Columbus sights Jamaica on his second voyage (1494), and Madrid rebels executed near Príncipe Pío hill (1808). Born on this day: Niccolò Machiavelli, Bing Crosby and Golda Meir. Died: Mehmed II, Benedict XIV and Zakir Husain.
28 events, 73 births and 49 deaths on this date.
Columbus sighted Jamaica during his second Atlantic voyage, which had left Spain for the Caribbean the previous year. The island became one more Spanish foothold in the region, opening it to colonisation.
Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio · Public domainChristopher ColumbusHear the story in ChunksAfter the uprising against French occupation on 2 May, French troops shot captured rebels on the slopes of Príncipe Pío. Goya's painting of the scene became one of the most powerful images of war and repression in European art.
Congress scrapped the Board of Commissioners that had governed the District since its founding, and gave the City of Washington a mayor and council instead. It was a first step toward the city running its own affairs, though Congress kept final control for another century and a half.
The Royal Air Force bombed the German liner Cap Arcona in the Bay of Lübeck, where thousands of freed concentration camp prisoners were crammed aboard. Many of those aboard died, and the attack came days before the war in Europe ended.
Harry Lillis Crosby was born here, though the world knew him as Bing, the singer whose intimate style influenced many male vocalists who followed. He later made more than seventy films and won the Best Actor Oscar for Going My Way.
Anonymous Unknown author · Public domain
Officers in Birmingham, Alabama, aimed forceful jets of water and police dogs at protesters demanding an end to racial segregation. Images of the treatment shocked the nation and drew national attention to segregation across the American South.
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Florentine diplomat and writer whose treatise The Prince argued that rulers may need to act ruthlessly to hold power. Often called a father of modern political thought, his name later came to mean cynical, unscrupulous politics.
Santi di Tito · Public domain
Crosby was one of the first multimedia stars, known for a relaxed, intimate singing style that shaped many later singers. He also won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944.
Anonymous Unknown author · Public domain
Golda Meir was Israel's first and only woman prime minister, leading the country from 1969 to 1974. She began as a schoolteacher in Milwaukee before helping to build the Jewish state and signing its Declaration of Independence.
Talmoryair ( talk ) after Marion S. Trikosko · Public domain
Mehmed II was the Ottoman sultan who captured Constantinople in 1453, aged just 21, and effectively ended the Byzantine Empire. Known as Mehmed the Conqueror, he ruled twice, widened Ottoman territory and supported poets, scholars and builders.
Painter Nakkash Osman (active 1559-96), work created in 1579 · Public domain
Benedict XIV led the Catholic Church and the Papal States as pope, earning the nickname the Enlightenment Pope for his support of science and scholarship. He founded museums that grew into the Vatican Museums.
Pierre Subleyras · Public domain
Zakir Husain was an Indian educationist who became the third President of India in 1967. A close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, he helped found Jamia Millia Islamia and was known for championing education in the first language.
Nation Museum Government of India · Public domain
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