On This Day

330 – Constantine the Great dedicates the much-expanded and rebuilt city of Byzantium, changing its name to New Rome and declaring it the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

868 – A copy of the Diamond Sūtra is published, the earliest dated and printed book known.

973 – In the first coronation ceremony ever held for an English monarch, Edgar the Peaceful is crowned King of England, having ruled since 959 AD. His wife, Ælfthryth, is crowned queen, the first recorded coronation for a Queen of England.

1068 – Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, is crowned Queen of England.

1258 – Louis IX of France and James I of Aragon sign the Treaty of Corbeil, renouncing claims of feudal overlordship in one another's territories and separating the House of Barcelona from the politics of France.

1713 – Great Northern War: After losing the Battle of Helsinki to the Russians, the Swedish and Finnish troops burn the entire city, so that it would not remain intact in the hands of the Russians.

1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.

1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.

1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.

1878 - Hödel assassination attempt by anarchist Max Hödel targeting the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I.

1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.

1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.

1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.

1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage.

1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.

1973 – Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes in Semey, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), killing all 63 aboard.

1985 – Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.

1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.

1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.

2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.

2009 – An American soldier in Iraq opens fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, killing five other US soldiers and wounding three.

2009 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

2010 – David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country's first coalition government since the Second World War.

2011 – An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain.

2011 – The Istanbul Convention is signed in Istanbul, Turkey.

2013 – Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

2014 – Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, DRC, in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.

2016 – One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.

2022 – The Burmese military executes at least 37 villagers during the Mon Taing Pin massacre in Sagaing, Myanmar.

2022 – Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is killed while covering a raid in Jenin. Israel eventually admitted and apologized for the murder, after initial denials.

2024 – Start/Middle of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of Geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.

2024 – The 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is held in Malmö, Sweden. Nemo from Switzerland wins with their song "The Code", making them the contest's first non-binary winner.