At least 12 people were killed and 70 others injured when two bombs exploded in a market in Nairobi, Kenya.
Source16 May 866
A Sunday in history
Weekday
Sunday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
9th century
Records
367
- 2014
1977The first Chuck E. Cheese location, the first family restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment (example pictured), and an indoor arcade, opened in San Jose, California.
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1975Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, the Kingdom of Sikkim (flag pictured) abolished its monarchy and was annexed to become the 22nd state of India.
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1975Japanese climber Junko Tabei (pictured) became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
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1968A gas explosion in Ronan Point (collapse pictured) causes a corner of the building to collapse, leading to a loss of public confidence in high-rise residential buildings.
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1961Led by Park Chung Hee, the Military Revolution Committee carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Po-sun in Seoul, ending the Second Republic of Korea.
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1960American physicist Theodore Maiman operated the first working laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu.
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1959The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, one of Malta's most important Modernist landmarks, was turned on for the first time.
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1958The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a world flight airspeed record of 1,404.012 mph (2,259.538 km/h).
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1943Second World War: The Royal Air Force's "Dambusters" squadron embarked on an attack on German dams using bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis.
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1929The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
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1925The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.
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1918The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the government, flag, or armed forces during the ongoing World War I.
Source- 1881
John Richard Clark Hall, a barrister who would go on to write a widely used Anglo-Saxon dictionary and translation of Beowulf, was admitted to Gray's Inn.
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1866The United States Congress authorized the minting of the Shield nickel (example pictured), the country's first five-cent piece to be made of a copper–nickel alloy.
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1832Prospector Juan Godoy discovered a silver outcrop in Chañarcillo, sparking the Chilean silver rush.
Source- 1812
The Conference of Dresden began, an attempt by Napoleon to secure support for his planned invasion of Russia.
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1811Peninsular War: Allied British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces clashed with French troops at the Battle of Albuera fought south of Badajoz, Spain.
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1777Button Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, is wounded in a duel with Continental Army officer Lachlan McIntosh, dying of his injuries several days later.
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1605After a scuffle in which one cardinal had several bones broken, a papal conclave convened in Rome elected Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V.
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Photo archive
24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.
What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
Sources & fact check
Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.