This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
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.
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".
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.
SpongeBob SquarePants premieres on Nickelodeon after the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards.
The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.
Croatian forces launch Operation Flash during the Croatian War of Independence.
Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident whilst leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
Dingiri Banda Wijetunga became president of Sri Lanka automatically after killing of R Premadasa in LTTE bomb explosion
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.
Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War.
Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
Thirty-six people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations.
The Argentine terrorist organization Montoneros is expelled from Plaza de Mayo by president Juan Perón.
Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.
Protests erupt following the announcement by Richard Nixon that American and South Vietnamese forces would attack Vietnamese communists in a Cambodian Campaign.
The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
Formation of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra; also known as "Maharashtra Day".
Thirty-four people are killed when a Vickers Viking airliner crashes in Hampshire, England.
A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.
The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
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.
The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy.
Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army.
World War II: Forces of the Soviet Red Army liberate Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at Stalag Luft I near Barth, Germany.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor.
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.
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.
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.
Spanish-American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first major battle of the war.
Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.
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.
The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business.
Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States.
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.
The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.
American Civil War: The Union Army completes its capture of New Orleans.
The Province of Isabela was created in the Philippines in honor of Queen Isabela II.
Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London.
The few remaining Mormons left in Nauvoo, Illinois, formally dedicate the Nauvoo Temple.
Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second modern police force and Asia's first, is established.
The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
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.
In Vienna, Austria, Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro is performed for the first time.
Kamehameha I, the king of Hawaiʻi, defeats Kalanikūpule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Stephen Báthory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they become co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Battle of Arkinholm, Royal forces end the Black Douglas hegemony in Scotland.
Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland.
The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.
King Sigismund of Burgundy is executed at Orléans after an 8-year reign and is succeeded by his brother Godomar.
Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor.
Roman consul Publius Valerius Poplicola celebrates a Roman triumph for his victory over Veii and the Sabines.
English