[The private behaviour which brought Oscar Wilde to a very public disgrace in the dock of London's Bow Street Magistrates' Court seemed to give the chattering classes an inordinate amount from pleasure, as witnessed by the cover of this edition of The Illustrated Police News; the tabloid made its name sensationalizing the Jack the Ripper murders, somehow without managing to demonize him for his heterosexuality - despite the fact that his were not only unmistakably sex crimes but definitely nonconsensual as well, unlike anything Wilde ever did with his beloved Bosie.]
1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile took the Spanish city of Toledo back from the Moors, depriving them of the Kingdom of Toledo and providing an important victory during the Reconquista.
1521 - The Diet of Worms ended when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
1659 - Richard Cromwell resigned as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.
1810 - During the May Revolution - specifically during the Semana de Mayo - the citizens of Buenos Aires expelled their viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros.
1895 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde was convicted of 'committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons' and sentenced by Justice Sir Alfred Wills to serve two years in prison.
1926 - Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura, head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
1938 - During the Spanish Civil War the town of Alicante was bombed by Italy's Aviazione Legionaria, causing 313 deaths.
1940 - At the outset of World War II the Battle of Dunkirk was undertaken to evacuate British forces who had been unsuccessful in preventing the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries and France.
1961 - King Hussein of Jordan married the English-born Antoinette Gardiner, who became known as Princess Muna al-Hussein; they met on the set of Lawrence of Arabia.
1963 - The Organisation of African Unity was established in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
1966 - The first prominent DaZiBao during China's Cultural Revolution was posted at Peking University.
1981 - The Gulf Cooperation Council was created in Riyadh between member nations Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1982 - HMS Coventry was sunk during the Falklands War, with a loss of 19 crew and 30 injuries.
2000 - Israel withdrew its army from most of the territory it had held for 22 years after its first invasion in 1978, a day now known in Lebanon as Liberation Day.
2003 - Néstor Kirchner became President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem, making him the first elected President since the economic crisis of 2001.
2007 - Moscow's Ostankino Tower caught fire... For the second time!
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