On this day: May 10

Events on May 10

• 28 BC Chinese astronomers during the Han dynasty made the first precisely dated observation of a sunspot. Wikipedia
• 1497 Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World. Wikipedia
• 1503 Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there. Wikipedia
• 1534 Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland. Wikipedia
• 1627 Dutch explorer Pieter Nuyts was appointed governor of Formosa (modern-day Taiwan) by the Dutch East India Company. Wikipedia
• 1773 The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party. Wikipedia
• 1774 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France. Wikipedia
• 1775 American Revolutionary War: A small force of Patriots led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York, without significant injury or incident. Wikipedia
• 1775 American Revolutionary War: Delegates from the Thirteen Colonies met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to convene the Second Continental Congress, which would serve as the de facto national government of the future United States. Wikipedia
• 1801 First Barbary War: The Barbary corsairs of Tripoli declared war on the United States by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. consulate. Wikipedia
• 1833 Siamese–Vietnamese wars: Lê Văn Khôi escaped from prison to begin a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng, primarily to avenge his adoptive father, Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt. Wikipedia
• 1849 A personal dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Macready in New York City devolved into a riot that left at least 22 dead and more than 120 injured. Wikipedia
• 1857 Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut. Wikipedia
• 1933 As part of Nazi Germany's persecution of transgender people, thousands of books taken from the Institute for Sexual Science were burned in Bebelplatz square for being "un-German". Wikipedia
• 1940 British prime minister Neville Chamberlain resigned and formally recommended Winston Churchill as his successor. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: German forces commenced their invasion of Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: German Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the British government. Wikipedia
• 1994 American serial killer John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection for the murders of twelve teenage boys and young men in a series of killings committed between 1972 and 1978. Wikipedia
• 1994 Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. Wikipedia
• 1997 An earthquake registering 7.3 Mw struck near Qaen, Iran, killing at least 1,567 and leaving around 50,000 others homeless. Wikipedia
• 2005 Vladimir Arutyunian attempted to assassinate U.S. president George W. Bush and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi using a hand grenade, which failed to detonate. Wikipedia
• 2012 Suicide bombers detonated two car bombs outside a military intelligence complex in Damascus, killing 55 people. Wikipedia
• 2013 One World Trade Center in New York City, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, was topped out at a height of 1,776 feet (541 m). Wikipedia
• 2017 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces, assisted by the U.S. military, captured the Tabqa Dam and surrounding countryside, completing the Battle of Tabqa. Wikipedia
• 2022 Queen Elizabeth II misses the State Opening of Parliament for the first time in 59 years. It was the first time that a new session of Parliament was opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge acting as Counsellors of State. Wikipedia

Born on May 10

• 1727 Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, French economist and politician (died 1781) Wikipedia
• 1760 Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French captain, engineer, and composer (died 1836) Wikipedia
• 1788 Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist and engineer (died 1827) Wikipedia
• 1838 John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (died 1865) Wikipedia
• 1843 Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish author and playwright (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1876 Ivan Cankar, Slovenian poet and playwright (died 1918) Wikipedia
• 1878 Gustav Stresemann, German journalist and politician, Chancellor of Germany, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1929) Wikipedia
• 1879 Symon Petliura, Ukrainian journalist and politician (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1886 Karl Barth, Swiss theologian and author (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1890 Alfred Jodl, German general (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1899 Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1900 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, English-American astronomer and astrophysicist (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1923 Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan general and politician, President of Azerbaijan (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1928 Arnold Rüütel, Estonian agronomist and politician, President of Estonia (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1930 George E. Smith, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1955 Mark David Chapman, American murderer Wikipedia
• 1957 Sid Vicious, English singer and bass player (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1960 Bono, Irish singer-songwriter, musician and activist Wikipedia
• 1965 Linda Evangelista, Canadian model Wikipedia
• 1969 Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1988 Adam Lallana, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1997 Richarlison, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 10

• 1521 Sebastian Brant, German author (born 1457) Wikipedia
• 1774 Louis XV, King of France (born 1710) Wikipedia
• 1798 George Vancouver, English navigator and explorer (born 1757) Wikipedia
• 1818 Paul Revere, American engraver and soldier (born 1735) Wikipedia
• 1829 Thomas Young, English physician and linguist (born 1773) Wikipedia
• 1849 Hokusai, Japanese painter and illustrator (born 1760) Wikipedia
• 1863 Stonewall Jackson, American general (born 1824) Wikipedia
• 1889 Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian journalist, author, and playwright (born 1826) Wikipedia
• 1897 Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino soldier and politician, President of the Philippines (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1910 Stanislao Cannizzaro, Italian chemist and academic (born 1826) Wikipedia
• 1977 Joan Crawford, American actress (year of birth disputed) Wikipedia
• 1982 Peter Weiss, German playwright and painter (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 1994 John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (born 1942) Wikipedia
• 2022 Leonid Kravchuk, Ukrainian politician (born 1934) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Children's Day (Maldives) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Beatrice d'Este Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Calepodius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Catald Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Comgall Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Damien of Molokai Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Ivan Merz Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Job (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John of Ávila Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Solange of Bourges Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Confederate Memorial Day (North Carolina and South Carolina) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Micronesia) Wikipedia
• Earliest possible day on which Pentecost can fall, while June 13 is the latest; celebrated 50 days after Easter Day. (Christianity) Wikipedia
• Golden Spike Day (Promontory, Utah) Wikipedia
• Mother's Day (Guatemala, and Mexico) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “May 10” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 10” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 10” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for May 10 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.