A gas explosion at a coal mine in Changzhi, Shanxi, China, leaves at least 82 people dead.
Source22 May 316
A Monday in history
Weekday
Monday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
4th century
Records
374
2026
2014Prayut Chan-o-cha (pictured), the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, launched a coup d'état against the caretaker government following six months of political crisis.
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2010Upon landing in Mangalore, Air India Express Flight 812 overshot the runway and fell down a hillside, killing 158 of the 166 people on board.
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2002Police announced that the skeletal remains of Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, who had been missing for a year, had been found in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.
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1998In Public Prosecutor v Taw Cheng Kong, the Court of Appeal of Singapore overruled a High Court decision in the only time a statute in Singapore had been ruled unconstitutional.
Source- 1987
During Hindu–Muslim rioting in Meerut, India, 19 members of the Provincial Armed Constabulary allegedly massacred 42 Muslims and dumped their bodies in water canals.
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1980Location testing for Pac-Man, a Japanese arcade game that became an icon of 1980s popular culture, began in Shibuya, Tokyo.
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1972The Dominion of Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and officially became a republic within the Commonwealth.
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1960The most powerful earthquake ever recorded, registering approximately 9.5 Mw, struck near Valdivia, Chile, generating tsunamis that reached Hawaii and Japan.
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1958Ethnic riots mostly targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils broke out in Ceylon, resulting in at least 158 deaths over the next few days.
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1915California's Lassen Peak violently erupted, the only volcanic eruption in the contiguous U.S. in the 20th century until Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980.
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1905Sultan Abdul Hamid II established the Ullah millet, a separate millet for the Aromanians within the Ottoman Empire.
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1897The first Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames was opened to improve commerce and trade in the East End of London.
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1874Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem was first performed in the San Marco church in Milan to commemorate the first anniversary of Alessandro Manzoni's death.
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1856Senator Charles Sumner (pictured) was assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks in the United States Senate chamber in retaliation for a speech in which Sumner fiercely criticized slaveholders.
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1849Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. president ever to hold a patent.
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1844In Shiraz, Iran, the Báb declared himself to be a messenger of God to Mullá Husayn, leading to the foundation of Bábism, considered to be a precursor to the Baháʼí Faith.
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1826HMS Beagle (pictured) departed on her first voyage from Plymouth for a hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of South America.
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1816A riot broke out in Littleport, England, over high unemployment and rising grain costs, spreading to Ely the next day before being quelled by troops.
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1766A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck Constantinople and was followed by a tsunami that caused significant damage.
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1629Albrecht von Wallenstein and King Christian IV of Denmark signed the Treaty of Lübeck to end Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.
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853Arab–Byzantine wars: The Byzantine navy began a raid on the Nile Delta port city of Damietta, whose garrison was absent at the time.
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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.