May 31

1279 BC - Ramesses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt
1669 - Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Mecklenburg Resolutions adopted urging the American Colonies to declare independence from Great Britain
1884 - John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes
1889 - Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam break sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania
1910 - Creation of the Union of South Africa
1916 - World War I: Battle of Jutland - The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage and defeat the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war
1924 - The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China", whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect
1961 - Republic of South Africa created
1970 - The Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed
1971 - In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30
1985 - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) became a Schedule I drug in the United States
1990 - The pilot episode of Seinfeld premieres

June 12

1381 - Peasants' Revolt: In England rebels arrive at Blackheath
1429 - Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau
1560 - Battle of Okehazama: Oda Nobunaga defeats Imagawa Yoshimoto
1830 - Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers landed 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch
1880 - The first baseball perfect game is pitched by Lee Richmond
1885 - At a murder trial in France, a roof collapses, killing 30 people
1896 - J.T. Hearne sets a cricket record for the earliest date of taking 100 first-class wickets
1898 - Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain
1922 - St.Louis Brown pitcher Hub Pruett strikes out Babe Ruth three consecutive times
1931 - Charlie Parker equals cricket record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets. Tich Freeman reaches 100 wickets a day later
1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot dead in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith
1964 - South Africa sentences Nelson Mandela to life in prison
1978 - David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer in New York City, is sentenced to 365 years in prison for six killings
1990 - Russia Day – The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty
2006 - The death of Hungarian composer György Ligeti

June 19

1269 - King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver
1623 - Brith of French mathematician & philosopher Blaise Pascal
1807 - Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos
1816 - Battle of Seven Oaks between Northwest Company and Hudson Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
1846 - The first baseball game under recognizable modern rules is played in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States
1862 - U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying the Dred Scott Case
1910 - The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington
1961 - Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom

July 06

1415 - Jan Hus is burned at the stake
1484 - Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of Congo River
1785 - The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States
1892 - Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain
1946 - The Bikini was first made, worn, and created
1957 - Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so
1964 - Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom
1975 - The Comoros declare independence from France
1988 - The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. 167 oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster
2006 - The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years

August 06

1806 - Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire
1825 - Bolivia gains independence from Spain
1890 - At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair
1945 - World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, "Little Boy", is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly
1962 - Jamaica becomes independent
1964 - Prometheus, the world's oldest tree, is cut down
1984 - Pop star Prince releases Purple Rain, the album which would launch him to superstardom
1991 - Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web
1996 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms
1997 - Microsoft buys $150 million worth of shares of financially troubled Apple Computer