Kenya Airways Flight KQ 507 crashes in Cameroon.

The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively freezes the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Ratification by Alabama brings into effect the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.

Iran-Contra affair: start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America

Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.

Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.

The Council of Europe declares May 5 as Europe Day

Project Mercury|The Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 3

West Germany gains full sovereignty.

Bhumibol Adulyadej crowns himself King Rama IX of Thailand.

The Treaty of London establishes the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as the first European institution working for European integration.

World War II: Canadian and UK troops liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazi occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate

Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots' Victory Day.

World War II: Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London

Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Scopes Trial: serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

The government of South Africa declares Afrikaans an official language

Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.

Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.

The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

The Bay View Tragedy: A militia fires into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing seven.

Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.

In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.

American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.

Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy.

In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.

Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The Swiss canton of Aargau denies citizenship to Jews.

Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.

Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.

Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.

Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta

The Second Council of Constantinople begins.