May
10
Events
May
10
70 – Siege
of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, opens a full-scale
assault on Jerusalem and attacks the city's Third Wall to the
northwest.
1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of
England.
1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first
voyage to the New World.
1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names
them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
1534 – Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.
1655 – England, with troops under the command of Admiral William
Penn and General Robert Venables, annexes Jamaica from Spain.
1768 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for
The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This
action provokes rioting in London.
1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed
to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly
on the North American tea trade.
1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen
of France.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia
led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort
Ticonderoga.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the
Thirteen Colonies begin the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
1796 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive
victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda
River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare
war on the United States of America.
1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
1833 – The desecration of the grave of the viceroy of southern
Vietnam Le Van Duyet by Emperor Minh Mang provokes his adopted
son to start a revolt.
1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment
reaches record levels.
1849 – Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera
House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors
Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least
25 and injuring over 120.
1857 – Indian Mutiny: In India, the first war of Independence
begins. Sepoys revolt against their commanding officers at Meerut.
1863 – American Civil War: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson
dies eight days after he is accidentally shot by his own troops.
1864 – American Civil War: Colonel Emory Upton leads a 10-regiment
"Attack-in-depth" assault against the Confederate
works at The Battle of Spotsylvania, which, though ultimately
unsuccessful, would provide the idea for the massive assault
against the Bloody Angle on May 12. Upton is slightly wounded
but is immediately promoted to Brigadier general.
1865 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union
troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
1865 – American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush
and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who
lingers until his death on June 6.
1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern
and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit,
Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for
President of the United States.
1877 – Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman
Empire following the Senate adoption of Mihail Kogălniceanu's
Declaration of Independence. Recognized on March 26, 1881 after
the end of the Romanian War of Independence.
1893 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v.
Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the
Tariff Act of 1883.
1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United
States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
1922 – The United States annex the Kingman Reef.
1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United
States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until
his death in 1972.
1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public
book burnings.
1940 – World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall
on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
1940 – World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands
and Luxembourg.
1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom.
1940 – World War II: Invasion of Iceland by the United Kingdom.
1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged
by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to
try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and
Nazi Germany.
1942 – World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States
during the Burma Campaign.
1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at
White Sands Proving Ground.
1948 – The Republic of China implements "temporary provisions"
granting President Chiang Kai-shek extended powers to deal with
the Communist uprising; they will remain in effect until 1991.
1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around
the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number
one on the Billboard charts.
1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation
Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible
Hulk.
1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an
assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger
Hill.
1979 – The Federated States of Micronesia become self-governing.
1981 – François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and
becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French
Fifth Republic.
1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 156
workers.
1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first
black president.
1997 – A 7.3 Mw earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province,
killing 1,567, injuring over 2,300, leaving 50,000 homeless,
and damaging or destroying over 15,000 homes.
1997 – The Maeslantkering, a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands
that is one of the world's largest moving structures, is opened
by Queen Beatrix.
2002 – F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole for selling United States
secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about
65 feet (20 metres) from U.S. President George W. Bush while
he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it
malfunctions and does not detonate.
2008 – An EF4 tornado strikes the Oklahoma-Kansas state line,
killing 21 people and injuring over 100.
2012 – The Damascus bombings were carried out using a pair of
car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military
intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people and
injuring 400 others
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus
Aurelian of Limoges
Calepodius
Catald
Comgall
Damien of Molokai (canonized October 11, 2009)
Gordianus and Epimachus
John of Avila
Solange
May 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Confederate Memorial Day (North Carolina and South Carolina)
Constitution Day (Federated States of Micronesia)
Earliest possible day on which Pentecost can fall, while June
13 is the latest; celebrated seven weeks after Easter Day. (Christianity)
Mother's Day (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico)
International Migratory Bird Day, North America
For details, contact Datacentre
|