| 1720 | Baron Munchhausen - 5/11/1720 - 2/22/1797 - German story-teller, his tales became "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" |
| 1803 | Hector Berlioz, French composer |
| 1817 | Fanny Cerrito - 5/11/1817 - 5/6/1909 - Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals |
| 1871 | Frank Schlesinger - 5/11/1871 - 7/10/1943 - American astronomer |
| 1880 | Irving Berlin, American composer |
| 1888 | Irving Berlin - 5/11/1888 - 9/22/1989 - Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals |
| 1891 | Henry, Jr. Morgenthau - 5/11/1891 - 2/6/1967 - American secretary of the treasury (1934-45) |
| 1892 | Dame Margaret Rutherford - 5/11/1892 - 5/22/1972 - English stage and screen actress |
| 1894 | Martha Graham - 5/11/1894 - 4/1/1991 - American dancer, teacher and choreographer |
| 1895 | William Grant Still - 5/11/1895 - 12/3/1978 - American composer and conductor |
| 1904 | Salvador Dali - 5/11/1904 - 1/23/1989 - Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker |
| 1912 | Phil Silvers, Actor; played Sgt Bilko in TV series |
| 1915 | Herbert Philbrick - 5/11/1915 - 8/16/1993 - American counterintelligence agent for the F.B.I. |
| 1927 | Mort Sahl - Comedian |
| 1931 | Rupert Murdoch, Media tycoon |
| 1941 | Eric Burdon - Rock singer (The Animals) |
| 1950 | Jeremy Paxton, Television broadcaster |
| 1952 | Frances Fisher - Actress |
| 1953 | Boyd Gaines - Actor |
| 1955 | Mark Herndon - Country musician (Alabama) |
| 1959 | Martha Quinn - Former MTV VJ |
| 1963 | Natasha Richardson - Actress |
| 1963 | Tim Raybon - Country musician (The Raybon Brothers) |
| 1964 | John Parrott, Snooker player |
| 1975 | Coby Bell - Actor (''Third Watch'') |
| 1980 | Austin O'Brien - Actor |
| 1982 | Jonathan Jackson - Actor |
| 1647 | Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor. |
| 1709 | Large numbers of Germans began emigrating to North America |
| 1812 | The prime minister, Spencer Perceval, was assassignated in the House of Commons |
| 1858 | Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union. |
| 1894 | Martha Graham, the American dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer of modern dance, was born. Following her death on April 1, 1991, her obituary appeared in The Times. |
| 1894 | Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Illinois went on strike. |
| 1910 | Glacier National Park in Montana was established. |
| 1931 | Martial Law was announced in several Spanish cities |
| 1944 | Allied forces launched a major offensive in central Italy. |
| 1946 | The first CARE packages for Europe arrived at Le Havre, France. |
| 1947 | The B.F. Goodrich Co. of Akron, Ohio, announced the development of a tubeless tire. |
| 1949 | Siam changed its name to Thailand |
| 1949 | Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member. |
| 1960 | 'France', the worlds longest ocean liner, was launched |
| 1973 | Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct. |
| 1981 | Reggae musician Bob Marley, 36, died in a Miami hospital. |
| 1985 | More than 50 people died when a flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England. |
| 1988 | Kim Philby, the English born Soviet spy, died in the USSR |
| 1989 | 'Cats' became the longest running musical in the West End |
| 1996 | An Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board |
| 1997 | The Deep Blue IBM computer defeated Garry Kasparov to win a six-game chess match between man and machine in New York. |
| 1998 | India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. |
| 1998 | A French mint produced the first coins of Europe's single currency, the euro. |
| 2001 | Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed Timothy McVeigh's execution from May 16 to June 11 because of FBI mishandling of documents. |
