EVENTS:
- 1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.
- 1959 – Singapore was declared a self-governing state even though it was still a part of the British Empire.
- 1962 – At Paris Orly Airport, an Air France Boeing 707 overruns the runway and explodes when the crew attempts to abort takeoff, killing 130.
- 1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
- 1984 – Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for the Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.
- 1991 – Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
- 2006 – The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro’s formal declaration of independence.
- 2012 – A plane carrying 153 people on board crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board and 10 people on the ground.
- 2013 – At least 119 people are killed in a fire at a poultry farm in Jilin Province in northeastern China.
- 2017 – London attack: Eight people are murdered and dozens of civilians are wounded by Islamist terrorists. Three of the attackers are shot dead by the police.
- 2019 – Khartoum massacre: In Sudan, over 100 people are killed when security forces accompanied by Janjaweed militiamen storm and open fire on a sit-in protest.
BIRTHS:
- 1864 – Ransom E. Olds, American businessman, founded Oldsmobile and REO Motor Car Company (d. 1950)
- 1873 – Otto Loewi, German-American pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1879 – Vivian Woodward, English footballer (d. 1954)
- 1890 – Baburao Painter, Indian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1954)
- 1899 – Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- 1924 – Karunanidhi, Indian Politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
- 1924 – Torsten Wiesel, Swedish neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1929 – Werner Arber, Swiss microbiologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 – George Fernandes, Indian journalist and politician, Minister of Defence for India
- 1966 – Wasim Akram, Pakistani cricketer, coach, and sportscaster
- 1972 – Steve Crane, English footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
