Independence
day
Norway
UN
Day
World
Telecommunication and Information Society
Day
Events
of the day
1521 – Edward Stafford,
3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for
treason.
1536 – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford
and four other men are executed for treason.
1590 – Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen
of Scotland.
1642 – Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve (1612–1676)
founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.
1673 – Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette
begin exploring the Mississippi River.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: the
Continental Congress bans trade with Quebec.
1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is
formed.
1805 – Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt.
1808 – Napoleon I of France orders the
annexation of the Papal States to the
French Empire.
1814 – Occupation of Monaco changes from
French to Austrian.
1814 – The Constitution of Norway is signed
and the Danish Crown Prince Christian
Frederik is elected King of Norway by
the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.
1849 – A large fire nearly burns St. Louis,
Missouri to the ground.
1863 – Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares
Gallegos, the first book in the Galician
language.
1865 – The International Telegraph Union
(later the International Telecommunication
Union) is established in Paris.
1869 – Imperial Japanese forces defeat
the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate
in the Battle of Hakodate to end the Boshin
War.
1875 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky
Derby.
1900 – Second Boer War: British troops
relieve Mafeking.
1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais
discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an
ancient mechanical analog computer.
1914 – The Protocol of Corfu is signed
recognising full autonomy to Northern
Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty.
1915 – The last British Liberal Party
government (led by Herbert Henry Asquith)
falls.
1933 – Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard
Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist
party of Norway.
1939 – The Columbia Lions and the Princeton
Tigers play in the United States' first
televised sporting event, a collegiate
baseball game in New York City.
1940 – World War II: Germany occupies
Brussels, Belgium.
1940 – World War II: the old city centre
of the Dutch town of Middelburg is bombed
by the German Luftwaffe, to force the
surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.
1943 – The United States Army contracts
with the University of Pennsylvania's
Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
1943 – World War II: the Dambuster Raids
by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.
1954 – The United States Supreme Court
hands down a unanimous decision in Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
1967 – Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel
Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of
the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in
Egypt.
1969 – Venera program: Soviet Venera 6
begins its descent into the atmosphere
of Venus, sending back atmospheric data
before being crushed by pressure.
1970 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco
on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the
Atlantic Ocean.
1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings
begin in the United States Senate.
1974 – Police in Los Angeles, California,
raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's
headquarters, killing six members, including
Camilla Hall.
1974 – Thirty-three civilians are killed
and over 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer
Force (UVF) explodes car bombs in Dublin
and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. It
is the highest number of casualties in
any one day during The Troubles. An Irish
parliament committee, and others, allege
that British security forces were involved.
1980 – General Chun Doo-hwan of South
Korea seizes control of the government
and declares martial law in order to suppress
student demonstrations.
1980 – On the eve of presidential elections,
Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks
a polling location in the town of Chuschi,
Ayacucho, starting the Internal conflict
in Peru.
1983 – The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies
documents showing world's largest mercury
pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
(ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds),
in response to the Appalachian Observer's
Freedom of Information Act request.
1983 – Lebanon, Israel, and the United
States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal
from Lebanon.
1984 – Prince Charles calls a proposed
addition to the National Gallery, London,
a "monstrous carbuncle on the face
of a much-loved and elegant friend,"
sparking controversies on the proper role
of the Royal Family and the course of
modern architecture.
1987 – An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter
jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy
warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring
21 of her crew.
1990 – The General Assembly of the World
Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality
from the list of psychiatric diseases.
1992 – Three days of popular protests
against the government of Prime Minister
of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin
in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown
that results in 52 officially confirmed
deaths, many disappearances, hundreds
of injuries, and over 3,500 arrests.
1994 – Malawi holds its first multi-party
elections.
1997 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march
into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2004 – Massachusetts becomes the first
U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany
is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial
reef.
2007 – Trains from North and South Korea
cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run
agreed by both governments. This is the
first time that trains have crossed the
Demilitarized Zone since 1953.
Holidays
and observances
Birthday
of the Raja (Perlis)
Christian Feast Day:
Paschal Baylon
Restituta
May 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Nauru)
Constitution Day (Norway)
Earliest date on which Trinity Sunday
can fall, while June 20 is the latest;
celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost.
(Western Christianity)
Feast of ‘Aẓamat (Bahá'í Faith)
Galician Literature Day or Día das Letras
Galegas (Galicia)
International Day Against Homophobia and
Transphobia aka IDAHO
Liberation Day (Democratic Republic of
the Congo)
National Famine Memorial Day (Ireland)
Navy Day (Argentina)
World Information Society Day (International)
For details, contact Datacentre
