Unix Timestamp: 1209945600
Monday, May 5. 2008, 12:00:00 AM UTC

At least nine people are killed in a fire at a karaoke venue in Busan, South Korea. //english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2012/05/06/0200000000AEN20120506000300315.HTML (Yonhap News)

Two men are killed and another one is wounded when unidentified gunmen open fire at a Lexus in the capital of Russia’s Caucasian republic of Dagestan, Makhachkala. //www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15093677PageNum=0 (ITAR)

Following significant Labour Party losses in the English local elections, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces the largest Cabinet reshuffle of his tenure. The changes include sacking embattled Home Secretary Charles Clarke, the demotion of long-serving Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and the stripping from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott of his departmental portfolio. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4975938.stm (BBC)//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4976414.stm (BBC)

Labour government of Tony Blair in the United Kingdom wins a third successive general election.

Boeing unveils a drawing of a proposed "airplane of the future" and launches a public contest to name the aircraft.

Jacques Chirac wins the French presidential elections with 82.21% of the vote to 17.79% for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the turnout was 79.71%. Chirac appoints Jean-Pierre Raffarin as his prime minister, replacing Lionel Jospin.

In the second round of the French presidential electionJacques Chirac is reelected.

A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus. The conjunction consists of the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.(//nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html NASA)

Microsoft releases Windows 98 (Second Edition), from 1998.

The Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan was signed, effectively freezing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Space Shuttle Endeavor makes its maiden flight, as a replacement for a lost Space Shuttle.(STS-49)

Michigan Legislature approves the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. With that approval, the amendment had been adopted by 38 states and was thereby approved.

Russian leaders in Crimea declare their separation from Ukraine as a new republic. They withdraw the secession on May 10.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan joins German Chancellor Helmut Kohl for a controversial funeral service at a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, which includes the graves of 59 elite S.S. troops from World War II.

Fire engulfs a wooden stand at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England, during a football match, killing 56.

The FBI brings charges against the suspected heads of the five Mafia families in New York City.

Denis Lortie kills 3 government employees in the National Assembly of Quebec building.

The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

The Herreys win the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 for Sweden, with the song "Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley".

A Unabomber bomb explodes in the computer science department at Vanderbilt University secretary Janet Smith is injured.

Bobby Sands, Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer and elected member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, dies aged 27 while on hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.

Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 3,000th major league hit.

Norway opens a natural gas field in the Polar Sea.

Reinhold Messner (Italy) and Peter Habeler (Austria) made the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.

The Busch Gardens WilliamsburgTheme Park opens in Virginia.

An AlitaliaDC-8crashes west of Palermo, Sicily 115 die.

The US dollar floods the European currency markets and threatens especially the Deutsche Mark the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.

The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.

Forty men burn their draft cards at the University of California, Berkeley, and a coffin is marched to the Berkeley Draft Board.

Twelve East Germans escape via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.

Mercury program: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.

West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by important Western foreign countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.

Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book "The Doors of Perception".

The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.

Admiral Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.

A Japanese balloon bomb kills five children and a woman, Elsie Mitchell, near Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. They are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the American mainland during WWII.

The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration c, including Simon Wiesenthal.thumb||American soldiers fighting in the Pacific War|Pacific theater listen to radio reports of Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945.

Ezra Pound, the poet and author, is arrested by American soldiers in Italy for treason.

Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.

Prague rises up against the Nazis.

WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released in India.

WWII ndash Operation Ironclad: United Kingdom forces invade the French colony of Madagascar.

WWII: Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which had been liberated from Italian forces this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia.

Italian forces occupy Addis Ababa.

The first Three Stooges short, "Woman Haters", is released.

The detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is reported in the "New York Times". The discovery leads to the birth of radio astronomy.

İsmet İnönü forms new government in Turkey. (7th government)

The novel "To the Lighthouse" was finished by Virginia Woolf.

In The Bronx, construction begins on Yankee Stadium.

The League of Red Cross Societies is founded in Paris.

United States Marines invade the Dominican Republic.

WWI: The Turks begin shelling Anzac Cove from a new position behind their lines.

The Olympic Games open in Stockholm, Sweden.

Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.

The Commonwealth Public Service Act creates Australia's Public Service.

Panic of 1893: A crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a depression.

The Music Hall in New York (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with maestro Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

Construction of the Swanage Railway begins.

American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

French intervention in Mexico ndash Battle of Puebla: Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza defeats the French Army commemorated each year as Cinco de Mayo (Spanish Fifth of May).

Border Treaty between Brazil and Venezuela: The two countries agree their borders should be traced at the water divide between the Amazon and the Orinoco basins.//html.rincondelvago.com/venezuela_4.html Problemas Limítrofes de Venezuela (In Spanish)

October 17 ndash The Art Treasures of Great Britain exhibition is held in Manchester, one of the largest such displays of all time.

Emperor Napoléon I dies in exile on Saint Helena of stomach cancer.

British-American War (War of 1812): The British attack Fort Ontario at Oswego, New York.

Great Britain passes the Act of Union to join Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom (to take effect on 1 January 1801). The act is signed by King George III in August.

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time in 175 years.

Pennsylvania colony enacts a statute requiring all persons importing any person previously convicted of sodomy to pay £5 for each such incoming person.

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor succeeds his father Leopold I.

November ndash In Williamsburg, capital of the Virginia colony in America, construction of the Capitol building is completed.

King Charles I surrenders his forces to a Scottish army at Southwell, Nottinghamshire.ref name=Cassell's Chronology

The Short Parliament is dispersed.

The Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc d'Anjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it) ends the Fifth War of Religion. Once again, the Protestants are granted freedom of worship.

The Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc d'Anjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it) ends the Fifth War of Religion. Once again, the Protestants are granted freedom of worship.

Kublai Khan becomes a claimant to the Mongol Empire after the death of Mongke Khan.

End of the short-lived principality created by El Cid. Valencia is captured by the Almoravids under Yusuf ibn Tashfin. It is later recaptured, evacuated and burned by Alfonso VI of Castile.

Movable typeprinting is invented by Bi Sheng in China.

The Qingli Reforms, put forth by the Chinese statesmen Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan in 1043, are halted by their conservative ministerial peers, but would later influence reform efforts under Wang Anshi.

Pope Gregory VI becomes the 148th pope, following the deposition of Pope Benedict IX. There are growing allegations that simony is taking place during Gregory VI's reign.

The Lingxiao Pagoda of China is built during the Song Dynasty.

Princess Oku is made to dwell in the Abstinence-palace of Hatsuse by the Emperor's order.

Maxentius, Roman usurper, reconquers the African provinces from Domitius Alexander.

Emperor Galerius declares on his deathbed religious freedom and issues his Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. He dies, age 51, from a gruesome disease, possibly bowel cancer or Fournier gangrene.

Maximinus II divides the Eastern Empire between co-emperor Licinius, and mobilished his army for a caign in Asia Minor. He recommences the persecution of Christians.

Maxentius builds the Circus of Maxentius near the Via Appia. The circus is 513 meters long and 91 meters wide, and offers an accommodation to some 10,000 people.