EVENTS:
- 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
- 1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
- 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.
- 1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
- 1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder in Japan.
- 1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 156 workers.
- 1997 – A 7.3 Mw earthquake strikes Iran‘s Khorasan Province, killing 1,567, injuring over 2,300, leaving 50,000 homeless, and damaging or destroying over 15,000 homes.
- 2008 – An EF4 tornado strikes the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, killing 21 people and injuring over 100.
- 2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
- 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the last footholds of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Al-Tabqah, bringing the Battle of Tabqa to an end.
- 2022 – Queen Elizabeth II misses the State Opening of Parliament for the first time in 59 years. It was the first time that a new session of Parliament was opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge acting as Counsellors of State.
- 2024 – Start of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of Geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.
BIRTHS:
- 1855 – Yukteswar Giri, Indian guru and educator (d. 1936)
- 1863 – Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Indian violinist, composer, and painter (d. 1915)
- 1878 – Gustav Stresemann, German journalist and politician, Chancellor of Germany, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1929)
- 1927 – Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author
- 1930 – George E. Smith, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 – Pat Summerall, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2013)
- 1953 – Jim Zorn, American football player and coach
- 1958 – Tauseef Ahmed, Pakistani cricketer
- 1971 – Monisha Kaltenborn, Indian-Austrian businesswoman
- 1978 – Bruno Cheyrou, French footballer
- 1997 – Richarlison, Brazilian footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
