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)
1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love.
1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, are officially married at Greenwich.
1568 – Battle of Langside: The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.
1779 – War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in the Cumberland River area of what would become the U.S. state of Tennessee, providing for democratic government and a formal system of justice.
1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the “First Fleet”) to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.
1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on the Federal Republic of Mexico following a dispute over the American annexation of the Republic of Texas and a Mexican military incursion.
1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a “proclamation of neutrality” which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights.
1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1861 – Pakistan’s (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca: The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.
1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea (“Golden Law”), Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery.
1909 – The first Giro d’Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.
1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
1940 – World War II: Germany’s conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech to the House of Commons.
1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting against German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
1943 – World War II: Operations Vulcan and Strike force the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia.
1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.
1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.
1954 – The original Broadway production of The Pajama Game opens and runs for another 1,063 performances. Later received three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Best Choreography.
1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon’s car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
1958 – May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.
1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
1967 – Dr. Zakir Husain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
1969 – May 13 Incident involving sectarian violence in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1971 – Over 900 unarmed Bengali Hindus are murdered in the Demra massacre.
1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
1972 – The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.
1980 – An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
1985 – Police bombed MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing six adults and five children, and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
1990 – The Dinamo–Red Star riot took place at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije (fans of Red Star Belgrade).
1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People’s Republic of China.
1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
1998 – India carries out two nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
2005 – Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan; Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates.
2006 – São Paulo violence: Rebellions occur in several prisons in Brazil.
2011 – Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others.
2012 – Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
2013 – American physician Kermit Gosnell is found guilty in Pennsylvania of murdering three infants born alive during attempted abortions, involuntary manslaughter of a woman during an abortion procedure, and other charges.
2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.
Births on May 13
1024 – Hugh of Cluny, French abbot and saint (d. 1109)
1179 – Theobald III, Count of Champagne (d. 1201)
1221 – Alexander Nevsky, Russian prince and saint (d. 1263)
1254 – Marie of Brabant, Queen of France (d. 1321)
1453 – Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, Scottish princess (d. 1488)
1588 – Ole Worm, Danish physician and historian (d. 1654)
1597 – Cornelis Schut, Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver (d. 1655)
1638 – Richard Simon, French priest and scholar (d. 1712)
1699 – Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese politician, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1782)
1712 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician and diplomat (d. 1772)
1713 – Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist (d. 1765)
1717 – Maria Theresa, Archduchess, Queen, and Empress; Austrian wife of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1780)
1730 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1782)
1735 – Horace Coignet, French violinist and composer (d. 1821)
1742 – Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (d. 1798)
1753 – Lazare Carnot, French general, mathematician, and politician, French Minister of the Interior (d. 1823)
1792 – Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)
1794 – Louis Léopold Robert, French painter (d. 1835)
1795 – Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist and chronologist (d. 1875)
1811 – Juan Bautista Ceballos, President of Mexico (1853) (b. 1859)
1822 – Francis, Duke of Cádiz (d. 1902)
1830 – Zebulon Baird Vance, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of North Carolina (d. 1894)
1832 – Juris Alunāns, Latvian philologist and author (d. 1864)
1840 – Alphonse Daudet, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1897)
1842 – Arthur Sullivan, English composer (d. 1900)
1853 – Vaiben Louis Solomon, Australian politician, 21st Premier of South Australia (d. 1908)
1856 – Tom O’Rourke, American boxer and manager (d. 1938)
1857 – Ronald Ross, Indian-English physician and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
1868 – Sumner Paine, American target shooter (d. 1904)
1869 – Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, Turkish writer (d. 1944)
1877 – Robert Hamilton, Scottish international footballer (d. 1948)
1881 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian journalist and author (d. 1922)
1881 – Joe Forshaw, American runner (d. 1964)
1882 – Georges Braque, French painter and sculptor (d. 1963)
1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the pap smear (d. 1962)
1884 – Oskar Rosenfeld, Jewish-Austrian writer and Holocaust victim (d.1944)
1885 – Mikiel Gonzi, Maltese archbishop (d. 1984)
1887 – Lorna Hodgkinson, Australian educator and educational psychologist (d. 1951)
1888 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist (d. 1993)
1894 – Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, Icelandic politician, 2nd President of Iceland (d. 1972)
1895 – Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist, parapsychologist, and author (d. 1964)
1901 – Murilo Mendes, Brazilian poet and telegrapher (d. 1975)
1904 – Louis Duffus, Australian-South African cricketer and journalist (d. 1984)
1905 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer and politician, 5th President of India (d. 1977)
1907 – Daphne du Maurier, English novelist and playwright (d. 1989)
1908 – Eugen Kapp, Estonian composer and educator (d. 1996)
1909 – Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (d. 1992)
1911 – Robert Middleton, American actor (d. 1977)
1911 – Maxine Sullivan, American singer and actress (d. 1987)
1912 – Gil Evans, Canadian-American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1988)
1912 – Judah Nadich, American colonel and rabbi (d. 2007)
1913 – Robert Dorning, English actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1989)
1913 – Theo Helfrich, German racing driver (d. 1978)
1913 – William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberian politician, 20th President of Liberia (d. 1980)
1914 – Joe Louis, American boxer (d. 1981)
1914 – Johnnie Wright, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
1914 – Antonia Ferrín Moreiras, Spanish mathematician, academic, and astronomer (d. 2009)
1916 – Sachidananda Routray, Indian Oriya-language poet (d. 2004)
1918 – Balasaraswati, Indian dancer and instructor (d. 1984)
1918 – Gwyn Howells, Australian public servant (d. 1997)
1920 – Gareth Morris, English flute player (d. 2007)
1922 – Michael Ainsworth, English cricketer (d. 1978)
1922 – Otl Aicher, German graphic designer and typographer (d. 1991)
1922 – Bea Arthur, American actress and singer (d. 2009)
868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book.
912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch–Hanoverian army.
1792 – Robert Gray commands the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River.
1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.
1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.
1833 – The Lady of the Lake strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks with the loss of up to 265 passengers and crew.
1846 – President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War.
1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd state of the United States.
1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.
1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.
1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.
1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes.
1960 – Adolf Eichmann is captured by the Mossad in Argentina.
1963 – Racist bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, disrupt nonviolence in the Birmingham campaign and precipitate a crisis involving federal troops.
1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage.
1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg’s charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.
1985 – Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.
1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
1996 – After the aircraft’s departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.
2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.
2010 – David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country’s first coalition government since the Second World War.
2011 – An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain.
2013 – Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.
2014 – Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.
2016 – One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.
Births on May 11
1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyō (d. 1637)
1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, German organist (d. 1739)
1752 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist (d. 1840)
1797 – José Mariano Salas, Mexican general and politician (d. 1867)
1811 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician (d. 1893)
1852 – Charles W. Fairbanks, American journalist and politician, 26th United States Vice President (d. 1918)
1854 – Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer (d. 1932)
1869 – Archibald Warden, English tennis player (d. 1943)
1871 – Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer and author (d. 1943)
1875 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter (d. 1912)
1881 – Al Cabrera, Spanish-Cuban baseball player and manager (d. 1964)
1881 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1944)
1881 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer (d. 1963)
1888 – Irving Berlin, Belarusian-American pianist and composer (d. 1989)
1888 – Willis Augustus Lee, American admiral (d. 1945)
1889 – Paul Nash, British painter (d. 1946)
1890 – Willie Applegarth, English-American sprinter (d. 1958)
1890 – Helge Løvland, Norwegian decathlete (d. 1984)
1894 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
1895 – Jacques Brugnon, French tennis player (d. 1978)
1895 – William Grant Still, American composer and conductor (d. 1978)
1896 – Josip Štolcer-Slavenski, Croatian composer and academic (d. 1955)
1897 – Robert E. Gross, American businessman (d. 1961)
1901 – Rose Ausländer, Ukrainian-English poet and author (d. 1988):7
1901 – Gladys Rockmore Davis, American painter (d. 1967)
1902 – Edna Ernestine Kramer, American mathematician (d. 1984)
1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player and manager (d. 1993)
1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (d. 1989)
1905 – Lise de Baissac, Mauritian-born SOE agent, war hero (d. 2004)
1905 – Catherine Bauer Wurster, American architect and public housing advocate (d. 1964)
1907 – Rip Sewell, American baseball player and coach (d. 1989
1911 – Mitchell Sharp, Canadian economist and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Finance (d. 2004)
1911 – Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)
1912 – Saadat Hasan Manto, Indian-Pakistani author and screenwriter (d. 1955)
1916 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish author and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
1918 – Richard Feynman, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
1921 – Robin Barbour, Scottish minister and author (d. 2014)
1921 – Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician (d. 2016)
1924 – Antony Hewish, English astronomer and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1925 – Edward J. King, American football player and politician, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2006)
1927 – Bernard Fox, British actor (d. 2016)
1927 – Gene Savoy, American explorer, author, and scholar (d. 2007)
1930 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist and academic (d. 2002)
1930 – Stanley Elkin, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1995)
1932 – Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer
1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American religious leader
1934 – Jim Jeffords, American captain, lawyer, and politician (d. 2014)
1934 – Jack Twyman, American basketball player (d. 2012)
1935 – Francisco Umbral, Spanish journalist and author (d. 2007)
1937 – Ildikó Újlaky-Rejtő, Hungarian Olympic and world champion foil fencer
28 BC – A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.
1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king.
1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
1534 – Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.
1688 – King Narai nominates Phetracha as regent, leading to the revolution of 1688 in which Phetracha becomes king of the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
1768 – Rioting occurs in London after John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III.
1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.
1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Second Continental Congress takes place in Philadelphia.
1796 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon wins a victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks suspend the payment of specie, triggering a national banking crisis and an economic depression whose severity was not surpassed until the Great Depression.
1849 – Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 22 and injuring over 120.
1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.
1865 – American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.
1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah with the golden spike.
1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
1876 – The Centennial Exposition is opened in Philadelphia.
1881 – Carol I is crowned the King of the Romanian Kingdom.
1904 – The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded. It would eventually become the Audi company.
1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
1916 – Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.
1922 – The United States annexes the Kingman Reef.
1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and remains so until his death in 1972.
1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
1940 – World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg.
1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. On the same day, Germany invades France, Belgium and Luxembourg.Meanwhile, the United Kingdom occupies Iceland.
1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.hai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.
1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.
1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.
1967 – The Northrop M2-F2 crashes on landing, becoming the inspiration for the novel Cyborg and TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.
1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder.
1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills over 200 workers.
1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.
1996 – A blizzard strikes Mount Everest, killing eight climbers by the next day.
1997 – The 7.3 Mw Qayen earthquake strikes Iran’s Khorasan Province killing 1,567 people.
2002 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 60 feet from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.
2012 – The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people.
2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
Births on May 10
874 – Meng Zhixiang, Chinese general and emperor (d. 934)
955 – Al-Aziz Billah, Fatimid caliph (d. 996)
1491 – Suzanne, Duchess of Bourbon (d. 1521)
1604 – Jean Mairet, French author and playwright (d. 1686)
1697 – Jean-Marie Leclair, French violinist and composer (d. 1764)
1727 – Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, French economist and politician (d. 1781)
1755 – Robert Gray, American captain and explorer (d. 1806)
1760 – Johann Peter Hebel, German author and poet (d. 1826)
1760 – Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French captain, engineer, and composer (d. 1836)
1770 – Louis-Nicolas Davout, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1823)
1788 – Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist and engineer (d. 1827)
1812 – William Henry Barlow, English engineer (d. 1902)
1813 – Montgomery Blair, American lieutenant and politician, 20th United States Postmaster General (d. 1883)
1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
1841 – James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American publisher and broadcaster (d. 1918)
1843 – Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish author and playwright (d. 1920)
1847 – Wilhelm Killing, German mathematician and academic (d. 1923)
1855 – Yukteswar Giri, Indian guru and educator (d. 1936)
1872 – Marcel Mauss, French sociologist and anthropologist (d. 1950)
1876 – Ivan Cankar, Slovenian poet and playwright (d. 1918)
1878 – Konstantinos Parthenis, Greek painter (d. 1967)
1878 – Gustav Stresemann, German journalist and politician, Chancellor of Germany, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1929)
1879 – Symon Petliura, Ukrainian journalist and politician (d. 1926)
1886 – Karl Barth, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1968)
1888 – Max Steiner, Austrian-American composer and conductor (d. 1971)
1890 – Alfred Jodl, German general (d. 1946)
1891 – Mahmoud Mokhtar, Egyptian sculptor and academic (d. 1934)
1893 – Tonita Peña, San Ildefonso Pueblo (Native American) artist (d. 1949)
1894 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-American composer and conductor (d. 1979)
1897 – Einar Gerhardsen, Norwegian politician, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1987)
1898 – Ariel Durant, American historian and author (d. 1981)
1899 – Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
1900 – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, English-American astronomer and astrophysicist (d. 1979)
1901 – John Desmond Bernal, Irish-English crystallographer and physicist (d. 1971)
1901 – Hildrus Poindexter, American bacteriologist (d. 1987)
1902 – David O. Selznick, American director and producer (d. 1965)
1903 – Otto Bradfisch, German economist, jurist, and SS officer (d. 1994)
1905 – Markos Vamvakaris, Greek singer-songwriter and bouzouki player (d. 1972)
1908 – Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 2000)
1909 – Maybelle Carter, American autoharp player (d. 1978)
1911 – Bel Kaufman, American author and educator (d. 2014)
1915 – Denis Thatcher, English soldier and businessman, Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2003)
1916 – Milton Babbitt, American composer and educator (d. 2011)
1918 – T. Berry Brazelton, American pediatrician and author (d. 2018)
1918 – Desmond MacNamara, Irish painter, sculptor, and author (d. 2008)
1919 – Ella T. Grasso, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1981)
1920 – Basil Kelly, Northern Irish barrister, judge and politician (d. 2008)
1920 – Bert Weedon, English guitarist (d. 2012)
1922 – David Azrieli, Polish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 2014)
1922 – Nancy Walker, American actress, singer, and director (d. 1992)
1923 – Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan general and politician, President of Azerbaijan (d. 2003)
1923 – Otar Korkia, Georgian basketball player and coach (d. 2005)
1926 – Hugo Banzer, Bolivian general and politician, President of Bolivia (d. 2002)
1927 – Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author
1928 – Arnold Rüütel, Estonian agronomist and politician, President of Estonia
1928 – Lothar Schmid, German chess player (d. 2013)
1929 – Audun Boysen, Norwegian runner (d. 2000)
1929 – George Coe, American actor and producer (d. 2015)
1929 – Antonine Maillet, Canadian author and playwright
1930 – George E. Smith, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
1931 – Ettore Scola, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1933 – Jean Becker, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1935 – Larry Williams, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 1980)
1937 – Tamara Press, Ukrainian shot putter and discus thrower
1938 – Manuel Santana, Spanish tennis player
1940 – Arthur Alexander, American country-soul singer-songwriter (d. 1993)
1940 – Wayne Dyer, American author and educator (d. 2015)
1942 – Jim Calhoun, American basketball player and coach
1944 – Jim Abrahams, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1944 – Marie-France Pisier, French actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2011)
1946 – Donovan, Scottish singer-songwriter
1946 – Graham Gouldman, English guitarist and songwriter
1946 – Dave Mason, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1947 – Caroline B. Cooney, American author
1949 – Miuccia Prada, Italian fashion designer
1952 – Sly Dunbar, Jamaican drummer
1955 – Mark David Chapman, American murderer
1956 – Vladislav Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995)
1957 – Sid Vicious, English singer and bass player (d. 1979)
1958 – Gaétan Boucher, Canadian speed skater
1958 – Rick Santorum, American lawyer and politician, United States Senator from Pennsylvania
1959 – Victoria Rowell, American actress
1959 – Danny Schayes, American basketball player
1959 – Cindy Hyde-Smith, American politician, United States Senator from Mississippi, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce
1960 – Bono, Irish singer-songwriter, musician and activist
1960 – Dean Heller, American lawyer and politician, United States Senator from Nevada, Secretary of State of Nevada
1960 – Merlene Ottey, Jamaican-Slovenian runner
1963 – Lisa Nowak, American commander and astronaut
1963 – Debbie Wiseman, English composer and conductor
1965 – Linda Evangelista, Canadian model
1966 – Jonathan Edwards, English triple jumper
1967 – Eion Crossan, New Zealand rugby player
1968 – Al Murray, English comedian and television host
1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy.
1271 – Ninth Crusade, Edward I of England disembarks at Acre.
1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force.
1450 – ‘Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California.
1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England.
1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England’s Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1726 – Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap’s molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
1763 – The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac’s War against British forces.
1864 – Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.
1865 – American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama.
1865 – American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships.
1873 – Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression.
1874 – The first horsebus makes its début in the city of Mumbai, traveling two routes.
1877 – Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania.
1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.
1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show opens in London.
1901 – Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne.
1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h).
1911 – The works of Gabriele D’Annunzio are placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican.
1915 – World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
1918 – World War I: Germany repels Britain’s second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.
1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk.
1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd’s diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.)
1927 – Old Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.
1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
1940 – World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
1942 – Holocaust: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported.
1945 – World War II: The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst.
1945 – World War II: The German occupation of the Channel Islands comes to an end.
1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.
1948 – Czechoslovakia’s Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.
1949 – Rainier III becomes Prince of Monaco.
1950 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, which according to him was indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the “Schuman Declaration”, is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
1958 – Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo has world premiere in San Francisco.
1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle’s Enovid, making Enovid the world’s first approved oral contraceptive pill.
1961 – FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow gives his Wasteland Speech.
1964 – Ngô Đình Cẩn, de facto ruler of central Vietnam under his brother President Ngô Đình Diệm before the family’s toppling, is executed.
1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.
1970 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House.
1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
1977 – Hotel Polen fire: A disastrous fire burns down the Hotel Polen in Amsterdam causing 33 deaths and 21 severe injuries.
1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran.
1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.
1980 – In Norco, California, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.
1987 – LOT Flight 5055 Tadeusz Kościuszko crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 people on board.
1988 – New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.
1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
1992 – Westray Mine disaster kills 26 workers in Nova Scotia, Canada.
1994 – Disappearance of Cleashindra Hall in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
2001 – In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
2012 – A Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crashes into Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia, killing 45 people.
2015 – An Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft crashes near the Spanish city of Seville with three people on board killed.
2015 – Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.
2018 – The historic defeat for Barisan Nasional, the governing coalition of Malaysia since the country’s independence in 1957 in 2018 Malaysian general election.
2018 – At the height of the 2018 East Africa floods, the Patel dam breaks in Solai, Kenya, killing 48 people and displacing another 2000.
Births on May 9
1147 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (d. 1199)
1170 – Valdemar II of Denmark (d. 1241)
1540 – Maharana Pratap, Indian ruler (d. 1597)
1555 – Jerónima de la Asunción, Spanish Catholic nun and founder of the first monastery in Manila (d. 1630)
1594 – Louis Henry, Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, military leader in the Thirty Years’ War (d. 1662)
1617 – Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Eschwege (d. 1655)
1740 – Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer and educator (probable; d. 1816)
1746 – Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1818)
1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian-Austrian poet and author (d. 1845)
1800 – John Brown, American activist (d. 1859)
1801 – Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, English politician, founded the town of Fleetwood (d. 1866)
1814 – John Brougham, Irish-American actor and playwright (d. 1880)
1823 – Frederick Weld, English-New Zealand politician, 6th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1891)
1824 – Jacob ben Moses Bachrach, Polish apologist and author (d. 1896)
1825 – James Collinson, Victorian painter (d. 1881)
1836 – Ferdinand Monoyer, French ophthalmologist, invented the Monoyer chart (d. 1912)
1837 – Adam Opel, German engineer, founded the Opel Company (d. 1895)
1845 – Gustaf de Laval, Swedish engineer and businessman (d. 1913)
1850 – Edward Weston, English-American chemist (d. 1936)
1855 – Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch composer (d. 1932)
1860 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (d. 1937)
1866 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian economist and politician (d. 1915)
1870 – Harry Vardon, British golfer (d. 1937)
1873 – Anton Cermak, Czech-American captain and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
1874 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist and historian (d. 1939)
1882 – George Barker, American painter (d. 1965)
1882 – Henry J. Kaiser, American shipbuilder and businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards (d. 1967)
1883 – José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, author, and critic (d. 1955)
1884 – Valdemar Psilander, Danish actor (d. 1917)
1885 – Gianni Vella, Maltese artist (d. 1977)
1888 – Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (d. 1918)
1888 – Rolf de Maré, Swedish art collector (d. 1964)
1892 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1989)
1893 – William Moulton Marston, American psychologist and author (d. 1947)
1895 – Richard Barthelmess, American actor (d. 1963)
1895 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (d. 1961)
1895 – Frank Foss, American pole vaulter (d. 1989)
1896 – Richard Day, Canadian-American art director and set decorator (d. 1972)
1900 – Maria Malicka, Polish stage and film actress (d. 1992)
1904 – Conrad Bernier, Canadian-American organist, composer, and educator (d. 1988)
1905 – Lilí Álvarez, Spanish tennis player, author, and feminist (d. 1998)
1906 – Eleanor Estes, American librarian, author, and illustrator (d. 1988)
1907 – Jackie Grant, Trinidadian cricketer (d. 1978)
1907 – Kathryn Kuhlman, American evangelist and author (d. 1976)
1907 – Baldur von Schirach, German politician (d. 1974)
1909 – Don Messer, Canadian violinist (d. 1973)
1909 – Gordon Bunshaft, American architect, designed the Solow Building (d. 1990)
1911 – Harry Simeone, American music arranger, conductor, and composer (d. 2005)
1912 – Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican-American actor (d. 1963)
1912 – Per Imerslund, Norwegian-German soldier and author (d. 1943)
1912 – Géza Ottlik, Hungarian mathematician and theorist (d. 1990)
1914 – Patricia Swift Blalock, American librarian (d.2011)
1914 – Denham Fouts, American prostitute (d. 1948)
1914 – Thanat Khoman, Thai politician and diplomat (d. 2016)
1914 – Carlo Maria Giulini, Italian conductor and director (d. 2005)
1914 – Hank Snow, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
1916 – William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (d. 1993)
1917 – Fay Kanin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1918 – Moisis Michail Bourlas, Greek soldier and educator (d. 2011)
1918 – Orville Freeman, American soldier and politician, 16th United States Secretary of Agriculture (d. 2003)
1918 – Mike Wallace, American journalist, media personality and one-time game show host (d. 2012)
1919 – Clifford Chadderton, Canadian soldier and journalist (d. 2013)
1920 – William Tenn, English-American author and academic (d. 2010)
1920 – Richard Adams, English novelist (d. 2016)
1921 – Daniel Berrigan, American priest, poet, and activist (d. 2016)
1921 – Sophie Scholl, German activist (d. 1943)
1921 – Mona Van Duyn, American poet and academic (d. 2004)
1923 – Johnny Grant, American radio host and producer (d. 2008)
1924 – Bulat Okudzhava, Russian singer, poet, and author (d. 1997)
1926 – John Middleton Murry, Jr., English soldier, pilot, and author (d. 2002)
1927 – Manfred Eigen, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019)
1928 – Ralph Goings, American painter (d. 2016)
1928 – Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (d. 1995)
1928 – Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater (d. 2012)
1930 – Joan Sims, English actress (d. 2001)
1930 – Kalifa Tillisi, Libyan historian and linguist (d. 2010)
1931 – Vance D. Brand, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut
1932 – Conrad Hunte, Barbadian cricketer (d. 1999)
1934 – Alan Bennett, English screenwriter, playwright, and novelist
1935 – Nokie Edwards, American guitarist (d. 2018)
1935 – Roger Hargreaves, English author and illustrator (d. 1988)
1936 – Terry Downes, British boxer and former world middle-weight champion (d. 2017)
1936 – Albert Finney, English actor (d. 2019)
1936 – Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
1937 – Sonny Curtis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1937 – Rafael Moneo, Spanish architect, designed the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and Valladolid Science Museum
1937 – Dave Prater, American singer (d. 1988)
1938 – Charles Simić, Serbian-American poet and editor
1939 – Ralph Boston, American long jumper
1939 – Ion Țiriac, Romanian tennis player and manager
1939 – Ken Warby, Australian motorboat racer
1939 – Giorgio Zancanaro, Italian baritone
1939 – John Ogbu, Nigerian-American anthropologist and professor (d. 2003)
1940 – James L. Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1941 – Dorothy Hyman, English sprinter
1941 – Danny Rapp, American musician (d. 1983)
1942 – John Ashcroft, American lawyer and politician, 79th United States Attorney General
1942 – Tommy Roe, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Vince Cable, English economist and politician, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
1943 – Anders Isaksson, Swedish historian and journalist (d. 2009)
1943 – Colin Pillinger, English astronomer, chemist, and academic (d. 2014)
1944 – Richie Furay, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 – Gamal El-Ghitani, Egyptian journalist and author (d. 2015)
1945 – Jupp Heynckes, German footballer and manager
1945 – Steve Katz, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1946 – Candice Bergen, American actress and producer
1946 – Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, Turkish author and activist (d. 2002)
1947 – Yukiya Amano, Japanese diplomat (d. 2019)
1948 – Hans Georg Bock, German mathematician, computer scientist, and academic
1948 – John Mahaffey, American golfer
1948 – Steven W. Mosher, American social scientist and author
1948 – Calvin Murphy, American basketball player and radio host
1949 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1949 – Richard S. Williamson, American lawyer and diplomat, 17th Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (d. 2013)
1951 – Alley Mills, American actress
1953 – Bruno Brokken, Belgian high jumper
1955 – Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (d. 2012)
1955 – Anne Sofie von Otter, Swedish soprano and actress
1956 – Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress and producer
1956 – Jana Wendt, Australian television host
1958 – Graham Smith, Canadian swimmer
1959 – Andrew Jones, New Zealand cricketer
1960 – Tony Gwynn, American baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
1961 – Sean Altman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1961 – John Corbett, American actor
1962 – Dave Gahan, English singer-songwriter
1962 – Paul Heaton, English singer-songwriter
1963 – Joe Cirella, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1965 – Ken Nomura, Japanese race car driver and sportscaster
1965 – Steve Yzerman, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1966 – Mark Tinordi, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1968 – Masahiko Harada, Japanese ski jumper
1968 – Graham Harman, American philosopher and academic
1968 – Ruth Kelly, British economist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
1968 – Marie-José Pérec, French sprinter
1968 – Neil Ruddock, English international footballer and television personality
1970 – Doug Christie, American basketball player
1970 – Hao Haidong, Chinese footballer & all time top scorer for Chinese national team
1970 – Ghostface Killah, American rapper and actor
1971 – Jason Lee, English footballer and manager
1971 – Dan Chiasson, American poet and critic
1972 – Megumi Odaka, Japanese actress and singer
1973 – Tegla Loroupe, Kenyan runner
1973 – Leonard Myles-Mills, Ghanaian sprinter
1975 – Tamia, Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1975 – Brian Deegan, American motocross rider
1977 – Averno, Mexican wrestler
1977 – Marek Jankulovski, Czech footballer
1977 – Svein Tuft, Canadian cyclist
1978 – Leandro Cufré, Argentinian footballer
1978 – Santiago Dellapè, Argentinian-Italian rugby player
1978 – Aaron Harang, American baseball player
1978 – Marwan al-Shehhi, Emirati terrorist (d. 2001)
1979 – Pierre Bouvier, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1979 – Rosario Dawson, American actress
1979 – Andrew W.K., American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, motivational speaker, and music producer
2013 – George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1918)
2013 – Humberto Lugo Gil, Mexican lawyer and politician, 23rd Governor of Hidalgo (b. 1933)
2013 – Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (b. 1921)
2014 – Giacomo Bini, Italian priest and missionary (b. 1938)
2014 – Harlan Mathews, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
2014 – Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, Indian politician, 12th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (b. 1935)
2014 – Mary Stewart, English-Scottish author and poet (b. 1916)
2015 – Edward W. Estlow, American football player and journalist (b. 1920)
2015 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (b. 1917)
2015 – Elizabeth Wilson, American actress (b. 1921)
2017 – Robert Miles, a Swiss-born Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ (b. 1969)
2018 – Per Kirkeby, Danish painter, poet, film maker and sculptor (b. 1938)
2019 – Freddie Starr, English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor (1943)
2020 – Little Richard, American singer, songwriter, and pianist (b. 1932)
Holidays and observances on May 9
Anniversary of Dianetics (Church of Scientology)
Christian feast day:
Beatus of Lungern
Beatus of Vendome
Christopher (Eastern Orthodox Church)
George Preca
Gerontius of Cervia
Gregory of Nazianzen (The Episcopal Church (US) and traditional Roman Catholic calendar)
Nicolaus Zinzendorf (Lutheran)
Pachomius the Great
Tudy of Landevennec
May 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Commemoration of the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands related observances:
Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. (Guernsey and Jersey)
National Day (Alderney)
Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union)
Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan)
Victory and Peace Day, marks the capture of Shusha (1992) in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the end of World War II. (Armenia)
752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico assumes the throne.
1294 – John II becomes Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg.
1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.
1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptized by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends French civil war.
1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.
1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District’s founding government. The “City of Washington” is given a mayor-council form of government.
1808 – Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Príncipe Pío hill.
1815 – Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.
1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.
1837 – The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece.
1848 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.
1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49.
1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
1860 – Charles XV of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
1867 – The Hudson’s Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
1913 – Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
1921 – West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.
1921 – The Government of Ireland Act 1920 is passed, dividing Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
1928 – The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.
1939 – The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
1942 – World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
1945 – World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
1948 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
1951 – London’s Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain.
1951 – The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.
1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.
1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.
1957 – Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
1960 – The Off-Broadway musical comedy The Fantasticks opens in New York City’s Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
1960 – The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the “Birmingham campaign” protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement.
1971 – Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989
1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building.
1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as “spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
1987 – A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
1999 – The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h).
1999 – Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side resulted into the kargil war.
2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
2002 – An Indian Air Force MiG-21 crashes into a bank in Jalandhar, killing eight and injuring 17.
2007 – The 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting “the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history”.
2015 – Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
2016 – Eighty-eight thousand people were evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire ripped through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.
Births on May 3
490 – K’an Joy Chitam I, ruler of Palenque (d. 565)
612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor (d. 641)
1238 – Emilia Bicchieri, Italian saint (d. 1314)
1276 – Louis, Count of Évreux, son of King Philip III of France (d. 1319)
1415 – Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (d. 1495)
1428 – Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal (d. 1495)
1446 – Margaret of York (d. 1503)
1461 – Raffaele Riario, Italian cardinal (d. 1521)
1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and philosopher (d. 1527)
1479 – Henry V, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1552)
1481 – Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez, Spanish abbess of the Franciscan Third Order Regular (d. 1534)
1536 – Stephan Praetorius, German theologian (d. 1603)
1632 – Catherine of St. Augustine, French-Canadian nurse and saint, founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (d. 1668)
1662 – Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect, designed the Pillnitz Castle (d. 1736)
1678 – Amaro Pargo, Spanish corsair (d. 1747)
1695 – Henri Pitot, French physicist and engineer, invented the Pitot tube (d. 1771)
1729 – Florian Leopold Gassmann, Czech composer (d. 1774)
1761 – August von Kotzebue, German playwright and author (d. 1819)
1764 – Princess Élisabeth of France (d. 1794)
1768 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and businessman (d. 1838)
1783 – José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (d. 1858)
1814 – Adams George Archibald, Canadian lawyer and politician, 4th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (d. 1892)
1826 – Charles XV of Sweden (d. 1872)
1844 – Richard D’Oyly Carte, English talent agent and composer (d. 1901)
1849 – Jacob Riis, Danish-American journalist and photographer (d. 1914)
1849 – Bernhard von Bülow, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
1854 – George Gore, American baseball player and manager (d. 1933)
1859 – August Herrmann, American executive in Major League Baseball (d.1931)
1860 – Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1940)
1867 – Andy Bowen, American boxer (d. 1894)
1867 – J. T. Hearne, English cricketer (d. 1944)
1870 – Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1948)
1871 – Emmett Dalton, American criminal (d. 1937)
1873 – Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (d. 1945)
1874 – François Coty, French businessman and publisher, founded Coty, Inc. (d. 1934)
1874 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (d. 1954)
1877 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst and author (d. 1925)
1879 – Fergus McMaster, Australian businessman and soldier, co-founded Qantas (d. 1950)
1886 – Marcel Dupré, French organist and composer (d. 1971)
1887 – Marika Kotopouli, Greek actress (d. 1954)
1889 – Beulah Bondi, American actress (d. 1981)
1889 – Gottfried Fuchs, German-Canadian Olympic soccer player (d. 1972)
1891 – Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet and critic (d. 1969)
1891 – Eppa Rixey, American baseball pitcher (d. 1963)
1892 – George Paget Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
1892 – Jacob Viner, Canadian-American economist and academic (d. 1970)
1893 – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (d. 1975)
1895 – Cornelius Van Til, Dutch philosopher, theologian, and apologist (d. 1987)
1896 – Karl Allmenröder, German soldier and pilot (d. 1917)
1896 – V. K. Krishna Menon, Indian lawyer, jurist, and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (d. 1974)
1896 – Dodie Smith, English author and playwright (d. 1990)
1897 – William Joseph Browne, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Solicitor General of Canada (d. 1989)
1898 – Septima Poinsette Clark, American educator and activist (d. 1987)
1898 – Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)
1902 – Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
1903 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)
1905 – Edmund Black, American hammer thrower (d. 1996)
1905 – Werner Fenchel, German-Danish mathematician and academic (d. 1988)
1905 – Red Ruffing, American baseball pitcher and coach (d. 1986)
1906 – Mary Astor, American actress (d. 1987)
1906 – René Huyghe, French historian and author (d. 1997)
1906 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American journalist and author (d. 1975)
1906 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican journalist, author, and playwright (d. 2005)
1910 – Norman Corwin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2011)
1912 – Virgil Fox, American organist and composer (d. 1980)
1912 – May Sarton, American poet, novelist and memoirist (d. 1995)
1913 – William Inge, American playwright and novelist (d. 1973)
1914 – Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, French journalist, author, and poet (d. 2018)
1915 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler and trainer, founded Stampede Wrestling (d. 2003)
1915 – Richard Lippold, American sculptor and academic (d. 2002)
1916 – Léopold Simoneau, Canadian tenor and actor (d. 2006)
1917 – Betty Comden, American screenwriter and librettist (d. 2006)
1917 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (d. 2016)
1918 – Ted Bates, English footballer and manager (d. 2003)
1919 – John Cullen Murphy, American soldier and illustrator (d. 2004)
1919 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (d. 2014)
1920 – John Lewis, American pianist and composer (d. 2001)
1921 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
1922 – Len Shackleton, English footballer and journalist (d. 2000)
1923 – George Hadjinikos, Greek pianist, conductor, and educator (d. 2015)
1923 – Ralph Hall, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2019)
1924 – Yehuda Amichai, German-Israeli author and poet (d. 2000)
1924 – Ken Tyrrell, English race car driver, founded Tyrrell Racing (d. 2001)
1925 – Jean Séguy, French sociologist and author (d. 2007)
1926 – Matt Baldwin, Canadian curler and engineer
1928 – Dave Dudley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
1928 – Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (d. 2001)
1929 – Denise Lor, American singer and actress (d. 2015)
1930 – Juan Gelman, Argentinian poet and author (d. 2014)
1930 – David Harrison, English chemist and academic
1931 – Vasily Rudenkov, Belarusian hammer thrower (d. 1982)
1931 – Sait Maden, Turkish translator, poet, painter and graphic designer (d. 2013)
1932 – Robert Osborne, American actor and historian (d. 2017)
1933 – James Brown, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2006)
1933 – Steven Weinberg, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1934 – Henry Cooper, English boxer and sportscaster (d. 2011)
1934 – Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1934 – Frankie Valli, American singer and actor
1935 – Ron Popeil, American businessman, founded the Ronco Company
1937 – Nélida Piñon, Brazilian author and academic
1938 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist
1938 – Chris Cannizzaro, American baseball player
1938 – Napoleon XIV, American singer, songwriter and record producer
1939 – Jonathan Harvey, English composer and educator (d. 2012)
1940 – David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist (d. 2019)
1940 – Clemens Westerhof, Dutch footballer and manager
1941 – Alexander Harley, English general
1941 – Edward Malloy, American priest and academic
1942 – Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast and coach (d. 2016)
1942 – Dave Marash, American journalist and sportscaster
1942 – Butch Otter, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Idaho
1943 – Yukio Hashi, Japanese singer and actor
1943 – Jim Risch, American lawyer and politician, 31st Governor of Idaho
1943 – Vicente Saldivar, Mexican boxer (d. 1985)
1944 – Peter Doyle, English bishop
1944 – Pete Staples, English bass player
1945 – Jörg Drehmel, German triple jumper and coach
1945 – Davey Lopes, American baseball player, coach, and manager
1946 – Norm Chow, American football player and coach
1946 – Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player
1946 – Greg Gumbel, American sportscaster
1947 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)
1948 – Denis Cosgrove, British-American academic and geographer (d. 2008)
1948 – Chris Mulkey, American actor
1949 – Liam Donaldson, English physician and academic
1949 – Ruth Lister, Baroness Lister of Burtersett, English academic and politician
1949 – Ron Wyden, American academic and politician
1950 – Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer-songwriter
1950 – Dag Arnesen, Norwegian pianist and composer
1951 – Alan Clayson, English singer-songwriter and journalist
1951 – Christopher Cross, American singer-songwriter and producer
1951 – Ashok Gehlot, Indian politician, 21st Chief Minister of Rajasthan
1951 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian author and publicist
1952 – Chuck Baldwin, American pastor and politician
1952 – Caitlin Clarke, American actress (d. 2004)
1952 – Joseph W. Tobin, American cardinal
1953 – Bruce Hall, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1953 – Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2014)
1954 – Angela Bofill, American singer-songwriter
1954 – Jean-Marc Roberts, French author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1955 – Stephen D. M. Brown, British geneticist
1955 – Colin Deans, Scottish rugby player
1955 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2004)
1955 – Seishirō Nishida, Japanese actor
1956 – Marc Bellemare, Canadian lawyer and politician
1957 – Alain Côté, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 – Rod Langway, Taiwanese-American ice hockey player and coach
1958 – Bill Sienkiewicz, American author and illustrator
1958 – Sandi Toksvig, Danish-English comedian, writer, and broadcaster
1959 – David Ball, English keyboard player and producer
1959 – Uma Bharti, Indian activist and politician, 16th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
1959 – Ben Elton, English actor, director, and screenwriter
1960 – Kathy Smallwood-Cook, English sprinter and educator
1961 – Steve McClaren, English footballer and manager
1961 – David Vitter, American lawyer and politician
1961 – Leyla Zana, Kurdish activist and politician
1962 – Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
1963 – Jeff Hornacek, American basketball player and coach
1963 – Mona Siddiqui, Pakistani-Scottish journalist and academic
1964 – Sterling Campbell, American drummer and songwriter
1964 – Ron Hextall, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
1965 – Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian patriarch
1965 – Mark Cousins, Northern Irish director, writer, cinematographer
1965 – John Jensen, Danish footballer and coach
1965 – Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian businessman
1966 – Giorgos Agorogiannis, Greek footballer
1966 – Frank Dietrich, German politician (d. 2011)
1967 – Daniel Anderson, Australian rugby league coach and manager
1967 – Kenneth Joel Hotz, Canadian producer, writer, director, actor, and comedian
1968 – Viliami Ofahengaue, Tongan-Australian rugby player
1971 – Douglas Carswell, British politician, the first elected MP for the UK Independence Party
1972 – Stephen Barclay, English lawyer and politician
1973 – Jamie Baulch, Welsh sprinter and television host
1975 – Willie Geist, American television journalist and host
1976 – Jeff Halpern, American ice hockey player
1976 – Brad Scott, Australian footballer and coach
1976 – Chris Scott, Australian footballer and coach
1977 – Eric Church, American country music singer-songwriter
1977 – Ryan Dempster, Canadian baseball player and sportscaster
1977 – Tyronn Lue, American basketball player and coach
1977 – Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician (d. 2017)
1977 – Ben Olsen, American soccer player and coach
1978 – Christian Annan, Ghanaian-Hong Kong footballer
1978 – Paul Banks, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Dai Tamesue, Japanese hurdler
1978 – Lawrence Tynes, American football player
1979 – Steve Mack, American wrestler
1979 – Anastasiya Shvedova, Belarusian pole vaulter
1980 – Zuzana Ondrášková, Czech tennis player
1982 – Igor Olshansky, Ukrainian-American football player
1982 – Nick Stavinoha, American baseball player
1983 – Joseph Addai, American football player
1983 – Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer
1983 – Jérôme Clavier, French pole vaulter
1983 – Márton Fülöp, Hungarian footballer (d. 2015)
1985 – Ezequiel Lavezzi, Argentinian footballer
1985 – Kadri Lehtla, Estonian biathlete
1985 – Miko Mälberg, Estonian swimmer
1986 – Moon Byung-woo, South Korean footballer
1987 – Lina Grinčikaitė, Lithuanian sprinter
1988 – Ben Revere, American baseball player
1988 – Paddy Holohan, Irish mixed martial artist
1989 – Jesse Bromwich, New Zealand rugby league player
1989 – Katinka Hosszú, Hungarian swimmer
1990 – Brooks Koepka, American golfer
1991 – Samuel Seo, South Korean musician
1992 – Aaron Whitchurch, Australian rugby league player
1995 – Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (d. 2016)
1996 – Mary Cain, American runner
1996 – Alex Iwobi, Nigerian football player
1996 – Domantas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter
1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great.
1335 – Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
1559 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation.
1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
1611 – The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.
1625 – Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Latin Patriarch of Ethiopia, arrives at Beilul from Goa.
1670 – King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
1672 – John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.
1808 – Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
1812 – The Siege of Cuautla during the Mexican War of Independence ends with both sides claiming victory after Mexican rebels under José María Morelos y Pavón abandon the city after 72 days under siege by royalist Spanish troops under Félix María Calleja.
1816 – Marriage of Léopold of Saxe-Coburg and Princess Charlotte of Wales.
1829 – After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
1863 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.
1866 – Peruvian defenders fight off the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
1876 – The April Uprising breaks out in Ottoman Bulgaria.
1879 – The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party is founded in Madrid by Pablo Iglesias.
1885 – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
1889 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea.
1906 – Closing ceremony of the Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece.
1918 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.
1933 – Germany’s independent labor unions are replaced by the German Labour Front.
1941 – Following the coup d’état against Iraq Crown Prince ‘Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launches the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power.
1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin.
1945 – World War II: The surrender of Caserta comes into effect, by which German troops in Italy cease fighting.
1945 – World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.
1945 – World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.
1952 – A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg.
1955 – Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
1963 – Berthold Seliger launches a rocket with three stages and a maximum flight altitude of more than 100 kilometres near Cuxhaven. It is the only sounding rocket developed in Germany.
1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion sinks the American aircraft carrier USNS Card while it is docked at Saigon. Two Viet Cong combat swimmers had placed explosives on the ship’s hull. She is raised and returned to service less than seven months later.
1964 – First ascent of Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.
1969 – The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City.
1972 – In the early morning hours a fire breaks out at the Sunshine Mine located between Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, killing 91 workers.
1982 – Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano.
1986 – Chernobyl disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster.
1989 – Cold War: Hungary begins dismantling its border fence with Austria, which allows a number of East Germans to defect.
1994 – A bus crashes in Gdańsk, Poland killing 32 people.
1995 – During the Croatian War of Independence, the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina fires cluster bombs at Zagreb, killing seven and wounding over 175 civilians.
1998 – The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union’s monetary policy.
1999 – Panamanian general election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
2000 – President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.
2004 – The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2nd.
2008 – Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Burma killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.
2008 – Chaitén Volcano begins erupting in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.
2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
2011 – An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick from the bacteria outbreak.
2012 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction.
2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.
Births on May 2
1360 – Yongle Emperor of China (d. 1424)
1402 – Eleanor of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1445)
1451 – René II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1508)
1458 – Eleanor of Viseu (d. 1525)
1476 – Charles I, Duke of Münsterberg-Oels, Count of Kladsko, Governor of Bohemia and Silesia (d. 1536)
1533 – Philip II, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (d. 1596)
1551 – William Camden, English historian and topographer (d. 1623)
1567 – Sebald de Weert, Dutch captain, vice-admiral of the Dutch East India Company (d. 1603)
1579 – Tokugawa Hidetada, Japanese shōgun (d. 1632)
1601 – Athanasius Kircher, German priest and scholar (d. 1680)
1660 – Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1725)
1695 – Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, Italian-French painter and architect (d. 1766)
1702 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian and theosopher (d. 1782)
1707 – Jean-Baptiste Barrière, French cellist and composer (d. 1747)
1729 – Catherine the Great of Russia (d. 1796)
1737 – William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Irish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1805)
1740 – Elias Boudinot, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the Continental Congress (d. 1821)
1750 – John André, English soldier and spy (d. 1780)
1752 – Ludwig August Lebrun, German oboe player and composer (d. 1790)
1754 – Vicente Martín y Soler, Spanish composer (d. 1806)
1772 – Novalis, German author and poet (d. 1801)
1773 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian philosopher and poet (d. 1845)
1797 – Abraham Pineo Gesner, Canadian physician and geologist (d. 1864)
1802 – Heinrich Gustav Magnus, German chemist and physicist (d. 1870)
1806 – Catherine Labouré, French nun and saint (d. 1876)
1810 – Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer and conductor (d. 1874)
1813 – Caroline Leigh Gascoigne, English novelist and poet (d. 1883)
1815 – William Buell Richards, Canadian lawyer and judge, 1st Chief Justice of Canada (d. 1889)
1822 – Jane Miller Thengberg, Scottish-Swedish governess and educator (d. 1902)
1828 – Désiré Charnay, French archaeologist and photographer (d. 1915)
1830 – Otto Staudinger, German entomologist and author (d. 1900)
1843 – Elijah McCoy, Canadian-American engineer (d. 1929)
1859 – Jerome K. Jerome, English author and playwright (d. 1927)
1860 – John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist, physician, and academic (d. 1936)
1860 – Theodor Herzl, Austro-Hungarian Zionist philosopher, journalist and author (d. 1904)
1865 – Clyde Fitch, American playwright (d. 1909)
1867 – Giuseppe Morello, Italian-American mobster (d. 1930)
1873 – Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Lithuanian poet, critic, and translator (d. 1944)
1879 – James F. Byrnes, American stenographer and politician, 49th United States Secretary of State (d. 1972)
1880 – Bill Horr, American football player, discus thrower, and coach (d. 1955)
1882 – Isabel González, Puerto Rican activist who helped pave the way for Puerto Ricans’ American citizenship (d. 1971)
1885 – Hedda Hopper, American actress and gossip columnist (d. 1966)
1886 – Gottfried Benn, German author and poet (d. 1956)
1887 – Vernon Castle, English-American dancer (d. 1918)
1887 – Eddie Collins, American baseball player and manager (d. 1951)
1889 – Ki Hajar Dewantara, Indonesian philosopher, academic, and politician (d. 1959)
1890 – E. E. Smith, American engineer and author (d. 1965)
1892 – Manfred von Richthofen, German captain and pilot (d. 1918)
1894 – Norma Talmadge, leading US actress of the silent era (d. 1957)
1894 – Joseph Henry Woodger, English biologist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1981)
1895 – Lorenz Hart, American playwright and lyricist (d. 1943)
1897 – John Frederick Coots, American songwriter (d. 1985)
1898 – Henry Hall, English bandleader, composer, and actor (d. 1989)
1901 – Bob Wyatt, English cricketer (d. 1995)
1901 – Edouard Zeckendorf, Belgian doctor, army officer and mathematician (d. 1983)
1901 – Willi Bredel, German writer (d. 1964)
1902 – Brian Aherne, English actor (d. 1986)
1902 – Werner Finck, German Kabarett comedian, actor and author (d. 1978)
1903 – Benjamin Spock, American rower, pediatrician, and author (d. 1998)
1904 – Bill Brandt, German-English photographer and journalist (d. 1983)
1905 – Alan Rawsthorne, British composer (d. 1971)
1905 – Charlotte Armstrong, American author (d. 1969)
1906 – Philippe Halsman, Latvian-American photographer (d. 1979)
1907 – Pinky Lee, American comedian and television host (d. 1993)
1908 – Frank Rowlett, American cryptologist (d. 1998)
1909 – Teddy Stauffer, Swiss bandleader, musician, and actor (d. 1991)
1910 – Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1943)
1910 – Edmund Bacon, American urban planner, architect, educator, and author (d. 2005)
1912 – Axel Springer, German journalist and publisher, founded Axel Springer AG (d. 1985)
1912 – Karl Adam, German rowing coaches (d. 1976)
1912 – Marten Toonder, Dutch comic strip creator (d. 2005)
1912 – Nigel Patrick, English actor and director (d. 1981)
1913 – Pietro Frua, Italian coachbuilder and car designer (d. 1983)
1913 – Aydın Sayılı, Turkish historian and academic (d. 1993)
1915 – Doris Fisher, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
1915 – Peggy Mount, English actress (d. 2001)
1917 – Albert Castelyns, Belgian water polo player and bobsledder
1917 – Văn Tiến Dũng, Vietnamese general and politician, 6th Minister of Defence for Vietnam (d. 2002)
1920 – Jean-Marie Auberson, Swiss violinist and conductor (d. 2004)
1920 – Otto Buchsbaum, Austrian-Brazilian journalist and activist (d. 2000)
1920 – Vasantrao Deshpande, Indian singer and sitar player (d. 1983)
1920 – Guinn Smith, American pole vaulter, soldier, and pilot (d. 2004)
1920 – Jacob Gilboa, Israeli composer (d. 2007)
1921 – B. B. Lal, Indian archaeologist
1921 – Satyajit Ray, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1992)
1922 – Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor and director (d. 2007)
1922 – A. M. Rosenthal, Canadian-born American journalist and author (d. 2006)
1922 – Serge Reggiani, Italian-born French singer and actor (d. 2004)
1923 – Patrick Hillery, Irish physician and politician, 6th President of Ireland (d. 2008)
1923 – Albert Nordengen, Norwegian banker and politician (d. 2004)
1924 – Jamal Abro, Pakistani lawyer and author (d. 2004)
1924 – Theodore Bikel, Austrian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2015)
1924 – Arthur Clues, Australian rugby league player (d. 1998)
1924 – Hugh Cortazzi, English soldier, historian, and diplomat, British Ambassador to Japan (d. 2018)
1925 – John Neville, English-Canadian actor (d. 2011)
1926 – Gérard D. Levesque, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Deputy Premier of Quebec (d. 1993)
1927 – Ray Barrett, Australian actor and singer (d. 2009)
1927 – Amos Kenan, Israeli columnist, painter, sculptor, playwright and novelist (d. 2009)
1927 – Michael Broadbent, British wine critic and writer (d. 2020)
1928 – Hans Trass, Estonian ecologist and botanist (d. 2017)
1928 – Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt, French writer and translator of German origin
1928 – Horst Stein, German conductor (d. 2008)
1929 – Édouard Balladur, Turkish-French economist and politician, 162nd Prime Minister of France
1929 – James Dillion, American discus thrower (d. 2010)
1929 – Link Wray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2005)
1929 – Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan (d. 1972)
1930 – Yoram Kaniuk, Israeli painter and critic (d. 2013)
1930 – Marco Pannella, Italian journalist and politician (d. 2016)
1931 – Phil Bruns, American actor and stuntman (d. 2012)
1931 – Martha Grimes, American author and poet
1932 – Maury Allen, American journalist, actor, and author (d. 2010)
1933 – Bunk Gardner, American musician
1933 – Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf, English lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
1934 – Manfred Durniok, German film producer, director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1935 – Luis Suárez Miramontes, Spanish footballer and manager
1935 – Faisal II of Iraq, the last King of Iraq (d.1958)
1936 – Norma Aleandro, Argentinian actress, director, and screenwriter
1936 – Engelbert Humperdinck, English singer and pianist
1936 – Michael Rabin, American violinist (d. 1972)
1937 – Klaus Enders, German motorcycle sidecar racer (d. 2019)
1937 – Lorenzo Music, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1937 – Gisela Elsner, German writer (d. 1992)
1938 – Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (d. 1996)
1939 – Sumio Iijima, Japanese physicist and engineer
1939 – Ernesto Castano, Italian football player
1940 – Jules Albert Wijdenbosch, Surinamese politician
1941 – Tony Adamowicz, American race car driver (d. 2016)
1941 – Bruce Cameron, Scottish bishop
1941 – Clay Carroll, American baseball player
1941 – Eddy Louiss, French jazz musician (d. 2015)
1942 – Jacques Rogge, Belgian businessman
1942 – Wojciech Pszoniak, Polish film and theater actor
1944 – Robert G. W. Anderson, English chemist, historian, and curator
1945 – Randy Cain, American soul singer (d. 2009)
1945 – Judge Dread, English singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
1945 – Bianca Jagger, Nicaraguan-American model, actress, and activist
1945 – Goldy McJohn, Canadian keyboard player (d. 2017)
1946 – Peter L. Benson, American psychologist and academic (d. 2011)
1946 – Lesley Gore, American singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
1946 – David Suchet, English actor
1947 – James Dyson, English businessman, founded the Dyson Company
1947 – Lynda Myles, English screenwriter and producer
1947 – Philippe Herreweghe, Belgian conductor
1948 – Larry Gatlin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1949 – Alan Titchmarsh, English gardener and author
1949 – Alfons Schuhbeck, German celebrity chef, author and businessman
1950 – Simon Gaskell, English chemist and academic
1950 – Duncan Gay, Australian businessman and politician
1950 – Lou Gramm, American singer-songwriter
1950 – Richard Ground, English lawyer and judge (d. 2014)
1950 – Fausto Silva, Brazilian television presenter
1951 – John Glascock, English singer and bass player (d. 1979)
1952 – Chris Anderson, Australian rugby league player and coach
1952 – Christine Baranski, American actress and singer
1952 – Isla St Clair, Scottish singer and actress
1953 – Valery Gergiev, Russian conductor and director
1953 – Jamaal Wilkes, American basketball player
1954 – Elliot Goldenthal, American composer and conductor
1954 – Dawn Primarolo, English politician
1954 – Stephen Venables, English mountaineer and author
1955 – Willie Miller, Scottish footballer
1955 – Donatella Versace, Italian fashion designer
1956 – Régis Labeaume, Canadian businessman and politician, 41st Mayor of Quebec City
1958 – Yasushi Akimoto, Japanese songwriter and producer
1958 – Stanislav Levý, Czech footballer and manager
1958 – David O’Leary, English-Irish footballer and manager
1959 – Alan Best, Canadian animator, director, and producer
1959 – Tony Wakeford, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1960 – Stephen Daldry, English director and producer
1961 – Steve James, English snooker player
1961 – Sophie Thibault, Canadian journalist
1961 – Phil Vickery, English chef and author
1962 – Elizabeth Berridge, American actress
1962 – Michael Grandage, English director and producer
1962 – Jimmy White, English snooker player
1965 – Félix José, Dominican-American baseball player
1966 – Uwe Freiler, German footballer
1966 – Margus Kolga, Estonian diplomat
1966 – Belinda Stronach, Canadian businesswoman, philanthropist, and politician
1967 – Bengt Åkerblom, Swedish ice hockey player (d. 1995)
1967 – Mika Brzezinski, American journalist and author
1967 – David Rocastle, English footballer (d. 2001)
1968 – Jeff Agoos, Swiss-American soccer player, manager, and sportscaster
1968 – Julia Hartley-Brewer, English broadcaster and columnist
1968 – Ziana Zain, Malaysian singer-songwriter and actress
1969 – Brian Lara, Trinidadian cricketer
1970 – Marco Walker, Swiss footballer and coach
1971 – Musashimaru Kōyō, Samoan-American sumo wrestler, the 67th Yokozuna
1971 – Fatima Yusuf, Nigerian sprinter
1972 – Paul Adcock, English footballer
1972 – Ahti Heinla, Estonian programmer and businessman, co-developed Skype
1972 – Dwayne Johnson, American-Canadian wrestler, actor, and producer
1973 – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, German director and screenwriter
1974 – Horacio Carbonari, Argentinian footballer and manager
1974 – Andy Johnson, English-Welsh footballer
1974 – Janek Meet, Estonian footballer
1975 – David Beckham, English footballer, coach, and model
1975 – Joe Wilkinson, English comedian, actor and writer
1976 – Jeff Gutt, American singer-songwriter
1977 – Brian Cardinal, American basketball player
1977 – Jan Fitschen, German runner
1977 – Luke Hudson, American baseball player
1977 – Fredrik Malm, Swedish journalist and politician
1977 – Jenna von Oÿ, American actress and singer
1977 – Kalle Palander, Finnish skier
1978 – Melvin Ely, American basketball player
1978 – Mike Weaver, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Jason Chimera, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Ioannis Kanotidis, Greek footballer
1979 – Defne Joy Foster, Turkish-American actress, presenter and VJ (d. 2011)
1980 – Tim Borowski, German footballer
1980 – Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Canadian skateboarder
1980 – Ellie Kemper, American actress, comedian and writer
1980 – Zat Knight, English footballer
1980 – Artūras Masiulis, Lithuanian basketball player
1980 – Troy Murphy, American basketball player
1980 – Lassaâd Ouertani, Tunisian footballer (d. 2013)
1980 – Brad Richards, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Vincent Tong, Canadian actor, singer, voice actor and director
1981 – Robert Buckley, American actor
1981 – Chris Kirkland, English footballer
1981 – Tiago Mendes, Portuguese footballer
1981 – Matt Murray, English footballer
1981 – Rina Satō, Japanese voice actress and singer
1982 – Timothy Benjamin, Welsh sprinter
1982 – Johan Botha, South African cricketer
1983 – Alessandro Diamanti, Italian footballer
1983 – Maynor Figueroa, Honduran footballer
1983 – Tina Maze, Slovenian skier
1983 – Daniel Sordo, Spanish race car driver
1983 – Ove Vanebo, Norwegian politician
1984 – Saulius Mikoliūnas, Lithuanian footballer
1984 – Thabo Sefolosha, Swiss basketball player
1985 – Lily Allen, English singer-songwriter and actress
1985 – Kyle Busch, American race car driver
1985 – Ashley Harkleroad, American tennis player
1985 – Sarah Hughes, American figure skater
1987 – Saara Aalto, Finnish singer and actress
1987 – Nana Kitade, Japanese singer-songwriter and actress
1987 – Pat McAfee, American football player
1987 – Kris Russell, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Justin Young, English singer and songwriter
1988 – Neftalí Feliz, Dominican baseball player
1988 – Stephen Henderson, Irish footballer
1989 – Jeanette Pohlen, American basketball player
1990 – Kay Panabaker, American actress
1990 – Paul George, American basketball player
1991 – Jeong Jinwoon, South Korean actor and singer
1992 – Sunmi, South Korean singer
1992 – María Teresa Torró Flor, Spanish tennis player
1993 – Owain Doull, Welsh track cyclist
1993 – Isyana Sarasvati, Indonesian singer
1993 – Huang Zitao, Chinese singer and rapper
1996 – Cherprang Areekul, Thai singer
1996 – Julian Brandt, German footballer
1996 – Schuyler Bailar, American swimmer
2015 – Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, British royal, and fourth in line to the British throne
Deaths on May 2
373 – Athanasius of Alexandria, Egyptian bishop and saint (b. 298)
649 – Marutha of Tikrit, Persian theologian of the Syriac Orthodox Church (b. 565)
821 – Liu Zong, general of the Tang Dynasty
907 – Boris I of Bulgaria
1219 – Leo I, King of Armenia (b. 1150)
1230 – William de Braose, English son of Reginald de Braose (b. 1197)
1293 – Meir of Rothenburg, German rabbi (b. c.1215)
1300 – Blanche of Artois (b. 1248)
1450 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (b. 1396)
1519 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (b. 1452)
1564 – Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian cardinal (b. 1500)
1627 – Lodovico Grossi da Viadana, Italian composer and educator (b. 1560)
1667 – George Wither, English poet and author (b. 1588)
1683 – Stjepan Gradić, Croatian philosopher and mathematician (b. 1613)
1711 – Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, English politician, First Lord of the Treasury (b. 1641)
1799 – Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo (b. 1740)
1802 – Herman Willem Daendels, Dutch general and politician, Governor-General of the Dutch Gold Coast (b. 1762)
1810 – Henry Jerome de Salis, English priest (b. 1740)
1819 – Mary Moser, English painter and academic (b. 1744)
1857 – Alfred de Musset, French dramatist, poet, and novelist (b. 1810)
1864 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer and educator (b. 1791)
2012 – Tufan Miñnullin, Russian playwright and politician (b. 1936)
2012 – Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, Indonesian physician and politician, Indonesian Minister of Health (b. 1955)
2012 – Akira Tonomura, Japanese physicist, author, and academic (b. 1942)
2013 – Ernie Field, English boxer (b. 1943)
2013 – Jeff Hanneman, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1964)
2013 – Joseph P. McFadden, American bishop (b. 1947)
2013 – Dvora Omer, Israeli author and educator (b. 1932)
2013 – Ivan Turina, Croatian footballer (b. 1980)
2013 – Charles Banks Wilson, American painter and illustrator (b. 1918)
2014 – Tomás Balduino, Brazilian bishop (b. 1922)
2014 – Žarko Petan, Slovenian director, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1929)
2014 – Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., American actor (b. 1918)
2015 – Stuart Archer, English colonel and architect (b. 1915)
2015 – Michael Blake, American author and screenwriter (b. 1945)
2015 – Guy Carawan, American singer and musicologist (b. 1927)
2015 – Maya Plisetskaya, Russian-Lithuanian ballerina, choreographer, actress, and director (b. 1925)
2015 – Ruth Rendell, English author (b. 1930)
2016 – Afeni Shakur, American music businesswoman, activist, and Black Panther (b. 1947)
2020 – Arif Wazir, Pakistani politician, leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (b. 1982)
Holidays and observances on May 2
Christian feast day:
Athanasius of Alexandria (Western Christianity)
Boris I of Bulgaria (Bulgarian Orthodox Church)
Germanus of Normandy
May 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Harry Potter Day
The last day of the Festival of Ridván (Bahá’í Faith) (Note that this date is non-Gregorian and may change according to the March equinox, see List of observances set by the Baháʼí calendar)
Anniversary of the Dos de Mayo Uprising (Community of Madrid, Spain)
Birth Anniversary of Third Druk Gyalpo (Bhutan)
Flag Day (Poland)
Indonesia National Education Day
Teachers’ Day (Iran) (Note that this date is non-Gregorian and may change according to the March Equinox, see List of observances set by the Solar Hijri calendar)
475 BC – Roman consul Publius Valerius Poplicola celebrates a Roman triumph for his victory over Veii and the Sabines.
305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor.
524 – King Sigismund of Burgundy is executed at Orléans after an eight-year reign and is succeeded by his brother Godomar.
880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.
1169 – Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland.
1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, England recognises Scotland as an independent state.
1455 – Battle of Arkinholm, Royal forces end the Black Douglas hegemony in Scotland.
1576 – Stephen Báthory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become co-rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1707 – The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect.
1753 – Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
1759 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain
1776 – Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Upper Bavaria, by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
1778 – American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
1786 – In Vienna, Austria, Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro is performed for the first time.
1794 – War of the Pyrenees: The Battle of Boulou ends, in which French forces defeat the Spanish and regain nearly all the land they lost to Spain in 1793.
1820 – Execution of the Cato Street Conspirators, who plotted to kill the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool.
1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
1844 – Hong Kong Police Force, the world’s second modern police force and Asia’s first, is established.
1846 – The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicate the Nauvoo Temple.
1851 – Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London.
1856 – The Province of Isabela was created in the Philippines in honor of Queen Isabela II.
1862 – American Civil War: The Union Army completes its capture of New Orleans.
1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
1865 – The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.
1866 – The Memphis Race Riots begin. In three days time, 46 blacks and two whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1875 – Alexandra Palace reopens after being burned down in a fire in 1873.
1884 – The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions demands the eight-hour work day in the United States.
1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States.
1885 – The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business.
1886 – Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers’ Day in many countries.
1893 – The World’s Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago.
1894 – Coxey’s Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.
1898 – Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381 Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths.
1900 – The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.
1919 – German troops enter Munich to suppress the Bavarian Soviet Republic.
1925 – The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.
1927 – The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor.
1929 – The 7.2 Mw Kopet Dag earthquake shakes the Iran–Turkmenistan border region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing up to 3,800 and injuring 1,121.
1930 – “Pluto” is officially proposed for the name of the newly-discovered dwarf planet Pluto by Vesto Slipher in the Lowell Observatory Observation Circular. The name quickly catches on.
1931 – The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
1941 – World War II: German forces launch a major attack during the siege of Tobruk.
1944 – World War II: Two hundred Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani, Athens in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by partisans at Molaoi.
1945 – World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has “fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany”. The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.
1945 – World War II: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Führerbunker. Their children are also killed by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths by their mother, Magda.
1945 – World War II: Forces of the Soviet Red Army liberate Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at Stalag Luft I near Barth, Germany.
1945 – World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army.
1945 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans liberate Trieste.
1946 – Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
1946 – The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy.
1947 – Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11 persons are killed and 33 wounded.
1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
1956 – A doctor in Japan reports an “epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system”, marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.
1957 – Thirty-four people are killed when a Vickers Viking airliner crashes in Hampshire, England.
1960 – Formation of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra; also known as “Maharashtra Day”.
1960 – Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
1965 – Cross-Strait relations: Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, takes place.
1967 – Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu are married in Las Vegas.
1970 – Vietnam War: Protests erupt following the announcement by Richard Nixon that the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces would attack Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign.
1971 – Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.
1974 – The Argentine terrorist organization Montoneros is expelled from Plaza de Mayo by president Juan Perón.
1977 – Thirty-six people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations.
1978 – Japan’s Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
1982 – Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War.
1983 – The Sydney Entertainment Centre is opened.
1987 – Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1989 – Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
1990 – The former Philippine Episcopal Church (supervised by the Episcopal Church of the United States of America) is granted full autonomy and raised to the status of an Autocephalous Anglican Province and renamed the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.
1993 – Dingiri Banda Wijetunga became president of Sri Lanka automatically after killing of R Premadasa in LTTE bomb explosion.
1994 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident whilst leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
1995 – Croatian War of Independence: Croatian forces launch Operation Flash.
1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924
1999 – SpongeBob SquarePants premieres on Nickelodeon.
2001 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares the existence of “a state of rebellion”, hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
2002 – OpenOffice.org released version 1.0, the first stable version of the software.
2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the “Mission Accomplished” speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”.
2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
2009 – Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.
2011 – Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
2019 – Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli district of India: Sixteen army soldiers, including a driver, killed in an IED blast. Naxals targeted an anti-Naxal operations team.
Births on May 1
1218 – John I, Count of Hainaut (d. 1257)
1218 – Rudolf I of Germany (d. 1291)
1285 – Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician (d. 1326)
1326 – Rinchinbal Khan, Mongolian emperor (d. 1332)
1488 – Sidonie of Bavaria, eldest daughter of Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich (d. 1505)
1527 – Johannes Stadius, German astronomer, astrologer, mathematician (d. 1579)
1545 – Franciscus Junius, French theologian (d. 1602)
1579 – Wolphert Gerretse, Dutch-American farmer, co-founded New Netherland (d. 1662)
1582 – Marco da Gagliano, Italian composer (d. 1643)
1585 – Sophia Olelkovich Radziwill, Belarusian saint (d. 1612)
1591 – Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German missionary and astronomer (d. 1666)
1594 – John Haynes, English-American politician, 1st Governor of the Colony of Connecticut (d. 1653)
1602 – William Lilly, English astrologer (d. 1681)
1672 – Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician (d. 1719)
1730 – Joshua Rowley, English admiral (d. 1790)
1735 – Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, Dutch admiral and philanthropist (d. 1819)
1751 – Judith Sargent Murray, American poet and playwright (d. 1820)
1764 – Benjamin Henry Latrobe, English-American architect, designed the United States Capitol (d. 1820)
1769 – Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Irish-English field marshal and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1852)
1783 – Phoebe Hinsdale Brown, American hymnwriter (d. 1861)
1803 – James Clarence Mangan, Irish poet and author (d. 1849)
1821 – Henry Ayers, English-Australian politician, 8th Premier of South Australia (d. 1897)
1824 – Alexander William Williamson, English chemist and academic (d. 1904)
1825 – Johann Jakob Balmer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1898)
1825 – George Inness, American painter and educator (d. 1894)
1827 – Jules Breton, French painter (d. 1906)
1829 – José de Alencar, Brazilian author and playwright (d. 1877)
1829 – Frederick Sandys, English painter and illustrator (d. 1904)
1830 – Guido Gezelle, Belgian priest and poet (d. 1899)
1831 – Emily Stowe, Canadian physician and activist (d. 1903)
1847 – Henry Demarest Lloyd, American journalist and politician (d. 1903)
1848 – Adelsteen Normann, Norwegian painter (d. 1919)
1850 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (d. 1942)
1851 – Laza Lazarević, Serbian psychiatrist and neurologist (d. 1891)
1852 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman and professional scout (d. 1903)
1852 – Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish neuroscientist and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)
1853 – Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin, Jewish Ukrainian-American journalist, actor, and playwright (d. 1909)
1855 – Cecilia Beaux, American painter and academic (d. 1942)
1857 – Theo van Gogh, Dutch art dealer (d. 1891)
1859 – Jacqueline Comerre-Paton, French painter and sculptor (d. 1955)
1862 – Marcel Prévost, French novelist and playwright (d. 1941)
1864 – Anna Jarvis, American founder of Mother’s Day (d. 1948)
1871 – Seakle Greijdanus, Dutch theologian and scholar (d. 1948)
1871 – Emiliano Chamorro Vargas, President of Nicaragua (d. 1966)
1872 – Hugo Alfvén, Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter (d. 1960)
1872 – Sidónio Pais, Portuguese soldier and politician, 4th President of Portugal (d. 1918)
1874 – Romaine Brooks, American-French painter and illustrator (d. 1970)
1874 – Paul Van Asbroeck, Belgian target shooter (d. 1959)
1875 – Dave Hall, American runner (d. 1972)
1881 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French priest, palaeontologist, and philosopher (d. 1955)
1884 – Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, English race car driver and politician (d. 1964)
1885 – Clément Pansaers, Belgian poet (d. 1922)
1885 – Ralph Stackpole, American sculptor and painter (d. 1973)
1887 – Alan Cunningham, Anglo-Irish general and diplomat, High Commissioners for Palestine and Transjordan (d. 1983)
1890 – Clelia Lollini, Italian physician (d. 1963 or 1964)
1891 – Lillian Estelle Fisher, American historian of Spanish America (d. 1988)
1895 – Nikolai Yezhov, Soviet secret police official, head of the NKVD (d. 1940)
1895 – May Hollinworth, Australian theatre producer and director (d. 1968)
1896 – Herbert Backe, German agronomist and politician (d. 1947)
1896 – Mark W. Clark, American general (d. 1984)
1896 – J. Lawton Collins, American general (d. 1987)
1898 – Alfred Schmidt, Estonian weightlifter (d. 1972)
1900 – Ignazio Silone, Italian journalist and politician (d. 1978)
1900 – Aleksander Wat, Polish poet and writer (d. 1967)
1901 – Sterling Allen Brown, American poet, academic, and critic (d. 1989)
1901 – Heinz Eric Roemheld, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985)
1901 – Antal Szerb, Hungarian scholar and author (d. 1945)
1905 – Henry Koster, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1988)
1906 – Horst Schumann, German SS officer and physician (d. 1983)
1907 – Hayes Alvis, American bassist (d. 1972)
1907 – Kate Smith, American singer and actress (d. 1986)
1908 – Giovannino Guareschi, Italian journalist and author (d. 1968)
1908 – Morris Kline, American mathematician and academic (d. 1992)
1909 – Endel Puusepp, Estonian-Soviet military pilot and politician (d. 1996)
1909 – Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1990)
1910 – Behice Boran, Turkish sociologist and politician (d. 1987)
1910 – Raya Dunayevskaya, Ukrainian-American philosopher and activist (d. 1987)
1910 – Dirk Andries Flentrop, Dutch organ builder (d. 2003)
1910 – J. Allen Hynek, American astronomer and ufologist (d. 1986)
1910 – Nejdet Sançar, Turkish literature teacher (d. 1975)
1911 – Wilfred Watson, English-Canadian poet, playwright and educator (d. 1998)
1912 – Otto Kretschmer, German admiral (d. 1998)
1913 – Louis Nye, American actor (d. 2005)
1913 – Walter Susskind, Czech-English pianist, conductor, and educator (d. 1980)
1914 – Jaap van der Poll, Dutch javelin thrower (d. 2010)
1915 – Hanns Martin Schleyer, German businessman (d. 1977)
1916 – Antoni Bazaniak, Polish sprint canoeist (d. 1979)
1916 – Glenn Ford, Canadian-American actor and producer (d. 2006)
1917 – John Beradino, American baseball player and actor (d. 1996)
1917 – Ulric Cross, Trinidadian navigator, judge, and diplomat (d. 2013)
1917 – Danielle Darrieux, French actress and singer (d. 2017)
1917 – Ahron Soloveichik, Russian rabbi and scholar (d. 2001)
1918 – Gersh Budker, Ukrainian-Russian physicist and academic (d. 1977)
1918 – Jack Paar, American comedian, author and talk show host (d. 2004)
1919 – Manna Dey, Indian singer and composer (d. 2013)
1919 – Mohammed Karim Lamrani, Moroccan businessman and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Morocco (d. 2018)
1919 – Dan O’Herlihy, Irish-American actor (d. 2005)
1921 – Vladimir Colin, Romanian journalist and author (d. 1991)
1922 – Alastair Gillespie, Canadian scholar and politician (d. 2018)
1923 – Joseph Heller, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 1999)
1923 – Antônio Maria Mucciolo, Italian-Brazilian archbishop (d. 2012)
1923 – Marcel Rayman, Polish soldier (d. 1944)
1924 – Evelyn Boyd Granville, American mathematician, computer scientist, and academic
1924 – Karel Kachyňa, Czech director and screenwriter (d. 2004)
1924 – Terry Southern, American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1925 – Chuck Bednarik, American lieutenant and football player (d. 2015)
1925 – Scott Carpenter, American commander, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2013)
1925 – Sardar Fazlul Karim, Bangladeshi philosopher, scholar, and academic (d. 2014)
1926 – Peter Lax, Hungarian-American mathematician and academic
1927 – Gary Bertini, Israeli conductor and composer (d. 2005)
1927 – Laura Betti, Italian actress (d. 2004)
1927 – Albert Zafy, Malagasy politician, 3rd President of Madagascar (d. 2017)
1927 – Bernard Vukas, Yugoslav-Croatian footballer (d. 1983)
1928 – Sonny James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
1928 – Delfim Netto, Brazilian economist
1929 – Ralf Dahrendorf, German-English sociologist and politician (d. 2009)
1929 – Sonny Ramadhin, Trinidadian cricketer
1930 – Ollie Matson, American sprinter and football player (d. 2011)
1930 – Richard Riordan, American lieutenant and politician, 39th Mayor of Los Angeles and publisher
1930 – Little Walter Jacobs, American blues harp player and singer (d. 1968)
1931 – Naim Attallah, Palestinian author
1932 – Sandy Woodward, English admiral (d. 2013)
1932 – Tabibar Rahman Sarder, Bangladeshi politician. (d. 2010)
1934 – Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Mexican politician
1934 – Tang Chang, Thai artist (d. 1990)
1934 – Shirley Horn, American singer and pianist (d. 2005)
1934 – Phillip King, Tunisian-English sculptor
1934 – John Meillon, Australian actor (d. 1989)
1936 – Danièle Huillet, French filmmaker (d. 2006)
1936 – Hans E. Wallman, Swedish director, producer, and composer (d. 2014)
1937 – Una Stubbs, English actress and dancer
1939 – Judy Collins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 – Wilhelmina Cooper, Dutch model (d. 1980)
1939 – Victor Davies, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor
1943 – Vassal Gadoengin, Nauruan politician (d. 2004)
1943 – Joe Walsh, Irish politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (d. 2014)
1945 – Rita Coolidge, American singer-songwriter
1945 – Carson Whitsett, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (d. 2007)
1946 – Joanna Lumley, English actress, voice-over artist, author, and activist
1946 – John Woo, Hong Kong director, producer, and screenwriter
1947 – Jacob Bekenstein, Mexican-born Israeli-American theoretical physicist (d. 2015)
1947 – Sergio Infante, Chilean-Swedish poet and author
1948 – Györgyi Balogh, Hungarian sprinter
1948 – Patricia Hill Collins, American sociologist and scholar
1949 – Jim Clench, Canadian bass player (d. 2010)
1949 – Tim Hodgkinson, English saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer
1949 – Paul Teutul, Sr., American motorcycle designer, co-founded Orange County Choppers
1950 – Dann Florek, American actor and director
1950 – Danny McGrain, Scottish footballer and coach
1951 – Gordon Greenidge, Barbadian cricketer and coach
1951 – Geoff Lees, English race car driver
1951 – Sally Mann, American photographer
1952 – Richard Blundell, English economist and academic
1952 – Kim Lewison, English lawyer and judge
1952 – Peter Smith, Malaysian-born English academic and judge
1953 – Glen Ballard, American songwriter and producer
1954 – Ray Parker, Jr., American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1954 – Joel Rosenberg, Canadian-American author and activist (d. 2011)
1955 – Alex Cunningham, Scottish politician
1955 – Martin O’Donnell, American composer
1955 – Ray Searage, American baseball player and coach
1956 – Catherine Frot, French actress
1956 – Phil Foglio, American illustrator
1957 – Rick Darling, Australian cricketer
1957 – Uberto Pasolini, Italian banker, director, and producer
1959 – Yasmina Reza, French actress and playwright
1959 – Lawrence Seeff, South African cricketer and basket weaver
1960 – Steve Cauthen, American jockey and sportscaster
1961 – Sultan Günal-Gezer, Dutch politician
1961 – Clint Malarchuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Marilyn Milian, American judge
1961 – Vasiliy Sidorenko, Russian hammer thrower
1962 – Maia Morgenstern, Romanian actress
1962 – Ted Sundquist, American football player, coach, and manager
1964 – Yvonne van Gennip, Dutch speed skater
1966 – Olaf Thon, German footballer and manager
1967 – Tim McGraw, American singer-songwriter and actor
1968 – Oliver Bierhoff, German footballer and manager
1968 – D’arcy Wretzky, American bass player and singer
1969 – Wes Anderson, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Mary Lou McDonald, Irish politician
1969 – Billy Owens, American basketball player
1970 – Bernard Butler, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1971 – Ethan Albright, American football player
1971 – Stuart Appleby, Australian golfer
1971 – Kim Grant, South African tennis player
1971 – Artur Kohutek, Polish hurdler and soldier
1971 – Ajith Kumar, Indian film actor in Tamil cinema and race car driver
1972 – Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Yemeni terrorist
1972 – Julie Benz, American actress
1972 – Yoon Hae-young, South Korean actress
1973 – Peter Baah, English footballer and manager
1973 – Mike Jesse, German footballer
1973 – Curtis Martin, American football player
1973 – Oliver Neuville, German footballer
1975 – Austin Croshere, American basketball player and sportscaster
1975 – Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroonian footballer (d. 2003)
1975 – Nina Hossain, English journalist
1975 – Alexey Smertin, Russian international footballer
1976 – Patricia Stokkers, Dutch swimmer
1977 – Vera Lischka, Austrian swimmer and politician
1978 – James Badge Dale, American actor
1979 – Mauro Bergamasco, Italian rugby player
1979 – Roman Lyashenko, Russian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
1980 – Marvin Cabrera, Mexican footballer
1980 – Rob Davison, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1980 – Inês Henriques, Portuguese race walker
1980 – Jan Heylen, Belgian race car driver
1980 – Jay Reatard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2010)
1980 – Yuliya Tabakova, Russian athlete
1981 – Manny Acosta, Panamanian baseball player
1981 – Derek Asamoah, Ghanaian footballer
1981 – Alexander Hleb, Belarusian footballer
1981 – Wes Welker, American football player
1982 – Beto, Portuguese footballer
1982 – Jamie Dornan, Northern Irish model and actor
1982 – Mark Farren, Irish footballer (d. 2016)
1982 – Katya Zamolodchikova, American drag queen
1982 – Tommy Robredo, Spanish tennis player
1982 – Darijo Srna, Croatian footballer
1983 – Alain Bernard, French swimmer
1983 – Human Tornado, American wrestler
1983 – Park Hae-jin, South Korean actor
1984 – David Backes, American ice hockey player
1984 – Mišo Brečko, Slovenian footballer
1984 – Patrick Eaves, American ice hockey player
1984 – Alexander Farnerud, Swedish footballer
1984 – Farah Fath, American actress
1984 – Keiichiro Koyama, Japanese singer and actor
1984 – Víctor Montaño, Colombian footballer
1984 – Mark Seaby, Australian footballer
1985 – Shahriar Nafees, Bangladeshi cricketer
1986 – Christian Benítez, Ecuadorian footballer (d. 2013)
1986 – Adam Casey, Australian footballer
1986 – Cassie Jaye, American actress and film director
1986 – Jesse Klaver, Dutch politician
1986 – Lee Chang-min, South Korean singer
1986 – Brent Stanton, Australian footballer
1987 – Leonardo Bonucci, Italian footballer
1987 – Glen Coffee, American football player
1987 – Iván DeJesús Jr., Puerto Rican baseball player
1987 – Marcus Drum, Australian footballer
1987 – Amir Johnson, American basketball player
1987 – Ryan Mathews, American football player
1987 – Saidi Ntibazonkiza, Burundian footballer
1987 – Shahar Pe’er, Israeli tennis player
1988 – Maria Balaba, Latvian figure skater
1988 – Maxim Gustik, Belarusian freestyle skier
1988 – Teodor Peterson, Swedish cross-country skier
1989 – Alejandro Arribas, Spanish footballer
1989 – Poļina Jeļizarova, Latvian runner
1990 – Uriel Álvarez, Mexican footballer
1990 – Caitlin Stasey, Australian actress
1990 – Diego Contento, German footballer
1990 – Scooter Gennett, American baseball player
1991 – Marcus Stroman, American baseball player
1991 – Daniel Talbot, British sprinter
1992 – Trevor Philp, Canadian alpine skier
1992 – Bradley Roby, American football player
1993 – Jean-Christophe Bahebeck, French footballer
1993 – Ifeoma Nwoye, Nigerian wrestler
1994 – Wallace Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
1995 – Collin Seedorf, Dutch footballer
1996 – Christopher J. Alexis Jr., Grenadian road cyclist
1996 – Daniel Saifiti, Australian-Fijian rugby league player
1996 – Jacob Saifiti, Australian-Fijian rugby league player
1996 – Michael Seaton, Jamaican footballer
2004 – Charli D’Amelio, American social media influencer and dancer
Deaths on May 1
408 – Arcadius, Byzantine emperor (b. 377)
558 – Marcouf, missionary and saint
908 – Wang Zongji, Chinese prince and pretender
1118 – Matilda of Scotland (b. 1080)
1171 – Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster (b. 1110)
1187 – Roger de Moulins, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller
1255 – Walter de Gray, English prelate and statesman
1277 – Stefan Uroš I of Serbia (b. 1223)
1278 – William II of Villehardouin
1308 – Albert I of Germany (b. 1255)
1312 – Paul I Šubić of Bribir
1539 – Isabella of Portugal (b. 1503)
1555 – Pope Marcellus II (b. 1501)
1572 – Pope Pius V (b. 1504)
1668 – Frans Luycx, Flemish painter (b. 1604)
1730 – François de Troy, French painter and engraver (b. 1645)
1731 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (b. 1677)
1738 – Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, English politician, First Lord of the Treasury (b. 1669)
1772 – Gottfried Achenwall, Polish-German historian, economist, and jurist (b. 1719)
1813 – Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French general (b. 1768)
1838 – Antoine Louis Dugès, French obstetrician and naturalist (b. 1797)
1856 – John Wilbur, American minister and theologian (b. 1774)
1873 – David Livingstone, Scottish-English missionary and explorer (b. 1813)
1899 – Ludwig Büchner, German physiologist and physician (b. 1824)
1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer and academic (b. 1841)
1913 – John Barclay Armstrong, American lieutenant (b. 1850)
1920 – Princess Margaret of Connaught (b. 1882)
1935 – Henri Pélissier, French cyclist (b. 1889)
1943 – Johan Oscar Smith, Norwegian religious leader, founded the Brunstad Christian Church (b. 1871)
1945 – Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1897)
1945 – Magda Goebbels, German wife of Joseph Goebbels (b. 1901)
1953 – Everett Shinn, American painter and illustrator (b. 1876)
1956 – LeRoy Samse, American pole vaulter (b. 1883)
1960 – Charles Holden, English architect, designed the Bristol Central Library (b. 1875)
1963 – Lope K. Santos, Filipino lawyer and politician (b. 1879)
1965 – Spike Jones, American singer and bandleader (b. 1911)
1968 – Jack Adams, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1895)
1968 – Harold Nicolson, English author and politician (b. 1886)
1970 – Yi Un, Korean prince (b. 1897)
1973 – Asger Jorn, Danish painter and sculptor (b. 1914)
1976 – T. R. M. Howard, American surgeon and activist (b. 1908)
1976 – Alexandros Panagoulis, Greek poet and politician (b. 1939)
1978 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer and conductor (b. 1903)
1982 – William Primrose, Scottish viola player and educator (b. 1903)
1984 – Jüri Lossmann, Estonian-Swedish runner (b. 1891)
1985 – Denise Robins, English journalist and author (b. 1897)
1986 – Hylda Baker, English comedian, actress and music hall performer (b. 1905)
1986 – Hugo Peretti, American songwriter and producer (b. 1916)
1988 – Ben Lexcen, Australian sailor and architect (b. 1936)
1989 – Sally Kirkland, American journalist (b. 1912)
1989 – V. M. Panchalingam, Sri Lankan civil servant (b. 1930)
1989 – Patrice Tardif, Canadian farmer and politician (b. 1904)
1990 – Sergio Franchi, Italian-American tenor and actor (b. 1926)
1991 – Richard Thorpe, American director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
1993 – Pierre Bérégovoy, French metallurgist and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1925)
1993 – Ranasinghe Premadasa, Sri Lankan politician, 3rd President of Sri Lanka (b. 1924)
1994 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
1995 – Antonio Salemme, Italian-American painter (b. 1892)
1997 – Fernand Dumont, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and poet (b. 1927)
1998 – Eldridge Cleaver, American author and activist (b. 1935)
2000 – Steve Reeves, American bodybuilder and actor (b. 1926)
2002 – Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh, Indian poet and author (b. 1908)
2003 – Miss Elizabeth, American wrestler and manager (b. 1960)
2003 – Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (b. 1923)
2005 – Kenneth Clark, American psychologist and academic (b. 1914)
2008 – Anthony Mamo, Maltese judge and politician, 1st President of Malta (b. 1909)
2008 – Philipp von Boeselager, German soldier and economist (b. 1917)
2010 – Helen Wagner, American actress (b. 1918)
2011 – Henry Cooper, English boxer (b. 1934)
2011 – Ted Lowe, English sportscaster (b. 1920)
2012 – James Kinley, Canadian engineer and politician, 29th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (b. 1925)
2012 – Mordechai Virshubski, German-Israeli lawyer and politician (b. 1930)
2013 – Chris Kelly, American rapper (b. 1978)
2013 – Pierre Pleimelding, French footballer and manager (b. 1952)
2014 – Adamu Atta, Nigerian lawyer and politician, 5th Governor of Kwara State (b. 1927)
2015 – Vafa Guluzade, Azerbaijani political scientist, academic, and diplomat (b. 1940)
2015 – María Elena Velasco, Mexican actress, singer, director, and screenwriter (b. 1940)
2015 – Grace Lee Whitney, American actress (b. 1930)
Holidays and observances on May 1
Christian feast day:
Andeolus
Augustin Schoeffler, Jean-Louis Bonnard (part of Vietnamese Martyrs)
Benedict of Szkalka
Brioc
James the Less (Anglican Communion)
Joseph the Worker (Roman Catholic)
Blessed Klymentiy Sheptytsky (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Marcouf
Philip the Apostle (Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church)
Richard Pampuri
Sigismund of Burgundy
Ultan
May 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Mother’s Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in May. (Samoa)
Earliest day on which Mother’s Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in May. (Hong Kong, Hungary, Lithuania, Mozambique, Portugal, Spain, Romania)
Earliest day on which National Day of Prayer can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Thursday in May. (United States)
Earliest day on which World Asthma Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Tuesday in May. (International)
Armed Forces Day (Mauritania)
Constitution Day (Argentina, Latvia, Marshall Islands)
Commemoration of the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat following the foundation of Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti (India):
Maharashtra Day
International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day
Lei Day (Hawaii)
International Workers’ Day or Labour Day (International), and its related observances:
Earliest day on which Labour Day can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of May. (Barbados, Dominica)
Law Day (United States), formerly intended to counterbalance the celebration of Labour Day. (United States)
Loyalty Day, formerly intended to counterbalance the celebration of Labour Day. (United States)
May Day (beginning of Summer) observances in the Northern hemisphere (see April 30):
Beltane (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans in the Northern hemisphere)
Earliest day on which Beltane can fall, while May 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in May. (Ireland, Scotland)
Calan Mai (Wales)
Samhain (Celtic neopagans and Wiccans in the Southern Hemisphere)
1091 – Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
1386 – Battle of the Vikhra River: The Principality of Smolensk is defeated by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and becomes its vassal.
1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.
1483 – Gran Canaria, the main island of the Canary Islands, is conquered by the Kingdom of Castile.
1521 – Swedish War of Liberation: Swedish troops defeat a Danish force in the Battle of Västerås.
1770 – James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique.
1861 – American Civil War: Maryland’s House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.
1862 – American Civil War: The Capture of New Orleans by Union forces under David Farragut.
1864 – Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the only fraternity to be founded during the American Civil War.
1903 – A landslide kills 70 people in Frank, in the District of Alberta, Canada.
1910 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People’s Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public.
1911 – Tsinghua University, one of mainland China’s leading universities, is founded.
1916 – World War I: The UK’s 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at the Siege of Kut in one of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.
1916 – Easter Rising: After six days of fighting, Irish rebel leaders surrender to British forces in Dublin, bringing the Easter Rising to an end.
1944 – World War II: British agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo’s most wanted person, parachutes back into France to be a liaison between London and the local maquis group.
1945 – World War II: The Surrender of Caserta is signed by the commander of German forces in Italy.
1945 – World War II: Airdrops of food begin over German-occupied regions of the Netherlands.
1945 – World War II: The Captain-class frigate HMS Goodall (K479) is torpedoed by U-286 outside the Kola Inlet becoming the last Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the European theatre of World War II.
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor; Hitler and Braun both commit suicide the following day.
1945 – Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
1945 – The Italian commune of Fornovo di Taro is liberated from German forces by Brazilian forces.
1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.
1951 – Tibetan delegates to the Central People’s Government arrive in Beijing and draft a Seventeen Point Agreement for Chinese sovereignty and Tibetan autonomy.
1953 – The first U.S. experimental 3D television broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.
1965 – Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) successfully launches its seventh rocket in its Rehber series.
1967 – After refusing induction into the United States Army the previous day, Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
1968 – The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, with some of its songs becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement.
1970 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
1974 – Watergate scandal: United States President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the scandal.
1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon before an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.
1975 – Vietnam War: The North Vietnamese army completes its capture of all parts of South Vietnamese-held Trường Sa Islands.
1986 – A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
1986 – Chernobyl disaster: American and European spy satellites capture the ruins of the 4th Reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant.
1991 – A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as ten million homeless.
1991 – The 7.0 Mw Racha earthquake affects Georgia with a maximum MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), killing 270 people.
1992 – Riots in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 63 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
1997 – The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons by its signatories.
2011 – The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.
2013 – A powerful explosion occurs in an office building in Prague, believed to have been caused by natural gas, injures 43 people.
2013 – National Airlines Flight 102, a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft, crashes during takeoff from Bagram Airfield in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, killing seven people.
2015 – A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.
Births on April 29
912 – Minamoto no Mitsunaka, Japanese samurai (d. 997)
1469 – William II, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1509)
1587 – Sophie of Saxony, Duchess of Pomerania (d. 1635)
1636 – Esaias Reusner, German lute player and composer (d. 1679)
1665 – James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1745)
1667 – John Arbuthnot, Scottish-English physician and polymath (d. 1735)
1686 – Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English politician, Lord Great Chamberlain (d. 1742)
1727 – Jean-Georges Noverre, French actor and dancer (d. 1810)
1745 – Oliver Ellsworth, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1807)
1758 – Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (d. 1820)
1762 – Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French general and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1833)
1780 – Charles Nodier, French librarian and author (d. 1844)
1783 – David Cox, English landscape painter (d. 1859)
1784 – Samuel Turell Armstrong, American publisher and politician, 14th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1850)
1810 – Thomas Adolphus Trollope, English journalist and author (d. 1892)
1814 – Sadok Barącz, Galician religious leader, historian, folklorist, archivist (d. 1892)
1818 – Alexander II of Russia (d. 1881)
1837 – Georges Ernest Boulanger, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1891)
1842 – Carl Millöcker, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1899)
1847 – Joachim Andersen, Danish flautist, composer, conductor, and co-founder of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (d. 1907)
1848 – Raja Ravi Varma, Indian painter and academic (d. 1906)
1854 – Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, physicist, and engineer (d. 1912)
1858 – Georgia Hopley, American journalist, temperance advocate, and the first woman prohibition agent (d. 1944)
1863 – Constantine P. Cavafy, Egyptian-Greek journalist and poet (d. 1933)
1863 – William Randolph Hearst, American publisher and politician, founded the Hearst Corporation (d. 1951)
1863 – Maria Teresia Ledóchowska, Austrian nun and missionary (d. 1922)
1872 – Harry Payne Whitney, American businessman and lawyer (d. 1930)
1872 – Forest Ray Moulton, American astronomer and academic (d. 1952)
1875 – Rafael Sabatini, Italian-English novelist and short story writer (d. 1950)
1878 – Friedrich Adler, Jewish-German academic, artist and designer (d.1945)
1879 – Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961, March 8)
1880 – Fethi Okyar, Turkish military officer, diplomat and politician (d. 1943)
1882 – Auguste Herbin, French painter (d. 1960)
1882 – Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, Dutch printer, typographer, and Nazi resister (d. 1945)
1891 – Bharathidasan, Indian poet and activist (d. 1964)
1894 – Marietta Blau, Austrian physicist and academic (d. 1970)
1885 – Egon Erwin Kisch, Czech journalist and author (d. 1948)
1887 – Raymond Thorne, American swimmer (d. 1921)
1893 – Harold Urey, American chemist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
1895 – Vladimir Propp, Russian scholar and critic (d. 1970)
1895 – Malcolm Sargent, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1967)
1899 – Duke Ellington, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1974)
1899 – Mary Petty, American illustrator (d. 1976)
1900 – Concha de Albornoz, Spanish feminist and intellectual, exiled during the Spanish Civil War (d. 1972)
1900 – Amelia Best, Australian politician, one of the first women elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly (d. 1979)
1901 – Hirohito, Japanese emperor (d. 1989)
1907 – Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (d. 1997)
1908 – Jack Williamson, American author and academic (d. 2006)
1909 – Tom Ewell, American actor (d. 1994)
1912 – Richard Carlson, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1977)
1915 – Henry H. Barschall, German-American physicist and academic (d. 1997)
1917 – Maya Deren, Ukrainian-American director, poet, and photographer (d. 1961)
1917 – Celeste Holm, American actress and singer (d. 2012)
1918 – George Allen, American football player and coach (d. 1990)
1919 – Gérard Oury, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1920 – Edward Blishen, English author and radio host (d. 1996)
1920 – Harold Shapero, American composer (d. 2013)
1922 – Helmut Krackowizer, Austrian motorcycle racer and journalist (d. 2001)
1922 – Toots Thielemans, Belgian guitarist and harmonica player (d. 2016)
1923 – Irvin Kershner, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2010)
1924 – Al Balding, Canadian golfer (d. 2006)
1924 – Zizi Jeanmaire, French ballerina and actress
1925 – John Compton, Saint Lucian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Saint Lucia (d. 2007)
1925 – Iwao Takamoto, American animator, director, and producer (d. 2007)
1926 – Elmer Kelton, American journalist and author (d. 2009)
1927 – Dorothy Manley, English sprinter
1927 – Bill Slater, English footballer (d. 2018)
1928 – Carl Gardner, American singer (d. 2011)
1928 – Heinz Wolff, German-English physiologist, engineer, and academic (d. 2017)
1929 – Walter Kempowski, German author and academic (d. 2007)
1929 – Mickey McDermott, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
1929 – Peter Sculthorpe, Australian composer and conductor (d. 2014)
1929 – Maurice Strong, Canadian businessman and diplomat (d. 2015)
1929 – Jeremy Thorpe, English lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
1930 – Jean Rochefort, French actor and director (d. 2017)
1931 – Frank Auerbach, British-German painter
1931 – Lonnie Donegan, Scottish-English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)
1931 – Chris Pearson, Canadian politician, 1st Premier of Yukon (d. 2014)
1932 – Joy Clements, American soprano and actress (d. 2005)
1932 – David Tindle, English painter and educator
1933 – Ed Charles, American baseball player and coach (d. 2018)
1933 – Mark Eyskens, Belgian economist and politician, 61st Prime Minister of Belgium
1933 – Rod McKuen, American singer-songwriter and poet (d. 2015)
1933 – Willie Nelson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
1934 – Luis Aparicio, Venezuelan-American baseball player
1934 – Peter de la Billière, English general
1934 – Erika Fisch, German sprinter and hurdler
1934 – Pedro Pires, Cape Verdean politician, 3rd President of Cape Verde
1935 – Otis Rush, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018)
1936 – Zubin Mehta, Indian bassist and conductor
1936 – Adolfo Nicolás, Spanish priest, 13th Superior General of the Society of Jesus
1936 – Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, English banker and philanthropist
1936 – April Stevens, American pop singer
1937 – Arvo Mets, Estonian-Russian poet and translator (d. 1997)
1937 – Jill Paton Walsh, English author
1938 – Bernard Madoff, American businessman, financier and convicted felon
1938 – Klaus Voormann, German artist, bass player, and producer
1940 – Stephanos of Tallinn, Estonian metropolitan
1940 – Brian Taber, Australian cricketer
1941 – Jonah Barrington, English-Irish squash player
1941 – Dorothy Edgington, British philosopher
1941 – Hanne Darboven, German painter (d. 2009)
1942 – Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, English politician, Minister of State for Europe
1942 – Rennie Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie, English civil servant and academic
1942 – Galina Kulakova, Russian skier
1943 – Duane Allen, American country singer
1943 – Brenda Dean, Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, English union leader and politician (d. 2018)
1943 – Ruth Deech, Baroness Deech, English lawyer and academic
1944 – Francis Lee, English footballer and businessman
1945 – Brian Charlesworth, English biologist, geneticist, and academic
1945 – Hugh Hopper, English bass guitarist (d. 2009)
1945 – Catherine Lara, French singer-songwriter and violinist
1945 – Tammi Terrell, American soul singer-songwriter (d. 1970)
1946 – Aleksander Wolszczan, Polish astronomer
1947 – Serge Bernier, Canadian ice hockey player
1947 – Tommy James, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1947 – Johnny Miller, American golfer and sportscaster
1947 – Jim Ryun, American runner and politician
1948 – Bruce Cutler, American lawyer
1950 – Paul Holmes, New Zealand journalist (d. 2013)
1950 – Phillip Noyce, Australian director and producer
1950 – Debbie Stabenow, American social worker and politician
1951 – Rick Burleson, American baseball player
1951 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)
1951 – John Holmes, English diplomat, British Ambassador to France
1952 – Nora Dunn, American actress and comedian
1952 – David Icke, English footballer and sportscaster
1952 – Bob McClure, American baseball player and coach
1952 – Rob Nicholson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 11th Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1952 – Ron Washington, American baseball player and manager
1954 – Jake Burton Carpenter, American snowboarder and businessman, founded Burton Snowboards
1954 – Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian, actor, and producer
1955 – Don McKinnon, Australian rugby league player
1955 – Kate Mulgrew, American actress
1956 – Karen Barad, American physicist and philosopher
1957 – Daniel Day-Lewis, British-Irish actor
1957 – Mark Kendall, American guitarist and songwriter
1958 – Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
1958 – Eve Plumb, American actress
1958 – Gary Cohen, American baseball play-by-play announcer
1958 – Kevin Moore, English footballer (d. 2013)
1960 – Bill Glasson, American golfer
1960 – Robert J. Sawyer, Canadian author and academic
1962 – Bruce Driver, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1962 – Rob Druppers, Dutch runner
1962 – Stephan Burger, German Catholic archbishop
1963 – Mike Babcock, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1964 – Federico Castelluccio, Italian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1964 – Radek Jaroš, Czech mountaineer and author
1965 – Michel Bussi, French geographer, author, and academic
1965 – Peter Rauhofer, Austrian-American disc jockey and producer (d. 2013)
1965 – Larisa Turchinskaya, Russian-Australian heptathlete and coach
1965 – Brendon Tuuta, New Zealand rugby league player
1966 – Christian Tetzlaff, German violinist
1966 – Phil Tufnell, English cricketer and radio host
1967 – Marcel Albers, Dutch race car driver (d. 1992)
1967 – Curtis Joseph, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1968 – Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, 4th President of Croatia
1968 – Carnie Wilson, American singer-songwriter
1969 – Jack Mackenroth, American swimmer, model, and fashion designer
1970 – Andre Agassi, American tennis player
1970 – Uma Thurman, American actress
1972 – Dustin McDaniel, American lawyer and politician, 55th Arkansas Attorney General
1974 – Jasper Wood, Canadian violinist and educator
1974 – Anggun, Diva Indonesia
1975 – Rafael Betancourt, Venezuelan baseball player
1975 – Artem Yashkin, Ukrainian footballer
1976 – Fabio Liverani, Italian footballer and manager
1976 – Chiyotaikai Ryūji, Japanese sumo wrestler
1977 – Zuzana Hejdová, Czech tennis player
1977 – Claus Jensen, Danish international footballer and manager
1977 – Titus O’Neil, American football player and wrestler
1977 – Attila Zsivoczky, Hungarian decathlete and high jumper
1978 – Tony Armas, Jr., Venezuelan baseball player
1978 – Bob Bryan, American tennis player
1978 – Mike Bryan, American tennis player
1978 – Javier Colon, American singer-songwriter and musician
1978 – Craig Gower, Australian rugby player
1978 – Tyler Labine, Canadian actor and comedian
1979 – Lee Dong-gook, South Korean footballer
1979 – Ryan Sharp, Scottish race car driver and manager
1980 – Mathieu Biron, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Kelly Shoppach, American baseball player
1981 – Lisa Allen, English chef
1981 – George McCartney, Northern Irish footballer
1981 – Émilie Mondor, Canadian runner (d. 2006)
1983 – Jay Cutler, American football player
1983 – Tommie Harris, American football player
1983 – David Lee, American basketball player
1984 – Kirby Cote, Canadian swimmer
1984 – Paulius Jankūnas, Lithuanian basketball player
1984 – Lina Krasnoroutskaya, Russian tennis player
1984 – Vassilis Xanthopoulos, Greek basketball player
1985 – Jean-François Jacques, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Byun Yo-han, South Korean actor
1986 – Lee Chae-young, South Korean actress
1986 – Viljar Veski, Estonian basketball player
1986 – Sisa Waqa, Fijian rugby league player
1986 – Monique Alfradique, Brazilian actress
1987 – Knut Børsheim, Norwegian golfer
1987 – Sara Errani, Italian tennis player
1988 – Elías Hernández, Mexican footballer
1988 – Alfred Hui, Hong Kong singer
1988 – Jovan Leacock, American football player
1988 – Taoufik Makhloufi, Algerian athlete
1988 – Jonathan Toews, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Younha, South Korean singer-songwriter and record producer
1991 – Adam Smith, English footballer
1991 – Jung Hye-sung, South Korean actress
1992 – Emilio Orozco, American soccer player
1992 – Alina Rosenberg, German Paralympic equestrian
1994 – Christina Shakovets, German tennis player
1995 – Victoria Sinitsina, Russian ice dancer
1996 – Katherine Langford, Australian actress
1998 – Kimberly Birrell, Australian tennis player
2007 – Infanta Sofía of Spain, Spanish princess
Deaths on April 29
643 – Hou Junji, Chinese general and politician, Chancellor of the Tang dynasty
926 – Burchard II, Duke of Swabia (b. 883)
1380 – Catherine of Siena, Italian mystic, philosopher, and saint (b. 1347)
1417 – Louis II of Anjou (b. 1377)
1594 – Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, and theologian (b. 1517)
1630 – Agrippa d’Aubigné, French soldier and poet (b. 1552)
1658 – John Cleveland, English poet and author (b. 1613)
1676 – Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (b. 1607)
1688 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1620)
1698 – Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk (b. 1655)
1707 – George Farquhar, Irish-English actor and playwright (b. 1678)
1743 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French theorist and author (b. 1658)
1768 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (b. 1694)
1771 – Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, French-Italian architect, designed Winter Palace and Catherine Palace (b. 1700)
1776 – Edward Wortley Montagu, English explorer and author (b. 1713)
1793 – John Michell, English geologist and astronomer (b. 1724)
1798 – Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, Austrian entomologist and author (b. 1723)
1833 – William Babington, Anglo-Irish physician and mineralogist (b. 1756)
1854 – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1768)
1903 – Paul Du Chaillu, French-American anthropologist and zoologist (b. 1835)
1905 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (b. 1847)
33 BC – Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.
395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.
629 – Shahrbaraz is crowned as king of the Sasanian Empire.
711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol’s Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
1522 – Combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeat a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1595 – The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
1667 – Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers’ Register.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ Hymn).
1813 – War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York.
1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state’s land grant institution.
1906 – The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.
1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.
1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as “National Democrats”) and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation.
1945 – World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
1953 – Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.
1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
1974 – Ten thousand march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
1978 – The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1986 – The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.
1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1989 – The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1992 – The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 – Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1994 – South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
2005 – Airbus A380 aircraft had its maiden test flight.
2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.
2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
2007 – Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.
2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. 205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.
2012 – At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
2018 – The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict.
Births on April 27
85 BC – Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Roman politician and general (d. 43 BC)
1468 – Frederick Jagiellon, Primate of Poland (d. 1503)
1564 – Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (d. 1632)
1556 – François Béroalde de Verville, French writer (d. 1626)
1593 – Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal empress buried at the Taj Mahal (d. 1631)
1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Consort of Denmark (1670-1699) (d. 1714)
1654 – Charles Blount, English deist and philosopher (d. 1693)
1701 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American surveyor and lawyer (d. 1790)
1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek-French philosopher and scholar (d. 1833)
1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician and theorist (d. 1836)
1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (d. 1797)
1788 – Charles Robert Cockerell, English architect, archaeologist, and writer (d. 1863)
1791 – Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (d. 1872)
1812 – William W. Snow, American lawyer and politician (d. 1886)
1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
1820 – Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1903)
1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
1840 – Edward Whymper, English-French mountaineer, explorer, author, and illustrator (d. 1911)
1848 – Otto of Bavaria (d. 1916)
1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general and politician (d. 1921)
1853 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (d. 1914)
1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian painter and illustrator (d. 1914)
1861 – William Arms Fisher, American composer and music historian (d. 1948)
1866 – Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (d. 1916)
1875 – Frederick Fane, Irish-born, English cricketer (d. 1960)
1880 – Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1958)
1882 – Jessie Redmon Fauset, American author and poet (d. 1961)
1887 – Warren Wood, American golfer (d. 1926)
1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1953)
1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (d. 1946)
1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1939)
1894 – George Petty, American painter and illustrator (d. 1975)
1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1995)
1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1963)
1896 – William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (d. 1978)
1896 – Wallace Carothers, American chemist and inventor of nylon (d. 1937)
1898 – Ludwig Bemelmans, Italian-American author and illustrator (d. 1962)
1899 – Walter Lantz, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1994)
1900 – August Koern, Estonian politician and diplomat, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs in exile (d. 1989)
1902 – Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, Malian educator and activist (d. 1942)
1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (d. 1972)
1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
1905 – John Kuck, American javelin thrower and shot putter (d. 1986)
1906 – Yiorgos Theotokas, Greek author and playwright (d. 1966)
1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (d. 1988)
1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 2009)
1911 – Chris Berger, Dutch sprinter and footballer (d. 1965)
1912 – Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, French author and politician (d. 2001)
1912 – Zohra Sehgal, Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2014)
1913 – Philip Abelson, American physicist and author (d. 2004)
1913 – Irving Adler, American mathematician, author, and academic (d. 2012)
1913 – Luz Long, German long jumper and soldier (d. 1943)
1916 – Robert Hugh McWilliams, Jr., American sergeant, lawyer, and judge (d. 2013)
1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player and manager (d. 2002)
1917 – Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (d. 2001)
1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish lawyer and jurist (d. 2008)
1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
1920 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Ukrainian mathematician and academic (d. 1997)
1920 – James Robert Mann, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (d. 2010)
1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet and translator (d. 2010)
1921 – Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor (d. 2012)
1922 – Sheila Scott, English nurse and pilot (d. 1988)
1923 – Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, Seminole chief (d. 2011)
1924 – Vernon B. Romney, American lawyer and politician, 14th Attorney General of Utah (d. 2013)
1925 – Derek Chinnery, English broadcaster (d. 2015)
1926 – Tim LaHaye, American minister, activist, and author (d. 2016)
1926 – Basil A. Paterson, American lawyer and politician, 59th Secretary of State of New York (d. 2014)
1926 – Alan Reynolds, English painter and educator (d. 2014)
1927 – Coretta Scott King, African-American activist and author (d. 2006)
1927 – Joe Moakley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2001)
1929 – Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower and coach (d. 2016)
1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist and educator
1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
1932 – Pik Botha, South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 8th South African Ambassador to the United States (d. 2018)
1932 – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey, music historian, radio celebrity, and voice actor; co-created American Top 40 (d. 2014)
1932 – Chuck Knox, American football coach (d. 2018)
1932 – Derek Minter, English motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
1933 – Peter Imbert, Baron Imbert, English police officer and politician, Lord Lieutenant for Greater London (d. 2017)
1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1935 – Ron Morris, American pole vaulter and coach
1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English singer and illustrator (d. 2016)
1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
1937 – Robin Eames, Irish Anglican archbishop
1937 – Richard Perham, English biologist and academic (d. 2015)
1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler and sportscaster (d. 2001)
1938 – Alain Caron, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
1939 – Judy Carne, English actress and comedian (d. 2015)
1939 – Stanisław Dziwisz, Polish cardinal
1941 – Fethullah Gülen, Turkish preacher and theologian
1941 – Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, Indian archaeologist
1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
1942 – Ruth Glick, American author
1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer
1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian race car driver and manager
1944 – Michael Fish, English meteorologist and journalist
1944 – Cuba Gooding Sr., American singer (d. 2017)
1944 – Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 – Martin Chivers, English footballer and manager
1945 – Jack Deverell, English general
1945 – Helen Hodgman, Scottish-Australian author
1945 – Terry Willesee, Australian journalist and television host
1945 – August Wilson, American author and playwright (d. 2005)
1946 – Franz Roth, German footballer
1947 – G. K. Butterfield, African-American soldier, lawyer, and politician
1947 – Nick Greiner, Hungarian-Australian politician, 37th Premier of New South Wales
1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
1947 – Ann Peebles, American soul singer-songwriter
1948 – Frank Abagnale Jr., American security consultant and criminal
1948 – Josef Hickersberger, Austrian footballer, coach, and manager
1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian businessman and politician
1950 – Jaime Fresnedi, Filipino politician
1950 – Paul Lockyer, Australian journalist (d. 2011)
1951 – Ace Frehley, American guitarist and songwriter
1952 – Larry Elder, American lawyer and talk show host
1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish race car driver and politician
1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French-American actress and model
1954 – Frank Bainimarama, Fijian commander and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Fiji
1954 – Herman Edwards, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
1954 – Mark Holden, Australian singer, actor, and lawyer
1955 – Gudrun Berend, German hurdler (d. 2011)
1955 – Eric Schmidt, American engineer and businessman
1956 – Bryan Harvey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
1956 – Jeff Probyn, English rugby player, coach, and manager
1957 – Willie Upshaw, American baseball player and manager
1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish-American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
1959 – Marco Pirroni, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Andrew Schlafly, American lawyer and activist, founded Conservapedia
1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentinian footballer and manager
1962 – Seppo Räty, Finnish javelin thrower and coach
1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean director and screenwriter
1962 – Andrew Selous, English soldier and politician
1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh screenwriter and producer
1965 – Anna Chancellor, English actress
1966 – Peter McIntyre, Australian cricketer
1966 – Yoshihiro Togashi, Japanese illustrator
1967 – Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands
1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish saxophonist, composer, and educator
1967 – Erik Thomson, Scottish-New Zealand actor
1967 – Jason Whitlock, American football player and journalist
1968 – Dana Milbank, American journalist and author
1969 – Cory Booker, African-American lawyer and politician
1969 – Darcey Bussell, English ballerina
1971 – Olari Elts, Estonian conductor
1972 – Nigel Barker, English photographer and author
1972 – Almedin Civa, Bosnian footballer and coach
1973 – Duško Adamović, Serbian footballer
1973 – Sharlee D’Angelo, Swedish bass player and songwriter
1973 – Sébastien Lareau, Canadian tennis player
1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American football player
1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player and manager
1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
1975 – Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japanese ski jumper
1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter and cellist
1976 – Sally Hawkins, English actress
1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian director, screenwriter, and critic
1979 – Will Boyd, American bass player
1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netball player
1979 – Vladimir Kozlov, Ukrainian wrestler
1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
1982 – François Parisien, Canadian cyclist
1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress and producer
1983 – Martin Viiask, Estonian basketball player
1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Patrick Stump, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1985 – José António de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Meselech Melkamu, Ethiopian runner
1986 – Jenna Coleman, English actress
1986 – Hayley Mulheron, Scottish netball player
1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
1987 – William Moseley, English actor
1987 – Wang Feifei, Chinese singer and actress
1988 – Joeri Dequevy, Belgian footballer
1988 – Kris Thackray, English footballer
1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
1988 – Lizzo, American singer and rapper
1989 – Lars Bender, German footballer
1989 – Sven Bender, German footballer
1989 – Tim Glasby, Australian rugby league player
1989 – Dmytro Kozban, Ukrainian footballer
1990 – Trude Raad, Norwegian deaf track and field athlete
1991 – Isaac Cuenca, Spanish footballer
1991 – Eric Fukusaki, Peruvian singer
1991 – Lara Gut, Swiss skier
1992 – Keenan Allen, American football player
1994 – Corey Seager, American baseball player
1995 – Nick Kyrgios, Australian tennis player
1997 – Josh Onomah, English footballer
Deaths on April 27
630 – Ardashir III of Persia (b. 621)
1160 – Rudolf I, Count of Bregenz (b. 1081)
1272 – Zita, Italian saint (b. 1212)
1321 – Nicolò Albertini, Italian cardinal statesman (b. c. 1250)
1353 – Simeon of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and Vladimir
1403 – Maria of Bosnia, Countess of Helfenstein (b. 1335)
1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
1463 – Isidore of Kiev (b. 1385)
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese sailor and explorer (b. 1480)
1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
1607 – Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell, Governor of Lecale (b. 1560)
1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish priest and missionary (b. 1532)
1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1596)
1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
1695 – John Trenchard, English politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (b. 1640)
1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (b. 1710)
1813 – Zebulon Pike, American general and explorer (b. 1779)
1873 – William Macready, English actor and manager (b. 1793)
1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (b. 1803)
1893 – John Ballance, Irish-born New Zealand journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1839)
1896 – Henry Parkes, English-Australian businessman and politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1815)
1915 – John Labatt, Canadian businessman (b. 1838)
1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1872)
1932 – Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
1936 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician and academic (b. 1857)
1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian sociologist, linguist, and politician (b. 1891)
1938 – Edmund Husserl, Czech mathematician and philosopher (b. 1859)
1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician and statistician (b. 1865)
1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1893)
1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bangladeshi-Pakistani lawyer and politician, Pakistani Minister of the Interior (b. 1873)
1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
1967 – William Douglas Cook, New Zealand farmer, founded the Eastwoodhill Arboretum (b. 1884)
1969 – René Barrientos, Bolivian soldier, pilot, and politician, 55th President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish rebel and actor (b. 1896)
1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian politician, 1st President of Ghana (b. 1909)
1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentinian race car driver and polo player (b. 1914)
1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1915)
1988 – Fred Bear, American hunter and author (b. 1902)
1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese businessman, founded Panasonic (b. 1894)
1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French organist and composer (b. 1908)
1992 – Gerard K. O’Neill, American physicist and astronomer (b. 1927)
