Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors.

Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.

New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.

A military MiG-21 aircraft crashes into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight.

The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.

The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is devastated by an F5 tornado killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This is the strongest tornado ever recorded with wind speeds of up to 318 mph.

A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop restrictor plate racing the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.

Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.

The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.

The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.

The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing newfound attention to the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Off-Broadway musical comedy, ''The Fantasticks'', opens in New York City's Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.

Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.

Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.

The Kentucky Derby is televised for the first time.

The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.

London's Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.

New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

World War II: Sinking of the prison ships ''Cap Arcona, Thielbek'' and ''Deutschland'' by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.

World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.

The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

''Gone with the Wind'', a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.

Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.

Aleph Zadik Aleph is formed in Omaha, Nebraska

West Virginia imposes the first state sales tax. thumb'' by Francisco Goya (referring to the event in 1808)]]

A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

The leaders of the Easter Rising are executed in Dublin.

The poem ''In Flanders Fields'' is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.

Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film was released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.

The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.

Labatt Park, the oldest continually operating baseball grounds in the world has its first game.

The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.

Charles XV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.

The May Uprising in Dresden begins – the last of the German revolutions of 1848.

The University of Athens is founded.

The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened. It is the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.

Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.

Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are fired upon near Príncipe Pío hill.

Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.

Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.

The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

"Edmund Halley's" total solar eclipse (the last one visible in London, United Kingdom for almost 900 years).

Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.