Independence
day
Paraguay
UN
Day
International
Day of Families
UN Global Road Safety Week (biennial)
[WHO]
Events
of the day
392 β Emperor Valentinian
II is assassinated while advancing into
Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast.
He is found hanging in his residence at
Vienne.
1252 β Pope Innocent IV issues the papal
bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes,
but also limits, the torture of heretics
in the Medieval Inquisition.
1525 β The battle of Frankenhausen ends
the German Peasants' War.
1536 β Anne Boleyn, Queen of England,
stands trial in London on charges of treason,
adultery and incest. She is condemned
to death by a specially-selected jury.
1567 β Mary, Queen of Scots marries James
Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third
husband.
1602 β Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the
first European to see Cape Cod.
1618 β Johannes Kepler confirms his previously
rejected discovery of the third law of
planetary motion (he first discovered
it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea
after some initial calculations were made).
1648 β The Treaty of Westphalia is signed.
1701 β The War of the Spanish Succession
begins.
1718 β James Puckle, a London lawyer,
patents the world's first machine gun.
1755 β Laredo, Texas is established by
the Spaniards.
1776 β American Revolution: the Virginia
Convention instructs its Continental Congress
delegation to propose a resolution of
independence from Great Britain, paving
the way for the United States Declaration
of Independence.
1791 β Maximilien Robespierre proposes
the Self-denying ordinance.
1792 β War of the First Coalition: France
declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.
1793 β Diego MarΓn Aguilera flies a glider
for "about 360 meters", at a
height of 5-6 meters, during one of the
first attempted manned flights.
1796 β First Coalition: Napoleon enters
Milan in triumph.
1800 β George III of the United Kingdom
survives an assassination attempt by James
Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason
of insanity.
1811 β Paraguay declares independence
from Spain.
1817 β Opening of the first private mental
health hospital in the United States,
the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived
of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends
Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1836 β Francis Baily observes "Baily's
beads" during an annular eclipse.
1849 β Troops of the Two Sicilies take
Palermo and crush the republican government
of Sicily
1850 β The Bloody Island Massacre takes
place in Lake County, California, in which
a large number of Pomo Indians in Lake
County are slaughtered by a regiment of
the United States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel
Lyon.
1858 β Opening of the present Royal Opera
House in Covent Garden, London.
1862 β President Abraham Lincoln signs
a bill into law creating the United States
Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed
the United States Department of Agriculture.
1864 β American Civil War: Battle of Resaca,
Georgia ends.
1864 β American Civil War: Battle of New
Market, Virginia β students from the Virginia
Military Institute fight alongside the
Confederate Army to force Union General
Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1869 β Woman's suffrage: in New York,
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1891 β Pope Leo XIII defends workers'
rights and property rights in the encyclical
Rerum Novarum, the beginning of modern
Catholic social teaching.
1904 β The Russian minelayer Amur lays
a minefield about 15 miles off Port Arthur
and sank Japan's battleships Hatsuse,
15,000 tons, with 496 crew and "Yashima".
1905 β Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when
110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would
become downtown, are auctioned off.
1911 β In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey
v. United States, the United States Supreme
Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable"
monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act
and orders the company to be broken up.
1919 β The Winnipeg General Strike begins.
By 11:00 am, almost the whole working
population of Winnipeg, Manitoba had walked
off the job.
1919 β Greek invasion of Δ°zmir. During
the invasion, the Greek army kills or
wounds 350 Turks. Those responsible are
punished by the Greek Commander Aristides
Stergiades.
1928 β Mickey Mouse premieres in his first
cartoon, Plane Crazy
1929 β A fire at the Cleveland Clinic
in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.
1932 β The May 15 Incident: in an attempted
Coup d'Γ©tat, the Prime Minister of Japan
Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
1934 β KΔrlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian
government in Latvia.
1935 β The Moscow Metro is opened to public.
1940 β USS Sailfish is recommissioned.
It was originally the USS Squalus.
1940 β World War II: After fierce fighting,
the poorly trained and equipped Dutch
troops surrender to Germany, marking the
beginning of five years of occupation.
1940 β McDonald's opens its first restaurant
in San Bernardino, California.
1942 β World War II: in the United States,
a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary
Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
1943 β Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern
(or Third International).
1945 β World War II: The final skirmish
in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
1948 β Following the demise of the British
Mandate of Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan,
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia
invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli
War.
1951 β The Polish cultural attache in
Paris, CzesΕaw MiΕosz, asks the French
government for political asylum.
1957 β At Malden Island in the Pacific,
Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb
in Operation Grapple. The device fails
to detonate properly.
1958 β The Soviet Union launches Sputnik
3.
1960 β The Soviet Union launches Sputnik
4.
1963 β Project Mercury: The launch of
the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas
9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board.
He becomes the first American to spend
more than a day in space.
1966 β After a policy dispute, Prime Minister
Nguyen Cao Ky of South Vietnam's ruling
junta launches a military attack on the
forces of General Ton That Dinh, forcing
him to abandon his command.
1969 β People's Park: California Governor
Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student
park owned by University of California
at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war
protestors, sparking a riot called Bloody
Thursday.
1970 β President Richard Nixon appoints
Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington
the first female United States Army Generals.
1970 β Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James
Earl Green are killed at Jackson State
University by police during student protests.
1972 β The island of Okinawa, under U.S.
military governance since its conquest
in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.
1972 β In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer
shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor
George Wallace while he is campaigning
to become President.
1974 β Ma'alot massacre: In an Arab terrorist
attack and hostage taking at an Israeli
school, a total of 31 people are killed,
including 22 schoolchildren.
1987 β The Soviet Union launches the Polyus
prototype orbital weapons platform. It
fails to reach orbit.
1988 β Soviet war in Afghanistan: After
more than eight years of fighting, the
Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1991 β Γdith Cresson becomes France's
first female prime minister.
1997 β The United States government acknowledges
the existence of the "Secret War"
in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial
in honor of Hmong and other "Secret
War" veterans.
2008 β California becomes the second U.S.
state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize
same-sex marriage after the state's own
Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.
2010 β Jessica Watson becomes the youngest
person to sail, non-stop and unassisted
around the world solo.
Holidays
and observances
Aoi
Matsuri (Kyoto)
Christian Feast Day:
Achillius of Larissa
Athanasius of Alexandria (Coptic Church)
Dymphna
Hallvard VebjΓΈrnsson (Norway)
Hilary of Galeata
Isidore the Laborer, celebrated with festivals
in various countries, the beginning of
bullfighting season in Madrid.
Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (Roman Catholic
Church)
Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Denise (Roman
Catholic Church)
Reticius (Roman Catholic Church)
Sophia of Rome (Roman Catholic church)
May 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constituent Assembly Day (Lithuania)
Earliest date on which Armed Forces Day
can fall, while May 21 is the latest;
celebrated on the third Saturday of May.
(United States)
Earliest date on which Bike-to-Work Day
can fall, while May 21 is the latest;
celebrated on the third Friday of May.
(United States)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence
of Paraguay from Spain in 1811. Celebrations
for the anniversary of the independence
begin on Flag Day, May 14.
International Day of Families (International)
La Corsa dei Ceri begins on the eve of
the feast day of Saint Ubaldo. (Gubbio)
Mercuralia, in honour of Mercury. (Roman
Empire)
Nakba Day (Palestinian communities)
Peace Officers Memorial Day (United States)
Slovenian Army Day (Slovenia)
Teachers' Day (Mexico and South Korea)
For details, contact Datacentre
