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From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that a swift (pictured) is a tool with an adjustable diameter used to hold a skein of yarn while it is being wound off?
• ... that the Tinh Xa Trung Tam Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City is regarded as the spiritual birthplace of the khất sĩ tradition?
• ... that Elvia Carrillo Puerto founded the first feminist leagues to provide family planning programs with legalized birth control in the Western Hemisphere?
• ... that Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall ended his record-setting 502 consecutive-games streak in the National Hockey League as a Chicago Black Hawk during the 1962–63 season?
• ... that British actress Jacqueline Voltaire won a "most bizarre sex scene" award in 2005 for her performance in the Mexican film Matando Cabos?
• ... that the Kh'Leang Temple in Soc Trang is a Khmer Theravada building from 1533—predating Vietnamese settlement—which incorporates Greek architecture?
• ... that screenwriter Allan Loeb's agent dropped him the day he began writing the script that saved his career?
  

• An earthquake (epicenter shown in map) measuring 7.9 M_w strikes the Sichuan province of China, with several thousand people reported dead.
• Sudan cuts diplomatic relations with Chad, blaming it for helping rebels from Darfur to launch an attack on Sudan's capital, Khartoum.
• An international relief operation begins after Cyclone Nargis strikes Burma, with at least 100,000 people reported killed or missing. The Burmese military regime conducts a significant referendum days from the cyclone's strike despite international appeals.
• A tornado outbreak in Oklahoma and Missouri, United States kills at least 23 people.
• Skirmishes between supporters of Lebanon's government and the opposition erupt in Beirut.

May 12: Whit Monday (Western Christianity, 2008); Buddha's Birthday in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea (2008); International Nurses Day

• 1551 – The National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.
• 1885 – North-West Rebellion: Louis Riel (pictured) and the Métis rebels were decisively defeated by Canadian forces under Major-General Frederick Middleton in Batoche, Saskatchewan.
• 1926 – A general strike by British trade unions "in defence of [coal] miners' wages and hours" ended after nine days.
• 1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
• 1958 – Canada and the United States signed a formal agreement establishing the North American Air Defense Command to provide aerospace warning and defense for North America.

More events: May 11 – May 12 – May 13