Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.

In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.

Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.

Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote is in favour of merging with India.

Josip Broz Tito is re-elected president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he is elected for life.

Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.

The Communist Party of China issues the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.

Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.

The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

Chaim Weizmann is elected the first President of Israel.

Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.

A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

The first ever Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final is played. Brooklyn Field Club defeats Brooklyn Celtic 2-1.

The United States Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.

May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.

A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.

President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.

Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.

The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.

Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.

Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.

Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and Britain, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.

Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.

The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.

Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.

Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.

The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.

Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.