May 18, 1803: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.

May 19, 1897: Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.

May 20, 1609: Shakespeare’s sonnets are first published in London by Thomas Thorpe.

May 21, 1502: The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer Jaõa da Nova.

May 22, 1816: A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs.

May 23, 1813: South American independence leader Simon Bolivar enters Mérida and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).

May 24, 1798: The Irish Rebellion of 1798 begins, led by the United Irishmen against British rule.