| | 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe. |
| | 1514 - Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work. |
| | 1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War. |
| | 1567 - Mary Queen of Scots weds James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, her third husband. |
| | 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod. |
| | 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). |
| | 1701 - The War of the Spanish Succession begins. |
| | 1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun. |
| | 1756 - The Seven Years' War begins when England declares war on France. |
| | 1776 - American Revolution: Virginia convention instructs its delegates to propose a declaration of independence from Great Britain. |
| | 1791 - Maximilien Robespierre proposed the self-denying ordinance. |
| | 1795 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France enters Milan in triumph. |
| | 1811 - Paraguay declares independence from Spain. |
| | 1829 - According to LDS teaching, John the Baptist confers the Aaronic Priesthood onto Joseph Smith Jr. and Oliver Cowdery. |
| | 1836 - Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. |
| | 1849 - Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily. |
| | 1851 - Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand. |
| | 1858 - The third Royal Opera House officially opens in London. |
| | 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA). |
| | 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca, Georgia ends. |
| | 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. |
| | 1869 - Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. |
| | 1897 - The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in Greco-Turkish War |
| | 1902 - In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider). |
| | 1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off. |
| | 1910 - The last time a major earthquake happened on the Lake Elsinore Fault. |
| | 1911 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved. |
| | 1914 - Bolivia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. |
| | 1918 - Finnish Civil War ends. |
| | 1918 - The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC). |
| | 1919 - The Winnipeg General Strike began. By 11:00, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. |
| | 1919 - Greek invasion of İzmir, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of Turks by the Greek army. Hasan Tahsin fired the first gun of the Turkish War of Independence. |
| | 1920 - Council of Lithuania adjourned as newly elected Constituent Assembly of Lithuania met for the first time in Kaunas |
| | 1928 - Release of the animated short "Plane Crazy", featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. |
| | 1929 - A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. |
| | 1930 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago. |
| | 1932 - The May 15 Incident. In an attempted coup the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed. |
| | 1934 - The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger. |
| | 1934 - Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia. |
| | 1940 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States. |
| | 1940 - World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops have to surrender to Nazi Germany, marking the beginning of 5 years of occupation. |
| | 1940 - McDonald's is founded. |
| | 1941 - Baseball player Joe DiMaggio starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak. |
| | 1942 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. |
| | 1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). |
| | 1945 - Last skirmish of the Second World War in Europe fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. |
| | 1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel. |
| | 1951 - The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum. |
| | 1951 - The cartoon Rabbit Fire is released |
| | 1955 - Austrian Independence Treaty signed. |
| | 1955 - First ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain. |
| | 1957 - Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. |
| | 1958 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. |
| | 1960 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4. |
| | 1963 - Mercury program: America launches the last mission of the program, Mercury 9 (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb told Congress the program was complete). |
| | 1964 - The Smothers Brothers give their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City. |
| | 1970 - The Beatles' last LP, Let It Be, is released in the United States. |
| | 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 killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests. |
| | 1972 - The island of Okinawa, 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 Wallace is campaigning to be American President. |
| | 1978 - Lagumot Harris, having only been elected President less than a month before, is replaced as the leader of the republic of Nauru. He is succeeded by Hammer DeRoburt. |
| | 1981 - Len Barker, American baseball pitcher, completes a perfect game for the Cleveland Indians against the Toronto Blue Jays. |
| | 1987 - Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform, which failed to reach orbit. |
| | 1988 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan. |
| | 1990 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time. |
| | 1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister. |
| | 2004 - The largest known prime number at the time of its discovery, 224036583 − 1, is found by Josh Findley and the GIMPS collaborative effort. |
| | 2004 - Arsenal complete a whole English Premiership season, 38 games, unbeaten. |