2026-05-31

A shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, United States, left 13 people dead, including the gunman, and injured four others.

A car bomb exploded near the German embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing more than 90 people and injuring 463 others.

An extremely large, powerful, and erratic tornado struck Central Oklahoma, killing eight people and injuring more than 150 others.

American physician George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions, was shot and killed by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist.

An organized mob of police and government-sponsored Sinhalese paramilitary forces began three days of attacks that led to the burning of the Jaffna Public Library (renovated building pictured) in Sri Lanka, destroying more than 97,000 items in one of the most violent 20th-century examples of ethnic biblioclasm.

World War II: German forces dropped four bombs on neutral Ireland, killing 28 people and damaging Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of the President of Ireland.

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck Balochistan in British India, now part of Pakistan, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people

The Second Boer War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in Pretoria, South Africa.

American Civil War: Confederate troops under Joseph E. Johnston and G. W. Smith engaged Union forces under George B. McClellan at the Battle of Seven Pines outside Richmond, Virginia.

American Revolution: The Committee of Safety of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves, which annulled and vacated all laws originating from the authority of the king or the Parliament of Great Britain.