On May 30

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, prohibiting the use, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, was adopted.

American student Natalee Holloway disappeared while on a high-school graduation trip to Aruba.

A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck northern Afghanistan, killing at least 4,000 people, destroying more than 30 villages, and leaving 45,000 people homeless.

Members of the Japanese Red Army carried out the Lod Airport massacre in Tel Aviv, Israel, on behalf of PFLP External Operations, killing over 20 people and injuring almost 80 others.

A demonstration by workers and activists on the Caribbean island of Curaçao escalated into a violent uprising which destroyed much of Willemstad.

Buddhist crisis: A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination was held outside the National Assembly of South Vietnam in Saigon, the first open demonstration against President Ngô Đình Diệm.

The Auckland Harbour Bridge, spanning Waitematā Harbour between the Saint Marys Bay and Northcote suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, officially opened.

A dike holding the Columbia River broke, causing a flood that destroyed Vanport, Oregon, U.S., only five years after the city was built.

Second World War: HMS Cambrian was sunk by a mine in The Solent, with the loss of 23 lives.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring a sculpture of the sixteenth U.S. president Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, opened.

RMS Aquitania, the last surviving four-funnel ocean liner, departed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York City.

Pearl Hart, one of the few female outlaws of the American Old West, committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona.

Bedřich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride premiered in Prague.

The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law, establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and allowing their settlers to determine if slavery would be permitted.

Johann Sebastian Bach (pictured) assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting the cantata Die Elenden sollen essen in St. Nicholas Church.

Jane Seymour, a former lady-in-waiting, married King Henry VIII, becoming the queen consort of England.

Hundred Years' War: After being convicted of heresy, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.