Fun On this date in history...

May 15: (some pretty cool stuff today)

392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne.
1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third husband.
1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.
1755 – Laredo, Texas is established by the Spaniards.
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.
1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5–6 meters, during one of the first attempted manned flights.
1800 – George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity.
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) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1850 – The Bloody Island Massacre takes place in Lake County, California, in which a large number of Pomo Indians in Lake County are slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel Lyon.
1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.
1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.
1869 – Woman's suffrage: in New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum Novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.
1905 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1928 – Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy
1935 – The Moscow Metro is opened to public.
1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
1942 – World War II: in the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
1948 – Following the demise of the British Mandate of Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
1953 – Cubmaster Don Murphy organized the first pinewood derby, in Manhattan Beach, California, by Pack 280c.
1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space.
1966 – After a policy dispute, Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky of South Vietnam's ruling junta launches a military attack on the forces of General Ton That Dinh, forcing him to abandon his command.
1969 – People's Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot called Bloody Thursday.
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 are 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.
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 are 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 he is campaigning to become President.
1974 – Ma'alot massacre: In an Arab terrorist attack and hostage taking at an Israeli school, a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren.
1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
1988 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.
2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.
2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

Births:

1397 – Sejong the Great
1773 – Klemens von Metternich, German-Austrian politician
1856 – L. Frank Baum, American author
1859 – Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1895 – Prescott Bush, American banker and politician
1914 – Turk Broda, Canadian ice hockey player
1936 – Wavy Gravy, American clown and activist
1937 – Madeleine Albright, Czech-American politician, 64th United States Secretary of State
1940 – Roger Ailes, American businessman and broadcaster
1940 – Don Nelson, American basketball coach
1948 – Brian Eno, English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1956 – Dan Patrick, American sportscaster
1969 – Emmitt Smith, American football player
1970 – Desmond Howard, American football player
1975 – Ray Lewis, American football player
1976 – Ryan Leaf, American football player
1976 – David Copeland, British terrorist
1980 – Josh Beckett, American baseball player
1981 – Jamie-Lynn Sigler, American actress and singer
1982 – Alex Breckenridge, American actress
1990 – Jordan Eberle, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Anna Shaffer, English actress

Deaths:

392 – Valentinian II, Roman Emperor
1036 – Emperor Go-Ichijō of Japan
1157 – Yuri Dolgorukiy, Russian prince and founder of Moscow
1585 – Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord
1591 – Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich of Russia
1886 – Emily Dickinson, American poet
1967 – Edward Hopper, American painter
1986 – Theodore White, American writer
2003 – June Carter Cash, American singer-songwriter, musician, dancer, and actress
2007 – Jerry Falwell, American pastor, founded Liberty University, bigotted douchebag
2007 – Yolanda King, American actress and activist, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2009 – Wayman Tisdale, American basketball player

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 16, 1868, the United States Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him. (Mr. Johnson was acquitted of all charges.)

 

May 16:

1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.
1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
1866 – The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
1891 – The International Electro-Technical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electrical current (the most common form today).
1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
1919 – A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.
1929 – In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are awarded.
1943 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
1974 – Josip Broz Tito is re-elected president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he is elected for life.
1975 – Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1988 – A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
2003 – In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
2005 – Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

Births:

1611 – Pope Innocent XI
1831 – David E. Hughes, English scientist and musician, co-inventor of the microphone
1861 – H. H. Holmes, American serial killer
1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor
1909 – Margaret Sullavan, American actress
1919 – Liberace, American singer, pianist, and actor
1928 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach
1931 – Hana Brady, Polish Holocaust victim
1949 – Rick Reuschel, American baseball player
1951 – Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer
1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
1955 – Olga Korbut, Belarussian gymnast
1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
1964 – John Salley, American basketball player
1965 – Krist Novoselic, American musician, songwriter, author, and activist
1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
1966 – Thurman Thomas, American football player
1969 – David Boreanaz, American actor
1969 – Tucker Carlson, American journalist
1969 – Tracey Gold, American actress
1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress and author
1977 – Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress
1981 – Joseph Morgan, English actor
1983 – Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Tomas Fleischmann, Czech ice hockey player
1984 – Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Megan Fox, American actress
1990 – Thomas Sangster, English actor
1992 – Jeff Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player
1994 – Miles Heizer, American actor

Deaths:

583 – Brendan, Irish navigator and saint
1703 – Charles Perrault, French author
1926 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan
1956 – H. B. Reese, American candy-maker and businessman, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent
1969 – Robert Rayford, American AIDS victim
1984 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian and actor
1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress
1990 – Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, dancer, and actor
1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, and producer, created The Muppets
2010 – Ronnie James Dio, American singer, musician, and producer

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, which declared that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal.

 

May 17:

1536 – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason.
1673 – Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.
1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed.
1808 – Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.
1849 – A large fire nearly burns St. Louis, Missouri to the ground.
1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris.
1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
1939 – The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.
1967 – Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.
1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
1974 – Thirty-three civilians are killed and over 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) explodes car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. It is the highest number of casualties in any one day during The Troubles. An Irish parliament committee, and others, allege that British security forces were involved.
1983 – The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request.
1983 – Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
1987 – An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.
1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
1992 – Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, many disappearances, hundreds of injuries, and over 3,500 arrests.
1994 – Malawi holds its first multi-party elections.
1997 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2004 – Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Births:

1443 – Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England
1682 – Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate
1749 – Edward Jenner, English physician and scientist, inventor of vaccination
1768 – Caroline of Brunswick, Queen of Great Britain
1868 – Horace Elgin Dodge, American automobile manufacturer, co-founder of Dodge
1886 – Alfonso XIII of Spain (grandfather of Juan Carlos I)
1889 – Dorothy Gibson, American actress and survivor of RMS Titanic
1903 – Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player
1911 – Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress
1912 – Archibald Cox, American lawyer and politician
1912 – Ace Parker, American baseball and football player
1931 – Marshall Applewhite, American cult leader of Heaven's Gate
1934 – Ronald Wayne, American computer scientist and author, co-founder of Apple Inc.
1936 – Dennis Hopper, American actor and director
1955 – Bill Paxton, American actor and director
1956 – Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer and actor
1956 – Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host
1961 – Enya, Irish singer-songwriter and producer
1962 – Craig Ferguson, Scottish comedian, actor, and television host
1965 – Trent Reznor, American singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and producer
1966 – Qusay Hussein, Son of Saddam Hussein
1970 – Jordan Knight, American singer-songwriter
1971 – Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Argentine-born queen consort of the Netherlands
1973 – Sasha Alexander, American actress
1976 – José Guillén, Dominican baseball player
1978 – Carlos Peña, Dominican baseball player
1982 – Tony Parker, French-American basketball player
1982 – Matt Cassel, American football player
1983 – Chris Henry, American football player
1985 – Matt Ryan, American football player
1986 – Tahj Mowry, American actor
1988 – Nikki Reed, American actress
1990 – Leven Rambin, American actress

Deaths:

290 – Emperor Wu of Jin, Chinese emperor of the Jin Dynasty
1189 – Minamoto no Yo****sune, Japanese general
1336 – Emperor Go-Fushimi of Japan
1395 – Constantine Dragaš, Serbian ruler
1510 – Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter
1536 – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, English diplomat (as mentioned above -- brother of Anne Boleyn)
1727 – Catherine I of Russia
1829 – John Jay, American statesman and diplomat, 1st Chief Justice of the United States
1886 – John Deere, American blacksmith and manufacturer, founded the Deere & Company
1911 – Frederick August Otto Schwarz, American businessman, founded FAO Schwarz
1992 – Lawrence Welk, American musician and bandleader
2004 – Tony Randall, American actor
2005 – Frank Gorshin, American actor
2007 – Lloyd Alexander, American author
2012 – Sophia Brown, English reality show contestant on Big Brother
2012 – Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter
2013 – Jorge Rafael Videla, de-facto president of Argentina

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.

 

May 18:

332 – Constantine the Great announced free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople.
1152 – Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1565 – The Royal Audiencia of Concepción is created by a decree of Philip II of Spain.
1593 – Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.
1631 – In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
1652 – Rhode Island passes the first law in English-speaking North America making slavery illegal.
1756 – The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France.
1763 – Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec.
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
1860 – Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
1896 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.
1896 – Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.
1910 – The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
1917 – World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
1926 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
1927 – The Bath School Disaster: forty-five people are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Michigan.
1927 – After being founded for 20 years, the Government of the Republic of China approves Tongji University to be among the first national universities of the Republic of China.
1965 – Israeli spy Eli Cohen was hanged in Damascus, Syria.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
1995 – Shawn Nelson, 35, goes on a tank rampage in San Diego.
2005 – A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons: Nix and Hydra.

Births:

1048 – Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, poet, and philosopher
1797 – Frederick Augustus II of Saxony
1822 – Mathew Brady, American photographer
1868 – Nicholas II of Russia
1872 – Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, English mathematician, writer, and philosopher, Nobel laureate
1897 – Frank Capra, American producer, director, and writer
1912 – Perry Como, American singer and actor
1914 – Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer
1919 – Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer
1920 – Pope John Paul II
1931 – Robert Morse, American actor
1937 – Brooks Robinson, American baseball player
1946 – Reggie Jackson, American baseball player
1950 – Mark Mothersbaugh, American singer, musician, and composer
1952 – George Strait, American singer, musician, producer, and actor
1955 – Chow Yun-fat, Hong Kong actor
1960 – Jari Kurri, Finnish ice hockey player
1963 – Marty McSorley, Canadian ice hockey player
1969 – Holly Aird, English actress
1970 – Tina Fey, American actress
1974 – Nelson Figueroa, American baseball player
1980 – Jeff Roehl, American football player
1980 – Reggie Evans, American basketball player
1980 – Felicia Pearson, American actress, singer, and author
1983 – Vince Young, American football player
1984 – Joakim Soria, Mexican baseball player
1985 – Francesca Battistelli, American singer-songwriter and musician

Deaths:

526 – Pope John I
1401 – Wladyslaw II of Opole
1550 – Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine, French cardinal
1808 – Elijah Craig, American minister, inventor, and educator, invented Bourbon whiskey
1829 – Maria Josepha of Saxony, Queen Consort of Spain
1911 – Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer
1927 – Andrew Kehoe, American educator and murderer, perpetrator of the Bath School Disaster
1947 – Hal Chase, American baseball player
1963 – Ernie Davis, American football player
1973 – Jeannette Rankin, American politician, 1st woman in the United States Congress
1989 – Dorothy Ruth, American horse breeder, daughter of Babe Ruth
1995 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress
1997 – Bridgette Andersen, American actress

 

And yet they still declassified Pluto as a planet.

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 19, 1935, T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.

 

An Englishman died? Who cares?

 

Dude, instead of complaining, perhaps you could contribute? You know, "put up or shut up"?

May 19:

1445 – John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.
1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.
1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.
1542 – The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Burma.
1568 – Queen Elizabeth I of England orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots.
1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
1655 – The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War.
1743 – Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale.
1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England.
1848 – Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol Prison.
1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.
1943 – World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail.
1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".
1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, drafted shortly after his arrest on April 12th during the Birmingham Campaign advocating for civil rights and an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The letter was in response to "A Call for Unity": a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods, following his arrest, and became one of the most-anthologized statements of the civil rights movement.
1971 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
1986 – The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
1991 – Croatians vote for independence in a referendum.

Births:

1744 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, German wife of King George III of the United Kingdom
1797 – Maria Isabel of Portugal, Queen Consort of Spain
1861 – Dame Nellie Melba, Australian opera singer
1870 – Albert Fish, American serial killer and cannibal (the inspiration for Hannibal Lecter)
1879 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-English politician
1890 – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader
1925 – Malcolm X, American civil rights activist
1925 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator
1941 – Nora Ephron, American screenwriter
1944 – Peter Mayhew, English-American actor
1945 – Pete Townshend, English singer-songwriter, musician, and author
1946 – André the Giant, French wrestler and actor
1949 – Dusty Hill, American singer-songwriter and musician (ZZ Top)
1949 – Archie Manning, American football player (father of Peyton and Eli Manning)
1951 – Joey Ramone, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Nicole Brown Simpson, American murder victim, wife of O. J. Simpson
1975 – London Fletcher, American football player
1976 – Kevin Garnett, American basketball player
1977 – Brandon Inge, American baseball player (Raise the Jolly Roger!)
1980 – Drew Fuller, American actor and model
1981 – Michael Leighton, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Mario Chalmers, American basketball player
1988 – Lily Cole, English model and actress

Deaths:

804 – Alcuin, English monk and scholar
988 – Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
1125 – Vladimir II Monomakh, Russian prince
1296 – Pope Celestine V
1526 – Emperor Go-Kashiwabara of Japan
1536 – Anne Boleyn, English second wife of Henry VIII of England (as mentioned above)
1795 – Josiah Bartlett, American physician and statesman, signer of the Declaration of Independence
1864 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author
1898 – William Ewart Gladstone, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1935 – T. E. Lawrence, English soldier
1945 – Philipp Bouhler, German Nazi leader
1965 – Tu'i Malila, Malagasy turtle, the world's oldest tortoise
1971 – Ogden Nash, American poet
1994 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American editor and First Lady of the United States, wife of John F. Kennedy

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 20, 1961, a white mob attacked a busload of "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Ala., prompting the federal government to send in United States marshals to restore order.

 

I remember that day like it was yesterday.

 

Am i the only one who notices this jp-30 guy's posts here? He's like a RiffTrax/MST commentary, but no one seems to be laughing.

 

Born today,5/20/1944, Joe Cocker, singer

 

Deaths:
2011: Randy "Macho Man" Savage; professional wrestler and actor.

 

Well, you really only laugh when stuff is funny.

May 20:

325 – The First Council of Nicea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church is held.
491 – Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery.
526 – An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia.
1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
1520 – The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.
1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.
1609 – Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1802 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.
1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. Meanwhile, the State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.
1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1883 – Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.
1891 – History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.
1899 – The first traffic ticket in the US: New York City taxi driver Jacob German was arrested for speeding while driving 12 miles per hour on Lexington Street.
1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.
1920 – Montreal, Quebec radio station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America.
1927 – Treaty of Jedda: the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge 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 non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched 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.
1948 – Chiang Kai-shek is elected as the first President of the Republic of China.
1956 – In Operation Redwing (shot Cherokee), the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
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 HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.
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.
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.

Births:

1315 – Bonne of Luxembourg
1768 – Dolley Madison, American wife of James Madison, First Lady of the United States
1799 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist
1806 – John Stuart Mill, English philosopher
1818 – William Fargo, American businessman and politician, co-founded Wells Fargo and American Express
1883 – Faisal I of Iraq
1908 – James Stewart, American actor
1913 – William Reddington Hewlett, American engineer, co-founded Hewlett-Packard
1927 – Bud Grant, American football coach
1940 – Stan Mikita, Canadian ice hockey player
1944 – Joe Cocker, English singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1946 – Cher, American singer, actress, producer, and director
1954 – Cindy McCain, American businesswoman and philanthropist, wife of John McCain
1958 – Ron Reagan, American radio host, son of Ronald Reagan
1958 – Jane Wiedlin, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress
1959 – Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Bronson Pinchot, American actor
1960 – Tony Goldwyn, American actor
1963 – David Wells, American baseball player
1965 – Stu Grimson, Canadian ice hockey player
1966 – Mindy Cohn, American actress
1967 – Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece
1968 – Timothy Olyphant, American actor
1970 – Terrell Brandon, American basketball player
1971 – Tony Stewart, American race car driver
1972 – Busta Rhymes, American rapper, producer, and actor
1975 – Tahmoh Penikett, Canadian actor
1976 – Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan baseball player
1977 – Matt Czuchry, American actor
1977 – Vesa Toskala, Finnish ice hockey player
1979 – Jayson Werth, American baseball player
1980 – Austin Kearns, American baseball player
1981 – Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player
1982 – Candace Bailey, American actress
1983 – Michaela McManus, American actress
1984 – Patrick Ewing, Jr., American basketball player
1987 – Sergei Kostitsyn, Russian ice hockey player
1987 – Julian Wright, American basketball player

Deaths:

1277 – Pope John XXI
1503 – Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Italian banker and politician
1506 – Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer, discovered the Americas
1989 – Gilda Radner, American comedian and actress
2000 – Malik Sealy, American basketball player
2002 – Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist
2009 – Lucy Gordon, English model and actress
2011 – "Macho Man" Randy Savage, American professional wrestler and actor
2012 – Robin Gibb, English singer-songwriter and musician (Bee Gees)
2012 – Eugene Polley, American engineer, inventor of the first wireless remote control for television

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean

 

They killed his baby, you know!

 

May 21:

878 – Syracuse, Italy, is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned some six and a half years later.
1851 – Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing of
1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week", some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C..
1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
1911 – Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".
1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
1972 – Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
1976 – The Yuba City bus disaster occurs in Martinez, California. 29 are killed making it the deadliest road accident in U.S. history.
1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1981 – Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison.
1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
1998 – President Soeharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Tri Sakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003 – An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.

Births:

120 BC – Aurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar
1527 – Philip II of Spain
1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet
1864 – Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, Crown Princess of Austria-Hungary
1898 – Armand Hammer, American businessman and physician
1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor, father of actress Elizabeth Montgomery
1916 – Harold Robbins, American novelist
1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor
1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist
1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress, mother of actor David Cassidy
1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor
1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball player and manager
1944 – Janet Dailey, American author
1944 – Mary Robinson, Irish politician, 7th President of Ireland
1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut
1951 – Al Franken, American actor and politician
1952 – Mr. T, American actor
1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor
1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer, cannibal
1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player
1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress
1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper
1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player
1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player
1981 – Craig Anderson, American ice hockey player
1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player

Deaths:

1237 – Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles
1471 – Henry VI of England
1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer, first person to cross the Mississippi River
1935 – Jane Addams, American social worker, activist, and author, co-founder of Hull House, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
2000 – Barbara Cartland, English author
2000 – Sir John Gielgud, English actor
2000 – Mark R. Hughes, American businessman, founder of Herbalife

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 22, 1947, the Truman Doctrine was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.

 

Mmmmm, greasy turkey.

 

May 22:

334 BC – The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.
853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.
1455 – Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
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, Austria), Napoleon I 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 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
1849 – President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, the only patent ever issued to a U.S. President.
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 into law restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
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 contiguous US during the 20th century.
1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster 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.
1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Kuomintang, China.
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, each battling an internal Communist movement.
1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.
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.
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.
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.
1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
1987 – Hashimpura massacre in Meerut, India.
1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
1990 – Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.
1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.
1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
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, D.C., 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 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide, which kills one resident.
2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes struck 19 states and one Canadian province.
2010 – An Air India Express Boeing 737-800 goes over a cliff and crashes upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. It is worst-ever crash involving a Boeing 737.
2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 162 people and wreaking $2.8 billion worth in damage—the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.

Births:

1770 – Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom
1783 – William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor, invented the Electromagnet and Electric motor
1813 – Richard Wagner, German composer
1844 – Mary Cassatt, American artist
1859 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish physician and writer
1879 – Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian actress, scriptwriter, and producer
1902 – Al Simmons, American baseball player
1907 – Laurence Olivier, English actor
1930 – Harvey Milk, American politician and activist
1939 – Paul Winfield, American actor
1940 – Bernard Shaw, American journalist
1943 – Tommy John, American baseball player
1950 – Bernie Taupin, English singer-songwriter and poet
1959 – Morrissey, English singer-songwriter and pianist, pretentious douchebag
1970 – Naomi Campbell, English model and actress
1973 – Julián Tavárez, Dominican baseball player
1977 – Dré Bly, American football player
1978 – Ginnifer Goodwin, American actress
1978 – Katie Price, English model, businesswoman, and author
1980 – Chad Tracy, American baseball player
1980 – Lucy Gordon, English actress and model
1985 – Graham Harrell, American football player
1988 – Chase Budinger, American basketball player

Deaths:

192 – Dong Zhuo, Chinese politician and warlord, Chancellor of Han
337 – Constantine the Great
748 – Empress Genshō of Japan
985 – St. Bobo French Knight
1457 – Rita of Cascia, Italian saint
1667 – Pope Alexander VII
1802 – Martha Washington, American wife of George Washington, 1st First Lady of the United States
1885 – Victor Hugo, French author
1967 – Langston Hughes, American writer
1972 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (Daniel Day-Lewis's father)
1972 – Margaret Rutherford, English actress
1975 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player
2005 – Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer
2012 – Janet Carroll, American actress