Fun On this date in history...

May 8:

413 – Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, who are plundered by the Visigoths.
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, is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day in Paris.
1842 – A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.
1846 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Palo Alto – Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.
1861 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1877 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded.
1919 – Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later results in the creation of Remembrance Day. In the United States it was called Armistice Day and is now Veterans Day.
1927 – Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.
1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against the British rule in India.
1941 – The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.
1942 – World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
1945 – Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
1945 – World War II: V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
1945 – End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.
1946 – Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn.
1963 – South Vietnamese soldiers of Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine.
1966 – A plane crash at Connellsville, Pennsylvania kills the Pennsylvania Attorney General, his wife, and other state officials.
1980 – The eradication of smallpox is endorsed by the World Health Organization.
1984 – The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Births:

1326 – Joan I, Countess of Auvergne
1460 – Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
1821 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American businessman
1828 – Henry Dunant, Swiss businessman and social activist, founder of the Red Cross, Nobel laureate
1847 – Oscar Hammerstein I, American businessman, impresario, and composer
1884 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States
1895 – Fulton J. Sheen, American bishop
1920 – Tom of Finland, Finnish artist
1926 – David Attenborough, English broadcaster and naturalist
1926 – Don Rickles, American comedian
1928 – Theodore Sorensen, American presidential advisor, lawyer, and writer
1932 – Sonny Liston, American boxer
1935 – Princess Elisabeth of Denmark
1940 – Ricky Nelson, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1940 – Toni Tennille, American singer
1944 – Gary Glitter, English singer-songwriter and musician, child molesting douchebag
1953 – Alex Van Halen, Dutch-American drummer
1954 – David Keith, American actor
1957 – Bill Cowher, American football coach (HERE WE GO STEELERS!)
1958 – Lovie Smith, American football coach
1959 – Ronnie Lott, American football player
1964 – Melissa Gilbert, American actress
1972 – Ray Whitney, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Enrique Iglesias, Spanish singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1977 – Bad News Brown, Canadian rapper, singer, harmonica player, and actor
1982 – Christina Cole, English actress
1982 – Adrian Gonzalez, American baseball player
1985 – Usama Young, American football player
1987 – Felix Jones, American football player
1989 – Lars Eller, Danish ice hockey player
1990 – Kemba Walker, American basketball player

Deaths:

535 – Pope John II
685 – Pope Benedict II
1192 – Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria
1278 – Emperor Duanzong of Song
1819 – Kamehameha I, established the Kingdom of Hawaii
1873 – John Stuart Mill, English philosopher
1880 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist
1891 – Helena Blavatsky, Russian author
1903 – Paul Gauguin, French painter
1967 – LaVerne Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters)
1988 – Robert A. Heinlein, American writer
1992 – Joyce Ricketts, American baseball player (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League)
1994 – George Peppard, American actor
1999 – Dirk Bogarde, English actor
1999 – Dana Plato, American actress
2009 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player
2012 – Maurice Sendak, American author and illustrator

 

2013 - The Chicago Bulls get absolutely annhilated by the current NBA champions the Miami Heat.
2013 - American Actress Jeanne Cooper, best known for Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless passes away at age 84.

 

Thank goodness for Jeanne Cooper, otherwise no Americans would have died on this date in history.

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 9, 1994, South Africa's newly elected Parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president

 

Yay.

 

May 9:

1092 – Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
1450 – 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1874 – The first horse-drawn bus makes its début in the city of Mumbai, traveling 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.
1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.
1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.
1901 – Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd's diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.)
1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
1941 – World War II: The German 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 German messages.
1942 – Holocaust: The SS murders 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants murdered or deported.
1948 – Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.
1949 – Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
1950 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, which according to him was 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.
1960 – The Food and Drug Administration 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.
1964 – Ngo Dinh Can, de facto ruler of central Vietnam under his brother President Ngo Dinh Diem before the family's toppling, is executed.
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 Nixon.
1977 – Hotel Polen fire: A disastrous fire burns down the Hotel Polen in Amsterdam causing 33 deaths and 21 severe injuries.
1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000 member strong Jewish community of Iran.
1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. 35 people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.
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 are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.
2001 – In Ghana 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of teargas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
2004 – Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by a land mine under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.

Births:

1147 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan
1540 – Maharana Pratap, Hindu ruler of Mewar
1800 – John Brown, American abolitionist
1860 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish author
1874 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist
1892 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last Empress of Austria-Hungary
1936 – Albert Finney, English actor
1936 – Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
1942 – John Ashcroft, American politician, 79th United States Attorney General
1946 – Candice Bergen, American actress
1949 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1960 – Tony Gwynn, American baseball player
1965 – Steve Yzerman, Canadian ice hockey player
1970 – Ghostface Killah, American rapper and actor
1978 – Aaron Harang, American baseball player
1979 – Rosario Dawson, American actress
1979 – Brandon Webb, American baseball player
1984 – Prince Fielder, American baseball player
1985 – Jake Long, American football player

Deaths:

1315 – Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy
1657 – William Bradford, English leader, governor of the Plymouth Colony
1791 – Francis Hopkinson, American delegate and author, signer of the Declaration of Independence
1949 – Louis II, Prince of Monaco
1968 – Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie
1986 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa mountaineer (one of the first individuals to reach the summit of Mount Everest)
2010 – Lena Horne, American singer, actress, and dancer
2012 – Vidal Sassoon, English hairdresser

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

 

May 10: (Busy day!)

70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, opens a full-scale assault on Jerusalem and attacks the city's Third Wall to the northwest.
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 turtles there.
1768 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the Thirteen Colonies begin the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
1857 – Indian Mutiny: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys revolt against their commanding officers at Meerut in the first ever joint forces of the Indian sepoys."
1863 – American Civil War: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson dies eight days after he is accidentally shot by his own troops.
1865 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
1877 – Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire following the Senate adoption of Mihail Kogălniceanu's Declaration of Independence. Recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian War of Independence.
1893 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.
1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United States' 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 German 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.
1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.
1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.
1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder in Japan.
1981 – François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic.
1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 156 workers.
1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
1997 – A 7.3 Mw earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province, killing 1,567, injuring over 2,300, leaving 50,000 homeless, and damaging or destroying over 15,000 homes.
2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 65 feet (20 metres) from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.
2008 – An EF4 tornado strikes the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, killing 21 people and injuring over 100.

Births:

1265 – Emperor Fushimi of Japan
1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin of Abraham Lincoln
1866 – Léon Bakst, Russian artist
1899 – Fred Astaire, American dancer and actor
1902 – David O. Selznick, American film producer
1915 – Denis Thatcher, English businessman and husband of Margaret Thatcher
1930 – Pat Summerall, American football player and broadcaster
1946 – Donovan, Scottish singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor
1953 – Jim Zorn, American football player and coach
1955 – Mark David Chapman, American murderer of John Lennon (boo)
1957 – Sid Vicious, English singer and musician
1958 – Rick Santorum, American politician, massive douchebag
1960 – Bono, Irish singer-songwriter, musician, philanthropist, and activist
1963 – Lisa Nowak, American astronaut
1965 – Linda Evangelista, Canadian model
1973 – Jerome Williams, American basketball player
1985 – Ryan Getzlaf, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Wilson Chandler, American basketball player

Deaths:

1290 – Rudolf II, Duke of Austria
1424 – Emperor Go-Kameyama, of Japan
1692 – Sarah Osborne, American woman accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials
1774 – King Louis XV of France
1818 – Paul Revere, American patriot
1863 – Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate general (as mentioned above)
1945 – Richard Glücks, German SS officer
1977 – Joan Crawford, American actress
1994 – John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer and rapist
1999 – Shel Silverstein, American poet and composer

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 11, 1973, charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct.

 

Wow!

 

May 11:

330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it oldest known dated printed book.
1310 – In France, fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake as heretics.
1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
1792 – Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River.
1820 – HMS Beagle, the ship that will take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, is launched.
1846 – President James K. Polk asked for and received a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War.
1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State.
1894 – Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.
1924 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
1944 – World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of its crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under its own power.
1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945.
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 who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.
1970 – The Lubbock Tornado, a F5 tornado, hits Lubbock, Texas, killing 26 and causing $250 million in damage.
1985 – Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.
1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
1987 – In Baltimore, Maryland, the first heart–lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators 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.
1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster: on a single day eight people die during summit attempts on Mount Everest.
1997 – 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 in a classic match format.
2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.

Births:

482 – Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor
1366 – Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard II of England
1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord
1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, German child of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach
1720 – Baron Münchhausen, German nobleman
1811 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai-American conjoined twins
1888 – Irving Berlin, American composer
1894 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer
1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player
1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter
1927 – Bernard Fox, English actor
1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American Nation of Islam leader
1946 – Robert Jarvik, American scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur, developed the Artificial heart
1952 – Frances Fisher, English actress
1959 – Martha Quinn, American television and radio host
1963 – Natasha Richardson, English-American actress
1982 – Jonathan Jackson, American actor
1982 – Andrew Walter, American football player
1983 – Matt Leinart, American football player
1988 – Brad Marchand, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Cam Newton, American football player

Deaths:

912 – Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine Emperor
1304 – Ghazan, Mongol ruler
1778 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1960 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist
1981 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician
2001 – Douglas Adams, English author
2006 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer
2011 – Robert Traylor, American basketball player

 

May 12:

254 – Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I as the 23rd pope.
304 – Roman Emperor Diocletian orders the beheading of the 14-year-old Pancras of Rome.
922 – After much hardship, Abbasid envoy Ahmad ibn Fadlan arrived in the lands of Volga Bulgars.
1191 – Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre who is crowned Queen consort of England the same day.
1328 – Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.
1743 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
1935 – Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (founders of Alcoholics Anonymous) meet for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Siberling.
1937 – The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at a ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
1941 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
1942 – Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
1948 – Wilhelmina, Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands cedes throne.
1949 – The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.
1949 – The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new German state: the Federal Republic of Germany.
1955 – Austria regains its independence as the Allied occupation following World War II ends.
1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
1981 – Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign for political prisoner status to be granted to Provisional 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, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an "agent of Moscow".
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the 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 people.
2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.
2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.
2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of workplace and arrests nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

Births:

1401 – Emperor Shōkō, Japanese emperor
1812 – Edward Lear, English artist and poet
1820 – Florence Nightingale, British nurse
1828 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English painter
1886 – Ernst A. Lehmann, German zeppelin captain (captain of the Hindenburg)
1889 – Otto Frank, German businessman and Holocaust victim, father of Anne Frank
1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress
1918 – Julius Rosenberg, American atomic spy
1918 – Mary Kay Ash, American businesswoman, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
1925 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player
1928 – Burt Bacharach, American pianist, composer, and producer
1935 – Johnny Bucyk, Canadian ice hockey player
1937 – George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author
1948 – Steve Winwood, English musician and songwriter
1950 – Bruce Boxleitner, American actor
1950 – Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor
1950 – Billy Squier, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Ving Rhames, American actor
1966 – Stephen Baldwin, American actor
1968 – Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
1969 – Kim Fields, American actress
1970 – Samantha Mathis, American actress
1971 – Jamie Luner, American actress
1975 – Lawrence Phillips, American football player
1978 – Jason Biggs, American actor
1978 – Josh Phelps, American baseball player
1979 – Steve Smith, American football player

Deaths:

1003 – Pope Silvester II
1012 – Pope Sergius IV
1864 – J.E.B. Stuart, American soldier and Confederate Army general
1889 – John Cadbury, English businessman and philanthropist, founded Cadbury
1916 – James Connolly, Irish socialist and leader of the Easter Rising
1935 – Józef Piłsudski, Polish statesman
1992 – Robert Reed, American actor
2001 – Perry Como, American singer and actor
2003 – Khalid al-Juhani, Saudi Arabian terrorist

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by a Turkish assailant, Mehmet Ali Agca.

 

Did he live?

 

May 13:

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.
1846 – Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1861 – Pakistan’s (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch – in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. 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.
1912 – The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom.
1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.
1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the Nazi invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
1943 – World War II: German 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 of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.
1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
1958 – The trade mark Velcro is registered.
1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Thirty-one students are arrested, and the Free Speech Movement is born.
1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
1972 – The Troubles: a car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.
1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.
1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
2000 – In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage.

Births:

1024 – Hugh of Cluny, French saint
1588 – Ole Worm, Danish physician
1655 – Pope Innocent XIII
1717 – Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress (mother of Marie Antoinette)
1792 – Pope Pius IX
1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek pathologist, invented the pap smear
1907 – Dame Daphne du Maurier, English author
1914 – Joe Louis, American boxer
1922 – Bea Arthur, American actress
1931 – Jim Jones, American founder and leader of the Peoples Temple
1938 – Francine Pascal, American author
1939 – Harvey Keitel, American actor
1941 – Jody Conradt, American basketball coach
1941 – Ritchie Valens, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Bobby Valentine, American baseball player and manager
1950 – Stevie Wonder, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and activist
1956 – Ravi Shankar, Indian spiritual leader, founded the Art of Living Foundation
1961 – Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor
1964 – Stephen Colbert, American comedian, writer, and actor (STE-PHEN! STE-PHEN! STE-PHEN!)
1969 – Buckethead, American musician and songwriter
1972 – Darryl Sydor, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Samantha Morton, English actress
1978 – Barry Zito, American baseball player
1979 – Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland
1980 – L. J. Smith, American football player
1981 – Shaun Phillips, American football player
1985 – Jaroslav Halak, Slovak ice hockey player
1986 – Lena Dunham, American actress, writer, and director
1986 – Robert Pattinson, English actor, model, musician, and producer
1986 – Kris Versteeg, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Candice Accola, American actress and singer
1987 – Carrie Prejean, American model and author, Miss California USA 2009
1989 – P.K. Subban, Canadian ice hockey player

Deaths:

1176 – Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine
1573 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese warlord
1937 – Ekaterina Geladze, Russian mother of Joseph Stalin
1961 – Gary Cooper, American actor
1977 – Mickey Spillane, Irish-American gangster
2005 – Michael Ross, American serial killer
2011 – Derek Boogaard, Canadian ice hockey player

 

It was Pope John Paul II. What do you think?

 

I just googled him. He IS dead.

 

Yes, but not from the assassination attempt.

 

How do you know? Maybe they cloned him?

Maybe he was a zombie?

 

The next assassination attempt was successful!?

 

I wouldn't put it past the Catholic Church.

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 14, 1948, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed as British rule in Palestine came to an end.

 

May 14:

1264 – Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
1607 – Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
1610 – Henry IV of France is assassinated bringing Louis XIII to the throne.
1643 – Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
1787 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States; George Washington presides.
1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1870 – The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.
1889 – The children's charity National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is launched in London.
1931 – Ådalen shootings: five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
1935 – The Philippines ratifies an independence agreement.
1939 – Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
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: The Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protesters are beaten by an angry mob.
1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
1988 – Carrollton bus collision: a drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, United States hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. 27 die in the crash and ensuing fire.

Births:

1316 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
1553 – Margaret of Valois, wife of Henry IV of France
1630 – Katakura Kagenaga, Japanese samurai
1727 – Thomas Gainsborough, English painter
1869 – Arthur Rostron, English captain of the RMS Carpathia (rescuer of the Titanic survivors)
1878 – J. L. Wilkinson, American baseball executive
1925 – Sophie Kurys, American baseball player (All American Girls League)
1925 – Oona O'Neill, Bermudian-Swiss wife of Charlie Chaplin
1929 – Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player
1936 – Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor
1942 – Tony Pérez, Cuban baseball player
1944 – George Lucas, American director
1951 – Robert Zemeckis, American director
1952 – David Byrne, Scottish-American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor
1961 – Tim Roth, English actor and director
1961 – Alain Vigneault, Canadian ice hockey coach
1962 – Ian Astbury, English singer-songwriter and musician
1962 – C. C. DeVille, American guitarist and actor
1964 – Suzy Kolber, American sportscaster
1969 – Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
1969 – Danny Wood, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor
1971 – Sofia Coppola, American director
1977 – Roy Halladay, American baseball player
1978 – Eddie House, American basketball player
1983 – Frank Gore, American football player
1983 – Amber Tamblyn, American actress
1984 – Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook

Deaths:

964 – Pope John XII
1470 – Charles VIII of Sweden
1574 – Guru Amar Das, Indian spiritual leader, 3rd Sikh Guru
1610 – Henry IV of France (as mentioned above)
1643 – Louis XIII of France (as mentioned above)
1878 – Ookubo Toshimichi, Japanese statesman, samurai, and one of the "three great nobles" who led the Meiji Restoration
1912 – Frederick VIII of Denmark
1919 – Henry J. Heinz, German-American businessman, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company
1970 – Billie Burke, American actress
1987 – Rita Hayworth, American dancer and film actress
1991 – Jiang Qing, Chinese actress and First Lady, wwife of Mao Zedong
1993 – William Randolph Hearst Jr., American newspaper magnate
1998 – Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor
2003 – Robert Stack, American actor
2012 – Mitchell Guist, American alligator hunter, cast member on Swamp People

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 15, 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

 

Huge day in world history.