On May 11

Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed civilians in Mondaingbin.

Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is shot and killed while reporting on an Israel Defense Forces raid on the Jenin Refugee Camp.

Two car bombs by unknown perpetrators exploded in Reyhanlı, Turkey, resulting in 52 killed and 140 injured.

An earthquake registering Mw 5.1, the worst to hit the region for more than 50 years, struck near Lorca, Spain.

Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats.

David Cameron took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed the country's first coalition government since the Second World War.

India began the Pokhran-II nuclear-weapons test, its first since the Smiling Buddha test 24 years earlier.

Deep Blue (pictured) defeated Garry Kasparov in six games to become the first chess computer to win a match against a world champion.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, the first megamusical, opened at the New London Theatre.

Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people dead.

African Americans rioted in Birmingham, Alabama, in response to two bombings, perceiving local police to be complicit with the perpetrators.

After a week-long standoff punctuated by military clashes, Japanese forces captured the city of Jinan, Shandong in China.

Glacier National Park was established in the U.S. state of Montana.

In response to a 28-percent wage cut, 4,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on strike in Illinois, bringing rail traffic west of Chicago to a halt.

Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona Territory, stealing more than $28,000.

A land dispute between the Southern Pacific Railroad and settlers in Hanford, California, turned deadly when a gun battle broke out, leaving seven dead.

Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.

HMS Beagle (pictured), the ship that would take Charles Darwin on his voyage, was launched.

William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth departed westward from Sydney on an expedition to become the first confirmed Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains (depicted).

Spencer Perceval was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons, becoming the only British prime minister to be assassinated.