📅 Today in HistoryMay 5

The Second Council of Constantinople begins.

Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.

Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.

Daimyō (Lord) Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.

King Charles I of England dissolves the Short Parliament.

Cromwell's Act of Grace, aimed at reconciliation with the Scots, proclaimed in Edinburgh.

Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614.

Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.