EVENTS
- 1937 – George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. King George reigned until his death in 1952. He was succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth II, the current reigning monarch.
George VI - 1941 – The world’s first programmable, fully automatic computer is presented. The Z3 was designed by German inventor, Konrad Zuse. The original machine was destroyed in an air raid. A replica can be seen at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
- 1949 – The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
- 1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
- 1970 – Ernie Banks becomes the ninth member of the 500 home run club
- 1994 – The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ends. With the signing of the Bishkek Protocol a week earlier, Armenian and Azerbaijani diplomats had formalized the ceasefire that went into effect on May 12. The conflict itself remains unsolved.
- 1997 – The Angels score 13 runs in a single baseball inning.
- 1998 – Violent clashes follow the killing of four protesters in Jakarta, Indonesia. The riots eventually led to the resignation of President Suharto.
- 2008 – A massive earthquake rocks China. The magnitude 7.9 quake left some 69,000 people dead, 18,000 missing, and 4.8 million homeless. It was the deadliest earthquake in China since 1976 when the Tangshan earthquake killed over 240,000 people.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1820 – Florence Nightingale (Famous nurse who started nursing school)
- 1907 – Katherine Hepburn (Actress)
Katherine Hepburn - 1921 – Joseph Beuys (German sculptor, illustrator)
- 1925 – Yogi Berra (Baseball Player)
- 1929 – Burt Bacharach (Composer)
- 1946 – Daniel Libeskind (American architect, designed the Imperial War Museum North, Jewish Museum)
- 1948 – Steve Winwood (Singer)
- 1959 – Ving Rhames (Actor)
- 1962 – Emilio Estevez (Actor)
- 1966 – Stephen Baldwin (Actor)
- 1968 – Tony Hawk (Skateboard Star)
DEATHS
- 1860 – Charles Barry (English architect, designed the Upper Brook Street Chapel, Halifax Town Hall)
- 1864 – J.E.B. Stuart (American army officer)
- 1884 – Bedลich Smetana (Czech composer)
Bedลich Smetana - 2001 – Perry Como (American singer, actor)
- 2008 – Robert Rauschenberg (American painter, illustrator)
