Ken Livingstone was elected mayor of London, the first time that British voters had directly elected a candidate to an executive office at any level of government. [Take a quiz about British culture and politics.]

José María Aznar became prime minister of Spain after his party, the conservative Popular Party, formed a governing coalition that ousted the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. He retired in 2004, keeping his pledge to serve two terms as prime minister.

An anti-Vietnam War demonstration at Kent State University turned deadly when the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students and wounded nine others, further turning public opinion against the war. [When else has the National Guard been deployed against civil unrest in the United States?]

The first Freedom Ride—a political protest against the segregation of interstate bus travel in the South—began as a group of white and Black Americans departed Washington, D.C., on buses bound for New Orleans. [Explore a timeline of the American civil rights movement.]

The first Grammy Awards were presented, and the winners included Ella Fitzgerald as well as Frank Sinatra and the Kingston Trio. [How much do you know about the Grammy Awards?]

The Battle of the Coral Sea began during World War II as U.S. forces sought to prevent Japan from capturing the strategic Port Moresby in New Guinea. [Sort fact from fiction in our World War II quiz.]

In what later became known as the May Fourth Movement, Chinese students protested the decision of the Paris Peace Conference that Japan retain defeated Germany’s rights and possessions in the Chinese province of Shandong. [Test your knowledge of China.]

A peaceful protest by labor protesters in Chicago against police brutality turned deadly when an unidentified individual threw a bomb into the crowd and police responded with random gunfire. As many as 15 people were killed, including seven police officers, and dozens were injured. What became known as the Haymarket Affair resulted in widespread anger directed against immigrants and labor leaders. [Why was the Haymarket Affair important?]

The Battle of Chancellorsville during the American Civil War, a bloody assault by the Union army in Virginia that failed to disperse the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, continued. [How much do you know about the American Civil War?]

François Gérard, a French Neoclassical painter best known for his portraits of celebrated European personalities, particularly the leading figures of the French First Empire and Restoration periods, was born in Rome. [Take our artists and painters quiz.]