Events
of the day
1445
– John II of Castile defeats the Infantes
of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.
1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married
by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of
Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is
12.
1535 – French explorer Jacques Cartier
sets sail on his second voyage to North
America with three ships, 110 men, and
Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier
had kidnapped during his first voyage).
1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife
of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded
for adultery, treason, and incest.
1542 – Prome Kingdom falls to Toungoo
Dynasty.
1568 – Queen Elizabeth I of England
orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of
Scots.
1643 – Thirty Years' War: French forces
under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat
Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi,
marking the symbolic end of Spain as
a dominant land power.
1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring
England a Commonwealth is passed by
the Long Parliament. England would be
a republic for the next eleven years.
1749 – King George II of Great Britain
grants the Ohio Company a charter of
land around the forks of the Ohio River.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: A
Continental Army garrison surrenders
in the Battle of The Cedars.
1780 – New England's Dark Day: A combination
of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover
causes complete darkness to fall on
Eastern Canada and the New England area
of the United States at 10:30 A.M.
1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the
Legion of Honour.
1828 – U.S. President John Quincy Adams
signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting
wool manufacturers in the United States.
1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and
his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart
from Greenhithe, England.
1848 – Mexican-American War: Mexico
ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
thus ending the war and ceding California,
Nevada, Utah and parts of four other
modern-day U.S. states to the United
States for US$15 million.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle
of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from
Reading Gaol Prison.
1911 – Parks Canada, the world's first
national park service, is established
as the Dominion Parks Branch under the
Department of the Interior.
1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at
Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast,
initiating what is later termed the
Turkish War of Independence.
1921 – The U.S. Congress passes the
Emergency Quota Act establishing national
quotas on immigration.
1922 – The Young Pioneer organization
of the Soviet Union is established.
1934 – Zveno and the Bulgarian Army
engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon
Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of
Bulgaria.
1943 – World War II: British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May
1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy
landings ("D-Day"). It would
later be delayed over a month due to
bad weather.
1950 – A barge containing munitions
destined for Pakistan explodes in the
harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating
the city.
1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes
Group 559, whose responsibility is to
determine how to maintain supply lines
to South Vietnam; the resulting route
is the Ho Chi Minh trail.
1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 becomes
the first man-made object to fly-by
another planet by passing Venus (the
probe had lost contact with Earth a
month earlier and did not send back
any data).
1961 – 11 bengali martyrs gave up their
life in a police firing in Silchar Railway
Station, Assam, while demanding state
recognition of bengali language in the
Bengali Language Movement.
1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President
John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison
Square Garden, New York City. The highlight
is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy
Birthday".
1971 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is
launched by the Soviet Union.
1986 – The Firearm Owners Protection
Act is signed into law by U.S. President
Ronald Reagan.
1991 – Croatians vote for independence
in a referendum.
1997 – The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, the
most ecologically diverse region in
Mexico, is established as a result of
grassroots efforts.
2001 – Apple Store, the first two Apple
Stores opened in Tysons Corner, Virginia
and the same day in Glendale, California
at Glendale Galleria.
2007 – President of Romania Traian Băsescu
survives an impeachment referendum and
returns to office from suspension.
2010 – The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes
its crackdown on protests by forcing
the surrender of United Front for Democracy
Against Dictatorship leaders.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Calocerus (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Dunstan
Ivo of Kermartin
Joaquina Vedruna de Mas
Maria Bernarda Bütler
Peter Celestine
Pudentiana (Roman Catholic Church)
May 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and
Sports Day (Turkey, Northern Cyprus)
Greek Genocide Remembrance Day (Greece)
Hồ Chà Minh's Birthday (Vietnam)
Malcolm X Day (United States of America)
For details, contact Datacentre
