AD 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall. The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometers.
1381 – Beginning of the Peasants’ Revolt in England.
1416 – The Council of Constance, called by Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy.
1431 – Hundred Years’ War: In Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. The Roman Catholic Church remembers this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
1434 – Hussite Wars: Battle of Lipany: Effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great.
1510 – During the reign of the Zhengde Emperor, Ming dynasty rebel leader Zhu Zhifan is defeated by commander Qiu Yue, ending the Prince of Anhua rebellion.
1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.
1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.
1574 – Henry III becomes King of France.
1588 – The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.
1631 – Publication of Gazette de France, the first French newspaper.
1635 – Thirty Years’ War: The Peace of Prague is signed.
1642 – From this date all honors granted by Charles I of England are retroactively annulled by Parliament.
1806 – Future U.S. President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel.
1814 – The First Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1792 extent, and restoring the House of Bourbon to power.
1815 – The East Indiaman Arniston is wrecked during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, in present-day South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives.
1834 – Minister of Justice Joaquim António de Aguiar issues a law seizing “all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices and any other houses” from the Catholic religious orders in Portugal, earning him the nickname of “The Friar-Killer”.
1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with Prince Albert.
1845 – The Fatel Razack coming from India, lands in the Gulf of Paria in Trinidad and Tobago carrying the first Indians to the country.
1854 – The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern “Memorial Day”) is observed in the United States for the first time after a proclamation by John A. Logan, head of the Grand Army of the Republic (a veterans group).
1876 – Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murad V.
1883 – In New York City, a stampede on the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge killed twelve people.
1899 – Pearl Hart, a female outlaw of the Old West, robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.
1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.
1913 – The Treaty of London is signed, ending the First Balkan War; Albania becomes an independent nation.
1914 – The new, and then the largest, Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City.
1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..
1925 – May Thirtieth Movement: Shanghai Municipal Police Force shoot and kill 13 protesting workers.
1937 – Memorial Day massacre: Chicago police shoot and kill ten labor demonstrators.
1941 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb the Athenian Acropolis and tear down the German flag.
1942 – World War II: One thousand British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.
1943 – The Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Zigeunerfamilienlager (Romani family camp) at Auschwitz concentration camp.
1948 – A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
1958 – Memorial Day: The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
1959 – The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham.
1961 – The long-time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
1963 – A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination during the Buddhist crisis is held outside South Vietnam’s National Assembly, the first open demonstration during the eight-year rule of Ngo Dinh Diem.
1966 – Former Congolese Prime Minister, Évariste Kimba, and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu.
1967 – The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war.
1968 – Charles de Gaulle reappears publicly after his flight to Baden-Baden, Germany, and dissolves the French National Assembly by a radio appeal. Immediately after, less than one million of his supporters march on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is the turning point of May 1968 events in France.
1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.
1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout the United Kingdom.
1972 – In Ben Gurion Airport (at the time: Lod Airport), Israel, members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others.
1974 – The Airbus A300 passenger aircraft first enters service.
1979 – Downeast Flight 46 crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17.
1975 – European Space Agency is established.
1982 – Cold War: Spain joins NATO.
1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 10-metre high “Goddess of Democracy” statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
1990 – Croatian Parliament is constituted after the first free, multi-party elections, today celebrated as the National Day of Croatia.
1998 – The 6.5 Mw Afghanistan earthquake shook the Takhar Province of northern Afghanistan with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), killing around 4,000–4,500.
1998 – Nuclear Testing: Pakistan conducts an underground test in the Kharan Desert. It is reported to be a plutonium device with yield of 20kt TNT equivalent.
2003 – Depayin massacre: At least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy are killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi flees the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards.
2008 – Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted.
2008 – TACA Flight 390 overshoots the runway at Toncontín International Airport, killing five people.
2012 – Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
2013 – Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage.
2020 – The Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches from the Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first crewed rocket to launch from the United States since 2011.
Births on May 30
1010 – Ren Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1063)
1201 – Theobald IV, count of Champagne (d. 1253)
1423 – Georg von Peuerbach, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1461)
1464 – Barbara of Brandenburg, Bohemian queen (d. 1515)
1580 – Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza (d. 1634)
1599 – Samuel Bochart, French Protestant biblical scholar (d. 1667)
1623 – John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (d. 1686)
1686 – Antonina Houbraken, Dutch illustrator (d. 1736)
1718 – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1793)
1719 – Roger Newdigate, English politician (d. 1806)
1757 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1844)
1768 – Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty, French general (d. 1815)
1797 – Georg Amadeus Carl Friedrich Naumann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1873)
1800 – Henri-Marie-Gaston Boisnormand de Bonnechose, French cardinal (d. 1883)
1814 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian philosopher and theorist (d. 1876)
1814 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian-French mathematician and academic (d. 1894)
1819 – William McMurdo, English general (d. 1894)
1820 – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Quebec (d. 1890)
1835 – Alfred Austin, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1913)
1844 – Félix Arnaudin, French poet and photographer (d. 1921)
1845 – Amadeo I, Spanish king (d. 1890)
1846 – Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (d. 1920)
1862 – Mirza Alakbar Sabir, Azerbaijani philosopher and poet (d. 1911)
1869 – Grace Andrews, American mathematician (d. 1951)
1874 – Ernest Duchesne, French physician (d. 1912)
1875 – Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher and academic (d. 1944)
1879 – Colin Blythe, English cricketer and soldier (d. 1917)
1879 – Konstantin Ramul, Estonian psychologist and academic (d. 1975)
1881 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (d. 1968)
1882 – Wyndham Halswelle, English runner and soldier (d. 1915)
1883 – Sandy Pearce, Australian rugby league player (d. 1930)
1884 – Siegmund Glücksmann, German soldier and politician (d. 1942)
1885 – Villem Grünthal-Ridala, Estonian poet and linguist (d. 1942)
1886 – Laurent Barré, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1964)
1886 – Randolph Bourne, American theorist and author (d. 1918)
1887 – Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor and illustrator (d. 1964)
1887 – Emil Reesen, Danish pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1964)
1890 – Roger Salengro, French soldier and politician, French Minister of the Interior (d. 1936)
1892 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (d. 1972)
1894 – Hubertus van Mook, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1965)
1895 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (d. 1956)
1896 – Howard Hawks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1977)
1897 – Frank Wise, Australian politician, 16th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1986)
1898 – John Gilroy, English artist and illustrator (d. 1985)
1899 – Irving Thalberg, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1936)
1901 – Alfred Karindi, Estonian pianist and composer (d. 1969)
1901 – Cornelia Otis Skinner, American actress and author (d. 1979)
1902 – Stepin Fetchit, American actor and dancer (d. 1985)
1903 – Countee Cullen, American poet and author (d. 1946)
1906 – Bruno Gröning, German mystic and author (d. 1959)
1907 – Germaine Tillion, French anthropologist and academic (d. 2008)
1908 – Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1908 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
1909 – Jacques Canetti, French music executive and talent agent (d. 1997)
1909 – Freddie Frith, English motorcycle road racer (d. 1988)
1909 – Benny Goodman, American clarinet player, songwriter, and bandleader (d. 1986)
1910 – Harry Bernstein, English-American journalist and author (d. 2011)
1912 – Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1912 – Erich Bagge, German physicist and academic (d. 1996)
1912 – Hugh Griffith, Welsh actor (d. 1980)
1912 – Millicent Selsam, American author and academic (d. 1996)
1912 – Joseph Stein, American playwright and author (d. 2010)
1914 – Akinoumi Setsuo, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 37th Yokozuna (d. 1979)
1915 – Len Carney, English footballer and soldier (d. 1996)
1916 – Justin Catayée, French soldier and politician (d. 1962)
1916 – Mort Meskin, American illustrator (d. 1995)
1918 – Pita Amor, Mexican poet and author (d. 2000)
1918 – Bob Evans, American businessman, founded Bob Evans Restaurants (d. 2007)
1919 – René Barrientos, Bolivian general and politician, 55th President of Bolivia (d. 1969)
1920 – Franklin J. Schaffner, Japanese-American director and producer (d. 1989)
1922 – Hal Clement, American author and educator (d. 2003)
1924 – Anthony Dryden Marshall, American CIA officer and diplomat (d. 2014)
1925 – John Henry Marks, English physician and author
1926 – Johnny Gimble, American country/western swing musician (Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys) (d. 2015)
1927 – Joan Birman, American mathematician
1927 – Clint Walker, American actor and singer (d. 2018)
1927 – Billy Wilson, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1993)
1928 – Pro Hart, Australian painter (d. 2006)
1928 – Agnès Varda, Belgian-French director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
1929 – Georges Gilson, French archbishop
1930 – Mark Birley, English businessman, founded Annabel’s (d. 2007)
1930 – Robert Ryman, American painter (d. 2019)
1931 – Larry Silverstein, American real estate magnate
1932 – Ray Cooney, English actor and playwright
1932 – Pauline Oliveros, American accordion player and composer (d. 2016)
1932 – Ivor Richard, Baron Richard, Welsh politician and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2018)
1934 – Alexei Leonov, Russian general, pilot, and cosmonaut (d. 2019)
1934 – Alketas Panagoulias, Greek footballer and manager (d. 2012)
1935 – Ruta Lee, Canadian-American actress and dancer
1935 – Guy Tardif, Canadian academic and politician (d. 2005)
1936 – Keir Dullea, American actor
1937 – Christopher Haskins, Anglo-Irish businessman, life peer, and British politician
1937 – Rick Mather, American-English architect (d. 2013)
1938 – Billie Letts, American author and educator (d. 2014)
1939 – Michael J. Pollard, American actor (d. 2019)
1939 – Dieter Quester, Austrian race car driver
1939 – Tim Waterstone, Scottish businessman, founded Waterstones
1940 – Jagmohan Dalmiya, Indian cricket administrator (d. 2015)
1940 – Gilles Villemure, Canadian-American ice hockey player
1942 – John Gladwin, English bishop
1942 – Carole Stone, English journalist and author
1943 – Anders Michanek, Swedish motorcycle racer
1943 – Gale Sayers, American football player and philanthropist
1944 – Lenny Davidson, English guitarist and songwriter (The Dave Clark Five)
1944 – Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)
1944 – Stav Prodromou, Greek-American engineer and businessman
1945 – Gladys Horton, American singer (d. 2011)
1946 – Allan Chapman, English historian and author
1946 – Dragan Džajić, Serbian and Yugoslav footballer
1947 – Jocelyne Bourassa, Canadian golfer
1948 – Johan De Muynck, Belgian former professional road racing cyclist
1948 – Michael Piller, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2005)
1948 – David Thorpe, Australian rules footballer
1949 – P.J. Carlesimo, American basketball player and coach
1949 – Paul Coleridge, English lawyer and judge
1949 – Bob Willis, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2019)
1950 – Bertrand Delanoë, French politician, 14th Mayor of Paris
1950 – Paresh Rawal, Indian actor, producer, and politician
1950 – Joshua Rozenberg, English lawyer, journalist, and author
2015 – Beau Biden, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 44th Attorney General of Delaware (b. 1969)
2015 – Joël Champetier, Canadian author and screenwriter (b. 1957)
2015 – L. Tom Perry, American religious leader and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1922)
2016 – Tom Lysiak, Polish-Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1953)
2016 – Rick MacLeish, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1950)
2019 – Jason Marcano, Trinidadian footballer (b. 1983)
Holidays and observances on May 30
Anguilla Day, commemorates the beginning of the Anguillian Revolution in 1967. (Anguilla)
Canary Islands Day (Spain)
Christian feast day:
Earliest day on which Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary can fall, while July 3 is the latest; celebrated 20 days after Pentecost. (Catholic Church)
363 – The Roman emperor Julian defeats the Sasanian army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the Sasanian capital, but is unable to take the city.
1108 – Battle of Uclés: Almoravid troops under the command of Tamim ibn Yusuf defeat a Castile and León alliance under the command of Prince Sancho Alfónsez.
1167 – Battle of Monte Porzio: A Roman army supporting Pope Alexander III is defeated by Christian of Buch and Rainald of Dassel.
1176 – Battle of Legnano: The Lombard League defeats Emperor Frederick I.
1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France.
1416 – Battle of Gallipoli: The Venetians under Pietro Loredan defeat a much larger Ottoman fleet off Gallipoli.
1453 – Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.
1658 – Battle of Samugarh: decisive battle in the struggle for the throne during the Mughal war of succession (1658–1659).
1660 – English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1733 – The right of settlers in New France to enslave natives is upheld at Quebec City.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Waxhaws, the British continue attacking after the Continentals lay down their arms, killing 113 and critically wounding all but 53 that remained.
1790 – Rhode Island becomes the last of North America’s original Thirteen Colonies to ratify the Constitution and become one of the United States.
1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen are executed as rebels by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.
1807 – Mustafa IV became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
1848 – Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
1852 – Jenny Lind leaves New York after her two-year American tour.
1861 – The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce is founded, in Hong Kong.
1864 – Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time.
1867 – The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (“the Compromise”) is born through Act 12, which establishes the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1868 – Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia is assassinated.
1886 – The pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal.
1900 – N’Djamena is founded as Fort-Lamy by the French commander Émile Gentil.
1903 – In the May Coup, Alexander I, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.
1913 – Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot.
1914 – The Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the loss of 1,012 lives.
1918 – Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarabad.
1919 – Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin
1920 – The Louth flood of 1920 was a severe flash flooding in the Lincolnshire market town of Louth which occurred 29 May 1920, resulting in 23 fatalities in 20 minutes. It has been described as one of the most significant flood disasters in Britain during the 20th century.
1931 – Michele Schirru, a citizen of the United States, is executed by Italian military firing squad for intent to kill Benito Mussolini.
1932 – World War I veterans begin to assemble in Washington, D.C., in the Bonus Army to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945.
1935 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aeroplane.
1945 – First combat mission of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator heavy bomber.
1948 – United Nations Truce Supervision Organization is founded.
1950 – The St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay’s (adopted) 39th birthday.
1964 – The Arab League meets in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian question, leading to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California.
1982 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Canterbury Cathedral.
1982 – Falklands War: British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green.
1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
1985 – Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
1988 – The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
1989 – Signing of an agreement between Egypt and the United States, allowing the manufacture of parts of the F-16 jet fighter plane in Egypt.
1990 – The Russian parliament elects Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
1993 – The Miss Sarajevo beauty pageant is held in war-torn Sarajevo drawing global attention to the plight of its citizens.
1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.
1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
2001 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the disabled golfer Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments.
2004 – The National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
2008 – A doublet earthquake, of combined magnitude 6.1, strikes Iceland near the town of Selfoss, injuring 30 people.
2012 – A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits northern Italy near Bologna, killing at least 24 people.
2015 – One World Observatory at One World Trade Center opens.
Births on May 29
1421 – Charles, Prince of Viana (d. 1461)
1439 – Pope Pius III (d. 1503)
1443 – Victor, Duke of Münsterberg, Reichsgraf, Duke of Münsterberg and Opava, Count of Glatz (d. 1500)
1504 – Antun Vrančić, Croatian archbishop (d. 1573)
1555 – George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes, English Earl, general and administrator (d. 1629)
1568 – Virginia de’ Medici, Italian princess (d. 1615)
1594 – Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Bavarian field marshal (d. 1632)
1627 – Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, French princess (d. 1693)
1630 – Charles II of England (d. 1685)
1675 – Humphry Ditton, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1715)
1716 – Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French zoologist and mineralogist (d. 1800)
1722 – James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, Irish soldier and politician (d. 1773)
1730 – Jackson of Exeter, English organist and composer (d. 1803)
1736 – Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (d. 1799)
1780 – Henri Braconnot, French chemist and pharmacist (d. 1855)
1794 – Johann Heinrich von Mädler, German astronomer and selenographer (d. 1874)
1797 – Louise-Adéone Drölling, French painter (d. 1836)
1823 – John H. Balsley, American carpenter and inventor (d. 1895)
1860 – Isaac Albéniz, Spanish pianist and composer (d. 1909)
1871 – Clark Voorhees, American painter (d. 1933)
1873 – Rudolf Tobias, Estonian organist and composer (d. 1918)
1874 – G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, and playwright (d. 1936)
1880 – Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (d. 1936)
1892 – Alfonsina Storni, Swiss-Argentinian poet and author (d. 1938)
1893 – Max Brand, American journalist and author (d. 1944)
1894 – Beatrice Lillie, Canadian-English actress, singer and writer (d. 1989)
1894 – Josef von Sternberg, Austrian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1969)
1897 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Czech-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1957)
1899 – Douglas Abbott, Canadian lawyer and politician, 10th Canadian Minister of Defence (d. 1987)
1902 – Harry Kadwell, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1999)
1903 – Bob Hope, English-American actor, singer, and producer (d. 2003)
1904 – Hubert Opperman, Australian cyclist and politician (d. 1996)
1905 – Sebastian Shaw, English actor, director, and playwright (d. 1994)
1906 – T. H. White, Indian-English author (d. 1964)
1907 – Hartland Molson, Canadian captain and politician (d. 2002)
1908 – Diana Morgan, Welsh-English playwright and screenwriter (d. 1996)
1910 – Ralph Metcalfe, American sprinter and politician (d. 1978)
1913 – Tony Zale, American boxer (d. 1997)
1914 – Stacy Keach Sr., American actor (d. 2003)
1914 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese-Indian mountaineer (d. 1986)
1915 – Karl Münchinger, German conductor and composer (d. 1990)
1917 – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
1917 – Marcel Trudel, Canadian historian, author, and academic (d. 2011)
1919 – Jacques Genest, Canadian physician and academic (d. 2018)
1920 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
1920 – Clifton James, American actor (d. 2017)
1921 – Norman Hetherington, Australian cartoonist and puppeteer (d. 2010)
1922 – Joe Weatherly, American race car driver (d. 1964)
1922 – Iannis Xenakis, Greek-French composer, engineer, and theorist (d. 2001)
1923 – Bernard Clavel, French author (d. 2010)
1923 – John Parker, 6th Earl of Morley, English colonel and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Devon (d. 2015)
1923 – Eugene Wright, American jazz bassist
1924 – Lars Bo, Danish author and illustrator (d. 1999)
1924 – Miloslav Kříž, Czech basketball player and coach (d. 2013)
1924 – Pepper Paire, American baseball player (d. 2013)
1926 – Katie Boyle, Italian-English actress and television host (d. 2018)
1926 – Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe, Queen Consort of Tonga (d. 2017)
1926 – Abdoulaye Wade, Senegalese academic and politician, 3rd President of Senegal
1927 – Jean Coutu, Canadian pharmacist and businessman, founded the Jean Coutu Group
1929 – Harry Frankfurt, American philosopher and academic
1929 – Peter Higgs, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 – Roberto Vargas, Puerto Rican-American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
1932 – Paul R. Ehrlich, American biologist and author
1932 – Richie Guerin, American basketball player and coach
1933 – Helmuth Rilling, German conductor and educator
1933 – Tarquinio Provini, Italian motorcycle racer (d. 2005)
1934 – Bill Vander Zalm, Dutch-Canadian businessman and politician, 28th Premier of British Columbia
1935 – André Brink, South African author and playwright (d. 2015)
1935 – Sylvia Robinson, American singer and producer (d. 2011)
1937 – Charles W. Pickering, American lawyer and judge
1937 – Irmin Schmidt, German keyboard player and composer
1937 – Alwin Schockemöhle, German show-jumper
1937 – Harry Statham, American basketball player and coach
1938 – Christopher Bland, English businessman and politician (d. 2017)
1938 – Fay Vincent, American lawyer and businessman
1939 – Pete Smith, Australian radio and television announcer
1939 – Al Unser, American race car driver
1940 – Taihō Kōki, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 48th Yokozuna (d. 2013)
1940 – Farooq Leghari, Pakistani politician, 8th President of Pakistan (d. 2010)
1941 – Doug Scott, English mountaineer and author
1941 – Bob Simon, American journalist (d. 2015)
1942 – Pierre Bourque, Canadian businessman and politician, 40th Mayor of Montreal
1942 – Kevin Conway, American actor and director (d. 2020)
1943 – Robert W. Edgar, American educator and politician (d. 2013)
1944 – Bob Benmosche, American businessman (d. 2015)
1944 – Quentin Davies, English soldier and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
1945 – Gary Brooker, English singer-songwriter and pianist
1945 – Peter Fraser, Baron Fraser of Carmyllie, Scottish lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland (d. 2013)
1945 – Julian Le Grand, English economist and author
1945 – Martin Pipe, English jockey and trainer
1945 – Joyce Tenneson, American photographer
1945 – Jean-Pierre Van Rossem, Belgian scholar and author (d. 2018)
1946 – Fernando Buesa, Spanish politician (d. 2000)
1947 – Anthony Geary, American actor
1948 – Michael Berkeley, English composer and radio host
1948 – Keith Gull, English microbiologist and academic
1949 – Robert Axelrod, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2019)
1949 – Brian Kidd, English footballer and manager
1949 – Francis Rossi, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Rebbie Jackson, American singer and actress
1953 – Danny Elfman, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1954 – Robert Beaser, American composer and educator
1954 – Jerry Moran, American lawyer and politician
1955 – Frank Baumgartl, German runner (d. 2010)
1955 – John Hinckley Jr., American attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan
1955 – David Kirschner, American animator, producer, and author
1955 – Gordon Rintoul, Scottish historian and curator
1955 – Ken Schrader, American race car driver and sportscaster
1956 – Mark Lyall Grant, English diplomat, British Ambassador to the United Nations
1956 – La Toya Jackson, American singer-songwriter and actress
1957 – Steven Croft, English bishop and theologian
1957 – Jeb Hensarling, American lawyer and politician
1957 – Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian film director
1958 – Annette Bening, American actress
1958 – Juliano Mer-Khamis, Israeli actor, director, and activist (d. 2011)
1958 – Uwe Rapolder, German footballer and coach
1958 – Mike Stenhouse, American baseball player and sportscaster
1959 – Rupert Everett, English actor and novelist
1959 – Mel Gaynor, English drummer
1959 – Steve Hanley, Irish-English bass player and songwriter
1960 – Thomas Baumer, Swiss economist and academic
1960 – Mike Freer, English politician
1961 – Melissa Etheridge, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist
1961 – John Miceli, American drummer
1962 – Fandi Ahmad, Singaporean footballer, coach, and manager
1962 – Eric Davis, American baseball player
1962 – Carol Kirkwood, Scottish journalist
1962 – Chloé Sainte-Marie, Canadian actress and singer
1963 – Blaze Bayley, English singer-songwriter
1963 – Zhu Jianhua, Chinese high jumper
1963 – Ukyo Katayama, Japanese race car driver
1963 – Claude Loiselle, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1964 – Howard Mills III, American academic and politician
1964 – Oswaldo Negri Jr., Brazilian race car driver
1966 – Natalie Nougayrède, French journalist
1967 – Noel Gallagher, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1967 – Mike Keane, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1967 – Steven Levitt, American economist, author, and academic
1968 – Torquhil Campbell, 13th Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician
1968 – Tate George, American basketball player
1968 – Jessica Morden, English politician
1968 – Hida Viloria, American activist
1970 – Natarsha Belling, Australian journalist
1970 – Roberto Di Matteo, Italian footballer and manager
1971 – Éric Lucas, Canadian boxer
1971 – Bernd Mayländer, German race car driver
1971 – Jo Beth Taylor, Australian television host and actress
1971 – Rob Womack, English shot putter and discus thrower
1972 – Bill Curley, American basketball player and coach
1972 – Simon Jones, English singer and bass player
1973 – Tomoko Kaneda, Japanese voice actress, singer, and radio personality
1973 – Mark Lee, American guitarist and songwriter
1973 – Alpay Özalan, Turkish footballer
1974 – Steve Cardenas, American martial artist and retired actor
1974 – Stephen Larkham, Australian rugby player and coach
1974 – Aaron McGruder, American author and cartoonist
1974 – Myf Warhurst, Australian radio and television host
1974 – Jenny Willott, English politician
1975 – Jason Allison, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Mel B, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
1975 – Sven Kubis, German footballer
1975 – Sarah Millican, English comedian
1975 – Anthony Wall, English golfer
1975 – Daniel Tosh, American comedian, television host, actor, writer, and executive producer
1976 – Caçapa, Brazilian footballer and manager
1976 – Jerry Hairston Jr., American baseball player and sportscaster
1976 – Raef LaFrentz, American basketball player
1976 – Yegor Titov, Russian footballer
1977 – Massimo Ambrosini, Italian footballer
1977 – Marco Cassetti, Italian footballer
1977 – António Lebo Lebo, Angolan footballer
1978 – Pelle Almqvist, Swedish singer-songwriter
1978 – Sébastien Grosjean, French tennis player
1978 – Lorenzo Odone, Italian-American adrenoleukodystrophy patient who inspired the 1992 film, Lorenzo’s Oil (d. 2008)
1978 – Adam Rickitt, English singer
1979 – Arne Friedrich, German footballer
1979 – Brian Kendrick, American wrestler
1979 – John Rheinecker, American baseball player (d. 2017)
1980 – Ernesto Farías, Argentinian footballer
1981 – Andrey Arshavin, Russian footballer
1982 – Nataliya Dobrynska, Ukrainian heptathlete
1982 – Matt Macri, American baseball player
1982 – Kim Tae-kyun, South Korean baseball player
1984 – Carmelo Anthony, American basketball player
1984 – Nia Jax, Australian-American professional wrestler
1984 – Funmi Jimoh, American long jumper
1984 – Andreas Schäffer, German footballer
1984 – Ina Wroldsen, Norwegian singer and songwriter
1985 – Nathan Horton, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Lina Andrijauskaitė, Lithuanian long jumper
1987 – Issac Luke, New Zealand rugby league player
1987 – Kelvin Maynard, Dutch footballer (d. 2019)
1987 – Noah Reid, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter
1987 – Rui Sampaio, Portuguese footballer
1988 – Muath Al-Kasasbeh, Jordanian captain and pilot (d. 2015)
1988 – Cheng Fei, Chinese gymnast
1988 – Steve Mason, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Ezekiel Ansah, Ghanaian-American football player
1989 – Diego Barisone, Argentinian footballer (d. 2015)
1989 – Riley Keough, American model and actress
1990 – Joe Biagini, American baseball pitcher
1992 – Sarah Moundir, Swiss tennis player
1993 – Jana Čepelová, Slovak tennis player
1993 – Maika Monroe, American actress and kiteboarder
1993 – Grete Šadeiko, Estonian heptathlete
1998 – Markelle Fultz, American basketball player
1999 – Park Ji-hoon, South Korean singer and actor
Deaths on May 29
931 – Jimeno Garcés of Pamplona
1040 – Renauld I, Count of Nevers
1259 – Christopher I of Denmark (b. 1219)
1311 – James II of Majorca (b. 1243)
1320 – Pope John VIII of Alexandria, Coptic pope
1327 – Jens Grand, Danish archbishop (b. c. 1260)
1379 – Henry II of Castile (b. 1334)
1405 – Philippe de Mézières, French soldier and author (b. 1327)
1430 – Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne.
1498 – Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.
1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
1568 – Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Arenberg, and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years’ War.
1609 – Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.
1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years’ War.
1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
1706 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.
1788 – South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution as the eighth American state.
1793 – Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.
1844 – Declaration of the Báb the evening before the 23rd: A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith; Bahá’ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
1846 – Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
1863 – The General German Workers’ Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.
1873 – The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1900 – American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
1907 – The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
1915 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
1932 – In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which resulted in the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.
1934 – Infamous American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
1934 – The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1945 – World War II: Germany’s Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.
1948 – Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.
1949 – Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.
1951 – Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.
1960 – A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.
1992 – Italy’s most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.
1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
2002 – The “55 parties” clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
2006 – Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
2008 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
2013 – A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.
2014 – Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.
2015 – At least 46 people are killed as a result of floods caused by a tornado in Texas and Oklahoma.
2016 – Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, killed at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
2016 – Eight bombings were carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and Tartus, coastline cities in Syria. One hundred eighty-four people were killed and at least 200 people injured.
2017 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute’s attack in Marawi.
Births on May 23
635 – K’inich Kan Bahlam II, Mayan king (d. 702)
675 – Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar II, King of Mutharaiyar dynasty, Tamil Nadu, India
1052 – Philip I of France (d. 1108)
1100 – Emperor Qinzong of Song (d. 1161)
1127 – Uijong of Goryeo, Korean monarch of the Goryeo dynasty (d. 1173)
1330 – Gongmin of Goryeo, Korean ruler (d. 1374)
1586 – Paul Siefert, German composer and organist (d. 1666)
1606 – Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish mathematician and philosopher (d. 1682)
1614 – Bertholet Flemalle, Flemish Baroque painter (d. 1675)
1617 – Elias Ashmole, English astrologer and politician (d. 1692)
1629 – William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, noble of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1663)
1707 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist (d. 1778)
1718 – William Hunter, Scottish-English anatomist and physician (d. 1783)
1729 – Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet and educator (d. 1799)
1730 – Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Prussian prince and general (d. 1813)
1734 – Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologer (d. 1815)
1741 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1801)
1789 – Franz Schlik, Austrian earl and general (d. 1862)
1790 – Jules Dumont d’Urville, French admiral and explorer (d. 1842)
1790 – James Pradier, French neoclassical sculptor (d. 1852)
1794 – Ignaz Moscheles, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1870)
1795 – Charles Barry, English architect, designed the Upper Brook Street Chapel and Halifax Town Hall (d. 1860)
1800 – Rómulo Díaz de la Vega, Mexican general and president (1855) (d. 1877)
1810 – Margaret Fuller, American journalist and critic (d. 1850)
1817 – Manuel Robles Pezuela, Unconstitutional Mexican interim president (d. 1862)
1820 – James Buchanan Eads, American engineer, designed the Eads Bridge (d. 1887)
1820 – Lorenzo Sawyer, American lawyer and judge (d. 1891)
1824 – Ambrose Burnside, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1881)
1834 – Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis, Latvian architect (d. 1891)
1834 – Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic (d. 1890)
1837 – Anatole Mallet, Swiss mechanical engineer and inventor (d. 1919)
1837 – Józef Wieniawski, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1912)
1838 – Amaldus Nielsen, Norwegian painter (d. 1932)
1840 – George Throssell, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 1910)
1844 – `Abdu’l-Bahá, Iranian religious leader (d. 1921)
1848 – Otto Lilienthal, German pilot and engineer (d. 1896)
1855 – Isabella Ford, English author and activist (d. 1924)
1861 – József Rippl-Rónai, Hungarian painter (d. 1927)
1863 – Władysław Horodecki, Polish architect (d. 1930)
1864 – William O’Connor, American fencer (d. 1939)
1865 – Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian jurist and politician, 11th President of Brazil (d. 1942)
1875 – Alfred P. Sloan, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1966)
1882 – William Halpenny, Canadian pole vaulter (d. 1960)
1883 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1939)
1884 – Corrado Gini, Italian sociologist and demographer (d. 1965)
1887 – Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (d. 1963)
1887 – Nikolai Vekšin, Estonian-Russian sailor and captain (d. 1951)
1888 – Adriaan Roland Holst, Dutch writer (d. 1976)
1888 – Zack Wheat, American baseball player and police officer (d. 1972)
1889 – Ernst Niekisch, German educator and politician (d. 1967)
1890 – Herbert Marshall, English-American actor and singer (d. 1966)
1891 – Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish novelist, playwright, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
1892 – Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, British peer and grandfather of Diana Spencer (d. 1975)
1896 – Felix Steiner, Russian-German SS officer (d. 1966)
1897 – Jimmie Guthrie, Scottish motorcycle racer (d. 1937)
1898 – Scott O’Dell, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 1989)
1898 – Josef Terboven, German soldier and politician (d. 1945)
1899 – Jeralean Talley, American super-centenarian (d. 2015)
1900 – Hans Frank, German lawyer and politician (d. 1946)
1900 – Franz Leopold Neumann, German lawyer and theorist (d. 1954)
1908 – John Bardeen, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
1908 – Hélène Boucher, French pilot (d. 1934)
1910 – Margaret Wise Brown, American author and educator (d. 1952)
1910 – Hugh Casson, English architect and academic (d. 1999)
1910 – Scatman Crothers, American actor and comedian (d. 1986)
1910 – Franz Kline, American painter and academic (d. 1962)
1910 – Artie Shaw, American clarinet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 2004)
1911 – Lou Brouillard, Canadian boxer (d. 1984)
1911 – Paul Augustin Mayer, German cardinal (d. 2010)
1911 – Betty Nuthall, English tennis player (d. 1983)
1912 – Jean Françaix, French pianist and composer (d. 1997)
1912 – John Payne, American actor (d. 1989)
1914 – Harold Hitchcock, English visionary landscape artist (d. 2009)
1914 – Celestine Sibley, American journalist and author (d. 1999)
1914 – Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, English economist, journalist, and prominent Catholic layperson (d. 1981)
1915 – S. Donald Stookey, American physicist and chemist, invented CorningWare (d. 2014)
1917 – Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (d. 2008)
1918 – Denis Compton, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 1997)
1919 – Robert Bernstein, American author and playwright (d. 1988)
1919 – Ruth Fernández, Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate (d. 2012)
1919 – Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2011)
1920 – Helen O’Connell, American singer (d. 1993)
1923 – Alicia de Larrocha, Catalan-Spanish pianist (d. 2009)
1923 – Irving Millman, American virologist and microbiologist (d. 2012)
1924 – Karlheinz Deschner, German author and activist (d. 2014)
1925 – Joshua Lederberg, American biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
1926 – Basil Salvadore D’Souza, Indian bishop (d. 1996)
1926 – Joe Slovo, Lithuanian-South African activist and politician (d. 1995)
1928 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)
1928 – Nigel Davenport, English actor (d. 2013)
1928 – Nina Otkalenko, Russian runner (d. 2015)
1929 – Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish-Austrian actress (d. 1982)
1930 – Friedrich Achleitner, German poet and critic (d. 2019)
1931 – Barbara Barrie, American actress
1932 – Kevork Ajemian, Syrian-French journalist and author (d. 1998)
1933 – Joan Collins, English actress
1933 – Ove Fundin, Swedish motorcycle racer
1934 – Robert Moog, electronic engineer and inventor of the Moog synthesizer (d. 2005)
1935 – Lasse Strömstedt, Swedish author (d. 2009)
1936 – Ingeborg Hallstein, German soprano and actress
1936 – Charles Kimbrough, American actor
1939 – Michel Colombier, French-American composer and conductor (d. 2004)
1939 – Reinhard Hauff, German director and screenwriter
1940 – Bjorn Johansen, Norwegian saxophonist (d. 2002)
1940 – Gérard Larrousse, French race car driver
1940 – Cora Sadosky, Argentinian mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
1941 – Zalman King, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1941 – Rod Thorn, American basketball player, coach, and executive
1942 – Gabriel Liiceanu, Romanian philosopher, author, and academic
1942 – Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao, Indian director, screenwriter, and choreographer
1943 – Peter Kenilorea, Solomon Islands politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands (d. 2016)
1944 – John Newcombe, Australian tennis player and sportscaster
1945 – Padmarajan, Indian director, screenwriter, and author (d. 1991)
1946 – David Graham, Australian golfer
1947 – Jane Kenyon, American poet and translator (d. 1995)
1948 – Myriam Boyer, French actress, director, and producer
1949 – Daniel DiNardo, American cardinal
1949 – Alan García, Peruvian lawyer and politician, 61st and 64th President of Peru (d. 2019)
1950 – Martin McGuinness, Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 2017)
1951 – Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess player
1951 – Antonis Samaras, Greek economist and politician, 185th Prime Minister of Greece
1952 – Martin Parr, English photographer and journalist
1954 – Gerry Armstrong, Northern Irish international footballer, striker
1954 – Marvelous Marvin Hagler, American boxer and actor
1955 – Luka Bloom, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1956 – Andrea Pazienza, Italian illustrator and painter (d. 1988)
1956 – Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician and diplomat, Foreign Minister of Austria
1956 – Buck Showalter, American baseball player, coach, and manager
1958 – Mitch Albom, American journalist, author, and screenwriter
1958 – Drew Carey, American actor, game show host, and entrepreneur
1958 – Lea DeLaria, American actress and singer
1959 – Marcella Mesker, Dutch tennis player and sportscaster
1960 – Linden Ashby, American actor
1961 – Daniele Massaro, Italian footballer and manager
1961 – Norrie May-Welby, Scottish Australian gender activist
1962 – Karen Duffy, American actress
1963 – Viviane Baladi, Swiss mathematician
1964 – Ruth Metzler, Swiss lawyer and politician
1965 – Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo, Spanish footballer
1965 – Tom Tykwer, German director, producer, screenwriter, and composer
1965 – Melissa McBride, American actress
1965 – Paul Sironen, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Graeme Hick, Zimbabwean-English cricketer and coach
1966 – Gary Roberts, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1967 – Luís Roberto Alves, Mexican footballer
1967 – Anna Ibrisagic, Swedish politician
1968 – Guinevere Turner, American actress and screenwriter
1970 – Bryan Herta, American race car driver and businessman, co-founded Bryan Herta Autosport
1971 – George Osborne, English journalist and politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer
1972 – Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian race car driver
1972 – Martin Saggers, English cricketer and umpire
1973 – Maxwell, American singer-songwriter and producer
1974 – Jewel, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet
1974 – Manuela Schwesig, German politician, German Federal Minister of Family Affairs
1976 – Ricardinho, Brazilian footballer and manager
1977 – Ilia Kulik, Russian figure skater
1978 – Scott Raynor, American drummer
1979 – Rasual Butler, American basketball player (d. 2018)
1979 – Brian Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Theofanis Gekas, Greek footballer
1980 – Ben Ross, Australian rugby league player
1983 – Silvio Proto, Belgian-Italian footballer
1984 – Hugo Almeida, Portuguese footballer
1985 – Sebastián Fernández, Uruguayan footballer
1985 – Teymuraz Gabashvili, Russian tennis player
1985 – Wim Stroetinga, Dutch cyclist
1985 – Ross Wallace, Scottish footballer
1986 – Ryan Coogler, American film director and screenwriter
293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
878 – Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege.
879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1349 – Dušan’s Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
1659 – In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end.
1660 – The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy.
1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
1703 – Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.
1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.
1792 – A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that kills nearly 15,000 people.
1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
1851 – Slavery in Colombia is abolished.
1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
1864 – The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week”, some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire’s military forces.
1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.
1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover’s severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan’s most notorious scandals.
1937 – A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition: A gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
1976 – Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California.
1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
1981 – Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven’s Gate.
1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
1998 – In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
1998 – President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003 – The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.
2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.
2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
2012 – A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana’a, Yemen.
2017 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Births on May 21
1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (d. 1528)
1497 – Al-Hattab, Muslim jurist (d. 1547)
1527 – Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
1653 – Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1697)
1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (d. 1744)
1755 – Alfred Moore, American lawyer and judge (d. 1810)
1756 – William Babington, Irish-born, English physician and mineralogist (d. 1833)
1763 – Joseph Fouché, French lawyer and politician (d. 1820)
1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French soldier and politician (d. 1840)
1780 – Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, philanthropist and Quaker (d. 1845)
1790 – William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, English politician, Lord Chamberlain of the Household (d. 1858)
1792 – Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1843)
1799 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (d. 1847)
1801 – Princess Sophie of Sweden, Swedish princess (d. 1865)
1806 – Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, English duchess (d. 1868)
1808 – David de Jahacob Lopez Cardozo, Dutch Talmudist (d. 1890)
1827 – William P. Sprague, American banker and politician (d. 1899)
1828 – Rudolf Koller, Swiss painter (d. 1905)
1835 – František Chvostek, Czech-Austrian physician and academic (d. 1884)
1837 – Itagaki Taisuke, Japanese soldier and politician (d. 1919)
1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
1843 – Louis Renault, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
1844 – Henri Rousseau, French painter (d. 1910)
1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian priest and volcanologist (d. 1914)
1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French police officer and politician, 64th Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
1856 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan journalist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 1929)
1860 – Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
1861 – Abel Ayerza, Argentinian physician and academic (d. 1918)
1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria (d. 1954)
1864 – Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
1873 – Hans Berger, German neurologist and academic (d. 1941)
1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American cyclist and engineer (d. 1930)
1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1967)
1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet and publisher (d. 1920)
1885 – Princess Sophie of Albania, (Princess Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg) (d. 1936)
1893 – Arthur Carr, English cricketer (d. 1963)
1893 – Giles Chippindall, Australian public servant (d. 1969)
1895 – Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexican general, president (1934–1940) and father of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (d. 1970)
1898 – Armand Hammer, American physician and businessman, founded Occidental Petroleum (d. 1990)
1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and judge (d. 1967)
1898 – Carl Johnson, American long jumper (d. 1932)
1898 – John McLaughlin, American painter and translator (d. 1976)
1901 – Regina M. Anderson, Multiracial playwright and librarian (d. 1993)
1901 – Horace Heidt, American pianist, bandleader, and radio host (d. 1986)
1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer and agent (d. 2000)
1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian author and playwright (d. 1992)
1902 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
1902 – Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-American architect and academic, designed the Ameritrust Tower (d. 1981)
1902 – Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1974)
1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)
1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
1904 – Fats Waller, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1943)
1907 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
1912 – Chen Dayu, Chinese painter and calligrapher (d. 2001)
1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist and academic (d. 1986)
1912 – Monty Stratton, American baseball player and coach (d. 1982)
1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist and composer (d. 1976)
1915 – Cathleen Cordell, American actress (d. 1997)
1915 – Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, Indian Civil Service Officer and former Under Secretary-General of the UN (d. 2003)
1916 – Dennis Day, American singer and actor (d. 1988)
1916 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch sprinter and police officer (d. 2002)
1916 – Harold Robbins, American author and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor and director (d. 1993)
1918 – Anthony Steel, English actor and singer (d. 2001)
1919 – George P. Mitchell, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
1920 – Bill Barber, American tuba player and educator (d. 2007)
1920 – Forrest White, American businessman, co-founded the Music Man Company (d. 1994)
1921 – Sandy Douglas, English computer scientist and academic, designed OXO (d. 2010)
1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
1923 – Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010)
1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss-American mathematician and academic (d. 2003)
1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football player and coach (d. 2017)
1923 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian feminist poet, novelist and playwright (d. 2002)
1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress (d. 2012)
1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress, comedian, and game show panelist (d. 1999)
1926 – Robert Creeley, American novelist, essayist, and poet (d. 2005)
1927 – Kay Kendall, English actress and comedian (d. 1959)
1927 – Péter Zwack, Hungarian businessman and diplomat (d. 2012)
1928 – Tom Donahue, American radio host and producer (d. 1975)
1928 – Alice Drummond, American actress (d. 2016)
1929 – Larance Marable, American drummer (d. 2012)
1929 – Robert Welch, English silversmith and industrial designer (d. 2000)
1930 – Tommy Bryant, American bassist (d. 1982)
1930 – Keith Davis, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2019)
1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2015)
1932 – Inese Jaunzeme, Latvian javelin thrower and surgeon (d. 2011)
1932 – Leonidas Vasilikopoulos, Greek admiral and intelligence chief (d. 2014)
1933 – Maurice André, French trumpet player (d. 2012)
1933 – Yevgeny Minayev, Russian weightlifter (d. 1993)
1934 – Jocasta Innes, Chinese-English journalist and author (d. 2013)
1934 – Bob Northern, American horn player and bandleader
1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1935 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinet player and bandleader (d. 2013)
1936 – Günter Blobel, Polish-American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
1938 – Lee “Shot” Williams, American singer (d. 2011)
1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer, and conductor
1940 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1941 – Martin Carthy, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball player and manager
1941 – Ambrose Greenway, 4th Baron Greenway, English photographer and politician
1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – David Hunt, Baron Hunt of Wirral, English politician, Secretary of State for Wales
1942 – John Konrads, Australian swimmer
1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
1943 – Vincent Crane, English pianist and composer (d. 1989)
1943 – John Dalton, English bass player
1943 – Hilton Valentine, English guitarist and songwriter
1944 – Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar, Iranian-English academic and politician
1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
1944 – Janet Dailey, American author and entrepreneur (d. 2013)
1944 – Mary Robinson, Irish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Ireland
1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
1945 – Richard Hatch, American actor, writer, and producer (d. 2017)
1946 – Allan McKeown, English-American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1946 – Wayne Roycroft, Australian equestrian rider and coach
1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1947 – Linda Laubenstein, American physician and academic (d. 1992)
1947 – İlber Ortaylı, Turkish historian and academic
1948 – Elizabeth Buchan, English author and critic
1948 – Joe Camilleri, Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter and saxophonist
1948 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian-English actor
1948 – Denis MacShane, Scottish journalist and politician, UK Minister of State for Europe
1948 – Leo Sayer, English-Australian singer-songwriter and musician
1949 – Andrew Neil, Scottish journalist and academic
1949 – Denis O’Connor, British police officer
1949 – Rosalind Plowright, English soprano
1950 – Will Hutton, English economist and journalist
1951 – Al Franken, American actor, screenwriter, and politician
1951 – Adrian Hardiman, Irish lawyer and judge (d. 2016)
1952 – Mr. T, American actor and wrestler
1953 – Nora Aunor, Filipino actress and recording artist
1954 – D. B. S. Jeyaraj, Sri Lankan-Canadian journalist and blogger
1954 – Janice Karman, American film producer, record producer, singer, and voice actress
1954 – Marc Ribot, American guitarist and composer
1955 – Paul Barber, English field hockey player
1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
1957 – James Bailey, American basketball player
1957 – Nadine Dorries, English nurse and politician
1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor and producer
1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
1958 – Christian Audigier, French fashion designer (d. 2015)
1958 – Muffy Calder, Canadian-Scottish computer scientist and academic
1958 – Michael Crick, English journalist and author
1958 – Naeem Khan, Indian-American fashion designer
1958 – Jefery Levy, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1959 – Nick Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1959 – Abdulla Yameen, Maldivian politician, 6th President of the Maldives
1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player and sportscaster
1960 – Mohanlal, Indian actor
1960 – Mark Ridgway, Australian cricketer
1960 – Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
1962 – David Crumb, American composer and educator
1963 – Richard Appel, American screenwriter and producer
1963 – Patrick Grant, American musician and producer
1963 – David Lonsdale, English actor
1964 – Pete Sandoval, Salvadoran-American drummer
1963 – Kevin Shields, American-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1963 – Dave Specter, American guitarist
1963 – Laurie Spina, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer and coach
1965 – Josh Richman, American actor and producer
1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress and playwright
1966 – Tatyana Ledovskaya, Belarusian hurdler
1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2007)
1968 – Ilmar Raag, Estonian director, producer, and screenwriter
1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German-Australian rower
1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino actress and singer (d. 1985)
1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
1969 – Georgiy Gongadze, Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and director (d. 2000)
1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress and singer
1969 – George LeMieux, American lawyer and politician
1969 – Brian Statham, Rhodesian born English footballer, defender and manager
1970 – Brigita Bukovec, Slovenian hurdler
1970 – Dorsey Levens, American football player and sportscaster
1970 – Pauline Menczer, Australian surfer
1970 – Carl Veart, Australian footballer and coach
1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997)
1973 – Stewart Cink, American golfer
1973 – Noel Fielding, English comedian, musician and television presenter
1974 – Brad Arthur, Australian rugby league coach
1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
1974 – Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress, and physician, Mrs. World 2001
1974 – Havoc, American rapper and producer
1975 – Anthony Mundine, Australian rugby league player and boxer
1976 – Stuart Bingham, English snooker player
1976 – Abderrahim Goumri, Moroccan runner (d. 2013)
1976 – Deron Miller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African international footballer midfielder and coach
1977 – Michael Fuß, German footballer
1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player and coach
1978 – Max B, American rapper and songwriter
1978 – Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model
1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player and coach
2020 – Alan Merten, fifth President of George Mason University (b. 1941)
Holidays and observances on May 21
Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
Christian feast day:
Arcangelo Tadini
Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González
Blessed Franz Jägerstätter
Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday (often locally moved to Sunday). (Roman Catholic Church)
Emperor Constantine I
Eugène de Mazenod
Helena of Constantinople, also known as “Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles.” (Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion)
John Elliot (Episcopal Church)
Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes
May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)
Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)
Independence Day, celebrates the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006, celebrated until the next day. (Montenegro)
Navy Day (Chile)
Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502. (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha)
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)
325 – The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.
491 – Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery.
685 – The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
794 – While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a view to marrying princess Ælfthryth, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia is taken captive and beheaded.
1217 – The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
1293 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de Generales in Alcalá de Henares.
1449 – The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal.
1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).
1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
1521 – Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna.
1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.
1609 – Shakespeare’s sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years’ War.
1645 – Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of 800,000 residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.
1741 – The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory and the British begin withdrawal towards Jamaica with substantial losses.
1775 – The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina.
1802 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.
1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
1840 – York Minster is badly damaged by fire.
1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. Meanwhile, the State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.
1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening 84 million acres of public land to settlers.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1875 – Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.
1882 – The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed.
1883 – Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.
1891 – History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope.
1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country’s first President.
1927 – Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
1940 – The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete.
1948 – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing.
1949 – In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.
1956 – In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1964 – Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.
1967 – The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1969 – The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
1971 – In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus.
1980 – In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada.
1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.
1983 – Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by Umkhonto we Sizwe explodes on Church Street in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others.
1985 – Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
1989 – The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.
1990 – The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
1996 – Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
2002 – The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).
2012 – At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.
2013 – An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.
2019 – The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.
Births on May 20
1315 – Bonne of Luxembourg, first wife of John II of France (d. 1349)
1470 – Pietro Bembo, Italian cardinal, poet, and scholar (d. 1547)
1505 – Levinus Lemnius, Dutch writer (d. 1568)
1531 – Thado Minsaw of Ava, Viceroy of Ava (d. 1584)
1537 – Hieronymus Fabricius, Italian anatomist (d. 1619)
1575 – Robert Heath, English judge and politician (d. 1649)
1664 – Andreas Schlüter, German sculptor and architect (d. 1714)
1726 – Francis Cotes, English painter and academic (d. 1770)
1743 – Toussaint Louverture, Haitian revolutionary, general, and president (d. 1803)
1759 – William Thornton, Virgin Islander-American architect, designed the United States Capitol (d. 1828)
1769 – Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (d. 1835)
1772 – Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet, English inventor and politician, developed Congreve rockets (d. 1828)
1776 – Simon Fraser, American-Canadian fur trader and explorer (d. 1862)
1795 – Pedro María de Anaya, Mexican soldier. President (1847-1848) (d. 1854)
1799 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (d. 1850)
1806 – John Stuart Mill, English economist, civil servant, and philosopher (d. 1873)
1811 – Alfred Domett, English-New Zealand poet and politician, 4th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1887)
1818 – William Fargo, American businessman and politician, co-founded Wells Fargo and American Express (d. 1881)
1822 – Frédéric Passy, French economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1912)
1824 – Cadmus M. Wilcox, Confederate States Army general (d. 1890)
1825 – Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the U.S. (d. 1921)
1830 – Hector Malot, French author (d. 1907)
1838 – Jules Méline, French lawyer and politician, 65th Prime Minister of France (d. 1925)
1851 – Emile Berliner, German-American inventor, invented the Gramophone record (d. 1929)
1854 – George Prendergast, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Victoria (d. 1937)
1856 – Henri-Edmond Cross, French Neo-Impressionist painter (d. 1910)
1860 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist, zymologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
1875 – Hendrik Offerhaus, Dutch rower (d. 1953)
1877 – Pat Leahy, Irish-American jumper (d. 1927)
1879 – Hans Meerwein, German chemist (d. 1965)
1882 – Sigrid Undset, Danish-Norwegian novelist, essayist, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
1883 – Faisal I of Iraq (d. 1933)
1886 – Ali Sami Yen, Turkish footballer and manager, founded the Galatasaray Sports Club (d. 1951)
1894 – Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian guru and scholar (d. 1994)
1895 – R. J. Mitchell, English engineer, designed the Supermarine Spitfire and Supermarine S.6B (d. 1937)
1897 – Diego Abad de Santillán, Spanish economist and author (d. 1983)
1897 – Malcolm Nokes, English hammer and discus thrower (d. 1986)
1898 – Eduard Ole, Estonian painter (d. 1995)
1899 – Aleksandr Deyneka, Russian painter and sculptor (d. 1969)
1899 – John Marshall Harlan II, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1971)
1900 – Sumitranandan Pant, Indian poet and author (d. 1977)
1901 – Max Euwe, Dutch chess player, mathematician, and author (d. 1981)
1901 – Doris Fleeson, American journalist (d. 1970)
1904 – Margery Allingham, English author of detective fiction (d. 1966)
1906 – Giuseppe Siri, Italian cardinal (d. 1989)
1907 – Carl Mydans, American photographer and journalist (d. 2004)
1908 – Henry Bolte, Australian politician, 38th Premier of Victoria (d. 1990)
1908 – Louis Daquin, French actor and director (d. 1980)
1908 – Francis Raymond Fosberg, American botanist and author (d. 1993)
1908 – James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
1911 – Gardner Fox, American author (d. 1986)
1911 – Annie M. G. Schmidt, Dutch author and playwright (d. 1995)
1913 – Teodoro Fernández, Peruvian footballer (d. 1996)
1913 – William Redington Hewlett, American engineer, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (d. 2001)
1915 – Peter Copley, English actor (d. 2008)
1915 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician, 5th Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1981)
1915 – Joff Ellen, Australian comedian and actor (d. 1999)
1916 – Owen Chadwick, English rugby player, historian, and academic (d. 2015)
1916 – Alexey Maresyev, Russian soldier and pilot (d. 2001)
1916 – Ondina Valla, Italian sprinter and hurdler (d. 2006)
1917 – Tony Cliff, Israeli-English author and activist (d. 2000)
1917 – Guy Favreau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 28th Canadian Minister of Justice (d. 1967)
1918 – Alexandra Boyko, Russian tank commander (d. 1996)
1918 – Edward B. Lewis, American biologist, geneticist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1919 – George Gobel, American comedian (d. 1991)
1920 – John Cruickshank, Scottish lieutenant and banker, Victoria Cross recipient
1921 – Wolfgang Borchert, German author and playwright (d. 1947)
1921 – Hal Newhouser, American baseball player and scout (d. 1998)
1921 – Hao Wang, Chinese-American logician, philosopher, and mathematician (d. 1995)
1922 – Ted Hinton, Northern Irish international footballer (d. 1988)
1923 – Edith Fellows, American actress (d. 2011)
1923 – Sam Selvon, Trinidad-born writer (d. 1994)
1924 – David Chavchavadze, English-American CIA officer and author (d. 2014)
1924 – Zelmar Michelini, Uruguayan journalist and politician (d. 1976)
1925 – Alexei Tupolev, Russian engineer, designed the Tupolev Tu-144 (d. 2001)
1926 – Bob Sweikert, American race car driver (d. 1956)
1927 – Bud Grant, American football player and coach
1927 – David Hedison, American actor (d. 2019)
1927 – Franciszek Macharski, Polish cardinal (d. 2016)
1929 – Gilles Loiselle, Canadian politician and diplomat, 33rd Canadian Minister of Finance
1930 – Sam Etcheverry, American football player and coach (d. 2009)
1931 – Ken Boyer, American baseball player and manager (d. 1982)
1931 – Louis Smith, American trumpeter (d. 2016)
1933 – Constance Towers, American actress and singer
1935 – José Mujica, Uruguayan guerrilla leader and politician, 40th President of Uruguay
1936 – Anthony Zerbe, American actor
1937 – Dave Hill, American golfer (d. 2011)
1937 – Derek Lampe, English footballer
1939 – Balu Mahendra, Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1940 – Shorty Long, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1969)
1940 – Stan Mikita, Slovak-Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster (d. 2018)
1940 – Sadaharu Oh, Japanese-Taiwanese baseball player and manager
1941 – Goh Chok Tong, Singaporean politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Singapore
1941 – John Strasberg, American actor and teacher
1942 – Raymond Chrétien, Canadian lawyer and diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States
1942 – Lynn Davies, Welsh sprinter and long jumper
1942 – Carlos Hathcock, American sergeant and sniper (d. 1999)
1942 – Frew McMillan, South African tennis player
1943 – Albano Carrisi, Italian singer, actor, and winemaker
1943 – Deryck Murray, Trinidadian cricketer
1944 – Joe Cocker, English singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
1944 – Boudewijn de Groot, Indonesian-Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Keith Fletcher, English cricketer and manager
1944 – Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman, co-founded Red Bull GmbH
332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople.
872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47. His first coronation was 28 years earlier, in 844, during the reign of his father Lothair I.
1096 – First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacred in Worms, Germany.
1152 – The future Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. He would become king two years later, after the death of his cousin once removed King Stephen of England.
1268 – The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Siege of Antioch.
1291 – Fall of Acre, the end of Crusader presence in the Holy Land.
1302 – Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia.
1388 – During the Battle of Buyur Lake, General Lan Yu leads a Chinese army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Tögüs Temür, the Khan of Northern Yuan.
1499 – Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cádiz on his voyage to what is now Venezuela.
1565 – The Great Siege of Malta begins, in which Ottoman forces attempt and fail to conquer Malta.
1593 – Playwright Thomas Kyd’s accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.
1631 – In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
1652 – Slavery in Rhode Island is abolished, although the law is not rigorously enforced.
1756 – The Seven Years’ War begins when Great Britain declares war on France.
1783 – First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John, New Brunswick), Canada, after leaving the United States.
1794 – Battle of Tourcoing during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
1803 – Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
1811 – Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay led by José Artigas.
1812 – John Bellingham is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging for the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.
1843 – The Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland.
1848 – Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany.
1860 – Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
1896 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the “separate but equal” doctrine is constitutional.
1896 – Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.
1900 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
1912 – The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.
1917 – World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
1926 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears in Venice, California.
1927 – The Bath School disaster: Forty-five people, including many children, are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Michigan.
1927 – After being founded for 20 years, the Government of the Republic of China approves Tongji University to be among the first national universities of the Republic of China.
1933 – New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
1944 – World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.
1944 – Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.
1948 – The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
1955 – Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.
1965 – Israeli spy Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus, Syria.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
1973 – Aeroflot Flight 109 is hijacked mid-flight and the aircraft is subsequently destroyed when the hijacker’s bomb explodes, killing all 82 people on board.
1974 – Nuclear weapons testing: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
1977 – Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.
1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
1980 – Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.
1990 – In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph).
1991 – Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland but is not recognized by the international community.
1993 – Riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police open fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injure 11 demonstrators.
1994 – Israeli troops finish withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, ceding the area to the Palestinian National Authority to govern.
2005 – A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.
2006 – The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.
2009 – The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.
2015 – At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.
2018 – A school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas kills 10 people.
Births on May 18
1048 – Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet (d. 1131)
1186 – Konstantin of Rostov (d. 1218)
1450 – Piero Soderini, Italian politician and diplomat (d. 1513)
1537 – Guido Luca Ferrero, Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1585)
1631 – Stanislaus Papczyński, Polish priest (d. 1701)
1662 – George Smalridge, English bishop (d. 1719)
1692 – Joseph Butler, English bishop, theologian, and apologist (d. 1752)
1711 – Roger Joseph Boscovich, Ragusan physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1787)
1777 – John George Children, English chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist (d. 1852)
1778 – Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, Irish soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Austria (d. 1854)
1785 – John Wilson, Scottish author and critic (d. 1854)
1797 – Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (d. 1854)
1822 – Mathew Brady, American photographer and journalist (d. 1896)
1835 – Charles N. Sims, American Methodist preacher and 3rd chancellor of Syracuse University (d. 1908)
1850 – Oliver Heaviside, English engineer, mathematician, and physicist (d. 1925)
1851 – James Budd, American lawyer and politician, 19th Governor of California (d. 1908)
1852 – Gertrude Käsebier, American photographer (d. 1934)
1854 – Bernard Zweers, Dutch composer and educator (d. 1924)
1855 – Francis Bellamy, American minister and author (d. 1931)
1862 – Josephus Daniels, American publisher and politician, 41st United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1948)
1867 – Minakata Kumagusu, Japanese author, biologist, naturalist and ethnologist (d. 1941)
1868 – Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
1869 – Lucy Beaumont, English-American actress (d. 1937)
1871 – Denis Horgan, Irish shot putter and weight thrower (d. 1922)
1872 – Bertrand Russell, British mathematician, historian, and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
1876 – Hermann Müller, German journalist and politician, 12th Chancellor of Germany (d. 1931)
1878 – Johannes Terwogt, Dutch rower (d. 1977)
1882 – Babe Adams, American baseball player, manager, and journalist (d. 1968)
1883 – Eurico Gaspar Dutra, Brazilian marshal and politician, 16th President of Brazil (d. 1974)
1883 – Walter Gropius, German-American architect, designed the John F. Kennedy Federal Building (d. 1969)
1886 – Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1946)
1889 – Thomas Midgley, Jr., American chemist and engineer (d. 1944)
1891 – Rudolf Carnap, German-American philosopher and academic (d. 1970)
1892 – Ezio Pinza, Italian-American actor and singer (d. 1957)
1895 – Augusto César Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader (d. 1934)
1896 – Eric Backman, Swedish runner (d. 1965)
1897 – Frank Capra, Italian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1991)
1898 – Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel, Turkish poet, author, and playwright (d. 1973)
1901 – Henri Sauguet, French composer (d. 1989)
1901 – Vincent du Vigneaud, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
1902 – Meredith Willson, American playwright and composer (d. 1984)
1904 – Shunryū Suzuki, Japanese-American monk and educator (d. 1971)
1904 – Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, 58th New York Attorney General (d. 1986)
1905 – Ruth Alexander, pioneering American pilot (d. 1930)
1905 – Hedley Verity, English cricketer and soldier (d. 1943)
1907 – Irene Hunt, American author and educator (d. 2001)
1909 – Fred Perry, English-Australian tennis player and academic (d. 1995)
1910 – Ester Boserup, Danish economist and author (d. 1999)
1911 – Big Joe Turner, American blues/R&B singer (d. 1985)
1912 – Richard Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1992)
1912 – Perry Como, American singer and television host (d. 2001)
1912 – Walter Sisulu, South African politician (d. 2003)
1913 – Jane Birdwood, Baroness Birdwood, Canadian-English publisher and politician (d. 2000)
1914 – Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer, founded Balmain (d. 1982)
1914 – Boris Christoff, Bulgarian-Italian opera singer (d. 1993)
1917 – Bill Everett, American author and illustrator (d. 1973)
1919 – Margot Fonteyn, British ballerina (d. 1991)
1920 – Pope John Paul II (d. 2005)
1921 – Michael A. Epstein, English pathologist and academic
1922 – Bill Macy, American actor (d. 2019)
1922 – Kai Winding, Danish-American trombonist and composer (d. 1983)
1923 – Jean-Louis Roux, Canadian actor and politician, 34th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 2013)
1923 – Hugh Shearer, Jamaican journalist and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica (d. 2004)
1924 – Priscilla Pointer, American actress
1924 – Jack Whitaker, American sportscaster (d. 2019)
1925 – Lillian Hoban, American author and illustrator (d. 1998)
1927 – Richard Body, English politician (d. 2018)
1927 – Ray Nagel, American football player and coach (d. 2015)
1928 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (d. 2010)
1929 – Jack Sanford, American baseball player and coach (d. 2000)
1929 – Norman St John-Stevas, Baron St John of Fawsley, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (d. 2012)
1930 – Warren Rudman, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2012)
1930 – Fred Saberhagen, American soldier and author (d. 2007)
1931 – Don Martin, American cartoonist (d. 2000)
1931 – Robert Morse, American actor
1931 – Kalju Pitksaar, Estonian chess player (d. 1995)
1931 – Clément Vincent, Canadian farmer and politician (d. 2018)
1933 – Bernadette Chirac, French politician, First Lady of France
1933 – H. D. Deve Gowda, Indian farmer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of India
1933 – Don Whillans, English rock climber and mountaineer (d. 1985)
1934 – Dwayne Hickman, American actor and director
1936 – Leon Ashley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1936 – Türker İnanoğlu, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter
1936 – Michael Sandle, English sculptor and academic
1937 – Brooks Robinson, American baseball player and sportscaster
1937 – Jacques Santer, Luxembourger jurist and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Luxembourg
1938 – Janet Fish, American painter and academic
1939 – Patrick Cormack, Baron Cormack, English historian, journalist, and politician
1939 – Giovanni Falcone, Italian lawyer and judge (d. 1992)
1939 – Gordon O’Connor, Canadian general and politician, 38th Canadian Minister of Defence
1940 – Erico Aumentado, Filipino journalist, lawyer, and politician (d. 2012)
1941 – Gino Brito, Canadian wrestler and promoter
1941 – Malcolm Longair, Scottish astronomer, physicist, and academic
1941 – Miriam Margolyes, English-Australian actress and singer
1942 – Nobby Stiles, English footballer, coach, and manager
1944 – Albert Hammond, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1944 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist, essayist, and poet (d. 2001)
1946 – Frank Hsieh, Taiwanese lawyer and politician, 40th Premier of the Republic of China
1946 – Reggie Jackson, American baseball player and sportscaster
1946 – Gerd Langguth, German political scientist and author (d. 2013)
1947 – John Bruton, Irish politician, 10th Taoiseach of Ireland
1947 – Gail Strickland, American actress
1948 – Joe Bonsall, American country/gospel singer
1948 – Yi Mun-yol, South Korean author and academic
1948 – Richard Swedberg, Swedish sociologist and academic
1948 – Tom Udall, American lawyer and politician, 28th New Mexico Attorney General, United States Senator from New Mexico
1949 – Rick Wakeman, English progressive rock keyboardist and songwriter (Yes)
1949 – Walter Hawkins, American gospel music singer and pastor (d. 2010)
1950 – Rod Milburn, American hurdler and coach (d. 1997)
1950 – Mark Mothersbaugh, American singer-songwriter and painter
1951 – Richard Clapton, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1951 – Jim Sundberg, American baseball player and sportscaster
1951 – Angela Voigt, German long jumper (d. 2013)
1952 – Diane Duane, American author and screenwriter
1952 – David Leakey, English general and politician
1952 – George Strait, American singer, guitarist and producer
1952 – Jeana Yeager, American pilot
1953 – Alan Kupperberg, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
1954 – Wreckless Eric, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Eric Gerets, Belgian footballer and manager
1955 – Chow Yun-fat, Hong Kong actor and screenwriter
1956 – Catherine Corsini, French director and screenwriter
1956 – John Godber, English playwright and screenwriter
1957 – Michael Cretu, Romanian-German keyboard player and producer
1957 – Henrietta Moore, English anthropologist and academic
1958 – Rubén Omar Romano, Argentinian-Mexican footballer and coach
1958 – Toyah Willcox, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1959 – Graham Dilley, English cricketer and coach (d. 2011)
1959 – Jay Wells, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1960 – Brent Ashton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1960 – Jari Kurri, Finnish ice hockey player, coach, and manager
1960 – Yannick Noah, French tennis player
1961 – Russell Senior, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1963 – Marty McSorley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1963 – Sam Vincent, American basketball player and coach
1964 – Ignasi Guardans, Spanish academic and politician
1966 – Renata Nielsen, Polish-Danish long jumper and coach
1966 – Michael Tait, American singer-songwriter and producer
1967 – Nina Björk, Swedish journalist and author
1967 – Heinz-Harald Frentzen, German race car driver
1967 – Nancy Juvonen, American screenwriter and producer, co-founded Flower Films
1967 – Mimi Macpherson, Australian environmentalist, entrepreneur and celebrity
1968 – Philippe Benetton, French rugby player
1968 – Ralf Kelleners, German race car driver
1969 – Troy Cassar-Daley, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Martika, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1969 – Antônio Carlos Zago, Brazilian footballer and manager
1970 – Tina Fey, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1970 – Tim Horan, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
1970 – Billy Howerdel, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1970 – Javier Cárdenas, Spanish singer, television and radio presenter
1970 – Vicky Sunohara, Canadian former ice hockey player
1971 – Brad Friedel, American international soccer player, goalkeeper, manager and sportscaster
1971 – Mark Menzies, Scottish politician
1971 – Nobuteru Taniguchi, Japanese race car driver
1972 – Turner Stevenson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1973 – Donyell Marshall, American basketball player and coach
1973 – Aleksandr Olerski, Estonian footballer (d. 2011)
1974 – Nelson Figueroa, American baseball player and sportscaster
1975 – Jem, Welsh singer-songwriter and producer
1975 – John Higgins, Scottish snooker player
1975 – Jack Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1976 – Ron Mercer, American basketball player
1976 – Marko Tomasović, Croatian pianist and composer
1976 – Oleg Tverdovsky, Ukrainian-Russian ice hockey player
1977 – Lee Hendrie, English footballer
1977 – Danny Mills, English footballer and sportscaster
1977 – Li Tie, Chinese footballer and manager
1978 – Ricardo Carvalho, Portuguese footballer
1978 – Marcus Giles, American baseball player
1978 – Charles Kamathi, Kenyan runner
1979 – Jens Bergensten, Swedish video game designer, co-designed Minecraft
1979 – Mariusz Lewandowski, Polish footballer
1979 – Michal Martikán, Slovak slalom canoeist
1979 – Milivoje Novaković, Slovenian footballer
1979 – Julián Speroni, Argentinian footballer
1980 – Reggie Evans, American basketball player
1980 – Michaël Llodra, French tennis player
1980 – Diego Pérez, Uruguayan footballer
1981 – Mahamadou Diarra, Malian international footballer
1981 – Ashley Harrison, Australian rugby league player
1982 – Jason Brown, English footballer
1982 – Marie-Ève Pelletier, Canadian tennis player
1983 – Gary O’Neil, English footballer
1983 – Luis Terrero, Dominican baseball player
1983 – Vince Young, American football player
1984 – Ivet Lalova, Bulgarian sprinter
1984 – Simon Pagenaud, French race car driver
1984 – Darius Šilinskis, Lithuanian basketball player
1984 – Joakim Soria, Mexican baseball player
1984 – Niki Terpstra, Dutch cyclist
1985 – Oliver Sin, Hungarian painter
1985 – Henrique Sereno, Portuguese footballer
1986 – Ahmed Hamada, Egyptian race car driver
1986 – Kevin Anderson, South African tennis player
1988 – Taeyang, South Korean singer
1990 – Dimitri Daeseleire, Belgian footballer
1990 – Yuya Osako, Japanese footballer
1990 – Josh Starling, Australian rugby league player
1992 – Adwoa Aboah, British fashion model
1993 – Stuart Percy, Canadian ice hockey player
1993 – Jessica Watson, Australian sailor
1998 – Polina Edmunds, American figure skater
1999 – Laura Omloop, Belgian singer-songwriter
2000 – Ryan Sessegnon, English footballer
2000 – Steven Sessegnon, English footballer
2002 – Alina Zagitova, Russian figure skater
Deaths on May 18
526 – Pope John I (b. 470)
893 – Stephen I of Constantinople (b. 867)
932 – Ma Shaohong, general of Later Tang
947 – Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty
978 – Frederick I, duke of Upper Lorraine
1065 – Frederick, Duke of Lower Lorraine (b. c. 1003)
1096 – Minna of Worms, Jewish martyr killed during the Worms massacre (1096)
1160 – Eric Jedvardsson (King Eric IX) of Sweden (since 1156); (b. circa 1120)
1297 – Nicholas Longespee, Bishop of Salisbury
1401 – Vladislaus II of Opole (b. 1332)
1410 – Rupert of Germany, Count Palatine of the Rhine (b. 1352)
1550 – Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine (b. 1498)
1551 – Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, Italian painter (b. 1486)
1675 – Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer, historian, and theologian (b. 1623)
1675 – Jacques Marquette, French-American missionary and explorer (b. 1637)
1692 – Elias Ashmole, English astrologer and politician (b. 1617)
1721 – Maria Barbara Carillo, victim of the Spanish Inquisition (b.1625)
1733 – Georg Böhm, German organist and composer (b. 1761)
1780 – Charles Hardy, English-American admiral and politician, 29th Colonial Governor of New York (b. 1714)
1781 – Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian-Indian rebel leader (b. 1742)
1792 – Levy Solomons, Canadian merchant and fur trader (b. 1730)
1795 – Robert Rogers, English colonel (b. 1731)
1799 – Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright and publisher (b. 1732)
1800 – Alexander Suvorov, Russian general (b. 1729)
1807 – John Douglas, Scottish bishop and scholar (b. 1721)
1808 – Elijah Craig, American minister, inventor, and educator, invented Bourbon whiskey (b. 1738)
1844 – Richard McCarty, American lawyer and politician (b. 1780)
1853 – Lionel Kieseritzky, Estonian-French chess player (b. 1806)
1867 – Clarkson Stanfield, English painter (b. 1793)
1395 – Battle of Rovine: The Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army.
1536 – George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason.
1536 – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s marriage is annulled.
1590 – Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
1642 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve (1612–1676) founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.
1673 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.
1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.
1805 – Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt.
1809 – Emperor Napoleon I orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.
1814 – Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.
1814 – The Constitution of Norway is signed and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark is elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.
1859 – Members of the Melbourne Football Club codified the first rules of Australian rules football.
1863 – Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language.
1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris.
1875 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby with the jockey Oliver Lewis (2:37.75)
1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
1900 – The children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States. The first copy is given to the author’s sister.
1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
1914 – The Protocol of Corfu is signed, recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty.
1915 – The last British Liberal Party government (led by H. H. Asquith) falls.
1933 – Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.
1939 – The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States’ first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.
1940 – World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.
1943 – World War II: Dambuster Raids commence by No. 617 Squadron RAF.
1954 – The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.
1967 – Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.
1969 – Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
1974 – The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland.
1974 – Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army’s headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.
1977 – Nolan Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese’s in San Jose, California.
1980 – General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.
1980 – On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru.
1983 – The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world’s largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds , in response to the Appalachian Observer’s Freedom of Information Act request.
1983 – Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
1984 – Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”, sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
1987 – Iran–Iraq War: An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.
1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
1992 – Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, hundreds of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests.
1994 – Malawi holds its first multi-party elections.
1995 – Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage.
1997 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2000 – Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen
2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.
2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.
2007 – Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.
2014 – A plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.
Births on May 17
1155 – Jien, Japanese monk, poet, and historian (d. 1225)
1443 – Edmund, Earl of Rutland (d. 1460)
1451 – Engelbert II of Nassau, Count of Nassau-Vianden and Lord of Breda (1475–1504) (d. 1504)
1490 – Albert, Duke of Prussia, last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (d. 1568)
1500 – Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (d. 1540)
1551 – Martin Delrio, Belgian occultist and theologian (d. 1601)
1568 – Anna Vasa of Sweden, Swedish princess (d. 1625)
1610 – Stefano della Bella, Italian engraver and etcher (d. 1664)
1628 – Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria (d. 1662)
1636 – Edward Colman, English Catholic courtier under Charles II (d. 1678)
1682 – Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (d. 1722)
1698 – Gio Nicola Buhagiar, Maltese painter (d. 1752)
1706 – Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (d. 1780)
1718 – Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English politician and diplomat, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (d. 1778)
1732 – Francesco Pasquale Ricci, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1817)
1743 – Seth Warner, American colonel (d. 1784)
1749 – Edward Jenner, English physician and microbiologist (d. 1823)
1758 – Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet, English politician (d. 1839)
1768 – Caroline of Brunswick (d. 1821)
1768 – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1854)
1794 – Anna Brownell Jameson, Irish-English author (d. 1860)
1818 – Ezra Otis Kendall, American professor, astronomer and mathematician (d. 1899)
1821 – Sebastian Kneipp, German priest and therapist (d. 1897)
1835 – Thomas McIlwraith, Scottish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Queensland (d. 1900)
1836 – Virginie Loveling, Belgian author and poet (d. 1923)
1836 – Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian-American chess player (d. 1900)
1845 – Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan priest and poet (d. 1902)
1860 – Martin Kukučín, Slovak author and playwright (d. 1928)
1860 – Charlotte Barnum, American mathematician and social activist (d. 1934)
1863 – Léon Gérin, Canadian lawyer, sociologist, and civil servant (d. 1951)
1864 – Louis Richardet, Swiss target shooter (d. 1923)
1864 – Ante Trumbić, Croatian lawyer and politician, 27th Mayor of Split (d. 1938)
1866 – Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (d. 1925)
1868 – Horace Elgin Dodge, American businessman, co-founded Dodge (d. 1920)
1868 – Panagis Tsaldaris, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936)
1870 – Newton Moore, Australian politician, 8th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1936)
1873 – Henri Barbusse, French author and journalist (d. 1935)
1873 – Dorothy Richardson, English author and journalist (d. 1957)
1874 – George Sheldon, American diver (d. 1907)
1882 – Karl Burman, Estonian architect and painter (d. 1965)
1886 – Alfonso XIII of Spain, Spanish monarch (d. 1941)
1888 – Tich Freeman, English cricketer (d. 1965)
1889 – Dorothy Gibson, American actress and singer (d. 1946)
1889 – Alfonso Reyes, Mexican author (d. 1959)
1891 – Napoleon Zervas, Greek general and politician (d. 1957)
1893 – Frederick McKinley Jones, American inventor and entrepreneur (d. 1961)
1895 – Saul Adler, Belarusian-English captain and parasitologist (d. 1966)
1895 – Reinhold Saulmann, Estonian sprinter and bandy player (d. 1936)
1897 – Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
1898 – A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (d. 1992)
1899 – Carmen de Icaza, Spanish writer (d. 1979)
1901 – Werner Egk, German pianist and composer (d. 1983)
1903 – Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)
1904 – Marie-Anne Desmarest, French author (d. 1973)
1906 – Zinka Milanov, Croatian-American soprano and educator (d. 1989)
1909 – Julius Sumner Miller, American physicist and academic (d. 1987)
1911 – Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish-American model (d. 1992)
1911 – Maureen O’Sullivan, Irish-American actress (d. 1998)
1912 – Archibald Cox, American lawyer and politician, 31st United States Solicitor General (d. 2004)
1912 – Ace Parker, American baseball and football player (d. 2013)
1912 – Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, American inventor (d. 2006)
1913 – Hans Ruesch, Swiss racing driver and author (d. 2007)
1914 – Robert N. Thompson, American-Canadian chiropractor and politician (d. 1997)
1918 – Joan Benham, English actress (d. 1981)
1918 – Birgit Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (d. 2005)
1919 – Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1919 – Merle Miller, American author and screenwriter (d. 1986)
1919 – Gustav Naan, Russian-Estonian physicist and philosopher (d. 1994)
1920 – Harry Männil, Estonian-Venezuelan businessman, co-founded ACO Group (d. 2010)
1921 – Dennis Brain, English composer (d. 1957)
1921 – Bob Merrill, American composer and screenwriter (d. 1998)
1922 – Jean Rédélé, French racing driver, founded Alpine (d. 2007)
1923 – Michael Beetham, English commander and pilot (d. 2015)
1924 – Roy Bentley, English footballer (d. 2018)
1924 – Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs, English engineer and politician (d. 2020)
1926 – David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, English-Scottish soldier and politician
1926 – Dietmar Schönherr, Austrian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1926 – Franz Sondheimer, German-English chemist and academic (d. 1981)
1929 – Branko Zebec, Yugoslav football player and coach (d. 1988)
1931 – Marshall Applewhite, American cult leader, founded Heaven’s Gate (d. 1997)
1931 – Dewey Redman, American saxophonist (d. 2006)
1932 – Rodric Braithwaite, English soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Russia
1932 – Peter Burge, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
1933 – Yelena Gorchakova, Russian javelin thrower (d. 2002)
1934 – Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel, German educator and politician
1934 – Earl Morrall, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
1934 – Ronald Wayne, American computer scientist, co-founded Apple Inc.
1935 – Dennis Potter, English voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
1936 – Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (d. 2010)
1937 – Hazel R. O’Leary, American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Secretary of Energy
1938 – Jason Bernard, American actor (d. 1996)
1938 – Marcia Freedman, Israeli activist
1938 – Pervis Jackson, American R&B bass singer (d. 2008)
1939 – Hugh Dykes, Baron Dykes, English politician
1939 – Gary Paulsen, American author
1940 – Alan Kay, American computer scientist and academic
1940 – Reynato Puno, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 22nd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
1941 – David Cope, American composer and author
1941 – Ben Nelson, American lawyer and politician, 37th Governor of Nebraska
1942 – Taj Mahal, American blues singer-songwriter and musician
1943 – Sirajuddin of Perlis, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
1943 – Johnny Warren, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2004)
1944 – Jesse Winchester, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2014)
1945 – B.S. Chandrasekhar, Indian cricketer
1945 – Tony Roche, Australian tennis player and coach
1946 – Udo Lindenberg, German singer-songwriter and drummer
1947 – Stephen Platten, English bishop
1948 – Dick Gaughan, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 – Bill Bruford, English drummer, songwriter, and producer
1949 – Keith, American pop singer
1950 – Howard Ashman, American playwright and composer (d. 1991)
1950 – Keith Bradley, Baron Bradley, English accountant and politician
1950 – Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (d. 2008)
1950 – Alan Johnson, English politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
1950 – Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Russian journalist and politician (d. 2014)
1951 – Simon Hughes, English lawyer and politician
1952 – Howard Hampton, Canadian lawyer and politician
1954 – Michael Roberts, South African-English jockey
1955 – Bill Paxton, American actor and director (d. 2017)
1955 – David Townsend, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2005)
1956 – Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer
1956 – Annise Parker, American politician
1956 – Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host
1956 – Dave Sim, Canadian cartoonist and author
1957 – Pascual Pérez, Dominican baseball player (d. 2012)
1958 – Paul Di’Anno, English rock singer-songwriter
1959 – Marcelo Loffreda, Argentine rugby player and coach
1960 – Lou DiBella, American boxing promoter, actor, and producer
1960 – Simon Fuller, English talent manager and producer, created the Idols series
1961 – Enya, Irish singer-songwriter and producer
1961 – Jamil Azzaoui, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1961 – Justin King, English businessman
1962 – Lise Lyng Falkenberg, Danish journalist and author
1962 – Andrew Farrar, Australian rugby league player and coach
1962 – Craig Ferguson, Scottish-American comedian, actor, and talk show host
1962 – Jane Moore, English journalist and author
1962 – Rosalind Picard, American computer scientist and engineer, co-founded Affectiva
1963 – Jon Koncak, American basketball player
1963 – Page McConnell, American keyboard player and songwriter
1964 – Stratos Apostolakis, Greek footballer and coach
1964 – Mauro Martini, Italian race car driver
1964 – Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (d. 1999)
1965 – Trent Reznor, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer
1965 – Jeremy Vine, English journalist and author
1966 – Qusay Hussein, Iraqi soldier and politician (d. 2003)
1966 – Mark Kratzmann, Australian tennis player and coach
1966 – Danny Manning, American basketball player and coach
1966 – Gilles Quénéhervé, French sprinter
1967 – Nancy Benoit, American professional wrestling valet and model (d. 2007)
1967 – Mohamed Nasheed, Maldivian lawyer and politician 4th President of the Maldives
1967 – Patrick Ortlieb, Austrian skier
1968 – Dave Abbruzzese, American rock drummer and songwriter
1969 – Keith Hill, English footballer and manager
1970 – Hubert Davis, American basketball player and coach
1970 – Jordan Knight, American singer-songwriter and actor
1970 – Matt Lindland, American mixed martial artist, wrestler, and politician
1970 – Jodie Rogers, Australian diver
1970 – René Vilbre, Estonian director and screenwriter
1971 – Mark Connors, Australian rugby player
1971 – Shaun Hart, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster
1971 – Stella Jongmans, Dutch athlete
1971 – Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Dutch royal
1971 – Gina Raimondo, Governor of Rhode Island
1972 – Barry Hayles, English born Jamaican international footballer
1973 – Josh Homme, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1974 – Andrea Corr, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress
1974 – Wiki González, Venezuelan baseball player
1974 – Eddie Lewis, American international soccer player
1975 – Marcelinho Paraíba, Brazilian footballer
1975 – Alex Wright, German wrestler
1976 – Kandi Burruss, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1976 – Shayne Dunley, Australian rugby league player
1976 – José Guillén, Dominican-American baseball player
1976 – Daniel Komen, Kenyan runner
1976 – Wang Leehom, American-Taiwanese singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director
1976 – Mayte Martínez, Spanish runner
1976 – Kirsten Vlieghuis, Dutch freestyle swimmer
1978 – John Foster, American baseball player and coach
1978 – Paddy Kenny, English footballer
1978 – Carlos Peña, Dominican-American baseball player
1978 – Magdalena Zděnovcová, Czech tennis player
1979 – David Jarolím, Czech footballer
1979 – Wayne Thomas, English footballer
1980 – Davor Džalto, Bosnian historian and philosopher
1980 – Fredrik Kessiakoff, Swedish cyclist
1980 – Alistair Overeem, Dutch mixed martial artist and kickboxer
1980 – Ariën van Weesenbeek, Dutch drummer
1981 – Beñat Albizuri, Spanish cyclist
1981 – Leon Osman, English footballer
1981 – Lim Jeong-hee, South Korean singer
1981 – Chris Skidmore, English historian and politician
1981 – Giannis Taralidis, Greek footballer
1982 – Matt Cassel, American football player
1982 – Dan Hardy, English mixed martial artist
1982 – Reiko Nakamura, Japanese swimmer
1982 – Tony Parker, French-American basketball player
1982 – Chloe Smith, English politician
1983 – Channing Frye, American basketball player
1983 – Chris Henry, American football player (d. 2009)
1983 – Nicky Hofs, Dutch footballer
1983 – Kevin Kingston, Australian rugby league player
1983 – Jeremy Sowers, American baseball player
1984 – Christian Bolaños, Costa Rican footballer
1984 – Christine Ohuruogu, English runner
1984 – Christine Robinson, Canadian water polo player
1984 – Passenger, English singer-songwriter and musician
1985 – Teófilo Gutiérrez, Colombian footballer
1985 – Derek Hough, American actor, singer, and dancer
1985 – Christine Nesbitt, Canadian speed skater
1985 – Todd Redmond, American baseball player
1985 – Matt Ryan, American football player
1986 – Marius Činikas, Lithuanian footballer
1986 – Timo Simonlatser, Estonian skier
1986 – Jodie Taylor, English footballer
1987 – Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norwegian cyclist
1987 – Aleandro Rosi, Italian footballer
1988 – Nikki Reed, American actress, singer, and screenwriter
1988 – Jennison Myrie-Williams, English footballer
1989 – Mose Masoe, New Zealand rugby league player
1989 – Rain Raadik, Estonian basketball player
1989 – Tessa Virtue, Canadian ice dancer
1990 – Fabian Giefer, German footballer
1990 – Charlie Gubb, New Zealand rugby league player
1990 – Katrina Hart, English runner
1990 – Guido Pella, Argentine tennis player
1991 – Johanna Konta, Australian-English tennis player
1991 – Adil Omar, Pakistani rapper and music producer
1991 – Abigail Raye, Canadian field hockey player
Deaths on May 17
528 – Empress Dowager Hu of Northern Wei
528 – Yuan Yong, imperial prince of Northern Wei
528 – Yuan Zhao, emperor of Northern Wei (b. 526)
896 – Liu Jianfeng, Chinese warlord
924 – Li Maozhen, Chinese warlord and king (b. 856)
2017 – Todor Veselinović, Serbian football player and manager (b. 1930)
2019 – Herman Wouk, American author (b. 1915)
2020 – Lucky Peterson, American blues singer, keyboardist and guitarist (b. 1964)
Holidays and observances on May 17
Birthday of the Raja (Perlis)
Christian feast day:
Giulia Salzano
Paschal Baylon
William Hobart Hare (Episcopal Church (USA))
Restituta
May 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Children’s Day (Norway)
Constitution Day (Nauru)
Norwegian Constitution Day
The earliest date on which Trinity Sunday can fall, while June 20 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. (Western Christianity)
Feast of ‘Aẓamat (Bahá’í Faith, day shifts with March Equinox, see List of observances set by the Baháʼí calendar)
Galician Literature Day or Día das Letras Galegas (Galicia)
National Day Against Homophobia (Canada)
International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia also known as IDAHOT
946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.
1204 – Having been elected on May 9, Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
1426 – Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes king of Ava.
1527 – The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.
1584 – Santiago de Vera becomes sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.
1739 – The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army.
1770 – The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, who later becomes king of France.
1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The “Regulators”, occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
1811 – Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.
1812 – Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.
1822 – Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
1832 – Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.
1834 – The Battle of Asseiceira is fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.
1842 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.
1866 – The United States Congress establishes the nickel.
1868 – The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.
1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
1877 – The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.
1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.
1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world’s first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).
1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.
1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
1919 – A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.
1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.
1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
1959 – The Triton Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.
1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
1961 – Park Chung-hee leads a coup d’état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
1966 – The Communist Party of China issues the “May 16 Notice”, marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.
1974 – Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.
1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.
2003 – In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
2005 – Kuwait permits women’s suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.
2011 – STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space ShuttleEndeavour.
2014 – Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.
Births on May 16
1418 – John II of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458 (probable; d. 1458)
1455 – Wolfgang I of Oettingen, German count (d. 1522)
1542 – Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German noblewoman (d. 1580)
1606 – John Bulwer, British doctor (d. 1656)
1611 – Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
1641 – Dudley North, English economist and politician (d. 1691)
1710 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (d. 1782)
1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1799)
1763 – Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist (d. 1829)
1788 – Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator (d. 1866)
1801 – William H. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (d. 1872)
1804 – Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American educator who founded the first U.S. kindergarten (d. 1894)
1819 – Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (d. 1890)
1821 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician and statistician (d. 1894)
1824 – Levi P. Morton, American banker and politician, 22nd United States Vice President (d. 1920)
1824 – Edmund Kirby Smith, American general (d. 1893)
1827 – Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect, designed the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and Rijksmuseum (d. 1921)
1831 – David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (d. 1900)
1862 – Margaret Fountaine, English lepidopterist and diarist (d.1940)
1876 – Fred Conrad Koch, American biochemist and endocrinologist (d. 1948)
1879 – Pierre Gilliard, Swiss author and academic (d. 1962)
1882 – Simeon Price, American golfer (d. 1945)
1883 – Celâl Bayar, Turkish politician, 3rd President of Turkey (d. 1986)
1888 – Royal Rife, American microbiologist and instrument maker (d. 1971)
1890 – Edith Grace White, American ichthyologist (d. 1975)
1892 – Osgood Perkins, American actor (d. 1937)
1894 – Walter Yust, American journalist and writer (d. 1960)
1897 – Zvi Sliternik, Israeli entomologist and academic (d. 1994)
1898 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (d. 1980)
1898 – Desanka Maksimović, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1993)
1898 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (d. 1956)
1903 – Charles F. Brannock, American inventor and manufacturer (d. 1992)
1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
1906 – Ernie McCormick, Australian cricketer (d. 1991)
1906 – Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter and educator (d. 1988)
1906 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan lawyer, journalist, and author (d. 2001)
1906 – Margret Rey, German author and illustrator (d. 1996)
1907 – Bob Tisdall, Irish hurdler (d. 2004)
1909 – Margaret Sullavan, American actress and singer (d. 1960)
1909 – Luigi Villoresi, Italian race car driver (d. 1997)
1910 – Olga Bergholz, Russian poet and author (d. 1975)
1910 – Higashifushimi Kunihide, Japanese monk and educator (d. 2014)
1910 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter and educator (d. 1972)
1912 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (d. 2008)
1913 – Gordon Chalk, Australian politician, 30th Premier of Queensland (d. 1991)
1913 – Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (d. 1987)
1914 – Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author (d. 2009)
1915 – Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1916 – Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (d. 2009)
1917 – Ben Kuroki, American sergeant and pilot (d. 2015)
1917 – James C. Murray, American lawyer and politician (d. 1999)
1917 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican author and photographer (d. 1986)
1918 – Wilf Mannion, English footballer and manager (d. 2000)
1919 – Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (d. 1987)
1919 – Ramon Margalef, Spanish ecologist and biologist (d. 2004)
1920 – Martine Carol, French actress (d. 1967)
1921 – Harry Carey, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1923 – Victoria Fromkin, American linguist and academic (d. 2000)
1923 – Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
1923 – Peter Underwood, English parapsychologist and author (d. 2014)
1924 – Dawda Jawara, 1st President of the Gambia (d. 2019)
1925 – Nancy Roman, American astronomer (d. 2018)
1925 – Ola Vincent, Nigerian banker and economist (d. 2012)
1925 – Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
1928 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
1929 – Betty Carter, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
1929 – John Conyers, American lawyer and politician (d. 2019)
1929 – Claude Morin, Canadian academic and politician
1929 – Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist, and feminist (d. 2012)
1930 – Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 2000)
1931 – Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
1931 – Hana Brady, Jewish-Czech Holocaust victim (d.1944)
1931 – K. Natwar Singh, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs
1931 – Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., American soldier and politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut
1934 – Kenneth O. Morgan, Welsh historian and author
1934 – Antony Walker, English general
1935 – Floyd Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1936 – Karl Lehmann, German cardinal (d. 2018)
1937 – Yvonne Craig, American ballet dancer and actress (d. 2015)
1938 – Stuart Bell, English lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
1938 – Ivan Sutherland, American computer scientist and academic
1938 – Marco Aurelio Denegri, Peruvian television host and sexologist (d. 2018)
1941 – Denis Hart, Australian archbishop
1942 – David Penry-Davey, English lawyer and judge (d. 2015)
1943 – Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews, English politician
1943 – Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany
1943 – Wieteke van Dort, Dutch actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist
1944 – Billy Cobham, Panamanian-American drummer, composer, and bandleader
1944 – Antal Nagy, Hungarian footballer
1944 – Danny Trejo, American actor
1946 – John Law, English sociologist and academic
1946 – Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter and producer
1947 – Cheryl Clarke, American writer
1947 – Darrell Sweet, Scottish drummer (d. 1999)
1947 – Roch Thériault, Canadian religious leader (d. 2011)
1948 – Jesper Christensen, Danish actor, director, and producer
1948 – Judy Finnigan, English talk show host and author
1948 – Enrico Fumia, Italian automobile and product designer
1948 – Emma Georgina Rothschild, English historian and academic
1948 – Staf Van Roosbroeck, Belgian cyclist
1949 – Rick Reuschel, American baseball player
1950 – Georg Bednorz, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1950 – Ray Condo, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2004)
1950 – Bruce Coville, American author
1951 – Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer
1951 – Jonathan Richman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1951 – Janet Soskice, Canadian philosopher and theologian
1952 – James Herndon, American psychologist and academic
1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer
1953 – Peter Onorati, American actor
1953 – Richard Page, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1953 – Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (d. 2015)
1953 – David Maclean, Scottish politician
1953 – Stephen Woolman, Lord Woolman, Scottish judge and academic
1954 – Dafydd Williams, Canadian physician and astronaut
1955 – Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast
1955 – Jack Morris, American baseball player and sportscaster
1955 – Hazel O’Connor, English-born Irish singer-songwriter and actress
1955 – Páidí Ó Sé, Irish footballer and manager (d. 2012)
1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
1956 – Loretta Schrijver, Dutch television host, news anchor
1957 – Joan Benoit, American runner
1957 – Benjamin Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, English politician
1957 – Yuri Shevchuk, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1957 – Anthony St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso, English lawyer and businessman
1957 – Bob Suter, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2014)
1959 – Mitch Webster, American baseball player
1959 – Mare Winningham, American actress and singer-songwriter
1960 – Landon Deireragea, Nauruan politician, Nauruan Speaker of Parliament
1960 – S. Shanmuganathan, Sri Lankan commander and politician (d. 1998)
1961 – Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor and screenwriter
1961 – Charles Wright, American wrestler
1962 – Jimmy Hood, Scottish engineer and politician (d. 2017)
1962 – Helga Radtke, German long jumper
1963 – Rachel Griffith, Anglo-American economist
1963 – David Wilkinson, English theologian and academic
1964 – John Salley, American basketball player and actor
1964 – Boyd Tinsley, American singer-songwriter and violinist
1964 – Milton Jones, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1965 – Krist Novoselic, American bass player, songwriter, author, and activist
1965 – Tanel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist, engineer, and academic
1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actress
1966 – Scott Reeves, American singer-songwriter and actor
1966 – Thurman Thomas, American football player
1967 – Doug Brocail, American baseball player and coach
1967 – Susan Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford, British politician
1968 – Ralph Tresvant, American singer and producer
1969 – David Boreanaz, American actor
1969 – Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller
1969 – Steve Lewis, American sprinter
1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player
1970 – Danielle Spencer, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
1971 – Phil Clarke, English rugby league player and sportscaster
1971 – Rachel Goswell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1972 – Christian Califano, French rugby player
1972 – Matthew Hart, New Zealand cricketer
1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author
1974 – Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
1974 – Sonny Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and rapper
1975 – Tony Kakko, Finnish musician, composer, and vocalist
495 BC – A newly constructed temple in honour of the god Mercury was dedicated in ancient Rome on the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills. To spite the senate and the consuls, the people awarded the dedication to a senior military officer, Marcus Laetorius.
221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.
392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne.
589 – King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility.
908 – The three-year-old Constantine VII, the son of Emperor Leo VI the Wise, is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire by Patriarch Euthymius I at Constantinople.
1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.
1525 – Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants’ War in the Holy Roman Empire.
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third husband.
1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).
1648 – The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty.
1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world’s first machine gun.
1776 – American Revolution: The Fifth Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.
1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.
1792 – War of the First Coalition: France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.
1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for “about 360 meters”, at a height of 5–6 meters, during one of the first attempted manned flights.
1796 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.
1800 – King George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity.
1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).
1836 – Francis Baily observes “Baily’s beads” during an annular eclipse.
1849 – The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished.
1850 – The Bloody Island massacre takes place in Lake County, California, in which a large number of Pomo Indians are slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry.
1850 – The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending “the existing differences” between Great Britain and Argentina.
1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier.
1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.
1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1867 – Canadian Bank of Commerce opens for business in Toronto, Ontario. The bank would later merge with Imperial Bank of Canada to become what is CIBC in 1961.
1869 – Women’s suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers’ rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.
1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 miles off Port Arthur and sinks Japan’s battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons, with 496 crew and Yashima.
1905 – Las Vegas is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an “unreasonable” monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up.
1911 – More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales.
1914 – During a poker game at the Gaiety Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois, comedian Art Fisher nicknames Chicko, Harpo, Groucho, and Gummo Marx.
1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.
1919 – Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades.
1925 – Al-Insaniyyah, the first Arabic communist newspaper, is founded.
1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, “Plane Crazy”.
1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.
1932 – In an attempted coup d’état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated.
1933 – All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military’s air arm, the Luftwaffe.
1934 – Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus.
1940 – World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.
1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald’s restaurant.
1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft.
1941 – Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak.
1942 – World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.
1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.
1966 – After a policy dispute, Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of South Vietnam’s ruling junta launches a military attack on the forces of General Tôn Thất Đính, forcing him to abandon his command.
1969 – People’s Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by the University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot.
1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals.
1970 – Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.
1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.
1972 – In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while he is campaigning to become president.
1974 – Ma’alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren.
1976 – Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes in Viktorovka, Chernihiv Raion, killing all 52 people on board.
1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
1988 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.
1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France’s first female Prime Minister.
1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the “Secret War” in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other “Secret War” veterans.
1997 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
2004 – Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C with the right to claim the title “The Invincibles”.
2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state’s own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.
2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.
2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.
Births on May 15
1397 – Sejong the Great, Korean king (d. 1450)
1531 – Maria of Austria, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (d. 1581)
1565 – Hendrick de Keyser, Dutch sculptor and architect (d. 1621)
1567 – Claudio Monteverdi, Italian priest and composer (d. 1643)
1655 – Pope Innocent XIII (d. 1724)
1608 – René Goupil, French-American missionary and saint (d. 1642)
1633 – Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, French noble (d. 1707)
1645 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, British judge (d. 1689)
1689 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (d. 1762)
1720 – Maximilian Hell, Hungarian priest and astronomer (d. 1792)
1749 – Levi Lincoln Sr., American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Attorney General (d. 1820)
1759 – Maria Theresia von Paradis, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1824)
1770 – Ezekiel Hart, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1843)
1773 – Klemens von Metternich, German-Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire (d. 1859)
1786 – Dimitris Plapoutas, Greek general and politician (d. 1864)
1803 – Juan Almonte, son of José María Morelos, was a Mexican soldier and diplomat who served as a regent in the Second Mexican Empire (1863-1864) (d. 1869)
1805 – Samuel Carter, Early English railway solicitor and MP (d. 1878)
1808 – Michael William Balfe, Irish composer and conductor (d. 1870)
1817 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher and author (d. 1905)
1841 – Clarence Dutton, American commander and geologist (d. 1912)
1845 – Élie Metchnikoff, Russian zoologist (d. 1916)
1848 – Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian painter and illustrator (d. 1926)
1854 – Ioannis Psycharis, Ukrainian-French philologist and author (d. 1929)
1856 – L. Frank Baum, American novelist (d. 1919)
1856 – Matthias Zurbriggen, Swiss mountaineer (d. 1917)
1857 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish-American astronomer and academic (d. 1911)
1859 – Pierre Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
1862 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and playwright (d. 1931)
1863 – Frank Hornby, English businessman and politician, invented Meccano (d. 1936)
1869 – Paul Probst, Swiss target shooter (d. 1945)
1869 – John Storey, Australian politician, 20th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1921)
1882 – Walter White, Scottish international footballer (d. 1950)
1890 – Katherine Anne Porter, American short story writer, novelist, and essayist (d. 1980)
1891 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist and playwright (d. 1940)
1891 – Fritz Feigl, Austrian-Brazilian chemist and academic (d. 1971)
1892 – Charles E. Rosendahl, American admiral (d. 1977)
1892 – Jimmy Wilde, Welsh boxer (d. 1969)
1893 – José Nepomuceno, Filipino filmmaker, founder of Philippine cinema (d. 1959)
1894 – Feg Murray, American hurdler and cartoonist (d. 1973)
1895 – Prescott Bush, American captain, banker, and politician (d. 1972)
1895 – William D. Byron, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1941)
1898 – Arletty, French model, actress, and singer (d. 1992)
1899 – Jean Étienne Valluy, French general (d. 1970)
1900 – Ida Rhodes, American mathematician, pioneer in computer programming (d. 1986)
1901 – Xavier Herbert, Australian author (d. 1984)
1901 – Luis Monti, Argentinian-Italian footballer and manager (d. 1983)
1902 – Richard J. Daley, American lawyer and politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1976)
1902 – Sigizmund Levanevsky, Soviet aircraft pilot of Polish origin (d. 1937)
1903 – Maria Reiche, German mathematician and archaeologist (d. 1998)
1904 – Clifton Fadiman, American game show host and author (d. 1999)
1905 – Joseph Cotten, American actor (d. 1994)
1905 – Albert Dubout, French cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and sculptor (d. 1976)
1905 – Abraham Zapruder, American businessman and amateur photographer, filmed the Zapruder film (d. 1970)
1907 – Sukhdev Thapar, Indian activist (d. 1931)
1909 – James Mason, English actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1984)
1909 – Clara Solovera, Chilean singer-songwriter (d. 1992)
1910 – Constance Cummings, British-based American actress (d. 2005)
1911 – Max Frisch, Swiss playwright and novelist (d. 1991)
1911 – Herta Oberheuser, German physician (d. 1978)
1912 – Arthur Berger, American composer and educator (d. 2003)
1914 – Turk Broda, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1972)
1914 – Angus MacLean, Canadian farmer and politician, 25th Premier of Prince Edward Island (d. 2000)
1914 – Norrie Paramor, English composer, producer, and conductor (d. 1979)
1915 – Hilda Bernstein, English-South African author and activist (d. 2006)
1915 – Paul Samuelson, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
1915 – Henrik Sandberg, Danish production manager and producer (d. 1993)
1916 – Vera Gebuhr, Danish actress (d. 2014)
1918 – Eddy Arnold, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2008)
1918 – Arthur Jackson, American lieutenant and target shooter (d. 2015)
1918 – Joseph Wiseman, Canadian-American actor (d. 2009)
1920 – Michel Audiard, French director and screenwriter (d. 1985)
1922 – Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt, Russian historian and ethnographer (d. 2013)
1922 – Jakucho Setouchi, Japanese nun and author
1923 – Richard Avedon, American sailor and photographer (d. 2004)
1923 – John Lanchbery, English-Australian composer and conductor (d. 2003)
1924 – Maria Koepcke, German-Peruvian ornithologist and zoologist (d. 1971)
1925 – Andrei Eshpai, Russian pianist and composer (d. 2015)
1925 – Mary F. Lyon, English geneticist and biologist (d. 2014)
1925 – Carl Sanders, American soldier, pilot, and politician, 74th Governor of Georgia (d. 2014)
1925 – Roy Stewart, Jamaican-English actor and stuntman (d. 2008)
1926 – Clermont Pépin, Canadian pianist, composer, and educator (d. 2006)
1926 – Anthony Shaffer, English author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1926 – Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1930 – Jasper Johns, American painter and sculptor
1931 – Ken Venturi, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 2013)
1935 – Don Bragg, American pole vaulter
1935 – Ted Dexter, Italian-English cricketer
1935 – Utah Phillips, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2008)
1935 – Akihiro Miwa, Japanese singer, actor, director, composer, author and drag queen
1936 – Anna Maria Alberghetti, Italian-American actress and singer
1936 – Mart Laga, Estonian basketball player (d. 1977)
1936 – Ralph Steadman, English painter and illustrator
1936 – Paul Zindel, American playwright and novelist (d. 2003)
1937 – Madeleine Albright, Czech-American politician and diplomat, 64th United States Secretary of State
1937 – Karin Krog, Norwegian singer
1937 – Trini Lopez, American singer, guitarist, and actor
1938 – Mireille Darc, French actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1938 – Nancy Garden, American author (d. 2014)
1939 – Dorothy Shirley, English high jumper and educator
1940 – Roger Ailes, American businessman (d. 2017)
1940 – Lainie Kazan, American actress and singer
1940 – Don Nelson, American basketball player and coach
1941 – Jaxon, American illustrator and publisher, co-founded the Rip Off Press (d. 2006)
1942 – Lois Johnson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
1942 – Jusuf Kalla, Indonesian businessman and politician, 10th Vice President of Indonesia
1942 – Doug Lowe, Australian politician, 35th Premier of Tasmania
1942 – K. T. Oslin, American singer-songwriter and actress
1943 – Paul Bégin, Canadian lawyer and politician
1943 – Freddie Perren, American songwriter, producer, and conductor (d. 2004)
1944 – Bill Alter, American police officer and politician
1944 – Ulrich Beck, German sociologist and academic (d. 2015)
1945 – Michael Dexter, English hematologist and academic
1945 – Jerry Quarry, American boxer (d. 1999)
1946 – Thadeus Nguyễn Văn Lý, Vietnamese priest and activist
1947 – Graeham Goble, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
1948 – Kate Bornstein, American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist
1948 – Yutaka Enatsu, Japanese baseball player
1948 – Brian Eno, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1948 – Kathleen Sebelius, American politician, 44th Governor of Kansas
1949 – Frank L. Culbertson Jr., American captain, pilot, and astronaut
1949 – Robert S.J. Sparks, English geologist and academic
1950 – Jim Bacon, Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania (d. 2004)
1950 – Jim Simons, American golfer (d. 2005)
1951 – Dennis Frederiksen, American singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
1951 – Chris Ham, English political scientist and academic
1951 – Frank Wilczek, American mathematician and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1952 – Chazz Palminteri, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1953 – George Brett, American baseball player and coach
1953 – Athene Donald, English physicist and academic
1953 – Mike Oldfield, English-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1954 – Diana Liverman, English-American geographer and academic
1954 – Caroline Thomson, English journalist and broadcaster
1955 – Mohamed Brahmi, Tunisian politician (d. 2013)
1955 – Lia Vissi, Cypriot singer-songwriter and politician
1956 – Andreas Loverdos, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Labour
1956 – Dan Patrick, American television anchor and sportscaster
1956 – Kevin Greenaugh, American nuclear engineer
1957 – Meg Gardiner, American-English author and academic
1957 – Juan José Ibarretxe, Spanish politician
1957 – Kevin Von Erich, American football player and wrestler
1958 – Jason Graae, American musical theater actor
1958 – Ruth Marcus, American journalist
1958 – Ron Simmons, American football player and wrestler
1959 – Khaosai Galaxy, Thai boxer and politician
1959 – Luis Pérez-Sala, Spanish race car driver
1959 – Beverly Jo Scott, American-Belgian singer-songwriter
1960 – Rhonda Burchmore, Australian actress, singer, and dancer
1960 – Rob Bowman, American director and producer
1960 – R. Kuhaneswaran, Sri Lankan politician
1960 – Rimas Kurtinaitis, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
1961 – Giselle Fernández, Mexican-American television journalist.
1962 – Lisa Curry, Australian swimmer
1963 – Gavin Nebbeling, South African footballer
1964 – Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Danish lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Denmark
1965 – André Abujamra, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 – Scott Tronc, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Jiří Němec, Czech footballer
1967 – Simen Agdestein, Norwegian chess grandmaster and football player
1967 – Laura Hillenbrand, American journalist and author
1967 – John Smoltz, American baseball player and sportscaster
1967 – Madhuri Dixit, Indian actress
1968 – Cecilia Malmström, Swedish academic and politician, 15th European Commissioner for Trade
1968 – Sophie Raworth, English journalist and broadcaster
1969 – Hideki Irabu, Japanese-American baseball player (d. 2011)
1969 – Emmitt Smith, American football player and sportscaster
1970 – Frank de Boer, Dutch footballer and manager
1970 – Ronald de Boer, Dutch footballer and manager
1970 – Desmond Howard, American football player and sportscaster
1970 – Alison Jackson, English photographer, director, and screenwriter
1970 – Rod Smith, American football player
1970 – Ben Wallace, English captain and politician
1971 – Karin Lušnic, Slovenian tennis player
1972 – Danny Alexander, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
1972 – David Charvet, French actor and singer
1974 – Vasilis Kikilias, Greek basketball player and politician
1974 – Matthew Sadler, English chess player and author
1974 – Marko Tredup, German footballer and manager
1974 – Ahmet Zappa, American musician and writer
1975 – Ray Lewis, American football player and sportscaster
1975 – Ales Michalevic, Belarusian lawyer and politician
1976 – Torraye Braggs, American basketball player
1976 – Mark Kennedy, Irish footballer
1976 – Jacek Krzynówek, Polish footballer
1976 – Ryan Leaf, American football player and coach
1976 – Anže Logar, Slovenian politician
1976 – Tyler Walker, American baseball player
1978 – Amy Chow, American gymnast and pediatrician
1978 – Dwayne De Rosario, Canadian soccer player
1978 – Edu, Brazilian footballer
1978 – David Krumholtz, American actor
1979 – Adolfo Bautista, Mexican footballer
1979 – Daniel Caines, English sprinter
1979 – Chris Masoe, New Zealand rugby player
1979 – Ryan Max Riley, American skier
1979 – Robert Royal, American football player
1979 – Dominic Scott, Irish guitarist
1980 – Josh Beckett, American baseball player
1981 – Patrice Evra, French footballer
1981 – Paul Konchesky, English international footballer
1981 – Justin Morneau, Canadian baseball player
1981 – Zara Phillips, English equestrian
1981 – Jamie-Lynn Sigler, American actress and singer
1982 – Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jamaican sprinter
1982 – Segundo Castillo, Ecuadorian footballer
1982 – Rafael Pérez, Dominican baseball player
1982 – Layal Abboud, Lebanese singer
1984 – Jeff Deslauriers, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Sérgio Jimenez, Brazilian race car driver
1984 – Samantha Noble, Australian actress
1984 – Beau Scott, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Mr Probz, Dutch singer, songwriter, rapper, actor and record producer
1985 – Cristiane, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Tania Cagnotto, Italian diver
1985 – Laura Harvey, English football coach
1985 – Tathagata Mukherjee, Indian actor
1985 – Denis Onyango, Ugandan goalkeeper
1985 – Justine Robbeson, South African javelin thrower
1986 – Thomas Brown, American football player
1986 – Matías Fernández, Chilean footballer
1986 – Adam Moffat, Scottish footballer
1987 – David Adams, American baseball player
1987 – Michael Brantley, American baseball player
1987 – Brian Dozier, American baseball player
1987 – Mark Fayne, American ice hockey player
1987 – Ersan İlyasova, Turkish basketball player
1987 – Leonardo Mayer, Argentinian tennis player
1987 – Andy Murray, Scottish tennis player
1988 – Indrek Kajupank, Estonian basketball player
1988 – Scott Laird, English footballer
1989 – Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, French footballer
1990 – Jordan Eberle, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Lee Jong-hyun, Korean guitarist
1990 – Stella Maxwell, New Zealand model
1993 – Jeremy Hawkins, New Zealand rugby league player
1993 – Tomáš Kalas, Czech international footballer
1996 – Birdy, English singer-songwriter
1997 – Ousmane Dembélé, French footballer
Deaths on May 15
392 – Valentinian II, Roman emperor (b. 371)
558 – Hilary of Galeata, Christian monk (b. 476)
884 – Narinus I, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 830)
913 – Hatto I, German archbishop (b. 850)
926 – Zhuang Zong, Chinese emperor (b. 885)
973 – Byrhthelm, bishop of Wells
1036 – Go-Ichijō, emperor of Japan (b. 1008)
1157 – Yuri Dolgorukiy, Grand Prince of Kiev (b. 1099)
1175 – Mleh, prince of Armenia
1174 – Nur ad-Din, Seljuk emir of Syria (b. 1118)
1268 – Peter II, count of Savoy (b. 1203)
1461 – Domenico Veneziano, Italian painter (b. c. 1410)
1464 – Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (b. 1436)
1470 – Charles VIII, king of Sweden (b. 1409)
1585 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese samurai (b. 1535)
1609 – Giovanni Croce, Italian composer and educator (b. 1557)
1615 – Henry Bromley, English politician (b. 1560)
1634 – Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (b. 1585)
1698 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (b. 1642)
1699 – Sir Edward Petre, 3rd Baronet, English politician (b. 1631)
1700 – John Hale, American minister (b. 1636)
1740 – Ephraim Chambers, English publisher (b. 1680)
1773 – Alban Butler, English priest and hagiographer (b. 1710)
1845 – Braulio Carrillo Colina, Costa Rican lawyer and politician, Head of State of Costa Rica (b. 1800)
1879 – Gottfried Semper, German architect and educator, designed the Semper Opera House (b. 1803)
1886 – Emily Dickinson, American poet and author (b. 1830)
1914 – Ida Freund, Austrian-born chemist and educator (b. 1863)
1919 – Hasan Tahsin, Turkish journalist (b. 1888)
1924 – Paul-Henri-Benjamin d’Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
1926 – Joseph James Fletcher, Australian biologist (b. 1850)
1928 – Umegatani Tōtarō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 15th Yokozuna (b. 1845)
1935 – Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian-Russian painter and theoretician (b. 1878)
1937 – Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1864)
1945 – Kenneth J. Alford, English soldier, bandmaster, and composer (b. 1881)
1945 – Charles Williams, English author, poet, and critic (b. 1886)
1948 – Edward J. Flanagan, Irish-American priest, founded Boys Town (b. 1886)
1954 – William March, American soldier and author (b. 1893)
1956 – Austin Osman Spare, English painter and magician (b. 1886)
1957 – Keith Andrews, American race car driver (b. 1920)
1957 – Dick Irvin, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1892)
1963 – John Aglionby, English-born Bishop of Accra and soldier (b. 1884)
1964 – Vladko Maček, Croatian lawyer and politician (b. 1879)
1965 – Pio Pion, Italian businessman (b. 1887)
1967 – Edward Hopper, American painter (b. 1882)
1967 – Italo Mus, Italian painter (b. 1892)
1969 – Joe Malone, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1890)
1971 – Tyrone Guthrie, English director, producer, and playwright (b. 1900)
1978 – Robert Menzies, Australian lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
1980 – Gordon Prange, American historian and author (b. 1910)
1982 – Gordon Smiley, American race car driver (b. 1946)
1984 – Francis Schaeffer, American pastor, theologian, and philosopher (b. 1912)
1985 – Jackie Curtis, American actress and writer (b. 1947)
1986 – Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)
1986 – Theodore H. White, American historian, journalist, and author (b. 1915)
1989 – Johnny Green, American composer and conductor (b. 1908)
1989 – Luc Lacourcière, Canadian ethnographer and author (b. 1910)
1991 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician and academic (b. 1956)
2010 – Loris Kessel, Swiss race car driver (b. 1950)
2012 – Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist and essayist (b. 1928)
2012 – Arno Lustiger, German historian and author (b. 1924)
2012 – Zakaria Mohieddin, Egyptian soldier and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1918)
2013 – Henrique Rosa, Bissau-Guinean politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1946)
2014 – Jean-Luc Dehaene, French-Belgian politician, 63rd Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1940)
2014 – Noribumi Suzuki, Japanese director and screenwriter (b. 1933)
2015 – Elisabeth Bing, German-American physical therapist and author (b. 1914)
2015 – Jackie Brookner, American sculptor and educator (b. 1945)
2015 – Garo Yepremian, Cypriot-American football player (b. 1944)
2020 – Fred Willard, American actor, comedian, and writer (b. 1933)[19]
Holidays and observances on May 15
Aoi Matsuri (Kyoto)
Army Day (Slovenia)
Christian feast day:
Achillius of Larissa
Athanasius of Alexandria (Coptic Church)
Dymphna
Hallvard Vebjørnsson (Roman Catholic Church)
Hesychius of Cazorla
Hilary of Galeata
Isidore the Laborer, celebrated with festivals in various countries, the beginning of bullfighting season in Madrid.
Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (Roman Catholic Church)
Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Denise (Roman Catholic Church)
Reticius (Roman Catholic Church)
Sophia of Rome (Roman Catholic church)
May 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constituent Assembly Day (Lithuania)
Earliest date on which Armed Forces Day (United States) can fall, while May 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Saturday of May.
Independence Day (Paraguay), celebrates the independence of Paraguay from Spain in 1811. Celebrations for the anniversary of the independence begin on Flag Day, May 14.
International Conscientious Objectors Day
International Day of Families (International)
La Corsa dei Ceri begins on the eve of the feast day of Saint Ubaldo. (Gubbio)
1097 – The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade.
1264 – Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the effective ruler of England.
1509 – Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Republic of Venice.
1607 – Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
1608 – The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states, is founded to defend the rights, land and safety of each member against the Catholic Church and Catholic German states.
1610 – Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne.
1643 – Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
1747 – War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre.
1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.
1800 – The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the U.S. Government from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., begins the following day.
1804 – William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St. Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition‘s historic journey up the Missouri River.
1811 – Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor.
1836 – The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas.
1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Jackson takes place.
1868 – Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward.
1870 – The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.
1878 – The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
1879 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
1913 – Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.
1918 – Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the Two-minute silence.
1925 – Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway is published.
1931 – Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ådalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.
1935 – The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote.
1939 – Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1940 – World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center.
1943 – World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.
1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
1951 – Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.
1955 – Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
1961 – Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle.
1970 – Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction.
1973 – Skylab, the United States’ first space station, is launched.
1977 – A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport (now Kenneth Kaunda International Airport) in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people.
1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: the Sumpul River massacre occurs in Chalatenango, El Salvador.
1988 – Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.
2004 – The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
2004 – Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people.
2010 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135.
2012 – Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.
Births on May 14
1316 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1378)
1553 – Margaret of Valois (d. 1615)
1574 – Francesco Rasi, Italian singer-songwriter, theorbo player, and poet (d. 1621)
1592 – Alice Barnham, wife of statesman Francis Bacon (d. 1650)
1630 – Katakura Kagenaga, Japanese samurai (d. 1681)
1652 – Johann Philipp Förtsch, German composer (d. 1732)
1657 – Sambhaji, Indian emperor (d. 1689)
1666 – Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (d. 1732)
1679 – Peder Horrebow, Danish astronomer and mathematician (d. 1764)
1699 – Hans Joachim von Zieten, Prussian general (d. 1786)
1701 – William Emerson, English mathematician and academic (d. 1782)
1710 – Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (d. 1771)
1725 – Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice (d. 1802)
1727 – Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (d. 1788)
1737 – George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, Irish-English politician and diplomat, Governor of Grenada (d. 1806)
1752 – Timothy Dwight IV, American minister, theologian, and academic (d. 1817)
1752 – Albrecht Thaer, German agronomist and author (d. 1828)
1761 – Samuel Dexter, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1816)
1771 – Robert Owen, Welsh businessman and social reformer (d. 1858)
1771 – Thomas Wedgwood, English photographer (d. 1805)
1781 – Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian and academic (d. 1873)
1794 – Fanny Imlay, daughter of British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1816)
1814 – Charles Beyer, German-English engineer, co-founded Beyer, Peacock and Company (d. 1876)
1817 – Alexander Kaufmann, German poet and educator (d. 1893)
1820 – James Martin, Irish-Australian politician, 6th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1886)
1830 – Antonio Annetto Caruana, Maltese archaeologist and author (d. 1905)
1832 – Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician and academic (d. 1903)
1851 – Anna Laurens Dawes, American author and suffragist (d. 1938)
1852 – Henri Julien, Canadian illustrator (d. 1908)
1863 – John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician, founder of the Fields Medal (d. 1932)
1867 – Kurt Eisner, German journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Bavaria (d. 1919)
1868 – Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and sexologist (d. 1935)
1869 – Arthur Rostron, English captain (d. 1940)
1872 – Elia Dalla Costa, Italian cardinal (d. 1961)
1878 – J. L. Wilkinson, American baseball player and manager (d. 1964)
1879 – Fred Englehardt, American jumper (d. 1942)
1880 – Wilhelm List, German field marshal (d. 1971)
1881 – Lionel Hill, Australian politician, 30th Premier of South Australia (d. 1963)
1881 – George Murray Hulbert, American judge and politician (d. 1950)
1885 – Otto Klemperer, German composer and conductor (d. 1973)
1887 – Ants Kurvits, Estonian general and politician, 10th Estonian Minister of War (d. 1943)
1888 – Archie Alexander, American mathematician and engineer (d. 1958)
1893 – Louis Verneuil, French actor and playwright (d. 1952)
1897 – Sidney Bechet, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer (d. 1959)
1897 – Ed Ricketts, American biologist and ecologist (d. 1948)
1899 – Charlotte Auerbach, German-Jewish Scottish folklorist, geneticist, and zoologist. (d.1994)
1899 – Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist and academic (d. 1993)
1899 – Earle Combs, American baseball player and coach (d. 1976)
1900 – Hal Borland, American journalist and author (d. 1978)
1900 – Walter Rehberg, Swiss pianist and composer (d. 1957)
1900 – Cai Chang, Chinese first leader of All-China Women’s Federation (d. 1990)
1900 – Leo Smit, Dutch pianist and composer (d. 1943)
1900 – Edgar Wind, German-English historian, author, and academic (d. 1971)
1901 – Robert Ritter, German psychologist and physician (d. 1951)
1903 – Billie Dove, American actress (d. 1997)
1904 – Hans Albert Einstein, Swiss-American engineer and educator (d. 1973)
1904 – Marcel Junod, Swiss physician and anesthesiologist (d. 1961)
1905 – Jean Daniélou, French cardinal and theologian (d. 1974)
1905 – Herbert Morrison, American soldier and journalist (d. 1989)
1905 – Antonio Berni, Argentinian painter, illustrator, and engraver (d. 1981)
1907 – Ayub Khan, Pakistani general and politician, 2nd President of Pakistan (d. 1974)
1907 – Hans von der Groeben, German journalist and diplomat (d. 2005)
1908 – Betty Jeffrey, Australian nurse and author (d. 2000)
1909 – Godfrey Rampling, English sprinter and colonel (d. 2009)
1910 – Ken Viljoen, South African cricketer (d. 1974)
1910 – Ne Win, Prime Minister and President of Burma (d. 2002)
1914 – Gul Khan Nasir, Pakistani journalist, poet, and politician (d. 1983)
1914 – William Thomas Tutte, British codebreaker and mathematician (d. 2002)
1916 – Robert F. Christy, Canadian-American physicist and astronomer (d. 2012)
1916 – Lance Dossor, English-Australian pianist and educator (d. 2005)
1916 – Marco Zanuso, Italian architect and designer (d. 2001)
1917 – Lou Harrison, American composer and critic (d. 2003)
1917 – Norman Luboff, American composer and conductor (d. 1987)
1919 – Solange Chaput-Rolland, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 2001)
1919 – John Hope, American soldier and meteorologist (d. 2002)
1921 – Richard Deacon, American actor (d. 1984)
1922 – Franjo Tuđman, Yugoslav historian; later 1st President of Croatia (d. 1999)
1923 – Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi politician, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2019)
1923 – Mrinal Sen, Bangladeshi-Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1925 – Sophie Kurys, American baseball player (d. 2013)
1925 – Patrice Munsel, American soprano and actress (d. 2016)
1925 – Boris Parsadanian, Armenian-Estonian violinist and composer (d. 1997)
1925 – Al Porcino, American trumpet player (d. 2013)
1925 – Ninian Sanderson, Scottish race car driver (d. 1985)
1926 – Eric Morecambe, English comedian and actor (d. 1984)
1927 – Herbert W. Franke, Austrian scientist and author
1928 – Dub Jones, American R&B bass singer (d. 2000)
1928 – Frederik H. Kreuger, Dutch engineer, author, and academic (d. 2015)
1928 – Brian Macdonald, Canadian dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
1929 – Barbara Branden, Canadian-American author (d. 2013)
1929 – Henry McGee, English actor and singer (d. 2006)
1929 – Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2007)
1930 – William James, Australian general and physician (d. 2015)
1931 – Alvin Lucier, American composer and academic
1932 – Robert Bechtle, American lithographer and painter
1933 – Siân Phillips, Welsh actress and singer
1935 – Ethel Johnson, American professional wrestler (d. 2018)
1935 – Rudi Šeligo, Slovenian playwright and politician (d. 2004)
1936 – Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1973)
1936 – Dick Howser, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1987)
1938 – Robert Boyd, English pediatrician and academic
1939 – Rupert Neudeck, German journalist and humanitarian (d. 2016)
1939 – Troy Shondell, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
1940 – Chay Blyth, Scottish sailor and rower
1940 – H. Jones, English colonel, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1982)
1940 – George Mathewson, Scottish banker and businessman
1941 – Ada den Haan, Dutch swimmer
1942 – Valeriy Brumel, Russian high jumper (d. 2003)
1942 – Byron Dorgan, American lawyer and politician
1942 – Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green, English businessman and politician (d. 2014)
1942 – Tony Pérez, Cuban-American baseball player and manager
1942 – Malise Ruthven, Irish author and academic
1943 – Jack Bruce, Scottish-English singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2014)
1943 – L. Denis Desautels, Canadian accountant and civil servant
1943 – Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Icelandic academic and politician, 5th President of Iceland
1943 – Derek Leckenby, English pop-rock guitarist (d. 1994)
1943 – Richard Peto, English statistician and epidemiologist
1944 – Gene Cornish, Canadian-American guitarist
1944 – George Lucas, American director, producer, and screenwriter, founded Lucasfilm
1944 – David Kelly, Welsh scientist (d. 2003)
1945 – Francesca Annis, English actress
1945 – George Nicholls, English rugby player
1945 – Yochanan Vollach, Israeli footballer
1946 – Sarah Hogg, Viscountess Hailsham, English economist and journalist
1947 – Al Ciner, American pop-rock guitarist
1947 – Ana Martín, Mexican actress, singer producer and former model (Miss Mexico 1963)
1948 – Timothy Stevenson, English lawyer and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire
1948 – Bob Woolmer, Indian-English cricketer and coach (d. 2007)
1949 – Sverre Årnes, Norwegian author, screenwriter, and director
1949 – Walter Day, American game designer and businessman, founded Twin Galaxies
1949 – Johan Schans, Dutch swimmer
1949 – Klaus-Peter Thaler, German cyclist
1951 – Jay Beckenstein, American saxophonist
1952 – David Byrne, Scottish singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1952 – Michael Fallon, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Defence
1952 – Orna Grumberg, Israeli computer scientist and academic
1952 – Raul Mälk, Estonian politician, 22nd Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1952 – Wim Mertens, Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist.
1952 – Donald R. McMonagle, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1952 – Robert Zemeckis, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1953 – Tom Cochrane, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1953 – Hywel Williams, Welsh politician
1955 – Marie Chouinard, Canadian dancer and choreographer
1955 – Alasdair Fraser, Scottish fiddler
1955 – Peter Kirsten, South African cricketer and rugby player
1955 – Dennis Martínez, Nicaraguan baseball player and coach
1955 – Jens Sparschuh, German author and playwright
1956 – Hazel Blears, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
1956 – Steve Hogarth, English singer-songwriter and keyboardist
1958 – Christine Brennan, American journalist and author
1958 – Chris Evans, English-Australian politician, 26th Australian Minister for Employment
1958 – Rudy Pérez, Cuban-born American composer and music producer
1958 – Wilma Rusman, Dutch runner
1959 – Carlisle Best, Barbadian cricketer
1959 – Patrick Bruel, French actor, singer, and poker player
1959 – Markus Büchel, Liechtensteiner politician, 9th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein (d. 2013)
1959 – Robert Greene, American author and translator
1959 – John Holt, American football player (d. 2013)
1959 – Rick Vaive, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1959 – Heather Wheeler, English politician
1960 – Anne Clark, English singer-songwriter and poet
1960 – Alec Dankworth, English bassist and composer
1960 – Frank Nobilo, New Zealand golfer
1960 – Ronan Tynan, Irish tenor
1961 – David Quantick, English journalist and critic
1961 – Tommy Rogers, American wrestler (d. 2015)
1961 – Tim Roth, English actor and director
1961 – Alain Vigneault, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1962 – Ian Astbury, English-Canadian singer-songwriter
1962 – C.C. DeVille, American guitarist, songwriter, and actor
1962 – Danny Huston, Italian-American actor and director
1963 – Pat Borders, American baseball player and coach
1963 – David Yelland, English journalist and author
1964 – James M. Kelly, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1964 – Suzy Kolber, American sportscaster and producer
1964 – Alan McIndoe, Australian rugby league player
1964 – Eric Peterson, American guitarist and songwriter
1965 – Eoin Colfer, Irish author
1966 – Marianne Denicourt, French actress, director, and screenwriter
1966 – Mike Inez, American rock bass player and songwriter
1966 – Fab Morvan, French singer-songwriter, dancer and model
1966 – Raphael Saadiq, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1967 – Natasha Kaiser-Brown, American sprinter and coach
1967 – Tony Siragusa, American football player and journalist
1968 – Mary DePiero, Canadian diver
1969 – Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
1969 – Sabine Schmitz, German race car driver and sportscaster
1969 – Henry Smith, English politician
1969 – Danny Wood, American singer-songwriter, record producer, and choreographer
1971 – Deanne Bray, American actress
1971 – Sofia Coppola, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1971 – Martin Reim, Estonian footballer and manager
1972 – Kirstjen Nielsen, American attorney, 6th United States Secretary of Homeland Security
1973 – Natalie Appleton, Canadian singer and actress
1973 – Voshon Lenard, American basketball player
1973 – Fraser Nelson, Scottish journalist
1973 – Hakan Ünsal, Turkish footballer and sportscaster
1973 – Julian White, English rugby player
1974 – Anu Välba, Estonian journalist
1975 – Nicki Sørensen, Danish cyclist
1976 – Hunter Burgan, American bass player
1976 – Brian Lawrence, American baseball player and coach
1976 – Martine McCutcheon, English actress and singer
1977 – Sophie Anderton, English model and actress
1977 – Roy Halladay, American baseball player (d. 2017)
1977 – Ada Nicodemou, Cypriot-Australian actress
1978 – Brent Harvey, Australian footballer
1978 – Eddie House, American basketball player
1978 – André Macanga, Angolan footballer and manager
1978 – Gustavo Varela, Uruguayan footballer
1979 – Dan Auerbach, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1979 – Edwige Lawson-Wade, French basketball player
1979 – Clinton Morrison, English-Irish footballer
1979 – Carlos Tenorio, Ecuadorian footballer
1980 – Zdeněk Grygera, Czech footballer
1980 – Pavel Londak, Estonian footballer
1980 – Eugene Martineau, Dutch decathlete
1980 – Júlia Sebestyén, Hungarian figure skater
1980 – Hugo Southwell, English-Scottish rugby player
1980 – Joe van Niekerk, South African rugby player
1981 – Pranav Mistry, Indian computer scientist, invented SixthSense
1983 – Anahí, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1983 – Keeley Donovan, English journalist
1983 – Frank Gore, American football player
1983 – Uroš Slokar, Slovenian basketball player
1983 – Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwean cricketer
1983 – Amber Tamblyn, American actress, author, model, director
1984 – Gary Ablett, Jr., Australian footballer
1984 – Luke Gregerson, American baseball player
1984 – Olly Murs, English singer-songwriter
1984 – Michael Rensing, German footballer
1984 – Indrek Siska, Estonian footballer
1984 – Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and businessman, co-founded Facebook
1985 – Dustin Lynch, American singer-songwriter
1985 – Sam Perrett, New Zealand rugby league player
1985 – Simona Peycheva, Bulgarian gymnast
1985 – Zack Ryder, American wrestler
1986 – Andrea Bovo, Italian footballer
1986 – Clay Matthews III, American football player
1986 – Marco Motta, Italian footballer
1987 – Jeong Min-hyeong, South Korean footballer (d. 2012)
1987 – Franck Songo’o, Cameroonian footballer
1987 – François Steyn, South African rugby player
1988 – Jayne Appel, American basketball player
1989 – Rob Gronkowski, American football player
1989 – Alina Talay, Belorussian hurdler
1993 – Miranda Cosgrove, American actress and singer
1993 – Kristina Mladenovic, French tennis player
1993 – Bence Rakaczki, Hungarian footballer (d. 2014)
1994 – Marcos Aoás Corrêa, Brazilian footballer
1994 – Pernille Blume, Danish swimmer
1994 – Bronte Campbell, Australian swimmer
1994 – Dennis Praet, Belgian footballer
1995 – Bernardo Fernandes da Silva Junior, Brazilian footballer
1995 – Jonah Placid, Australian rugby player
1996 – Martin Garrix, Dutch DJ
2001 – Jack Hughes, American hockey player
Deaths on May 14
649 – Pope Theodore I
934 – Zhu Hongzhao, Chinese general and governor
964 – Pope John XII (b. 927)
1080 – William Walcher, Bishop of Durham
1219 – William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, English soldier and politician (b. 1147)
1470 – Charles VIII of Sweden (b. 1409)
1576 – Tahmasp I, Shah of Persia (b. 1514)
1603 – Magnus II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (b. 1543)
1608 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
1610 – Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
1643 – Louis XIII of France (b. 1601)
1649 – Friedrich Spanheim, Swiss theologian and academic (b. 1600)
1667 – Georges de Scudéry, French author, poet, and playwright (b. 1601)
1688 – Antoine Furetière, French scholar, lexicographer, and author (b. 1619)
1754 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French playwright and producer (b. 1692)
1761 – Thomas Simpson, English mathematician and academic (b. 1710)
1847 – Fanny Mendelssohn, German pianist and composer (b. 1805)
1860 – Ludwig Bechstein, German author (b. 1801)
1873 – Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician and author (b. 1797)
1878 – Ōkubo Toshimichi, Japanese samurai and politician (b. 1830)
1881 – Mary Seacole, Jamaican-English nurse and author (b. 1805)
1889 – Volney Howard, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (b. 1809)
1893 – Ernst Kummer, German mathematician and academic (b. 1810)
1906 – Carl Schurz, German-American general, journalist, and politician, 13th United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1829)
1912 – Frederick VIII of Denmark (b. 1843)
1912 – August Strindberg, Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist (b. 1849)
1918 – James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American journalist and publisher (b. 1841)
1919 – Henry J. Heinz, American businessman, founded the H. J. Heinz Company (b. 1844)
1923 – N. G. Chandavarkar, Indian jurist and politician (b. 1855)
1923 – Charles de Freycinet, French engineer and politician, 43rd Prime Minister of France (b. 1828)
1931 – David Belasco, American director, producer, and playwright (b. 1853)
1934 – Lou Criger, American baseball player and manager (b. 1872)
1935 – Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and sexologist (b. 1868)
1936 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, English field marshal and diplomat, British High Commissioner in Egypt (b. 1861)
1940 – Emma Goldman, Lithuanian author and activist (b. 1869)
1940 – Menno ter Braak, Dutch author (b. 1902)
1943 – Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer and author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854)
1945 – Heber J. Grant, American religious leader, 7th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1856)
1945 – Wolfgang Lüth, Latvian-German captain (b. 1913)
1945 – Isis Pogson, English astronomer and meteorologist (b. 1852)
1953 – Yasuo Kuniyoshi, American painter and photographer (b. 1893)
1954 – Heinz Guderian, Prussian-German general (b. 1888)
1956 – Joan Malleson, English physician (b. 1889)
1957 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian-French painter (b. 1884)
1959 – Sidney Bechet, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer (b. 1897)
1959 – Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal (b. 1862)
1960 – Lucrezia Bori, Spanish soprano and actress (b. 1887)
1962 – Florence Auer, American actress and screenwriter (b. 1880)
1968 – Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (b. 1882)
