives Italy control over Eritrea.
• 1900 - Oscar II, King of Sweden, declares support for the United Kingdom at the time of the Second Boer War.
• 1918 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
• 1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• 1932 - Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
• 1933 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
• 1945 - World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building. German forces surrender in Italy. German forces surrender to the New Zealand Army in Trieste.
• 1946 - The "Battle of Alcatraz" takes place.
• 1952 - The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg.
• 1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
• 1963 - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven, a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the USS Card while docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.
• 1964 - First ascent of Shishapangma the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.
• 1969 - The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
• 1982 - Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
• 1986 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, opens.
• 1994 - in Poland bus disaster 32 people died.
• 1995 - During the Croatian War of Independence, Serb forces fire cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing 7 and wounding over 175 civilians.
• 1998 - The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.
• 1999 - Panamanian election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
• 2000 - President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
• 2000 - Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveils the Man With Two Hats monument in Apeldoorn and the other in Ottawa on May 11, 2000. Symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout World War II.
• 2002 - Marad massacre of eight Hindus near Palakkad in Kerala.
• 2004 - Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.
• 2008 - Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 22,000 people.

Births