70 CE- Roman legions under Titus breached the middle wall of Jerusalem. A counter-attack by the Jews restored the wall to their command.
1402- The Jews of Rome were granted certain liberal "privileges" by Pope Boniface IX. They were given legal right to observe their Shabbat, protection from local oppressive officials, their taxes were reduced and orders were given to treat Jews as full-fledged Roman citizens.
May 4, 1917-Tel Aviv was ravaged by Arabs and Djemal Pasha announced that it was the intention of the Turkish government to purge the Land of Israel of its Jewish population.
May 11, 1949- Israel admitted as the 59th member of the UN, on the anniversary of Turkey’s declaration in 1917, of its intention to expel the entire Jewish population from Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel].
May 22, 1967- Egypt blocked the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping. On May 17, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser demanded that UN monitoring forces evacuate the Sinai, a request with which UN Secretary-General U Thant cowardly complied. Nasser began the re-militarization of the Sinai, and concentrated tanks and troops on the border with Israel. On May 22, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and blockaded the Israeli port of Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba. The Egyptian blockade violated international law and Israel demanded that it cease. When Egypt failed to act, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack that destroyed 300 airplanes -- nearly the entire Egyptian Air Force -- in a matter of hours. Within days Israel had captured the entire Sinai Peninsula; this would be the bargaining chip for the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Accords of 1979.
May 14, 2003- In Chechnya, a female suicide bomber killed 18 people in an apparent to assassinate the Moscow-backed chief administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov. At least 145 people were injured. Kadyrov later became President of the Chechen Republic. An explosion in 2004 killed him along with perhaps a dozen others.