Who was born on this date?

1386 - England and Portugal signed the Treaty of Windsor, pledging permanent alliance and friendship.

1502 - Christopher Columbus set out from Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and last voyage.

1671 - Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer better known as Captain Blood, stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

1754 - The first published political cartoons in the American colonies appeared in The Pennsylvania Gazette, a newspaper founded by Benjamin Franklin. Many of the early cartoons did not have the element of satire so common in today's political cartoons.

1785 - British inventor Joseph Bramah patented the beer-pump handle.

1825 - The first gaslit theatre in America opened. It was the Chatham Theatre in New York City.

1846 - Zachary Taylor with 1,700 U.S. troops beat back 5,700 Mexicans under Arista at the battle of Resaca de la Palma and went on to recover Fort Texas in the U.S.-Mexican Wars.

1901 - Australia opened its first parliament in Melbourne.

1915 - In World War I, the battle of Artois began. When the battle ended on May 27, 216,000 men had been killed or wounded.

1926 - Americans Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first to fly over the North Pole.

1927 - The new city of Canberra replaced Melbourne as Australia's capital.

1930 - For the first time, a starting gate was used to start a Triple Crown race. The gate was rolled into place at the Preakness at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Gallant Fox, the winner, had no problem with the new contraption. Prior to that time, this horse race began from a standing start at the start/finish line with the drop of a flag.

1936 - The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale - in New York City.

1936 - Italy formally annexed Abyssinia, now Ethiopia.

1937 - Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy started their own radio show on NBC - only months after they had debuted on Rudy Vallee’s radio program. W.C. Fields, Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour were a few of the stars that helped Bergen and the little blockhead, McCarthy, jump to the top of radio’s hit parade.

1939 - Ray Eberle recorded "Stairway to the Stars" with the Glenn Miller Orchestra for Bluebird Records.

1940 - Actress Vivien Leigh made her American theatre debut with Laurence Olivier in "Romeo and Juliet" in New York City.

1945 - The unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allied forces began, which virtually ended World War II. The surrender document was signed the day before, in what became known as the Victory in Europe (V-E) Day. A separate German surrender to the USSR was signed near Berlin, Germany, and also came into effect on May 9th.

1945 - The ban on horse racing and the nationwide midnight curfew in the United States during World War II were immediately lifted, as the Germans had surrendered the previous day.

1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicated and the monarchy was replaced by a republic.

1950 - French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed the creation of a supranational European federation to strengthen the European economies. "The Schuman Declaration," as it became known, would eventually lead to the creation of the European Economic Community, now the European Union.

1958 - Richard Burton made his network television debut in "The Dupont Show of the Month" presentation of "Wuthering Heights" on CBS-TV.

1960 - The United States became the first country to legalize the birth control pill.

1961 - In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow condemned TV programming as "a vast wasteland."

1961 - Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles set a major-league baseball record by hitting grand slam home runs in two consecutive innings. The Orioles were playing the Minnesota Twins.

1962 - The Beatles inked their first recording contract. George Martin was hired to be the group’s producer and the band would record for EMI Parlophone.

1963 - A state of emergency was declared in British Guiana following a three-week general strike.

1964 - "Hello Dolly!" became the nation’s top pop record. The milestone put Louis Armstrong on the "Billboard" music chart in the top spot for the first time in his 41-year music career. Later, ‘Satchmo’ was cast in the movie version of "Hello Dolly!".

1965 - Vladimir Horowitz played his first public concert in 12 years at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The audience applauded the piano virtuoso with a standing ovation that lasted for 30 minutes.

1965 - Lunar 5, an unmanned Soviet spacecraft, was launched toward the moon from a rocket already in Earth's orbit. It later crashed on the moon rather than making the projected soft landing.

1967 - Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, was indicted on this date by a Federal grand jury for refusing to be inducted into the Army. The World Boxing Association took away his title as World Heavyweight Champion, and all published records of his title were deleted.

1967 - Dr. Zakir Hussain was elected president of India.

1976 - Ulrike Meinhof, a leader of the West German Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, hanged herself in prison.

1978 - The body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro was found in the trunk of a car; he had been kidnapped and murdered by the Red Brigades.

1979 - 18 people were killed when troops opened fire on terrorists occupying San Salvador cathedral in El Salvador.

1980 - Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury met for the first time in Ghana.

1984 - Detroit beat Kansas City, 3-1, to tie the record for the best start of any major-league baseball team. The Tigers went 25-4 in their first 29 games - a record matched only by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955.

1984 - It took the Chicago White Sox 25 innings, eight hours, six minutes - and two days - to finally defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6. It was the longest game (in elapsed time) in major-league history. Tom Seaver pitched one inning of relief in the suspended game to notch the win. The game tied the record for the longest game played to a decision.

1987 - 183 people were killed when a New York-bound Polish jetliner crashed while attempting an emergency return to Warsaw.

1988 - The office of fashion designer Calvin Klein announced that Klein was undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.

1991 - William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Edward Kennedy, was charged with rape.

1993 - Paraguay held its first presidential and parliamentary elections for nearly 50 years.

1995 - World leaders marked the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with three days of emotional Victory Day celebrations and ringing calls for global reconciliation.

1996 - The National Party, which inflicted apartheid on South Africa and later helped break the hated system, decided to quit Nelson Mandela's 2-year-old government of national unity, effective June 30.

1996 - President Yoweri Museveni won a landslide victory in Uganda's first presidential election in 16 years.