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1970–Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on students protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War at Kent State University, in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others. The students killed are: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer, and William Schroeder. They are immortalized in the song, Ohio, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.


1006–Khajeh Abdullah Ansari, Persian Sufi, is born in Herat, Khorasan (present-day Afghanistan).

1008–King Henry I of France is born in Reims, France.

1256–The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.

1415–Religious reformers, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.

1436–Swedish rebel (later national hero), Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, is assassinated at Engelbrektsholmen, an islet in Lake Hjälmaren, by the aristocrat, Måns Bengtsson, who lived in the nearby Göksholm Castle.

1471–Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, is killed in the Battle of Tewkesbury, at age 18.

1493–Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal, along the Line of Demarcation.

1494–Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica and meets the Arawak Indians. The Arawak used Jamaican pimento (allspice) to season and smoke meat, which is the foundation of traditional Jamaican Jerk cooking.

1626–Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present-day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw. He becomes director-general of New Netherlands and the Indians sell Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth and buttons.

1654–Kangxi, Emperor of China, is born in Beijing, China. Kangxi's reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning Emperor in Chinese history. By the end of his reign, the Qing Empire controlled all of China proper, Taiwan, Manchuria, part of the Russian Far East (Outer Manchuria), both Inner and Outer Mongolia, and Tibet proper.

1655–Instrument maker, Bartolomeo Cristofori, is born Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco in Padua, Republic of Venice. He is considered to be the inventor of piano.

1675–King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

1686–The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.

1715–The folding umbrella is introduced in Paris, France.

1776–Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III, declaring independence from England.

1780–The Derby horse race is held for the first time.

1796–Educator, author, and editor, Horace Mann, is born in Franklin, Massachusetts. He pioneered public schools in America. Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn the nation's unruly children into disciplined, judicious, Republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers, especially in his Whig Party, for the building public schools. Most states adopted one version or another of the system of education that he established in Massachusetts.

1799–During the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan is killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.

1814–Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio, on the island of Elba, to begin his exile.

1814–King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decrete of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism, a monarchical form of government in which the monarch has absolute power among his or her people.

1820–Julia Gardiner Tyler, wife of President John Tyler, is born in Gardiner's Island, New York. She was the 10th First Lady of the United States.

1826–American landscape painter, Frederic Edwin Church, is born in Hartford, Connecticut. Church would become a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters. His paintings were distinguishable by their settings (most often of the Catskill Mountains), their romantic style, stunning detail, and luminous quality. The Hudson River School strove to capture a vanishing American wilderness, and within that context, Church was committed to capturing the spiritual quality of his landscapes.

1836–The formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians takes place. This is an Irish Catholic fraternal organisation. Members must be Catholic and either Irish-born or of Irish descent.

1847–New York State creates a Board of Commissioners on Emigration.

1859–The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge, linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.

1865–Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his assassination.

1869–The Naval Battle of Hakodate is fought in Japan.

1871–The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1878–The phonograph is first unveiled at the Grand Opera House in San Francisco, California.

1884–Wang Tjing-Wei, Premier of China (1932-1935), is born Wang Zhaoming in Sanshui, Guangdong, Qing Dynasty.

1886–A bomb explodes at a labor rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square, killing eight policemen. At a previous rally, calling for an eight-hour work day, police fired into the crowds, killing two demonstrators. At the Haymarket rally, eight radicals are arrested, not for the bombing, but for their radical ideas. Four will be executed, one dies in prison, and the other three are pardoned 16 years later by the Governor of Illinois. The actual bomber was never found.

1886–The graphophone, a link between the earlier gramophone and the modern phonograph, is patented, featuring wax cylinders, which are a better conductor of music.

1893–Cowboy, Bob Pickett, invents bulldogging.

1896–The first edition of The London Daily Mail is published.

1896–A grease fire ignites a ton of dynamite at Cripple Creek, Colorado.

1897–A fire in the bazaar at Rue Jean Goujon in Paris, France, kills 200 people.

1897–The 23rd Kentucky Derby: Buttons Garner, riding Typhoon II, wins in 2:12.

1898–The 24th Kentucky Derby: Willie Simms, riding Plaudit, wins in 2:09.

1899–The 25th Kentucky Derby: Fred Taral, riding, Manuel, wins in 2:12.

1902–Eight fishermen drown in Galway Bay, Ireland.

1904–Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester England. Together, they would create the Rolls Royce automobile.

1904–The U.S. begins construction on the Panama Canal.

1907–Ballet impresario, Lincoln Kirstein, is born in Rochester, New York. He was the man who, in 1933, brought choreographer George Balanchine to America, and together they founded the American Ballet Company, and later the New York City Ballet. Kirstein was the general director of the New York City Ballet for more than 40 years.

1910–Canadian Parliament votes to create a Royal Canadian Navy.

1910–Tel Aviv is founded.

1912–Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes.

1913–Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark is born in Athens, Greece. She was the third daughter and youngest child of King Constantine I of Greece and Sophia of Prussia. Her paternal grandparents were King George I of Greece (child of King Christian IX of Denmark) and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia. Her maternal grandparents were Frederick III, German Emperor, and the Empress Victoria (the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert).

1919–Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.

1920–RCA holds its first meeting.

1922–Austin, Texas, is hit twice by tornadoes striking within 30 minutes of each other. Twelve people are killed.

1923–New York state revokes the Prohibition law.

1923–Bloody street battles between the Nazis, socialists, and the police take place in Vienna, Austria.

1923–Ed Cassidy, drummer for Spirit, is born Edward Claude Cassidy in Harvey, Illinois. He was one of the founders of the group in 1967. Cassidy played with various line-ups of Spirit on 20 albums over almost 30 years.

1923–Actor, Godfrey Quigley, is born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine. His family returned to Ireland in the 1930s, and following military service in the World War II, Quigley trained as an actor at the Abbey School of Acting. He appeared in the films The Rising of the Moon, Rooney, Nothing But the Best, The Reckoning, Get Carter, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and Educating Rita.

1924–The VIII Summer Olympic Games open in Paris, France.

1927–The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is established.

1928–Jazz trumpeter, (Walter) Maynard Ferguson, is born in Verdun, Quebec, Canada. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra before forming his own band in 1957.

1928–Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian President, is born Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak in Kafr-El Meselha, Monufia Governorate, Egypt.

1929–Actress, Audrey Hepburn, is born Edda Kathleen van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. As a film and fashion icon, Hepburn ranked by the American Film Institute as the third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema, and has been placed in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. She appeared in the films Roman Holiday, Sabrina, War and Peace, Love in the Afternoon, Funny Face, The Nun’s Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Children’s Hour, Charade, My Fair Lady, Two for the Road, Wait Until Dark, Robin and Marian, and They All Laughed, and Always. She was married to actor, Mel Ferrer.

1930–Katherine Jackson is born Kattie B. Screws in Clayton, Alabama. She was the mother of pop singer, Michael Jackson, and the matriarch of the Jackson entertainment family.

1930–Opera singer, Roberta Peters, is born Roberta Peterson in New York, New York. One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. She was married to opera singer, Robert Merrill.

1932–Mobster, Al Capone, convicted of income tax evasion, enters Atlanta Penitentiary to serve an 11-year sentence.

1933–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Francis A. Jamieson, of the Associated Press, for his prompt, full, skillful, and prolonged coverage of news of the kidnapping of the infant son of Charles Lindbergh on March 1, 1932; Fiction: The Store by T.S. Stribling (Doubleday); Drama: Both Your Houses by Maxwell Anderson (S. French); History: The Significance of Sections in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner (Holt); Biography or Autobiography: Biography of Grover Cleveland by Allan Nevins (Dodd); Poetry: Conquistador by Archibald Macleish (Houghton).

1934–Professional wresstler, Mr. Fuji, is born Harry Fujiwara in Honolulu, Hawaii. Fuji retired from wrestling in 1985, and became a heel manager. As a manager, Fuji would "blind" his opponents by throwing salt in their eyes, or he or his wrestler(s) would hit their opponent with his ever present cane. He wore a black tuxedo and bowler hat, akin to the James Bond series character, Oddjob.

1935–The 61st Kentucky Derby: Willie Saunders, riding Omaha, wins in 2:05.

1936–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Lauren D. Lyman, of The New York Times, for the exclusive story revealing that the Charles Lindbergh family was leaving the United States to live in England; Fiction: Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (Harper); Drama: Idiot's Delight by Robert E. Sherwood (Scribner); History: A Constitutional History of the United States by Andrew C. McLaughlin (Appleton); Biography or Autobiography: The Thought and Character of William James by Ralph Barton Perry (Little); Poetry: Strange Holiness by Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (Macmillan).

1937–Jazz bassist, Ron Carter, is born Ronald Levin Carter in Ferndale, Michigan. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history. He was a member of The Miles Davis Quintet.

1937–King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale, is born Richard Anthony Monsour in Boston, Massachusetts. The left-hander flipped his guitar upside-down to play, inspiring folks like Jimi Hendrix. He pioneered the surf music style, drawing on Eastern musical scales and experimenting with reverberation. He worked closely with Fender to produce custom made amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.

1940–The 66th Kentucky Derby: Carroll Bierman, riding Gallahadion, wins in 2:05.

1942–In World War II, the Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands.

1942–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Stanton Delaplane, of The San Francisco Chronicle, for his articles on the movement of several California and Oregon counties to secede to form the State of Jefferson, a forty-ninth state; Fiction: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt); Drama: No award given; History: Reveille in Washington 1860-1865 by Margaret Leech (Harper); Biography or Autobiography: Crusader in Crinoline by Forrest Wilson (Lippincott); Poetry: The Dust Which Is God by William Rose Benet (Dodd, Mead); Photography: Milton Brooks, of The Detroit News, for his photo entitled "Ford Strikers Riot."

1943–Nickolas Ashford, of Ashford and Simpson, is born in Fairfield, South Carolina. The duo’s hits include Ain't No Mountain High Enough, You're All I Need To Get By, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, and Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand).

1945–The Neuengamme concentration camp, near Hamburg, Germnay, is liberated by the British Army.

1946–In San Francisco Bay, California, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot.

1946–The 72nd Kentucky Derby: Warren Mehrtens, riding Assault, wins in 2:06.

1948–Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.

1951–Jackie Jackson, of The Jackson 5, is born Sigmund Esco Jackson in Gary, Indiana.

1951–Mick Mars, of Motley Crue, is born Robert Alan Deal in Terre Haute, Indiana.

1953–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Austin Wehrwein, of The Milwaukee Journal, for a series of articles on Canada; Fiction: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner); Drama: Picnic by William Inge (Random House); History: The Era of Good Feelings by George Dangerfield (Harcourt); Biography or Autobiography: Edmund Pendleton 1721-1803 by David J. Mays (Harvard University Press); Poetry: Collected Poems 1917-1952 by Archibald MacLeish (Houghton); Photography: William M. Gallagher, of Flint Journal, for a photo of ex-Governor Adlai E. Stevenson with a hole in his shoe taken during the 1952 Presidential campaign.

1953–Actress, Pia Zadora, is born Pia Alfreda Schipani in Hoboken, New Jersey. She appeared in the films Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Butterfly, The Lonely Lady, Hairspray, Troop Beverly Hills, and Naked Gun.

1954–The U.S. conducts an atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island.

1954–Singer, Julie Budd, is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1956–The U.S. conducts an atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak.

1956–The English music magazine New Musical Express reports that rising new star “Elvin” Presley will perform a season at the London Palladium. Presley never performed a concert in England.

1956–Rocker, Gene Vincent, records his classic Be-Bop-a-Lula during his first recording session at Capitol Records.

1956–Astronaut, Michael L. Gernhardt, is born Michael Landon Gernhardt in Mansfield, Ohio. He is manager of the Environmental Physiology Laboratory and principal investigator of the Prebreathe Reduction Program (PRP) at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

1957–Disc jockey, Alan Freed, premieres his half-hour TV show, The Alan Freed Show on ABC-TV. It is an attempt to replicate the success of American Bandstand. The first show features performances from The Clovers, The Del-Vikings, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Sal Mineo, and Guy Mitchell.

1957–The 83rd Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack, riding Iron Liege, wins in 2:02.

1959–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Joseph Martin and Philip Santora, of The New York Daily News, for their exclusive series of articles disclosing the brutality of the Batista government in Cuba long before its downfall and forecasting the triumph of the revolutionary party led by Fidel Castro; Fiction: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday); Drama: J.B. by Archibald Macleish (Houghton); History: The Republican Era–1869-1901 by Leonard D. White, with the assistance of Miss Jean Schneider (Macmillan); Biography or Autobiography: Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet by Arthur Walworth (Longmans); Poetry: Selected Poems 1928-1958 by Stanley Kunitz (Little); Photography: William Seaman, of The Minneapolis Star, for his dramatic photograph of the sudden death of a child in the street; Music: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by John La Montaine (Fredonia Press).

1959–The 1st Annual Grammy Awards announces its winners. Record of the Year: Domenico Modugno for Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare); Album of the Year: Henry Mancini for The Music from Peter Gunn; Song of the Year: Domenico Modugno for Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare); Best Vocal Performance, Male: Perry Como for Catch a Falling Star; Best Vocal Performance, Female: Ella Fitzgerald for Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook; Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus: Keely Smith & Louis Prima for That Old Black Magic; Best Country & Western Performance: The Kingston Trio for Tom Dooley; Best Rhythm & Blues Performance: The Champs for Tequila; Best Instrumental Performance: Billy May for Billy May's Big Fat Brass. The ceremonies are held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and in New York. The host is Mort Sahl.

1959–Country singer, Randy Travis, is born Randy Bruce Traywick in Marshville, North Carolina. Since 1985, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 50 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with 16 of these #1 hits. He is known for his distinctive baritone vocals, delivered in a traditional country style.

1961–Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight, ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet.

1961–The Beatles perform at the Top Ten Club, Reeperbahn, Hamburg, West Germany.

1961–A group of Freedom Riders leaves Washington, D.C. for New Orleans, Louisiana, to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals.

1961–Child actress, Mary Elizabeth McDonough, is born in Van Nuys, California. She is best known for her role on the TV series The Waltons.

1962–The U.S. conducts an atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island.

1963–The Beach Boys hit the American albums chart for the first time with Surfin' USA.

1963–The Beatles top the British chart with their third single, From Me To You.

1963–The 89th Kentucky Derby: Braulio Baeza, riding Chateaugay, wins in 2:01.

1964–Dick James Music and Northern Songs install their headquarters at 71-75 New Oxford Street, Blumsbury, London, England. This is the publishing firm for the music of The Beatles.

1964–The long-running soap opera, Another World, debuts on NBC-TV.

1964–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Merriman Smith, of United Press International, for his outstanding coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; Fiction: No award given; Drama: No award given; Non-Fiction: Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter (Random); History: Puritan Village–The Formation of a New England Town by Sumner Chilton Powell (Wesleyan University Press); Biography or Autobiography: John Keats by Walter Jackson Bate (Harvard University Press); Poetry: At the End of the Open Road by Louis Simpson (Wesleyan University Press); Photography: Robert H. Jackson, of The Dallas Times Herald, for his photograph of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby; Music: No award given.

1968–The Beatles, Mia Farrow, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are featured on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

1968–Welsh singer, Mary Hopkin, appears on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks. She is spotted by fashion model, Twiggy, who recommends her to Paul McCartney. Paul will sign Hopkin to Apple Records and produce her biggest selling single, Those Were the Days.

1968–Steppenwolf makes their first appearance on American Bandstand.

1968–The 94th Kentucky Derby: Ismael Valenzuela, riding Forward Pass, wins.

1969–John Lennon and Yoko Ono buy Tittenhurst Park, a mansion in Ascot, Berkshire, England, for £145,000 pounds. They will move in during August.

1969–After 64 years of operation, Fontaine Ferry Park, in Louisville, Kentucky, closes permanently, when youths attack workers and loot the park. Many items are destroyed, including the portable food stands and various buildings. The damage costs the park $18,000 and it takes 25 policemen to bring the rioting to an end. The auctioned-off rides ended up in various locations across the country. The carousel, presently located at Six Flags Great America, near Chicago, Illinois, is worth $1,500,000.

1969–The Stanley Cup: The Montreal Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues, in 4 games.

1970–Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on students protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War at Kent State University, in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others. The students killed are: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer, and William Schroeder. They are immortalized in the song, Ohio, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

1970–The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Reporting: Seymour M. Hersh, of the Dispatch News Service, Washington, D.C., for his exclusive disclosure of the Vietnam War tragedy at the hamlet of My Lai; Fiction: Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar); Drama: No Place to be Somebody by Charles Gordone (Bobbs-Merrill); Non-Fiction: Gandhi's Truth by Erik Erikson (Norton); History: Present At The Creation–My Years In The State Department by Dean Acheson (Norton); Biography or Autobiography: Huey Long by T. Harry Williams (Knopf); Poetry: Untitled Subjects by Richard Howard (Atheneum); Photography: Dallas Kinney, of The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Florida, for his portfolio of pictures of Florida migrant workers "Migration to Misery"; Music: Time's Encomium by Charles Wuorinen (C.F. Peters).

1972–The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to the Greenpeace Foundation.

1974–A chart topper: Waterloo by ABBA.

1974–An all-female Japanese mountain climbing team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.

1974–The 100th Kentucky Derby: Angel Cordero, Jr., riding Cannonade, wins in 2:04.

1975–Comedian, Moe Howard, of The Three Stooges, dies of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 77. Along with his brothers Shemp and Curley (and non-related Stooges, Larry Fine, Joe Besser and Joe DeRita), he appeared in dozens of The Three Stooges comedy shorts in the 1940s and 1950s. He also appeared in the films Snow White and The Three Stooges, The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, The Three Stooges in Orbit, The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Outlaws is Coming, and Kook’s Tour.

1978–The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.

1979–Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female Prime Minister.

1979–Singer, (James) Lance Bass, of *NSYNC, is born in Laurel, Mississippi. He is married to painter, Michael Turchin.

1980–Politician, Josip Broz Tito, dies in Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia, at age 87. He was the first President of Yugoslavia.

1981–George Harrison releases a jaunty tribute to John Lennon with the song All Those Years Ago. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr also contributed to the recording.

1982–Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer, HMS Sheffield, is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.

1983–China conducts a nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC.

1984–Actress, Diana Dors, dies of ovarian cancer in Windsor, Berkshire, England, at age 52. She was most successful and highly popular in England in the 1950s and 1960s. She was in many British “B” movies as their answer to Marilyn Monroe. She appearted in the films Holiday Camp, Good-Time Girl, A Boy a Girl and a Bike, Diamond City, Lady Godiva Rides Again, Man Bait, The Unholy Wife, The Long Haul, Tread Softly Stranger, On the Double, The Big Bankroll, Berserk!, Hammerhead, Deep End, There's a Girl in My Soup, Hannie Caulder, Theatre of Blood, Adventures of a Taxi Driver, and Steaming.

1985–The legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York, reopens after a massive $10 million makeover.

1985–The 111th Kentucky Derby: Angel Cordero, Jr., riding Spend A Buck, wins in 2:00.

1987–Blues musician, Paul Butterfield, dies of drug-related heart failure at his apartment in North Hollywood, California, age 44. His Blues Band with Mike Bloomfield revitalized the idiom for American audiences, and he was one of the artists responsible for the acid-drenched sound of the late 1960s.

1987–Actress, Cathryn Damon, dies of ovarian cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 56. She co-starred in the TV sitcoms Soap and Webster.

1988–The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.

1988–The USSR conducts a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh.

1989–In the Iran-Contra affair, former White House aide, Oliver North, is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions will later be overturned on appeal.

1990–Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation.

1991–The 117th Kentucky Derby: Chris Antley, riding Strike the Gold, wins in 2:03.

1991–Dennis Crosby dies of suicide by a self-infliced shotgun wound in Novato, California, at age 56. He was the son of actor-singer, Bing Crosby. His brother was actor Gary Crosby and his sister is Mary Crosby.

1991–Publisher, George Delacorte, dies in Manhattan, New York, at age 97. He founded the Dell Publishing Company in 1921. The company was one of the largest publishers of books, magazines, and comics during its heyday. His most successful innovation was the puzzle magazine.

1994–Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1995–After winning a copyright lawsuit, John Fogerty is awarded $1.35 million by a judge in San Francisco, California.

1996–The 122nd Kentucky Derby: Jerry Bailey, riding Grindstone, wins in 2:01.

1997–Vijayananda Dahanayake, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (1959-1960), dies.

1998–A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski four life sentences, plus 30 years, after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

2000–Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London, England.

2001–Bonnie Lee Bakley, is murdered in Studio City, California, at age 44. The wife of actor, Robert Blake, she was fatally shot while sitting in Blake's parked car outside a Los Angeles area restaurant. Bakley's murder remains officially unsolved.

2002–EAS Airlines Flight 4226 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria, shortly after takeoff, killing 149 people.

2002–The 128th Kentucky Derby: Victor Espinoza, riding War Emblem, wins in 2:01.

2003–The first cloned mule is born at the University of Idaho.

2007–A series of tornadoes rip through western Kansas, and one of them destroys the town of Greensburg. It was the first tornado to be rated with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.

2009–Prince Henrik of Denmark is born Henrik Carl Joachim Alain in Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. As of October 2015, Henrik is ninth in the line of succession to the Danish throne.

2009–Comic actor, Dom Deluise, dies of cancer in Santa Monica, California, at age 75. He appeared in the films The Glass Bottom Boat, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, The End, The Mupppet Movie, Fatso, The Cannonball Run, Haunted Honeymoon, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

2011–Actress, Mary Murphy, dies of heart disease in Beverly Hills, California, at age 80. She appeared in the films Houdini, Beachhead, Sitting Bull, The Wild One, The Desperate Hours, The Intimate Stranger, 40 Pounds of Trouble, and Junior Bonner. She was married to actor, Dale Robertson.

2011–Actress, Sada Thompson, dies of lung disease in Danbury, Connecticut, at age 83. She is best known for her co-starring role on the TV series Family. She was also seen on The Nurses, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, The Love Boat, Father Dowling Mysteries, Cheers, ER, and Law & Order. She appeared in the films The Pursuit of Happiness, Desperate Characters, My Two Loves, Home Fires Burning, and Pollock.

2012–Orchestra leader, Mort Lindsey, dies following a long period of ill heath in Malibu, California, at age 89. He was conductor and musical director for Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Pat Boone, and Merv Griffin.

2012–Adam Yauch, Beastie Boys vocalist, dies of cancer in New York, New York, at age 47. He co-founded the Beastie Boys in 1979, and the hip hop group went on to sell more than 40 million records.

2013–The 139th Kentucky Derby: Joel Rosario, riding Orb, wins in 2:02.

2014–A pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya, kills three people and injures 62 others.

2015–The Riveria Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, closes its doors after 60 years of operation. Liberace was the casino’s first headliner, and its marquee eventually included Frank Sinatra, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tony Orlando, and Dolly Parton.

2015–Retired physician, Ben Carson, announces that he is running for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.

2015–Former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina, announces that she is running for President, becoming the only woman in the pack of Republican candidates for the White House in 2016.

2016–IBM allows the public to access a five-qubit quantum computer its researchers have developed in Yorktown Heights, New York.

2016–Governor John Kasich suspends his presidential campaign, leaving Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party.

2017–In London, England, Buckingham Palace announces that 95-year-old Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince consort of Queen Elizabeth II, will retire from royal duties in August.

2017–The Holy See and Myanmar establish full diplomatic relations following a meeting between Pope Francis and Myanmar's State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi.

2017–The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives votes in favor of the repeal of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and passage of the House's American Health Care Act, by a 217-213 vote. All Democrats opposed the bill, which now heads to the U.S. Senate for legislative action.

2017–Scientists confirm that Denmark has its first wild pack of Gray Wolves for the first time in 200 years.

2017–Nightclub owner, Mario Maglieri, dies in Los Angeles, California, at age 93. He was the owner of the Rainbow Bar and Grill, The Roxy Theatre, and the Whisky A Go Go, all popular hot spots on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California.

2018–North Korea announces that it is changing its time zone to match South Korea (UTC+09:00) as a further step towards Korean reunification.

2018–The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 is postponed to 2019, after Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of the former Swedish Academy member Katarina Frostenson, is accused of sexual assault, resulting in her resignation, leaving the academy without a quorum.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson; Kangxi, Emperor of China; Horace Mann; the Ancient Order of Hibernians symbol; a graphophone; a classic Rolls Royce; Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark; the rock group Spirit; Audrey Hepburn; the Lindbergh baby; Dick Dale; Nickolas Ashford; an ad for the Broadway production of Picnic; Gene Vincent recording Be-Bop-a-Lula; The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor; Randy Travis; The Beach Boys; The Beatles, Mia Farrow, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post; Fontaine Ferry Park in Louisville, Kentucky; the Greenpeace logo; Moe Howard; Diana Dors; a nuclear test in the USSR; Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, President Bill Clinton, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat; Bonnie Lee Bakley; Dom Deluise; and the Riveria Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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