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At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium.
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town.
The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.
Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq War.
Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.
The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.
Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.
United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.
Arab-Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.
World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico.
Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies.
Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito.
South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins.
John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.
The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.
The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance.
100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first English colony in America.
Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.
The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.
Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.
The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom.
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