| | 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. |
| | 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 having been accused of treason. |
| | 1648 - Construction of the Red Fort at Dehli was completed. |
| | 1779 - War of 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 them (the Innviertel). |
| | 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia. |
| | 1830 - Ecuador gains its independence. |
| | 1846 - Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on Mexico. |
| | 1848 - First performance of Finland's national anthem. |
| | 1861 - American Civil War: Queen Victoria of Britain issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights. |
| | 1861 - Great Comet of 1861 discovered in Australia. |
| | 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, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, 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"), Brazil abolishes slavery. |
| | 1909 - The first Giro d'Italia took place in Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the winner. |
| | 1912 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established. |
| | 1913 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft. |
| | 1917 - Three peasant children report seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary near Fatima, Portugal.[1] |
| | 1917 - The Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, is consecrated Archbishop by Pope Benedict XV. |
| | 1939 - The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later became WDRC-FM. |
| | 1940 - World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse River. Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons. |
| | 1940 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the Nazi invasion in the Netherlands to Britain. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety. |
| | 1941 - World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance. |
| | 1943 - World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces. |
| | 1948 - 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. |
| | 1952 - The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, held its first sitting. |
| | 1958 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators. |
| | 1958 - Pierre Pflimlin becomes Prime Minister of France. |
| | 1958 - Velcro's trade mark is registered. |
| | 1967 - Dr. Zakir Hussain became 3rd President of India. He was the first Muslim President of Indian Union. He held this position till August 24, 1969. |
| | 1969 - Race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, later known as the 13 May Incident. |
| | 1972 - Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka. Blocked exits and nonfunctional elevators cause 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths. |
| | 1980 - An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President 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 was rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery, and managed to survive. |
| | 1985 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police storm MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents. |
| | 1996 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people. |
| | 1998 - India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, in addition to the three conducted on May 11. United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India. |
| | 2000 - Lara Dutta (21), who said beauty pageants give women a platform to voice our choices and opinions is named Miss Universe 2000 in the Cyprus capital Nicosia. |
| | 2000 - In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage. |
| | 2001 - Silvio Berlusconi an Italian House of the Liberties coalition win general elections. |
| | 2005 - The Andijan Massacre occurs in Uzbekistan. |
| | 2006 - 2006 São Paulo violence: A major rebellion occurs in several prisons of the state. |