Events
413
– Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing
tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia,
Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania
and Calabria, who are plundered by the Visigoths.
589 – Reccared summons the Third Council
of Toledo.
1450 – Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen
revolt against King Henry VI.
1541 – Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi
River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
1788 – The French Parlement is suspended
to be replaced by the creation of forty-seven
new courts.
1794 – Branded a traitor during the Reign
of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist
Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector
with the Ferme Générale, is tried, convicted,
and guillotined all on the same day in Paris.
1821 – Greek War of Independence: The Greeks
defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia.
1846 – Mexican-American War: The Battle
of Palo Alto – Zachary Taylor defeats a
Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in
the first major battle of the war.
1861 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia
is named the capital of the Confederate
States of America.
1877 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York
City, the first Westminster Kennel Club
Dog Show opens.
1886 – Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton first
sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola"
as a patent medicine.
1898 – The first games of the Italian football
league system are played.
1899 – The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin
opens.
1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts,
destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and
killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful
of residents survive the blast.
1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded.
1919 – Edward George Honey first proposes
the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate
The Armistice of World War I, which later
results in the creation of Remembrance Day.
In the United States it was called Armistice
Day and is now Veterans Day.
1924 – The Klaipėda Convention is signed
formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel
Territory) into Lithuania.
1927 – Attempting to make the first non-stop
transatlantic flight from Paris to New York,
French war heroes Charles Nungesser and
Francois Coli disappeared after taking off
aboard The White Bird biplane.
1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast
in protest against the British rule in India.
1941 – The German Luftwaffe launch a bombing
raid on Nottingham and Derby
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral
Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial
Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking
and sinking the United States Navy aircraft
carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks
the first time in the naval history that
two enemy fleets fight without visual contact
between warring ships.
1942 – World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon
Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in
the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands
Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three
of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth
soldiers to be executed for mutiny during
the Second World War.
1945 – Hundreds of Algerian civilians are
killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif
massacre.
1945 – World War II: V-E Day, combat ends
in Europe. German forces agree in Rheims,
France, to an unconditional surrender.
1945 – The Halifax Riot started when thousands
of civilians and servicemen went on a rampage
through Halifax.
1945 – End of the Prague uprising, today
celebrated as a national holiday in the
Czech Republic.
1946 – Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and
Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial
which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier
in Tallinn.
1963 – South Vietnamese soldiers of Catholic
President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists
defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist
flag on Vesak, killing nine.
1967 – The Philippine province of Davao
is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao
del Sur, and Davao Oriental.
1970 – The Hard Hat riot occurs in the Wall
Street area of New York City as blue-collar
construction workers clash with demonstrators
protesting the Vietnam War.
1972 – Vietnam War – U.S. President Richard
M. Nixon announces his order to place mines
in major North Vietnamese ports in order
to stem the flow of weapons and other goods
to that nation.
1972 – Four Black September terrorists hijack
Sabena Flight 571. Israeli Sayeret Matkal
commandos recapture the plane the following
day.
1973 – A 71-day standoff between federal
authorities and the American Indian Movement
members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation
at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with
the surrender of the militants.
1976 – The rollercoaster Revolution, the
first steel coaster with a vertical loop,
opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
1978 – First ascent of Mount Everest without
supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner
and Peter Habeler.
1980 – The eradication of smallpox is endorsed
by the World Health Organization.
1984 – The Soviet Union announces that it
will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles, California.
1984 – Corporal Denis Lortie enters the
Quebec National Assembly and opens fire,
killing three and wounding 13. René Jalbert,
sergeant-at-arms of the assembly, succeeds
in calming him, for which he will later
receive the Cross of Valour.
1984 – Thames Barrier officially opened.
1987 – The Loughgall Ambush: The SAS kills
eight Provisional Irish Republican Army
volunteers and a civilian during an ambush
in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.
1988 – A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale
Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS
network outage once considered the 'worst
telecommunications disaster in US telephone
industry history' and still the worst to
occur on Mother's Day.
1997 – A China Southern Airlines Boeing
737 crashes on approach into Bao'an International
Airport, killing 35 people.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Agathius
Apparition of Saint Michael
Arsenius the Great (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Desideratus
Catherine de Saint-Augustin
Julian of Norwich (Anglican, Lutheran)
Peter of Tarentaise
May 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Mother's Day can fall,
while May 14 is the latest; celebrated on
the second Sunday of May. (United States
and others)
Earliest day on which State Flag and State
Emblem Day can fall, while May 14 is the
latest; celebrated on the second Sunday
of May. (Belarus)
Earliest day on which World Fair Trade Day
can fall, while May 14 is the latest; celebrated
on the second Sunday of May. (International)
Miguel Hidalgo's birthday (Mexico)
Parents' Day (South Korea)
Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for
Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second
World War, continues to May 9 (International)
Truman Day (Missouri)
Victory in Europe Day (Europe)
White Lotus Day (Theosophy)
World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day (International)
For details, contact Datacentre
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