May 27

Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland at the age of twelve following the death of his grandfather.

Malcolm IV became King of Scotland at just twelve years old following the death of his grandfather, David I, beginning a reign, earning him the nickname "Malcolm the Maiden," during which powerful regional nobles wielded significant influence and occasionally openly challenged royal authority during his prolonged minority.

Malcolm IV becomes King of Scots, aged twelve, following the death of his grandfather David I.

Malcolm's young age made for a challenging reign, marked by revolts among Scottish nobles and the loss of Northumberland and Cumberland, which he was forced to cede back to England under Henry II. His reputed piety and celibacy earned him the nickname 'Malcolm the Maiden.'

John is crowned King of England, beginning a reign later marked by the signing of Magna Carta.

John, the youngest and previously least favored son of Henry II, was crowned King of England following the death of his elder brother Richard the Lionheart, beginning a controversial and often unsuccessful reign later defined by costly military losses in France, conflict with powerful English barons, and the eventual forced signing of Magna Carta near the end of his life.

John is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey following the death of his brother Richard I.

John's reign is remembered as one of the most turbulent in English history, marked by the loss of Normandy to France, heavy taxation, and escalating conflict with his barons. That conflict culminated in 1215 with the sealing of Magna Carta, a document that would shape English constitutional law for centuries.

A Gaelic Irish force led by Hugh O'Neill ambushes an English relief column at the Battle of Clontibret.

Fought early in the Nine Years' War, the ambush inflicted heavy losses on Sir Henry Bagenal's English force as it marched to relieve Monaghan Castle. Regarded as O'Neill's first major victory against Crown forces, it boosted Irish confidence early in the rebellion against English rule in Ireland.

Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg, which becomes the capital of the Russian Empire.

Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg on marshy, swampy land at the mouth of the Neva River, intending it as a modern, Western-facing "window to Europe" built largely through forced labor, and it later became the opulent imperial capital of the Russian Empire for two centuries.

Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and opposition MP George Tierney fight a duel with pistols on Putney Heath.

The dispute arose after Tierney accused Pitt of trying to obstruct national defense preparations during a Commons debate. Both men fired twice and neither was hit. The encounter was among the last duels fought by a sitting British Prime Minister.

United Irishmen rebels win a decisive early victory over British loyalist militia at the Battle of Oulart Hill in County Wexford.

Fought days into the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Wexford rebels ambushed and virtually destroyed a detachment of the North Cork Militia sent to suppress the uprising. The victory allowed the rebels to capture Enniscorthy and Wexford town soon after, though the broader rebellion was crushed by British forces within weeks.

A powerful tornado strikes St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people.

A powerful tornado tore through St. Louis, Missouri, and neighboring East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing extensive destruction to buildings and river traffic along the Mississippi, ranking among the deadliest single tornadoes ever recorded in American history.

The Battle of Tsushima begins, in which Japan's navy delivers a crushing defeat to Russia's fleet during the Russo-Japanese War.

The climactic Battle of Tsushima began as the Imperial Japanese Navy engaged Russia's Baltic Fleet, which had sailed roughly eighteen thousand miles halfway around the world only to suffer an overwhelming, decisive defeat that helped force an end to the Russo-Japanese War and stunned Western military observers.

The Royal Navy minelayer HMS Princess Irene explodes at Sheerness, killing 352 people.

The former passenger steamer had been requisitioned and converted into a minelayer. A catastrophic explosion, believed to have been caused by faulty fuses, destroyed the vessel while it was being loaded with mines in the Medway estuary. It remains among the worst accidental losses of life suffered by the Royal Navy during the First World War.

The Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic in San Francisco.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic in San Francisco a full day before vehicle traffic began, drawing enormous, enthusiastic crowds of roughly 200,000 people eager to walk across what was then, at nearly 4,200 feet, the longest suspension bridge span ever built in the world.

German troops execute 99 British soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment after they surrender near Le Paradis, France.

During the Battle of France, the soldiers had run out of ammunition while defending a farmhouse. After surrendering, they were marched to a barn wall and machine-gunned by SS troops under Fritz Knöchlein. Two survivors later testified at Knöchlein's post-war trial, which resulted in his execution for war crimes.

The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by British naval forces in the North Atlantic, killing nearly 2,100 crew members.

The German battleship Bismarck was cornered by a large British naval task force and sunk in the North Atlantic following an intense multi-day pursuit involving torpedo bombers and battleships, killing nearly 2,100 of its crew in a decisive act of retaliation for its earlier destruction of HMS Hood.

The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic.

Crippled the previous day by a torpedo strike from carrier-based Swordfish biplanes that jammed her rudder, Bismarck was pounded by the British battleships King George V and Rodney before being finished off by torpedoes. Nearly 2,100 of her crew died. The sinking avenged the loss of HMS Hood days earlier and ended the threat the battleship posed to Atlantic convoys.

Czechoslovak agents trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive fatally wound senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.

Operation Anthropoid was planned in London and carried out by paratroopers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš after being parachuted into occupied Czechoslovakia with British support. Heydrich, a chief architect of the Holocaust, died of his injuries days later, and the Nazis retaliated with the destruction of the village of Lidice.

Australians vote overwhelmingly in a referendum to grant Indigenous Australians full citizenship rights and representation.

Australians voted overwhelmingly, with over 90 percent in favor, in a national constitutional referendum to grant the federal government explicit authority to legislate specifically for Indigenous Australians and to formally count them for the first time in the national census, correcting a longstanding constitutional exclusion.

A coach crash at Dibbles Bridge in North Yorkshire kills 33 people, the deadliest road accident in British history.

The coach, carrying members of a Women's Institute group on a day trip, lost its brakes descending a steep hill and plunged down an embankment near Grassington. The disaster remains the highest death toll from a single road crash in the United Kingdom.

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing more than 5,700 people.

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck near the historic city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing more than 5,700 people and destroying or damaging hundreds of thousands of homes across the densely populated island of Java, prompting a large-scale international humanitarian relief response.

Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.

Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park, laying a wreath at the cenotaph and delivering remarks calling for nuclear disarmament, though he stopped short of formally apologizing on behalf of the United States for the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.