| 10 May 1292 | Holy Roman Empire, Germany [elections] | Adolf, Count of Nassau, is elected Holy Roman Emperor and becomes king of Germany. |
| 10 May 1590 | France, Savoy, Italy, Holy Roman Empire [political events] | Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, the Catholic candidate for the French crown, dies; a welter of contenders advance their claims in his place, including Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, who invades Provence and the Dauphiné. |
| 10 May 1863 | USA [births and deaths] | Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, one of the most able Confederate generals in the American Civil War, dies from pneumonia in Guiney's Station, Virginia, eight days after being accidentally shot by one of his own men (39). |
| 10 May 1869 | USA [railways] | The first US transcontinental railway is completed when the Union Pacific Railroad, building west, and the Central Pacific Railway, building east, meet at Promontory Point, Utah. It is 2,832 km/1,770 mi long. |
| 10 May 1871 | France, Prussia, Germany [treaties] | The Peace of Frankfurt formally ends the Franco-Prussian War. France is to cede Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, pay an indemnity of 5 milliards of francs, and be subject to military occupation until payment is completed. |
| 10 May 1893 | Natal [decolonization] | Britain grants Natal self-government following war over its declaration of independence. |
| 10 May–11 June 1919 | USA [horse-racing] | Sir Barton, ridden by US jockey Johnny Loftus, wins the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes to become the first horse to win the US Triple Crown (though the term ‘triple crown’ is not applied to this feat until 1930). |
| 10 May 1936 | Spain [political events] | Manuel Azaña of the Republican Left succeeds Niceto Alcalá Zamora as president of Spain. |
| 10 May 1939 | USA [Protestantism] | The Methodist Church is reunited after 109 years of division, a split caused between churches in the North and South over slavery. |
| 10 May 1940 | UK, Norway [political events] | The British prime minister Neville Chamberlain resigns following criticism for the failure of the British military expedition to Norway. Winston Churchill forms a coalition government, with Lord Halifax foreign secretary and Labour members Clement Attlee as Lord Privy Seal, Albert Alexander as First Lord of the Admiralty, and Ernest Bevin as minister of labour. |
| 10–14 May 1940 | Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg [World War II (1939–45)] | German forces invade the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. |
| 10 May 1940 | France [World War II (1939–45)] | German armoured forces begin to break through French and British defensive positions into northern France. |
| 10 May 1981 | France [elections] | François Mitterrand becomes the first Socialist president of France, winning 51.7% of the vote to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's 48.3%. |
| 10 May 1990 | Europe [newspapers] | English newspaper and publishing magnate Robert Maxwell publishes The European, a weekly English-language newspaper for circulation throughout Europe. |
| 10 May 1994 | South Africa [political events] | Nelson Mandela is sworn in as the first black president of South Africa. A new cabinet is formed the following day, including representatives from all four racial groups into which the population had been divided under the apartheid system. |
| 10 May 1996 | Netherlands, England [football] | The Dutch footballer Ruud Gullit is named as Chelsea's player–manager. He is the first black manager of an English Football Association premiership side. |
