Russian officials identify Arab militant Abu Walib as the mastermind behind the May 12 bombing in Znamenskoye, Chechnya, and claim links between that incident and the bombings in Riyadh 14 hours later.
A suicide bombing occurs at a religious festival in the town of Iliskhan-Yurt, in southeastern Chechnya. At least 14 people are killed by the bombing. The attack is apparently an attempt to assassinate Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-appointed chief administrator of Chechnya. Kadryov escaped injury.,
14 ndash Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia. Indonesian natives destroy and burn Chinese Indonesian-owned properties and kill and rape more than 1,000 Chinese Indonesians.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mayor Wilson Goode orders police to storm the radical group MOVE's headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive device into the headquarters, killing eleven MOVE members and destroying the homes of 61 city residents in the resulting fire.
In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
Saturday, May 13, 1865
American Civil War ndash Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the civil war ends with a Confederate victory.
Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
Under the leadership of British Prime Minister Robert Peel, the British Parliament repeals the Corn Laws, replacing the old Colonial mercantile trade system with Free Trade.ref name=Icons
Battle of Reval: Gustav III of Sweden sends the battlefleet to eliminate the Russian squadron wintering at Reval (Estonia), but is defeated: 8 Russians, 51 Swedes are killed, 250 captured, and 2 ships are sunk.
Cumberland Compact signed by American settlers in the Cumberland Valley of Tennessee.
Thursday, May 13, 1779
War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives a part of the Bavarian territory (the Innviertel) and relinquishes the rest.
Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
Tuesday, May 4, 1479 (Julianian calendar)
Christopher Columbus, an experienced mariner and successful trader in the thriving Genoese expatriate community in Portugal, marries Felipa Perestrelo Moniz (Italian on her father's side) and receives as dowry her late father's maps and papers charting the seas and winds around the Madeira Islands and other Portuguese possessions in the Ocean Sea.
Monday, May 4, 1450 (Julianian calendar)
Charles VIII of Sweden (who was also serving as Carl I of Norway) is declared deposed from the later throne in favor of Christian I of Denmark.
The Chinese emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, suspends the traditional civil service examination system after complaining that the 120 new "jinshi" degree-holders are too incompetent to hold office he instead relies solely upon a system of recommendations until the civil service exams are reinstated in 1384.
The Maya of the Yucatán revolt against the rulers of Chichen Itza.
A large and highly efficient Mongol army, dispatched under Subutai by Genghis Khan to Georgia, defeats two Georgian armies around Tbilisi, but lacks the will or equipment to besiege the city.
Sultan Kamil, Saladin's son and successor, offers Jerusalem to the Crusaders in return for Damietta, which the Crusaders eventually give up in exchange for a safe retreat from the Nile Delta.
the Saint-Denis basilica, near Paris, is damaged by a fire. This will give the opportunity to the abbot Suger to rebuild it in a new style, which will open the Gothic period of architecture.
