May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). There are 235 days remaining.

Events

1200-1899

• 1291 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of King Edward I of England.
• 1497 - Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
• 1503 - Christopher Columbus discovers the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there.
• 1534 - Jacques Cartier discovers Newfoundland.
• 1768 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
• 1774 - Louis XVI becomes King of France.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the 13 colonies of the United States meet in Philadelphia and raise the Continental Army to defend the new republic. They place it under command of Cavalier George Washington of Virginia.
• 1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the River Adda in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
• 1801 - First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States.
• 1837 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
• 1857 - Indian Mutiny: In India, the Sepoys revolt against the British Army.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill in Kentucky (he lingered until his death on June 6).
• 1869 - The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah).
• 1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
• 1877 - Romania declares itself independent from Turkey, recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian independence war.

1900-1999

• 1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virgina, USA).
• 1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remained so until his death in 1972.
• 1933 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
• 1940 - World War II: The first German bombs were dropped on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
• 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
• 1940 - World War II: Winston Churchill appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1941 - World War II: The House of Commons in London is destroyed by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
• 1941 - World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in order to try and negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.
• 1954 - Bill Haley and the Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.
• 1960 - The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
• 1979 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
• 1988 - Michel Rocard becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1994 - The American State of Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murder of 33 young men and boys.
• 1994 - Weezer releases their debut, self-titled album.
• 1994 - An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.
• 1997 - An earthquake near Ardekul in northeastern Iran kills at least 2,400 people.
• 1998 - National elections are held in Hungary.

2000-2099

• 2001 - In Ghana, a stampede at a football game kills over 120 spectators.
• 2002 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
• 2002 - Lynda Lyon Block is executed in Yellow Mama, the electric chair of Alabama.
• 2003 - May 2003 tornado outbreak ends.

Births

1700-1899

• 1727 - Anne Robert Turgot, statesman (d. 1781)
• 1760 - Johann Peter Hebel, poet (d. 1826)
• 1838 - John Wilkes Booth, actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
• 1841 - James Gordon Bennett Jr., publisher (d. 1918)
• 1878 - Gustav Stresemann, politician and recipient of the Nobel Prize in peace 1926 (d. 1929)
• 1888 - Max Steiner, composer (d. 1971)
• 1890 - Alfred Jodl, German general (d. 1946)
• 1899 - Fred Astaire, singer, dancer, actor (d. 1987)
• 1899 - Dimitri Tiomkin, composer (d. 1979)

1900-1999

• 1902 - Anatole Litvak, film director (d. 1974)
• 1902 - David O. Selznick, Hollywood film producer (d. 1965)
• 1909 - Mother Maybelle Carter, country musician
• 1915 - Denis Thatcher, husband of Margaret Thatcher
• 1916 - Milton Babbitt, composer
• 1927 - Nayantara Sahgal, author
• 1930 - Pat Summerall, American football player, broadcaster
• 1933 - Barbara Taylor Bradford, writer
• 1934 - Cliff Wilson, Welsh snooker player (d. 1994)
• 1936 - Gary Owens, actor, announcer
• 1944 - Jim Abrahams, director
• 1946 - Donovan, musician
• 1946 - Dave Mason, musician ("Traffic")
• 1953 - John Diamond, British journalist (d. 2001)
• 1955 - Chris Berman, ESPN sportscaster
• 1955 - Ashoka Prasad, medical scientist and psychiatrist
• 1955 - Mark David Chapman, assassin of John Lennon
• 1956 - Vladislav Listyev, Russian TV anchor and journalist
• 1957 - Sid Vicious, bassist of The Sex Pistols (d. 1979)
• 1960 - Bono, singer of U2
• 1965 - Linda Evangelista, supermodel
• 1966 - Jonathan Edwards, British triple jumper
• 1975 - Hélio Castroneves, Brazilian Indy Car driver, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner

Deaths

1200-1899

• 1290 - Duke Rudolph II of Austria
• 1717 - John Hathorne, magistrate (b. 1641)
• 1774 - King Louis XV of France (b. 1710)
• 1818 - Paul Revere, engraver, American patriot (b. 1735)
• 1863 - Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate general (b. 1824)
• 1889 - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian satirist (b. 1826)

1900-1999

• 1955 - Tommy Burns, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion (b. 1881)
• 1977 - Joan Crawford, actress (b. 1904)
• 1990 - Walker Percy, author (b. 1916)
• 1994 - John Wayne Gacy, serial killer (executed) (b. 1942)
• 1999 - Shel Silverstein, poet, composer (b. 1930)

2000-2099

• 2003 - Milan Vukcevich, chemist and chess problem composer

Holidays and observances

• Feast of Blessed Damien of Moloka'i - memorial day in Catholicism
• Confederate Memorial Day in North Carolina and South Carolina
• Mother's Day - 1987, 1998, 2009

May 9 - May 11 - April 10 - June 10 -- listing of all days