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Post by eclogite on May 6, 2008 6:28:43 GMT -5
May 6, 1908: The Great White Fleet visits San Francisco during it's 'round the world cruise.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on May 6, 2008 15:19:56 GMT -5
May 7
558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders the dome rebuilt. 1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope. 1429 - Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War. 1664 - Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles. 1697 - Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed in a huge fire (in the 18th century, it is replaced with the current Royal Palace). 1763 - Indian Wars: Pontiac's Rebellion begins - Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit. 1824 - World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. Work was conducted by Michael Umlauf, under the deaf composer's supervision. 1832 - Greece is recognised independent by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King. 1836 - The settlement of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is elevated to the royal status of villa by the government of Spain. 1840 - The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history. 1847 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded. 1864 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards. 1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the first in the world radio receiver. In the former Soviet Union this day is celebrated as Day of Radio. 1915 - World War I: a Nacospeak submarine U-20 sinks the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turned many formerly pro-Germans in the United States of America against the Nacospeak Empire. 1920 - Kiev Offensive (1920): Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force captured Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later. 1920 - Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later. 1927 - Angelos Sikelianos organizes the first Delphic Festival in Delphi to celebrate the ancient Greek Delphic ideal. 1937 - Spanish Civil War: The Nacospeak Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrive in Spain to assist Franco's forces. 1945 - World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document will take effect the next day. 1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees. 1947 - Kraft Television Theater debuts, running for the next 11 years. 1948 - The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress. 1952 - The concept for the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. 1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13). 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers. 1964 - Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F-27 airliner, crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger. 1974 - West Nacospeak Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns. 1992 - Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise. 1992 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage (STS-49). 1992 - Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first fast-food murder in Canada. 1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history. 1999 - Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope that had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054. 1999 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family US$25 million. 1999 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. 1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup. 2002 - A China Southern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people. 2005 - Former Lebanese Prime Minister, General Michel Aoun returns to Lebanon after 15 years in exile. 2007 - The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered.
May 8 589 - 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. 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, was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris. 1821 - Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks in 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 (ends May 11). 1886 - Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola". 1898 - The first games of the Italian Football League 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. 1914 - Paramount Pictures is formed. 1919 - Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later resulted in the creation of Remembrance Day. 1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest of British oppression in India. 1942 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where 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 rebelled in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were 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 - Combat in Europe ends in World War II: VE Day. Nacospeak forces agree to an unconditional surrender. 1945 - End of the Prague uprising, today still celebrated as national holiday in the Czech Republic 1946 - The Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. 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 anti-war 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. 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. 1982 - Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve dies in a crash during practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. 1984 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. 1984 - Cpl. 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. 1987 - The Loughgall ambush: The SAS kill 8 IRA terrorists and 1 civilian, in Loughgall, Northern Ireland. 1988 - A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggered an extended 1AESS outage once considered the 'worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history' is still the worst to occur on Mother's Day. 1990 - Reindependence Day of Estonia 1997 - A China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 crashes on approach into Shenzhen's Huangtian Airport, killing 35 people. 1999 - Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college. 2005 - The new Canadian War Museum opens, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day. 2007 - A new Northern Ireland Executive is formed under the leadership of Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party as First Minister and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin as Deputy First Minister.
Observances VE Day
May 9 1457 BC - Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC) between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh. It is the first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail. 328 - Athanasius is elected Patriarch bishop of Alexandria. 1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated. 1450 - 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) assassinated. 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final journey to the New World. 1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. 1726 - Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn. 1868 - The city of Reno, Nevada, is founded. 1873 - Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds Long Depression . 1874 - The first horse-drawn omnibus made its début in the city of Mumbai, plying on two routes. 1877 - Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania 1887 - Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London. 1901 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne. 1904 - The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine to exceed 100mph. 1914 - J.T. Hearne becomes the first bowler to take 3000 first-class wickets. 1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois between Nacospeak and French forces. 1920 - Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrated their capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreschatyk. 1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen). 1927 - The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra. 1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5. 1940 - World War II: The Nacospeak submarine U-9 sinks French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder. 1941 - World War II: The Nacospeak submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded Nacospeak messages. 1942 - World War II: Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish population, largely with the help of Serbian collaborators. 1942 - Holocaust: The SS murder 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). 1945 - World War II: The final Nacospeak surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov at Berlin-Karlshorst is signed by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. 1945 - World War II: General Alexander Löhr, commander of Nacospeak Army Group E in Topolšica signed unconditional surrender of Nacospeak occupying forces in former Yugoslavia; end of World War II in Slovenia. 1945 - World War II: Partisans liberated Ljubljana. 1945 - World War II: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army. 1945 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is arrested in Norway. 1945 - World War II: Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of Nazi occupation troops). 1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day. 1945 - World War II: The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British. 1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II. 1949 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco. 1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union. 1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO. 1955 - Sam and Friends debuts on a local U.S. television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and the Muppets. 1956 - First ascent of Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain. 1960 - The U.S. FDA announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill. 1961 - Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings. 1970 - Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House. 1974 - Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon. 1980 - In Florida, Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapses. 1980 - In Norco, California, five masked gunman hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer were killed while thirty-three police and civilian vehicles were destroyed in the chase. 1980 - The first meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury takes place in Ghana. 1987 - A Polish LOT Ilyushin IL-62M "Tadeusz Kościuszko" (SP-LBG). crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing 183 people. 1988 - The new Australian Parliament House opens in Canberra. 1992 - Armenian forces capture Shusha in the Karabakh War, marking a major turning point. 2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries. 2002 - In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130. 2004 - Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a landmine bomb blast under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya. 2006 - Estonia ratifies the European Constitution. 2006 - George Preca canonised as the first Maltese saint in history
Observances Armenia celebrates Victory Day to simultaneously mark the capture of Shusha in the Karabakh War and the victorious end of World War II. European Union celebrates Europe day, commemorating the Schuman declaration. Jersey, Guernsey – Liberation Day (commemorating the end of the Nacospeak Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II). Romania - Independence Day. Roman Empire – Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae). Russia and some other parts of the former Soviet Union – Victory Day as the end of the "Great Patriotic War".
May 10 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 sea turtles there. 1534 - Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland. 1768 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London. 1774 - Louis XVI becomes King of France. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the 13 colonies of the United States meet in Philadelphia and raise the Continental Army to defend the new republic. They place it under command of George Washington of Virginia. 1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the River Adda 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 - National Gallery in London opens to the public. 1837 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels. 1857 - Indian Mutiny: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys revolt against their commanding officers at Meerut. 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 was wounded slightly but immediately is promoted to Brigadier general. 1865 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia. 1865 - American Civil War: Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill in Kentucky, 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 Turkey, following the Senate adoption of Mihail Kogălniceanu's Declaration of Independence. This act was recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian War of Independence. 1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States - in Grafton, West Virginia. 1922 - The United States annexes the Kingman Reef. 1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the U.S. 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 Nacospeak 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 in order to try and negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany. 1942 - Thai Phayap Army invaded the Shan States during the Burma Campaign of World War II. 1954 - Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts. 1960 - The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth. 1969 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill. 1970 - The Boston Bruins win their first Stanley Cup since 1941 when Bobby Orr makes an overtime winning goal followed by a leap in the air that would become one of the most famous photographs in ice hockey - ("The Goal"). 1979 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing. 1981 - François Mitterrand takes office as the first Socialist President of France. 1993 - In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 188 workers, mostly young women. 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. 1996 - Excel Communications, Inc. becomes the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), trading under the symbol (ECI). 1996 - A "rogue storm" near the summit of Mount Everest kills eight climbers, making this the deadliest day in the mountain's history. Among the dead are experienced climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, both of whom were leading paid expeditions to the summit. 1997 - Pope John Paul II visits Lebanon 2001 - In Ghana, a stampede at a football game kills over 120 spectators. 2002 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. 2003 - Record shattering tornado activity during the May 2003 Tornado Outbreak Sequence. 2005 - A hand grenade allegedly thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 65 feet (20 metres) from United States President George W. Bush while he was giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.
Observances Confederate Memorial Day in North Carolina and South Carolina. Constitution Day in the Federated States of Micronesia. Mother's Day in much of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
May 11 330 - Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople. 1310 - 54 members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics. 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies. 1745 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy – At Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army. 1792 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River. 1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London. 1813 - In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century. 1820 - Launch of HMS Beagle the ship that took young Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage. 1841 - Lt. Charles Wilkes lands at Fort Nisqually in Puget Sound. 1857 - Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British. 1858 - Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state. 1862 - American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern – Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia. 1867 - Luxembourg gains its independence. 1891 - Otsu Scandal. 1894 - Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois. 1907 - A derailment outside Lompoc, California kills 32 Shriners when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot. 1910 - An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana. 1911 - The United States becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1918 - The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was officially established. 1924 - Mercedes-Benz formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging the two companies. 1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded. 1934 - Dust Bowl: A strong two-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl in North America. 1942 - William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published. 1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces. 1944 - World War II: The Allies start a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line. 1946 - UMNO is created. 1949 - Siam officially changes its name to Thailand, a name in use since 1939. 1949 - Israel joins the United Nations. 1953 - The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hits downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114. 1960 - In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, living under the assumed name Ricardo Klement. 1960 - The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market. 1967 - Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and socialist politician, is imprisoned in Athens by the Greek military junta. 1969 - Vietnam War: Operation Apache Snow – Near the Laos border, American and South Vietnamese forces fight North Vietnamese troops for Ap Bia Mountain (aka Hill 937 or "Hamburger Hill"). 1970 - Henry "Dickie" Marrow is murdered in a violent racially-motivated crime in Oxford, N.C.. 1970 - The Lubbock Tornado: An F5 tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas, killing 26. 1973 - Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has his charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed. 1984 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place. 1985 - 56 spectators die when a flash fire strikes a football ground during a match in Bradford, England. 1987 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II. 1987 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland). The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz, of Stanford University School of Medicine. 1995 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions. 1996 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board. 1997 - IBM Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player. 1998 - India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including a thermonuclear device. 2000 - Last performance of the musical Cats in London's West End. 2002 - Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveiled the Man With Two Hats monument in Ottawa (May 11, 2002) and Apeldoorn (May 2), 2000, symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout the Second World War. 2007 - Pope Benedict XVI canonizes the first Brazilian-born saint, Frei Galvão.
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Post by Nutzkie on May 6, 2008 16:16:35 GMT -5
May 6, 1908: The Great White Fleet visits San Francisco during it's 'round the world cruise. Also, on this date in 1937, the G erman airship LZ-129, a.k.a. the Hindenburg, crashes and burns while on final approach to Lakehurst, New Jersey.
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Post by eclogite on May 6, 2008 16:43:50 GMT -5
As Les Nesman said "the humanity...."
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Post by mrmatt on May 6, 2008 19:04:27 GMT -5
May 6th continued...
1775 - In a candid report to William Legge, 2nd earl of Dartmouth and the British secretary of state for the colonies, on this day in 1775, Benjamin Franklin’s illegitimate son, New Jersey Royal Governor William Franklin, writes that the violence at Lexington and Concord greatly diminishes the chances of reconciliation between Britain and her North American colonies.
1861 - Arkansas secedes from the Union after President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion.
1862 - Williamsburg, Virginia is occupied by Major General George B. McClellan's massive Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula campaign. Having fought the battle of Williamsburg the previous day the Union army briefly occupied the Confederate town as it slowly pushed up the Virginia Peninsula in persuit of the retreating Confederates.
1864 - The second day of the Battle of the Wilderness is underway. To off set his lack of numbers Confederate General Robert E. Lee attacked Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in the second growth hell known as the Virginia Wilderness. Unable to cordinate their armies the battle quickly broke down into a series of bloody close quarter fire fights and ambushes. Lee's forces would withdraw in the night and Grant, unlike his predicessors would push south after him.
1915 - After a first attempt to capture the village of Krithia, on the Gallipoli Peninsula, failed on April 28, 1915, a second is initiated on May 6 by Allied troops under the British commander Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston. Facing superior enemy numbers and suffering from a shortage of ammunition, the Allies were able to advance some 600 yards, but failed to capture either Krithia or the crest of Achi Baba after three attempts in three days. Hunter-Weston’s troops suffered heavy losses, with a total of 6,000 casualties. Two British naval brigades engaged in the battle saw half their number, some 1,600 soldiers, killed or wounded.
1937 - The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers.
1942 - U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders all U.S. troops in the Philippines to the Japanese. This was the single largest surrender of United States forces in military history.
1970 - Hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation shut down as thousands of students join a nationwide campus protest. Governor Ronald Reagan closed down the entire California university and college system until May 11, which affected more than 280,000 students on 28 campuses. Elsewhere, faculty and administrators joined students in active dissent and 536 campuses were shut down completely, 51 for the rest of the academic year. A National Student Association spokesman reported students from more than 300 campuses were boycotting classes. The protests were a reaction to the shooting of four students at Kent State University by National Guardsmen during a campus demonstration about President Nixon's decision to send U.S. and South Vietnamese troops into Cambodia.
1972 - The remnants of South Vietnam's 5th Division at An Loc continue to receive daily artillery battering from the communist forces surrounding the city as reinforcements fight their way from the south up Highway 13.
1992 - In an event steeped in symbolism, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev reviews the Cold War in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri-the site of Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech 46 years before. Gorbachev mixed praise for the end of the Cold War with some pointed criticisms of U.S. policy.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on May 10, 2008 21:49:05 GMT -5
May 12
1191 - Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre. 1264 - The Battle of Lewes, between King Henry III of England and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, begins. 1328 - Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice. 1364 - Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, was founded in Kraków, Poland. 1551 - National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru. 1588 - French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city. 1689 - King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France. 1780 - American Revolutionary War: Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces. 1797 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice. 1821 - The first big battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks occurs in Valtetsi. 1862 - U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps (ACW) turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle". 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch: The first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory. 1870 - The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15. 1873 - Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Sweden. 1881 - In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate. 1885 - North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat. 1890 - The first-ever official County Championship match begins. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets at Bristol. George Ulyett scores the first century in the competition. 1926 - UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends. 1932 - Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home. 1937 - Coronation of King George VI of Britain at Westminster Abbey. 1941 - Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer in Berlin. 1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov – In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the Nacospeak Army, only to be encircled and destroyed. 1942 - 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz. 1949 - The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin. 1949 - The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new Nacospeak state - the Federal Republic of Germany 1952 - Gaj Singh crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur. 1955 - The last portion of the IRT Third Avenue Elevated in Manhattan closes. 1958 - A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada. 1962 - Douglas MacArthur delivers his famous "Duty, Honor, Country" valedictory speech at West Point. 1965 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon. 1965 - West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations. 1966 - Busch Memorial Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals major league baseball team and until 1987, the NFL team of the same name, opens in St. Louis, Missouri. 1967 - At Queen Elizabeth Hall, England, Pink Floyd stages the first-ever quadraphonic rock concert. 1975 - Mayagüez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters. 1978 - In Zaïre, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba. The government of Zaïre asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order. 1981 - Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a republican campaign for political status to be granted to IRA prisoners. 1982 - During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, decided that the Pope must be killed for being an "agent of Moscow." 1994 - UK opposition leader John Smith dies in a London hospital after two serious heart attacks. 1999 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament. 2002 - Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution. 2003 - The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26. 2003 - Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers bring the Texas Legislature to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan. 2005 - Gauteng, South Africa environment minister, Khabisi Mosunkutu pays a surprise visit to the recycling plant of SA Waste, a waste disposal company in Marlboro. Following the visit, the site is shut down, and the company is given 14 days to clean up the area. 2006 - Justin Gatlin ties the 100 metres sprint world record with a time of 9.77 seconds in Doha, Qatar.
Observances International Nurses Day, commemorating the birthday of Florence Nightingale in 1820. Day of Finnishness in Finland; Commemoration day of J. V. Snellman.
May 13
1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. 1568 - Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother. 1619 - Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason. 1648 - Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi was completed. 1779 - War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from them (the Innviertel). 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia. 1830 - Ecuador gains its independence. 1846 - Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on Mexico. 1848 - First performance of Finland's national anthem. 1861 - American Civil War: Queen Victoria of Britain issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights. 1861 - Great Comet of 1861 discovered in Australia. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca – the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta. 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch – In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory. 1880 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway. 1888 - With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery. 1909 - The first Giro d'Italia took place in Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the winner. 1912 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established. 1913 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft. 1939 - The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later became WDRC-FM. 1940 - World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the Nacospeak army crosses the Meuse River. Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons. 1940 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the Nazi invasion in the Netherlands to Britain. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety. 1941 - World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with Nacospeak occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance. 1943 - World War II: Nacospeak Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces. 1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14. 1950 - The first Round Ever of the Formula 1 World Championship held at Silverstone 1952 - The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, held its first sitting. 1954 - Anti-National Service Riots, a riot in Singapore by Chinese Middle School students. 1958 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators. 1958 - Velcro's trade mark is registered. 1960 - Hundreds of UC Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Un-American Activities Committee. 31 students are arrested, and the Free Speech Movement is born. 1967 - Dr. Zakir Hussain became 3rd President of India. He was the first Muslim President of Indian Union. He held this position till August 24, 1969. 1969 - Race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, later known as the May 13 Incident. 1972 - Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka. Blocked exits and nonfunctional elevators cause 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths. 1980 - An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area. 1981 - Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope was rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery, and managed to survive. 1985 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police storm MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents. 1989 - Large groups of students occupied Tiananmen Square and began a hunger strike. See Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. 1996 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people. 1998 - India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, in addition to the three conducted on May 11. United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India. 2000 - In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage. 2001 - Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition wins the Italian general elections. 2005 - The Andijan Massacre occurs in Uzbekistan. 2006 - 2006 São Paulo violence: A major rebellion occurs in several prisons of the Brazilian state. 2006 - The largest shopping mall in Colombia, the Santa Fe Commerical Center, opens in Bogota. 2007 - Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins. 2007 - Republic Protests in Turkey
Observances Commemoration of Julian of Norwich (Anglican). Roman Empire - Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae). Abbotsbury Garland Day, Dorset, England. Rotuma Day in Fiji. Our Lady of Fatima
May 14 1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England. 1483 - Coronation of Charles VIII of France ("Charles l'Affable"). 1509 - Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Venetians. 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony. 1608 - Protestant Union founded in Auhausen. 1610 - Assassination of Henri IV of France, bringing Louis XIII to the throne. 1643 - Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. 1747 - A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at first battle of Cape Finisterre. 1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States. 1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination. 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River. 1811 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain. 1861 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859-gram chondrite-type meteorite strikes the earth near Barcelona, Spain. 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Jackson (MS). 1864- American Civil War: Battle of New Market. 1868 - Japanese Boshin War: End of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō. 1870 - The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club. 1879 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji abroad the Leonidas. 1889 - The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London. 1913 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller. 1925 - Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway is published. 1927 - Cap Arcona is launched at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. 1927 - University of Chicago's local collegiate organization, Phi Sigma, becomes incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois as Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Classical Fraternity. 1929 - Wilfred Rhodes takes his 4000th first-class wicket during a performance of 9 for 39 at Leyton. 1931 - Ådalen shootings, five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration. 1935 - The Filipinos ratify an independence agreement. 1935 - Northamptonshire County Cricket Club gains (over Somerset at Taunton by 48 runs) what proved to be their last victory for 99 matches, easily a record in the County Championship. Their next Championship win was not until 29 May, 1939. 1939 - Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. 1940 - World War II: Rotterdam is bombed by the Nacospeak Luftwaffe. 1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany. 1943 - Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine. 1948 - Israel declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel was attacked by the neighboring Arab states. The War of Independence begins. 1955 - Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact. 1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob. 1961 - Stirling Moss wins the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix. 1970 - The Red Army Faction is established in Germany. 1970 - Mississippi state police kill two black students at Jackson State University. 1973 - Human Space Flight: Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. It is the last launch of the Saturn V rocket. 1978 - First round of the presidential elections in Upper Volta. 1988 - Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver going the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, USA hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. The crash and ensuing fire kill 27. 1995 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, proclaims six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. 2002 - Ten members of the Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition invade the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory of Australia. 2004 - The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun. 2004 - The marriage of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary Donaldson takes place in Copenhagen. 2005 - Pope Benedict XVI observes his first beatification, elevating Blessed Marianne of Molokai on the road to canonization into sainthood. 2005 - The former USS America (CV-66), a decommissioned supercarrier of the United States Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise.
May 15
1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. 1514 - Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work. 1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War. 1567 - Mary Queen of Scots weds James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, her third husband. 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod. 1618 - 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). 1701 - The War of the Spanish Succession begins. 1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun. 1756 - The Seven Years' War begins when England declares war on France. 1776 - 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 - Maximilien Robespierre proposed the self-denying ordinance. 1792 - War of the First Coalition, France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia. 1793 - Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights. 1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph. 1811 - Paraguay declares independence from Spain. 1817 - 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) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1836 - Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. 1849 - Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily. 1851 - Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand. 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA). 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca, Georgia ends. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia – Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1869 - Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. 1891 - Rerum Novarum, the first document of the Catholic Social Teaching tradition is published by Pope Leo XIII. 1897 - The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in Greco-Turkish War 1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off. 1910 - The last time a major earthquake happened on the Elsinore Fault Zone. 1911 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved. 1911 - The Georgios Averof cruiser is bought by Greece. 1914 - Bolivia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1918 - Finnish Civil War ends. 1919 - The Winnipeg General Strike began. By 11:00, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. 1919 - Greek invasion of İzmir. During the invasion, the Greek army killed or wounded 350 Turks. The responsible were punished by the Greek Commander Aristides Stergiades. Hasan Tahsin fired the first shot of the Turkish War of Independence. 1920 - Council of Lithuania adjourned as newly elected Constituent Assembly of Lithuania met for the first time in Kaunas 1929 - A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. 1932 - The May 15 Incident. In an attempted coup the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed. 1934 - Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia. 1935 - The Moscow Metro was opened to public. 1940 - World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Nazi Germany, marking the beginning of 5 years of occupation. 1941 - Baseball player Joe DiMaggio starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak. 1942 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. 1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). 1945 - Last skirmish of the Second World War in Europe fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. 1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel. 1951 - The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum. 1955 - Austrian Independence Treaty signed. 1955 - First ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain. 1957 - At Malden Island in the Pacific, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. The device fails to detonate properly. 1958 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. 1960 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4. 1963 - Project Mercury: launch of Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper onboard. He became the first American to spend more than a day in space. Final Mercury mission. 1970 - President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals. 1970 - Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests. 1972 - The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control. 1972 - In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while Wallace is campaigning to be American President. 1974 – Ma'alot massacre a total of 31 people, including hostage takers, are killed. 1987 - Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform, which failed to reach orbit. 1988 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan. 1990 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time. 1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister. 1997 - United States government acknowledges existence of "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.
Observances International Conscientious Objectors' Day Paraguay - Independence Day. Celebrations for the anniversary of the independence begin on Flag Day, 14 May. Roman Empire - Mercuralia in honor of Mercury held. Buddha's Birthday in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea (2005). United States - Peace Officers Memorial Day. Slovenia - Day of Slovenian armed forces. Teacher's Day in Mexico (Día del Maestro) and South Korea (스승의 날). Nakba Day in Palestinian communities.
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Post by mrmatt on May 19, 2008 18:41:59 GMT -5
Woot, I'm back. Sorry to be gone for so long Ashley, got pulled back to MI for a wedding.
May 19 continued...
1795, Josiah Bartlett, a New Hampshire Patriot and signatory of the Declaration of Independence who also served as the state’s governor and Supreme Court chief justice, dies.
1864 - A dozen days of fighting around Spotsylvania ends with a Confederate attack against the Union forces. The epic campaign between the Army of the Potomac, under the effective direction of Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began at the beginning of May when Union forces crossed the Rapidan River. When the Confederates attacked on May 19, Grant prepared to pull out of Spotsylvania. Convinced he could never dislodge the Confederates from their positions, he elected to try to circumvent Lee's army to the south. The Army of the Potomac moved, leaving behind 18,000 casualties at Spotsylvania to the Confederates' 12,000. In less than three weeks Grant had lost 33,000 men, with some of the worst fighting yet to come.
1864 - Author Nathaniel Hawthorne dies in New Hampshire
1916 - Representatives of Great Britain and France secretly reach an accord, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, by which most of the Arab lands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire are to be divided into British and French spheres of influence with the conclusion of World War I.
1943 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt set a date for the cross-Channel landing that would become D-Day-May 1, 1944. That date will prove a bit premature, as bad weather becomes a factor.
1964 - The United States initiates low-altitude target reconnaissance flights over southern Laos by U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft. Two days later, similar flights were commenced over northern Laos. These flights were code-named Yankee Team and were meant to assist the Royal Lao forces in their fight against the communist Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese and Viet Cong allies.
1967 - One of the first major treaties designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons goes into effect as the Soviet Union ratifies an agreement banning nuclear weapons from outer space. The United States, Great Britain, and several dozen other nations had already signed and/or ratified the treaty.
1972 - Units of South Vietnam's 9th and 21st Divisions, along with several South Vietnamese airborne battalions, open new stretches of road south of An Loc and come within two miles of the besieged city. In the Central Highlands, North Vietnamese troops, preceded by heavy shelling, tried to break through the lines of South Vietnam's 23rd Division defending Kontum, but the South Vietnamese troops held firm. These actions were part of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the "Easter Offensive"), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces on March 30 to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north and Kontum in the Central Highlands, included An Loc farther to the south.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on May 19, 2008 18:43:52 GMT -5
That's fine.
May 20
325 - The First Council of Nicaea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church – is held. 526 - An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia. 685 - The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated. 1217 - The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. 1293 - King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá. 1497 - John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a 2 May date). 1498 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India. 1521 - Battle of Pampeluna: Ignatius Loyola seriously wounded in the battle. 1570 - Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas. 1609 - Shakespeare's Sonnets first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. 1631 - The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War. 1690 - England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of Roman Catholic James II. 1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory. 1835 - Otto is named the first modern king of Greece. 1845 - HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost. 1861 - American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. 1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory. 1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. 1882 - The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed. 1883 - The eruption of Krakatoa begins, leading ultimately to the volcano's destruction three months later. 1891 - History of cinema: First public display of Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope (shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs). 1896 - The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others. 1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the first President of Cuba. 1916 - The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage"). 1916 - The small town of Codell, Kansas is struck by a tornado. Incredibly, the same town was also hit in 1917 and 1918 on the exact same date 1920 - The Weimarer Nationalversammlung, the national assembly of Germany's Weimar Republic, is permanently dissolved. 1920 - Montreal Quebec station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America. 1927 - By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 1927 - At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, touching down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day. 1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day. 1940 - Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz. 1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete – Nacospeak paratroops invade Crete. 1949 - In the United States of America, the Armed Forces Security Agency (predecessor to the National Security Agency) is established. 1949 - Kuomintang regime declare Taiwan is under the martial law. 1954 - Chiang Kai-shek is selected for another term as President of the Republic of China by the National Assembly 1965 - PIA Flight 705, a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720 - 040 B crashes while descending to land at Cairo International Airport, killing 119 of the 125 passengers and crew. 1969 - The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends. 1980 - In a Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada. 1983 - First publications of the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually. 1984 - The first line of the Miami Metrorail in Miami, Florida opens. 1985 - Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba. 1989 - The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre. 1990 - The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania. 1995 - In a second Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a slight majority the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada. 1996 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. 2002 - The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself was the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).
Observances Staples Coach Divore Day National Day in Cameroon East Timor National Day.
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Post by mrmatt on May 20, 2008 18:49:35 GMT -5
May 20 continued...
1778 - British forces from Philadelphia attempt to trap 2,200 Continentals defending Valley Forge led by Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette, through skillful maneuvering, avoids the entrapment and the destruction of his forces. The encounter takes place at Barren Hill, now known as Lafayette Hill, just northwest of Philadelphia.
1862 - The Union Congress passes the Homestead Act, allowing an adult over the age of 21, male or female, to claim 160 acres of land from the public domain. Eligible persons had to cultivate the land and improve it by building a barn or house, and live on the claim for five years, at which time the land became theirs with a $10 filing fee.
1915 - British, Canadian and Indian troops launch a new round of attacks against a reinforced Ger.man line around the village of Festubert, located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.
1940 - The Ger.man army in northern France reaches the English Channel.
1953 - Using a phrase that will haunt Americans in later years--"Now we can see [success in Vietnam] clearly, like light at the end of a tunnel"--Gen. Henri Navarre assumes command of Frennch Union Forces in Vietnam. The French had been fighting a bloody war against communist insurgents in Vietnam since 1946. The insurgents, the Viet Minh, were fighting for independence and the French were trying to reassert their colonial rule in Indochina.
1956 - The United States conducts the first airborne test of an improved hydrogen bomb, dropping it from a plane over the tiny island of Namu in the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The successful test indicated that hydrogen bombs were viable airborne weapons and that the arms race had taken another giant leap forward.
1969 - As part of a growing outcry over U.S. military policy in Vietnam, Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), in a Senate speech, scorns the military tactics of the Nixon administration. He condemned the battle for Ap Bia Mountain, which had become known as "Hamburger Hill," as "senseless and irresponsible."
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Post by mrmatt on May 22, 2008 18:35:41 GMT -5
May 21st
1758 - 10-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, by Lenape Indians; she becomes an icon of the French and Indian War and backcountry experience. She was relesed at the end of Pontiac's War in 1764 at the age of 16.
1863 - Nathaniel Banks, commander of the Union Department of the Gulf, surrounds the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson and attacks. Fortifications were built at Port Hudson in 1863 to protect New Orleans from a Union attack down the Mississippi River. On April 25, 1862, New Orleans had fallen into Union hands following an attack from the Gulf of Mexico by Admiral David Farragut. Still, Port Hudson was considered an important installation for the South since it was a significant threat to Federal ships on the Mississippi River.
On May 21, Port Hudson's Confederate commander, Gardner, received orders from Joseph Johnston, operating in Mississippi, to abandon the fort. But Gardner refused, and asked for reinforcements. This was a fatal mistake, and Banks soon had Gardner surrounded. For the next three weeks, Banks attempted to capture Port Hudson but failed each time. It was not until Vicksburg surrendered on July 4 that Gardner also surrendered.
1911 - Six years after the First Moroccan Crisis, during which Kaiser Wilhelm’s sensational appearance in Morocco provoked international outrage and led to a strengthening of the bonds between Britain and France against Germany, French troops occupy the Moroccan city of Fez on May 21, 1911, sparking Nacospeak wrath and a second Moroccan Crisis.
1940 - A "special unit" carries out its mission-and murders more than 1,500 hospital patients in East Prussia.
Mentally ill patients from throughout East Prussia had been transferred to the district of Soldau, also in East Prussia. A special military unit, basically a hit squad, carried out its agenda and killed the patients over an 18-day period, one small part of the larger Nazi program to exterminate everyone deemed "unfit" by its ideology. After the murders, the unit reported back to headquarters in Berlin that the patients had been "successfully evacuated."
1969 - A U.S. military command spokesman in Saigon defends the battle for Ap Bia Mountain as having been necessary to stop enemy infiltration and protect the city of Hue. The spokesman stated that the battle was an integral part of the policy of "maximum pressure" that U.S. forces had been pursuing for the prior six months, and confirmed that no orders had been received from President Nixon to modify that basic strategy. On May 20, the battle, described in the American media as the battle for "Hamburger Hill," had come under attack in Congress from Senator Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), who described the action as "senseless and irresponsible."
1988 - In an attempt to consolidate his own power and ease political and ethnic tensions in the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev dismisses the Communist Party leaders in those two republics.
May 22nd -
1781, Major General Nathanael Greene and 1,000 Patriots attempt an attack on the critical village of Ninety-Six in the South Carolina backcountry. After failing to seize the fortified settlement, they began a siege of it, which lasted until their retreat on June 18, making it the longest of the War for Independence.
1843 - A massive wagon train, made up of 1,000 settlers and 1,000 head of cattle, sets off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri. Known as the "Great Emigration," the expedition came two years after the first modest party of settlers made the long, overland journey to Oregon.
1856 - Southern Congressman Preston Brooks savagely beats Northern Senator Charles Sumner in the halls of Congress as tensions rise over the expansion of slavery. Sumner in attacking slavery and the on going bloodshed in Kansas had insulted South Carolina Senator Andrew P. Butler. Three days later an enraged Preston Brooks, Butler's cousin, stalked into the halls of congress and savagely beat Charles Sumner from behind with a cane. When asked why Brooks had not challenged Sumner to a duel, which was illegal by this point in the United States but still widely used in the South, Brooks replied that Sumner was below his status as a gentleman and thus did not owe him the respect of offering a duel.
1917 - With hunger and discontent spreading among the civilian and military populations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a crisis mounts within its government, as Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Tisza resigns at the request of the Austrian emperor, Karl I, on May 22, 1917.
1939 - Italy and Germany agree to a military and political alliance, giving birth formally to the Axis powers, which will ultimately include Japan.
1964 - In a major speech before the American Law Institute in Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Dean Rusk explicitly accuses North Vietnam of initiating and directing the aggression in South Vietnam. U.S. withdrawal, said Rusk, "would mean not only grievous losses to the free world in Southeast and Southern Asia but a drastic loss of confidence in the will and capacity of the free world." He concluded: "There is a simple prescription for peace--leave your neighbors alone." In the fall, there was incontrovertible evidence that North Vietnamese regular troops were moviing down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to join the Viet Cong in their war against the Saigon government and its forces.
1969 - Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, at the 18th plenary session of the Paris peace talks, says he finds common ground for discussion in the proposals of President Richard Nixon and the National Liberation Front. In reply, Nguyen Thanh Le, spokesman for the North Vietnamese, said the programs were "as different as day and night."
1977 - President Jimmy Carter, in a speech delivered at Notre Dame University, reaffirms his commitment to human rights as a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy and disparages the "inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear." Carter's speech marked a new direction for U.S. Cold War policy, one that led to both accolades and controversy.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on May 22, 2008 19:08:33 GMT -5
May 22
334 BC - The Greek army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus. 1176 - Murder attempt by the Hashshashin (Assassins) on Saladin near Aleppo. 1377 - Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe. 1455 - Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England. 1762 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg. 1807 - A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason. 1809 - On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for the first time. 1819 - The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20. 1826 - The HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage. 1840 - The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. 1842 - Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discover Howe Caverns when they stumble upon a large gaping hole in the ground. 1843 - Thousands of people and their cattle head west via wagon train from Independence, Missouri to what would later become the Oregon Territory. It is part of the Great Migration. They follow what is now known as the Oregon Trail. 1844 - Persian Prophet The Báb announces his revelation, founding Bábism. He announces to the world the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest". He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. 1848 - Slavery is abolished in Martinique. 1856 - Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). 1872 - Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers. 1897 - The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames was officially opened 1903 - Launch of the White Star Liner, SS Ionic. 1906 - The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, open in Athens. 1906 - The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine". 1915 - Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain, other than Mount St. Helens, to erupt in the continental US during the 20th century. 1915 - Five trains collide in the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246; the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating practices during a shift change at a busy junction. 1936 - Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) is founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland. 1939 - World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. 1942 - Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies. 1942 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed. 1942 - World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor. 1947 - Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece. 1960 - An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 1962 - Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board. 1963 - Assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Gregoris Lambrakis, who will die five days afterwards. 1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an "end to poverty and racial injustice" in America. 1967 - The L'Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels, Belgium, burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured. 1968 - The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores. 1969 - Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface. 1972 - Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations. 1990 - North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen. 1990 - The Windows 3.0 operating system is released by Microsoft. 1992 - After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time. 1997 - Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial. 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton. 2002 - In Washington, DC, the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park. 2002 - American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. 2003 - In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years. 2004 - Felipe, Prince of Asturias, of the Spanish Royal Family marries Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano. 2004 - The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. It also kills one local resident. 2006 - Results from the Montenegrin independence referendum, 2006 are announced. 55.4% of voters vote to become independent from the Serbia and Montenegro Union.
Observances World Biodiversity Day. Republic of Yemen - National Day. National Maritime Day in the United States. Corpus Christi in Poland and Croatia.
May 23
1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne. (See Siege of Compiègne.) 1498 - Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake, in Florence, Italy, on the orders of Pope Alexander VI 1533 - The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void. 1568 - Netherlands declared independence from Spain. 1568 - Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War. 1609 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place. 1618 - The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War. 1701 - After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London. 1706 - Battle of Ramillies - the John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough defeats a French army under Marshal Villeroi. 1805 - Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Cathedral of Milan. 1813 - South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1844 - Declaration of the Báb: Over the prior night the Persian Prophet the Báb announces his revelation, founding Bábísm. He announced to the world of the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest." He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. 1846 - Mexican-American War: Mexico declares war on the United States. 1863 - Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan. 1863 - The Siege of Port Hudson starts. 1873 - The Canadian Parliament establishes the North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 1900 - American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner. 1907 - Unicameral Parliament of Finland gathered for its first plenary session. 1911 - Dedication ceremony for the New York Public Library. 1915 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary. 1923 - Launch of Belgium's SABENA airline. 1929 - The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, The Karnival Kid, was released. 1933 - Seabiscuit, legendary American racehorse, is born 1934 - American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana. 1934 - The Auto-Lite Strike culminated in the "Battle of Toledo," a five-day melee between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers. 1939 - The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 26 sailors. The remaining 32 crewmen and one passenger are rescued the following day. 1945 - World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody. 1945 - World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz was dissolved when its members were captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany. 1949 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established, and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany proclaimed. 1951 - Tibetans were forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China. 1958 - Explorer 1 ceases transmission. 1960 - Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion announces that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured. 1967 - Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and blockades the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, laying the foundations for the Six Day War. 1970 - An outbreak of fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits in north Wales contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage. 1977 - Two terrorist actions unfold in The Netherlands: Several dozen hostages are taken onboard a train, and about 100 others (mostly children) are held at a Dutch school. The train siege lasts until June 11. 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, what remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is imploded. 1998 - The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum, with a high margin of three-fourth 'yes' votes to Northern Ireland. 2002 - The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland. 2003 - The euro exceeds its initial trading value as it hits $1.18 for the first time since its introduction in 1999. 2004 - Part of Paris Charles De Gaulle International Airport Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others. 2007 - Parliament of Finland celebrated its 100th anniversary plenary session, with President Tarja Halonen and veterans in attendance
Observances Bahá'í Faith: Declaration of the Báb World Turtle Day Discordianism: Day of Disunity Aaron the Illustrious in the Syriac Orthodox Church
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Post by mrmatt on May 23, 2008 22:54:46 GMT -5
May 23 continued...
1777 - At Sag Harbor, New York, Patriot troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs capture several British vessels and burn Redcoat supplies. This would be the only victory of Colonial forces defending Long Island.
1864 - The campaign between Union commander Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, continues southward to the North Anna River around Hanover Junction. In early May, Grant crossed the Rapidan River with the Army of the Potomac and then clashed with Lee's forces in the Wilderness on May 5 and 6 before racing to Spotsylvania Court House for an epic 12-day battle. Grant's continuous pressure on Lee would ultimately win the war, but he was racking up casualties at a rate that was difficult for the Northern public to stomach.
1915 - Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I on the side of the Allies—Britain, France and Russia.
1941 - Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, second cousin of King George VI of Britain and the only man other than the king to hold rank in all three military services simultaneously, is among those thrown into the Mediterranean Sea when his destroyer, the HMS Kelly, is sunk.
1949 - The Federal Republic of Germany (popularly known as West Germany) is formally established as a separate and independent nation. This action marked the effective end to any discussion of reuniting East and West Germany.
1967 - public controversy over the M-16, the basic combat rifle in Vietnam, begins after Representative James J. Howard (D-New Jersey) reads a letter to the House of Representatives in which a Marine in Vietnam claims that almost all Americans killed in the battle for Hill 881 died as a result of their new M-16 rifles jamming. The Defense Department acknowledged on August 28 that there had been a "serious increase in frequency of malfunctions in the M-16."
1971 - North Vietnamese demolition experts infiltrate the major U.S. air base at Cam Ranh Bay, blowing up six tanks of aviation fuel, which resulted in the loss of about 1.5 million gallons. U.S. commander Creighton Abrams criticized the inadequate security.
1972 - Heavy U.S. air attacks that began with an order by President Richard Nixon on May 8 are widened to include more industrial and non-military sites. In 190 strikes, the United States lost one plane but shot down four. The new strikes were part of the ongoing Operation Linebacker, an effort launched in response to the massive North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam on March 30. The purpose of the raids were to interdict supplies from outside sources and the movement of equipment and supplies to the North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. The strikes concentrated on rail lines around Hanoi and Haiphong, bridges, pipelines, power plants, troops and troop training facilities, and rail lines to China.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on May 23, 2008 23:00:17 GMT -5
May 24
1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. 1276 - Magnus Ladulås crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. 1487 - Imposter Lambert Simnel is crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin. 1595 - Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library. 1621 - Protestant Union formally dissolved. 1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. 1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded). 1738 - John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day. 1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins. 1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1830 - "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is published. 1830 - The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills. 1832 - The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference. 1844 - Samuel F. B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland. 1846 - Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey. 1856 - John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861 - American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia. 1881 - Turkey cedes Thessaly and Arta back to Greece. 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1895 - Henry Irving becomes the first personage from the theatre to be knighted. 1900 - Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State. 1901 - 78 miners die in Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales. 1911 - The New York Public Library opened. 1915 - World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. 1921 - The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens. 1930 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight. 1941 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the Nacospeak Battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewmen on what was the pride of the Royal Navy. 1943 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp. 1949 - The Soviet Union ends the 11-month Berlin Blockade. 1956 - Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna. 1958 - United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. 1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. 1961 - Cyprus enters the Council of Europe. 1962 - Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1968 - FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City. 1970 - The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the USSR 1973 - Earl Jellicoe resigns as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the Lords. 1976 - London to Washington, DC Concorde service begins. 1980 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran. The hostages would not be freed until the following January. 1981 - First International Women's Day for Disarmament. 1982 - Liberation of Khorramshahr, Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during Iran-Iraq War 1988 - Section 28 is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom. 1989 - Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded a six-figure sum in damages after winning a libel action against Private Eye. 1990 - A car carrying American Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney explodes in Oakland, California, critically injuring both. 1991 - Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992 - The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests. 1993 - Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia. 1994 - Four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1999 - Venezuela enters the Antarctic Treaty System. 2000 - Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2001 - Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. 2001 - The Versailles wedding hall collapse in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster. 2001 - The Democrats gain control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont abandons the Republican Party and declares himself an independent. 2002 - Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty. 2004 - North Korea bans mobile phones
Observances Canada: Victoria Day, on this date if it falls on a Monday or the Monday before it. In Quebec, it is known as National Patriotes Day (Journée nationale des patriotes). Saints Cyril and Methodius Day in Eastern Orthodox tradition. In addition, the following secular observances are recognized, in the association with the works of Cyril and Methodius Day Republic of Macedonia: Saints Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic Enlighteners' Day Russia: Slavonic Literature and Culture Day Bulgaria: Slavonic Literature and Culture Day Bermuda: Bermuda Day. Eritrea: National Day. Aldersgate Day (Methodism). Saint Sarah is celebrated in Camargue, France by the Roma people (or Gypsies).
May 25
1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo back from the Moors. 1420 - Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ. 1521 - The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw. 1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth. 1738 - A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners. 1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presides. 1810 - In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo. 1837 - The Patriots of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom 1865 - In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes. 1895 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison. 1895 - The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president. 1914 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland. 1925 - Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. 1926 - Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic. 1935 - Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks five world records and ties a sixth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1936 - The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins. 1938 - Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Alicante, 313 deaths. 1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins. 1946 - The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their king. 1953 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test. 1955 - In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It was the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S. 1961 - Apollo program: U.S. president John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade. 1961 - King Hussein of Jordan marries Princess Muna al-Hussein (Antoinette Gardiner). 1963 - In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established. 1966 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches. 1966 - The first prominent DaZiBao during the Cultural Revolution in China was posted at Peking University. 1977 - Star Wars is released. It rapidly becomes a cult classic and is the start of a six-movie franchise. 1979 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground. 1981 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 1982 - HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War. 1985 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people. 1989 - Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup for the first time. 1995 - The Bosnian Serb Army kills 72 youngsters in the Bosnian city of Tuzla. 1997 - A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah. 1999 - The United States House of Representatives released the Cox Report which detailed the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades. 2000 - Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978. 2001 - 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 2002 - China Airlines Flight 611: A Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people. 2002 - A train crash in Tenga, Mozambique kills 197 people. 2003 - Néstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He is the first elected President since the economic crisis. 2007 - The Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire for the second time.
Observances Argentina - Day of May Revolution/National Day (1810) Africa Day commemorating the 1963 fouding of he AU's precursor, OAU Chad, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe - African Liberation Day Lebanon, Liberation Day (2000) The former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Day of Youth Ancient Latvia - Urbanas Diena observed
May 26
451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place. The Armenians are defeated militarily but are guaranteed freedom to openly practice Christianity. 1293 - Earthquake strikes Kamakura, Japan, kills 30,000. 1328 - William of Ockham, Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII. 1538 - Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years. 1637 - Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under Nacospeak Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans. 1647 - Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut. 1670 - In Dover, Charles II of Great Britain and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover. 1736 - Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France. 1770 - The Orlov Revolt, a first attempt to revolt against the Turks before the Greek War of Independence ends in disaster for the Greeks. 1805 - Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Duomo di Milano gothic cathedral in Milan. 1828 - Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg. 1830 - The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later. 1857 - Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners. 1864 - Montana is organized as a United States territory. 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas. 1868 - The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ends, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote. 1869 - Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1879 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state. 1889 - Opening of the first Eiffel Tower elevator to the public. 1896 - Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia. 1896 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 1896 - James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California. 1906 - Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London. 1908 - At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom. 1913 - Emily Duncan becomes the Britain's first woman magistrate. 1917 - A powerful F4 tornado rips Mattoon, Illinois apart, killing 101 persons and injuring 689. It was the world's longest-lasting tornado, lasting for over 7 hours and traveling 293 miles, spreading death and destruction along its path. 1918 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established. 1928 - The first motion picture is projected publicly in Athens, Greece. 1936 - In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours. 1938 - The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session. 1940 - World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk. 1942 - World War II: Battle of Bir Hakeim. 1948 - The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force. 1966 - British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana. 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing. 1970 - The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. 1972 - Willandra National Park is established in Australia. 1972 - The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 1972 - The British state-owned travel firm Thomas Cook & Son is sold to a consortium of private businesses headed by the Midland Bank. 1977 - George Willig climbs the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center. 1978 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens. 1981 - The Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due). 1983 - Strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggers a tsunami that kills at least 104 people, injures thousands. Many missing people and thousands of buildings destroyed. 1986 - The European Community adopts the European flag. 1991 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. 1991 - Lauda Air Flight 004 explodes over rural Thailand, killing 223. 1992 - Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc. was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Adobe parking lot in Mountain View, California for $650,000 and is held hostage in a rented house in Hollister, California. The FBI rescues him four days later. 1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York. 1999 - Manchester United FC defeat FC Bayern Munich of Germany 2-1 in the final of the UEFA Champions League, becoming the first English team to win The Treble. 2002 - The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars. 2002 - Álvaro Uribe becomes President of Colombia. 2003 - Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours 56 minutes. The tourism ministry of Nepal confirms this record in July that year. 2004 - The New York Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skeptism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. 2004 - The U.S. Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. 2006 - The 2006 Java earthquake kills over 5,700 people, leaves 200,000 homeless.
Observances Australia - National Sorry Day Poland - Mother's Day Georgia - National Day
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Post by ferryport1987 on May 24, 2008 8:22:42 GMT -5
May 24 1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito. NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT ;D ECUADOR #1
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Post by mrmatt on May 25, 2008 23:10:35 GMT -5
May 24 continued...
1775 - John Hancock is elected president of the Second Continental Congress. While Hancock served as president of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Samuel Adams’ cousin John Adams convinced Congress to place Virginian George Washington in command of the rebel army. In 1776, the Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain. The next year, John Hancock returned home to Massachusetts, where he served as a major general in the militia and sat in the Massachusetts constitutional convention that adopted the world’s first and most enduring constitution in 1780. Having helped to create the new state government, Hancock proceeded to serve as the state’s first governor, a position he held on and off until his death in 1793.
1864 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant continues to pound away at Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the engagement along the North Anna River that had begun the day before. Since early May, Lee and Grant had been slugging it out along an arc from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania and to Hanover Junction, on the North Anna River. Grant was doing what other Union commanders had failed to do since 1861: ensuring that the Army of Northern Virginia was in constant action to prevent them from retooling.
1917 - Driven by the spectacular success of the Nacospeak U-boat submarines and their attacks on Allied and neutral ships at sea, the British Royal Navy introduces a newly created convoy system, whereby all merchant ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean would travel in groups under the protection of the British navy.
1941 - Germany's largest battleship, the Bismarck, sinks the pride of the British fleet, HMS Hood.
1943 - The extermination camp at Auschwitz, Poland, receives a new doctor, 32-year-old Josef Mengele, a man who will earn the nickname "the Angel of Death."
1959 - After battling cancer for nearly three years, former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dies. Dulles served as secretary of state from 1953 until shortly before his death in 1959 and was considered one of the primary architects of America's Cold War foreign policy during that period.
1964 - Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona), running for the Republican Party nomination in the upcoming presidential election, gives an interview in which he discusses the use of low-yield atomic bombs in North Vietnam to defoliate forests and destroy bridges, roads, and railroad lines bringing supplies from communist China. During the storm of criticism that followed, Goldwater tried to back away from these drastic actions, claiming that he did not mean to advocate the use of atomic bombs but was "repeating a suggestion made by competent military people." Democrats painted Goldwater as a warmonger who was overly eager to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Though he won his party's nomination, Goldwater was never able to shake his image as an extremist in Vietnam policies.
1971 - At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, an antiwar newspaper advertisement signed by 29 U.S. soldiers supporting the Concerned Officers Movement results in controversy. The group had been formed in 1970 in Washington, D.C., by a small group of junior naval officers opposed to the war. The newspaper advertisement at Fort Bragg was in support of group's members, who had joined with antiwar activist David Harris and others in San Diego to mobilize opposition to the departure of the carrier USS Constellation for Vietnam. No official action was taken against the military dissidents at Fort Bragg and the aircraft carrier sailed on schedule from San Diego.
May 25 Continued...
1787 - With George Washington presiding, the Constitutional Convention formally convenes on this day in 1787. The convention faced a daunting task: the peaceful overthrow of the new American government as it had been defined by the Article of Confederation.
1862 - Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson notches a victory on his brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson, with 17,000 troops under his command, was sent to the Shenandoah to relieve pressure on the Confederate troops near Richmond, who were facing the growing force of George McClellan on the James Peninsula.
1915 - In the latest of a disturbing series of Turkish aggressions against Armenians during World War I, Mehmed Talat, the Ottoman minister of the interior, announces that all Armenians living near the battlefield zones in eastern Anatolia (under Ottoman rule) will be deported to Syria and Mosul. Large-scale deportations began five days later, after the decision was sanctioned by the Ottoman council of ministers.
1944 - Germany launches Operation Knight's Move, in an attempt to seize Yugoslav communist partisan leader Tito. Using parachute drops and glider troops, Nacospeak forces landed in the Yugoslavian village of Drvar, where Josep Broz Tito, leader of the anti-Axis guerilla movement, was believed to be. The village was decimated: Men, women, and children were all killed by Nacospeak troops in search of Tito, who escaped.
1944 - A revolt breaks out at the extermination camp at Auschwitz. As several hundred Hungarian Jews were being led to a gas chamber in Birkenau (a supplementary camp, part of the Auschwitz complex known as Auschwitz II), the prisoners ran into the woods, suspecting their fate. Searchlights flooded the surrounding area, enabling the SS, who controlled the camp, to shoot all those who fled. This was the second such revolt in three days.
1968 - The communists launch their third major assault of the year on Saigon. The heaviest fighting occurred during the first three days of June, and again centered on Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, where U.S. and South Vietnamese forces used helicopters, fighter-bombers, and tanks to dislodge deeply entrenched Viet Cong infiltrators. A captured enemy directive, which the U.S. command made public on May 28, indicated that the Viet Cong saw the offensive as a means of influencing the Paris peace talks in their favor.
1969 - South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu assumes personal leadership of the National Social Democratic Front at its inaugural meeting in Saigon. Thieu said the establishment of this coalition party was "the first concrete step in unifying the political factions in South Vietnam for the coming political struggle with the communists," and emphasized that the new party would not be "totalitarian or despotic." The six major parties comprising the NSDF coalition were: the Greater Union Force, composed largely of militant Roman Catholic refugees from North Vietnam; the Social Humanist Party, successor to the Can Lao party, which had held power under the Ngo Dinh Diem regime; the Revolutionary Dai Viet, created to fight the French; the Social Democratic Party, a faction of the Hoa Hao religious sect; the United Vietnam Kuomintang, formed as an anti-French party; and the People's Alliance for Social Revolution, a pro-government bloc formed in 1968.
1977 - A new sign of political liberalization appears in China, when the communist government lifts its decade-old ban on the writings of William Shakespeare. The action by the Chinese government was additional evidence that the Cultural Revolution was over.
1977 - The first of the holy trilogy is released; Star Wars: A New Hope. Though canned by critics this revolutionary film would become, with its two sequels, an icon for the movie and Science fiction industry.
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Post by Ashley Benlove on May 27, 2008 17:27:47 GMT -5
May 27
927 - Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: Simeon I of Bulgaria is defeated by King Tomislav of Croatia. 1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed as prince two weeks before his untimely death. 1153 - Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland. 1328 - Philip VI is crowned King of France. 1647 - Peter Stuyvesant was inaugurated as Director-General of New Netherland. 1703 - Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg. 1798 - The Battle of Oulart Hill takes place in Wexford, Ireland. 1812 - South American Wars of Independence: In Bolivia, the Battle of La Coronilla, in which the women from Cochabamba fight against the Spanish army. 1813 - War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George. 1849 - The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened. 1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification. 1883 - Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia. 1895 - Oscar Wilde is imprisoned for sodomy. 1896 - The F4-strength St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri and East Saint Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing $2.9 billion in damages (1997 USD). 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins. 1907 - A Bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California. 1908 - Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Din iss elected the first Khalifa of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. 1919 - The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight. 1927 - The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make Ford Model As. 1930 - The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public. 1933 - New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission. 1933 - The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" 1933 - The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago, Illinois. 1935 - New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495). 1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California. 1939 - DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time. 1940 - World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to Nacospeak troops. 1941 - World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency". 1941 - World War II: The Nacospeak battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men. 1942 - World War II: In Operation Anthropoid Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated in Prague. 1957 - Toronto's CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n' Roll music format. 1958 - The F-4 Phantom II first flight. 1960 - In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office. 1965 - Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam. 1967 - Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census. 1967 - The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is christened by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline. 1968 - The meeting of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (National Union of the Students of France) takes place. 30,000 to 50,000 people gather in the Stade Sebastien Charlety. 1971 - The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal. 1975 - The Dibble's Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England kills 32 (the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom). 1980 - The Gwangju Massacre: Airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more. 1995 - In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition. 1996 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire. 1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Paula Jones can pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he is in office. 1997 - A F5 tornado strikes Jarrell, Texas killing 27 people. 1998 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot. 1999 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2006 - The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600 people.
Observances
Mother's Day in Bolivia (Día de la Madre) and Sweden (Mors Dag) Children's Day in Nigeria
May 28 585 BC - A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated. 1503 - James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor are married by Pope Alexander VI according to Papal Bull. 1503 - The Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England is signed, which would actually last 10 years. 1533 - The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid 1588 - The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port). 1644 - Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of the Earl of Derby. 1754 - French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania. 1774 - American Revolutionary War: The first Continental Congress convenes. 1830 - President Andrew Jackson signs The Indian Removal Act which relocates Indians 1863 - American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts, to fight for the Union. 1892 - In San Francisco, California, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club. 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Togo Heihachiro and the Imperial Japanese Navy. 1918 - Azerbaijan Democratic Republic declare their independence 1926 - Ditadura Nacional established in Portugal to suppress the unrest of the First Republic. (28th May 1926 coup d'état.) 1930 - The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens. 1934 - Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Olivia and Elzire Dionne, later becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy. 1934 - The Glyndebourne festival in England is inaugurated. 1936 - Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication. 1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC, who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span. 1937 - Neville Chamberlain becomes British Prime Minister. 1940 - World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany. 1940 - World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik. First allied infantry victory in World War II. 1942 - World War II: In retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people. 1952 - Memphis Kiddie Park opens in Brooklyn, Ohio. The park's Little Dipper roller coaster would become the oldest operating steel roller coaster in North America. 1952 - The women of Greece gain the suffrage. 1955 - Henry Bolte becomes Premier of the state of Victoria. 1961 - Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International. 1964 - The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed. 1970 - The formerly united Free University of Brussels officially splits into two separate entities, the French-speaking Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel. 1974 - Northern Ireland's power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement collapses following a general strike by loyalists. 1975 - Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, thus creating the Economic Community of West African States. 1977 - In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 people inside. 1978 - Second round of the presidential elections in Upper Volta. Elections won by incumbent Sangoulé Lamizana. 1979 - Constantine Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community. 1982 - Falklands War: British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green. 1987 - 19-year-old West Nacospeak pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet Union air defenses and lands a private plane in Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained and is not released until August 3, 1988. 1987 - A robot probe finds the wreckage of the USS Monitor near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 1991 - The capital city of Addis Ababa, falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War. 1995 - The Russian town of Neftegorsk is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that kills at least 2,000 people, ⅔ of total population. 1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, James McDougal and Susan McDougal, and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud. 1998 - Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions. 1999 - In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's newly-restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display. 1999 - Two Swedish police officers are murdered with their own fire arms by the bank robbers Jackie Arklöv and Tony Olsson after a dramatic car chase. 2002 - NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance. 2003 - Peter Hollingworth becomes the first Governor-General of Australia to resign his office as a result of criticism of his conduct. 2004 - The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, to become prime minister of Iraq's interim government.
Observances Republic Day in Azerbaijan and Armenia (both 1918). National Flag Day in the Republic of the Philippines
May 29
363 - Roman Emperor Julian defeats the Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the Sassanid capital, but is unable to take the city. 1167 - Battle of Monte Porzio - A Roman army supporting Pope Alexander III is defeated by Christian of Buch and Rainald of Dassel 1176 - Battle of Legnano, in which the Lombard League defeats Emperor Frederick I. 1414 - Council of Constance. 1453 - Byzantine-Ottoman Wars: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a siege, ending the Byzantine Empire. 1592 - At the Battle of Sacheon, the Korean navy led by Admiral Yi Sun Shin, repel a Japanese army which outnumbers them nearly 3 to 1. 1660 - English Restoration: Charles II (on his birthday - see below) is restored to the throne of Great Britain. 1677 - Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Indians. 1727 - Peter II becomes Tsar of Russia. 1733 - Right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves upheld at Quebec City. 1765 - Patrick Henry in a speech (on his birthday, see below) denouncing the Stamp Act is believed to have said, "If this be treason, make the most of it!" 1780 - Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton brutally massacred Colonel Abraham Buford's continentals even after the continentals surrendered. 113 Americans were killed. 1790 - Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state. 1848 - Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state. 1864 - Emperor Maximilian of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time. 1867 - Austro-Hungarian agreement called Ausgleich ("the Compromise") is born through Act 12, which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire; on June 8 Emperor Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary. 1868 - The assassination of Michael Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia, in Belgrade. 1886 - Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal. 1903 - May coup d'etat: Alexander Obrenovich, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization. 1913 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris. 1914 - Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 lives lost. 1919 - Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil. 1919 - Republic of Prekmurje founded 1924 - AEK Athens FC is established on the anniversary of the siege of Constantinople by the Turks. 1932 - World War I Veterans begin to assemble in Washington, DC in the Bonus Army to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945. 1942 - Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas album in history, for Decca Records in Los Angeles. 1950 - St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia . 1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday. 1954 - First of the annual Bilderberg conferences. 1964 - The Arab League meets in East Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian situation in Israel which leads to the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 1968 - Manchester United wins the European Cup, the first English Club to do so. 1972 - 26 people are killed and dozens more injured when three Japanese gunmen opened fire on crowds at Lod International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. 1973 - Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California. 1982 - Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff ever to visit Canterbury Cathedral. 1985 - Heysel Stadium disaster: In Brussels, Belgium, 39 football fans die and hundreds are injured by Liverpool fans at a European Cup match. 1985 - Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months. 1988 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union as he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. 1990 - Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian SFSR by the Russian parliament. 1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule. 1999 - Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station. 2001 - U.S. Supreme Court rules that disabled golfer Casey Martin could use a cart to ride in tournaments. 2004 - The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. 2004 - The Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia kill 22. 2005 - France, one of the founders of a united Europe, resoundingly rejects the European Constitution.
Observances Bahá'í Faith: Ascension of Bahá'u'llah Nigeria: Democracy Day United Kingdom: Oak Apple Day.
May 30 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy. 1431 - Hundred Years' War: In Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. 1434 - Hussite Wars (Bohemian Wars): Battle of Lipany - Effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilated Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great. 1536 - King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives. 1539 - In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold. 1574 - Henry III becomes King of France. 1588 - The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. 1635 - Thirty Years' War: Peace of Prague (1635) signed. 1642 - from this date all honours granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament 1806 - Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after the man had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy. 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition - Treaty of Paris (1814) signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent. 1832 - The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is first opened. 1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas. 1868 - Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") observed in the United States for the first time (By "Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic" John A. Logan's proclamation on May 5). 1871 - The Paris Commune falls. 1876 - Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V. 1879 - New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue. 1879 - An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60. 1883 - In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes twelve people. 1911 - At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race in his Marmon Wasp. 1913 - First Balkan War: Treaty of London, 1913 signed ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation. 1914 - New & then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City. 1917 - Alexander I becomes king of Greece. 1922 - In Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated. 1925 - In China, protests erupt against the Great Powers infringing on Chinese sovereignty. 1941 - World War II: Germany captures Crete. 1941 - World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the athenian Acropolis, tear down the nazi swastika and replace it with the Greek flag. 1942 - World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany. 1948 - A nike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless. 1953 - The Auckland Harbour Bridge was officially opened today in Auckland, New Zealand. 1958 - Memorial Day: The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. 1966 - Former Congolese Prime Minister Evariste Kimba and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu. 1967 - At the Ascot Park in Gardena, California, daredevil Evel Knievel jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars lined-up in a row. 1967 - The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war. 1969 - Riots on the Caribbean island of Curaçao 1971 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 launched to Map 70% of the surface and study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface of Mars. 1972 - The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout Britain. 1972 - In Tel Aviv, members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport Massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others. 1982 - Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany's admission in 1955. 1989 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators. 1998 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
Observances Trinidad and Tobago – Indian Arrival Day (National Holiday). United States – Memorial Day (originally – currently last Monday in May). Saint Joan of Arc
May 31
1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. 1223 - Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River - Mongol armies of Genghis Khan lead by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus and Cumans. 1578 - Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets in London. 1669 - Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary. 1678 - The Godiva procession through Coventry begins. 1759 - The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Mecklenburg Resolutions adopted urging the American Colonies to declare independence from Great Britain. 1790 - Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 1790 - The United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790. 1813 - In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains. 1862 - American Civil War Peninsula Campaign: Battle of Seven Pines or (Battle of Fair Oaks) - Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston & G. W. Smith engage Union forces under George B. McClellan outside Richmond, Virginia. 1864 - American Civil War Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor - The Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee engages the Army of the Potomac under Ulysses S. Grant & George G. Meade. 1866 - In the Fenian Invasion of Canada, John O'Neill leads 850 Fenian raiders across the Niagara River at Buffalo, New York/Fort Erie, Ontario, as part of an effort to free Ireland from the English. Canadian militia and British regulars repulse the invaders in over the next three days, at a cost of 9 dead and 38 wounded to the Fenian's 19 dead and about 17 wounded. 1889 - Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam break sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. 1902 - Second Boer War: The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the war and ensures British control of South Africa. 1910 - Creation of the Union of South Africa. 1911 - R.M.S. Titanic launched. 1916 - World War I: Battle of Jutland - The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive. 1921 - Tulsa Race Riot: A civil unrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, the official death toll is 39, but recent investigations suggest the actual toll may be much higher. 1924 - The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China", whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect. 1927 - The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles. 1931 - 7.1 magnitude Earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan: 40,000 dead. 1942 - World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia. 1961 - Republic of South Africa created. 1962 - The West Indies Federation dissolves. 1970 - The Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed. 1971 - In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30. 1973 - The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War. 1977 - The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System completed. 1985 - United States-Canadian Outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead. 1985 - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) became a Schedule I drug in the United States. 1987 - Athena 98.4 FM, the first legal private radio station starts broadcasting in Greece. 1997 - The Confederation Bridge opens, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick.
Observances The Godiva procession. World No Tobacco Day. Syaday (Discordianism) (5th day of the season of Confusion, honors Apostle Sri Syadasti). The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Post by mrmatt on May 27, 2008 21:49:40 GMT -5
May 26 continued...
1782 - American Colonel William Crawford marches his army towards the Ohio River, where General George Washington has charged him with attacking local Indians who had sided with the British in the American Revolution.
1865 - Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, surrenders on this day in 1865, one of the last Confederate generals to capitulate, Kirby was the last Confederate commander controling forces and territory of any real consequence. Confederate Cherokee General Stand Watie would surrender 23 days later to be the last.
1914 - 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip sets out from Belgrade on a 10-day-long journey through rough countryside, heading towards Sarajevo and a planned rendezvous with fellow young nationalist agitators.
1940 - American President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes known the dire straits of Belgian and French civilians suffering the fallout of the British-Nacospeak battle to reach the northern coast of France, and appeals for support for the Red Cross. Operation Dynamo, would save the stranded British Expeditionary force from Dunkirk, but the Belgian and French countrysides were devastated by the British rearguard fighting and Nacospeak pursuit.
1960 - During a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge charges that the Soviet Union has engaged in espionage activities at the U.S. embassy in Moscow for years. The charges were obviously an attempt by the United States to deflect Soviet criticisms following the downing of an American U-2 spy plane over Russia earlier in the month.
1965 - Eight hundred Australian troops depart for Vietnam and New Zealand announces that it will send an artillery battalion. The Australian government had first sent troops to Vietnam in 1964 in the form of a small aviation detachment and an engineer civic action team. They were increasing their commitment to the war with the deployment of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (RAR). In 1966, the Australians once again increased their troop strength in Vietnam with the formation of the First Australian Task Force, which established a base of operations near Ba Ria in Phuoc Tuy province. The task force included two infantry battalions, a medium tank squadron, and a helicopter squadron, as well as signal, engineer, and other support forces. By 1969, Australian forces in Vietnam totaled an estimated 8,000 personnel.
1971 - In Cambodia, an estimated 1,000 North Vietnamese capture the strategic rubber plantation town of Snoul, driving out 2,000 South Vietnamese as U.S. air strikes support the Allied forces. Snoul gave the communists control of sections of Routes 7 and 13 that led into South Vietnam and access to large amounts of abandoned military equipment and supplies. On May 31, the Cambodian government called for peace talks if all North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces agreed to withdraw. The communists rejected the bid. Cambodia ultimately fell to the communist Khmer Rouge and their North Vietnamese allies in April 1975.
May 27 continued...
1813 - Former President Thomas Jefferson writes former President John Adams to let him know that their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, has died. Rush’s passing caused Jefferson to meditate upon the departure of the Revolutionary generation. He wrote, “We too must go; and that ere long. I believe we are under half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the Declaration.”
1863 - Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issues ex parte Merryman, challenging the authority of Abraham Lincoln and the military to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland. Lincoln and Taney had been rivals regarding the powers of the Executive Branch according to the Constitution since the opening of the American Civil War.
1918 -The Nacospeak army begins the Third Battle of the Aisne with an attack on Allied positions at the Chemin des Dames ridge, in the Aisne River region of France.
1940 - On this day in 1940, units from Germany's SS Death's Head division battle British troops just 50 miles from the port at Dunkirk, in northern France, as Britain's Expeditionary Force continues to fight to evacuate France.
After holding off an SS company until their ammo was spent, 99 Royal Norfolk Regiment soldiers retreated to a farmhouse in the village of Paradis, just 50 miles from the Dunkirk port. Ships waited there to carry home the British Expeditionary Force, which had been fighting alongside the French in its defensive war against the Nacospeak invaders. Agreeing to surrender, the trapped regiment started to file out of the farmhouse, waving a white flag tied to a bayonet. They were met by Nacospeak machine-gun fire. When they were allowed to surrender the British troops were stripped of any useful gear and taken to a field. There Captain Fritz Knochlein ordered them killed, of 99 soldiers two survived to reveal the autrocity. Knochlein was found guilty of war crimes after the war and hung.
1965 - Augmenting the vital role now being played by U.S. aircraft carriers, whose planes participated in many of the raids over South and North Vietnam, U.S. warships from the 7th Fleet begin to fire on Viet Cong targets in the central area of South Vietnam. At first, this gunfire was limited to 5-inch-gun destroyers, but other ships would eventually be used in the mission.
1971 - In Sweden, Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson reveals that Sweden has been providing assistance to the Viet Cong, including some $550,000 worth of medical supplies. Similar Swedish aid was to go to Cambodian and Laotian civilians affected by the Indochinese fighting. This support was primarily humanitarian in nature and included no military aid.
1972 - Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon, meeting in Moscow, sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. At the time, these agreements were the most far-reaching attempts to control nuclear weapons ever.
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Post by danman007 on May 28, 2008 17:34:04 GMT -5
May 28, 1908: Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on 28 May 1908, at Green Street, London. As the creator James Bond 007, he penned twelve original novels and two short story collections featuring James Bond and also wrote the children's classic, 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'
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Post by mrmatt on May 29, 2008 21:16:45 GMT -5
I wasn't aware Ian Fleming did Chitty,Chitty Bang, Bang...cool. Awesome avatar danman.
May 28 continued...
1754 - A 22-year-old lieutenant colonel of the Virginia militia named George Washington successfully defeats a party of French and Indian scouts in southwest Pennsylvania as Virginia attempts to lay claim to the territory for its own settlers. The action snowballed into a world war and began the military career of the first American commander in chief.
1863 - The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the most famous African-American regiment of the war, leaves Boston for combat in the South. For the first two years of the war, President Abraham Lincoln resisted the use of black troops despite the pleas of men such as Frederick Douglass, who argued that no one had more to fight for than African Americans. Lincoln finally endorsed, albeit timidly, the introduction of blacks for service in the military in the Emancipation Proclamation.
1918 - n the first sustained American offensive of World War I, an Allied force including a full brigade of nearly 4,000 United States soldiers captures the village of Cantigny, on the Somme River in France, from their Nacospeak enemy.
1940 - After 18 days of ceaseless Nacospeak bombardment, the king of Belgium, having asked for an armistice, is given only unconditional surrender as an option. He takes it.
1969 - U.S. troops abandon Ap Bia Mountain, "Hamburger Hill". A spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division said that the U.S. troops "have completed their search of the mountain and are now continuing their reconnaissance-in-force mission throughout the A Shau Valley."
1987 - Matthias Rust, a 19-year-old amateur pilot from West Germany, takes off from Helsinki, Finland, travels through more than 400 miles of Soviet airspace, and lands his small Cessna aircraft in Red Square by the Kremlin. The event proved to be an immense embarrassment to the Soviet government and military.
May 29 continued...
1780 - The treatment of Patriot prisoners by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his Loyalist troops leads to the coining of a phrase that comes to define British brutality for the rest of the War for Independence: “Tarleton’s Quarter.”
1864 - Union troops lose another foot race with the Confederates in a minor stop on the long and terrible campaign between Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. During the entire month of May 1864, Grant and Lee had pounded each other along an arc swinging from the Wilderness forest south to the James River. After fighting in the Wilderness, Grant moved south to Spotsylvania Court House to place his army between Lee and Richmond. Predicting his move, Lee marched James Longstreet's corps through the night and beat the Federals to the strategic crossroads.
1865: President Andrew Johnson issues general amnesty for all Confederates.
1913 - The pioneering Russian ballet corps Ballet Russes performs Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), choreographed by the famous dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, at the Theatre de Champs-Elysees in Paris.
1942 - On the advice of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler orders all Jews in occupied Paris to wear an identifying yellow star on the left side of their coats.
1972 - In a joint communique issued by the United States and the Soviet Union following the conclusion of summit talks with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev during President Richard Nixon's visit to Moscow (the first visit ever by an U.S. president), both countries set forth their standard positions on Vietnam. The United States insisted that the future of South Vietnam should be left to the South Vietnamese without interference. The Soviet Union insisted on a withdrawal of U.S. and Allied forces from South Vietnam and an end to the bombing of North Vietnam.
1988 - President Ronald Reagan travels to Moscow to begin the fourth summit meeting held in the past three years with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Though the summit produced no major announcements or breakthroughs, it served to illuminate both the successes and the failures achieved by the two men in terms of U.S.-Soviet relations.
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Post by danman007 on May 29, 2008 23:19:36 GMT -5
I wasn't aware Ian Fleming did Chitty,Chitty Bang, Bang...cool. Awesome avatar danman. This thread is a good history lesson then isn't it? You can read a nice biography on Fleming hereThanks for the comment on my avatar.
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