On This Day in May

391 entries

• 2011 — Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
• 2009 — Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.
• 2004 — Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia,...

360 entries

• 2014 — Two mudslides in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, leave up to 2,500 people missing.
• 2012 — A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120...
• 2011 — Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the...

376 entries

• 2016 — 88,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a...
• 2015 — Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which...
• 2007 — The 4 year old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal,...

336 entries

• 2014 — Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.
• 2007 — Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7 mi wide EF5 tornado. It was...
• 2000 — Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London.

322 entries

• 2014 — Eleven people are missing after a Chinese cargo ship collides with a Marshall Islands...
• 2014 — Twenty-two people die after two boats carrying refugees collide in the Aegean Sea off...
• 2010 — Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the...

318 entries

• 2013 — Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio.
• 2010 — In just 36 minutes DOW Jones plunged nearly a 1000 points in what is known as the 2010...
• 2002 — Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio-interview at the...

319 entries

• 2007 — Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.
• 2004 — American businessman Nick Berg, is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded...
• 2002 — A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.

430 entries

• 1997 — A China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International...
• 1988 — A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network...
• 1987 — The Loughgall ambush: The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers...

322 entries

• 2015 — An Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft crashes near the Spanish city of...
• 2015 — Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow's Red Square to commemorate...
• 2012 — A Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crashes into Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia,...

310 entries

• 2013 — One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
• 2012 — The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide...
• 2005 — A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 65 feet (20 meters) from U.S....

308 entries

• 2016 — More than 110 people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.
• 2014 — Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa in a stampede caused by tear gas...
• 2013 — Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

322 entries

• 2017 — A ransomware attack attacks over 400 thousand computers worldwide, targeting computers...
• 2015 — A train derailment in Philadelphia kills eight people and injures more than 200.
• 2015 — Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3500.

423 entries

• 2014 — An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners.
• 2012 — Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal...
• 2011 — Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding...

140 entries

• 2012 — Agni Air Flight CHT crashes near Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal, after a failed...
• 2004 — The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
• 1988 — Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near...

371 entries

• 2013 — An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.
• 2010 — Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the...
• 2008 — California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize...

309 entries

• 2014 — Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.
• 2011 — STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th...
• 2005 — Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

356 entries

• 2014 — A plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.
• 2007 — Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both...
• 2006 — The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.

333 entries

• 2015 — At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.
• 2009 — The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting...
• 2006 — The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of...

330 entries

• 2016 — EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to...
• 2015 — The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto...
• 2012 — Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in the Italian city...

334 entries

• 2013 — An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and...
• 2012 — At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake...
• 2002 — The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of...

350 entries

• 2012 — A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
• 2012 — A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen.
• 2011 — Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.

307 entries

• 2017 — 22 people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
• 2015 — The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage...
• 2014 — General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup...

342 entries

• 2017 — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao, following the...
• 2016 — Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, killed at...
• 2016 — Eight bombings were carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and...

306 entries

• 2014 — A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey,...
• 2014 — At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium.
• 2002 — Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

361 entries

• 2013 — Suspected Maoist rebels kill at least 28 people and injure 32 others in an attack on a...
• 2013 — A gas cylinder explodes on a school bus in the Pakistani city of Gujrat, killing at...
• 2012 — The SpaceX Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous...

364 entries

• 2008 — Severe flooding begins in eastern and southern China that will ultimately cause 148...
• 2004 — United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges...
• 2002 — The tugboat Robert Y. Love collides with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the...

371 entries

• 2016 — Barack Obama is the first president of United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial...
• 2006 — The 6.4 Mw Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java with an MSK intensity of VIII...
• 2001 — Members of the Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf seize twenty hostages from an...

306 entries

• 2011 — Malta votes on the introduction of divorce; the proposal was approved by 53% of...
• 2010 — In West Bengal, India, the Jnaneswari Express train derailment and subsequent...
• 2008 — The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a...

348 entries

• 2012 — A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits northern Italy near Bologna, killing at least 24 people.
• 2008 — A doublet earthquake, of combined magnitude 6.1, strikes Iceland near the town of...
• 2004 — The National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.

379 entries

• 2013 — Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage.
• 2012 — Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his...
• 2008 — Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted.

319 entries

• 2017 — A car bomb exploded in a crowded intersection in Kabul near the German embassy during...
• 2013 — The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next...
• 2010 — Israeli Shayetet 13 commandos boarded the Gaza Freedom Flotilla while still in...