On This Day In History
May 10th
1497 Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci leaves for his first voyage to the New World (disputed)
1775 Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and issues paper currency for 1st time
1801 First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America (1st US foreign war)
1857 Indian mutiny against rule by the British East India Company begins with the revolt of the Sepoy soldiers in Meerut
1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister
1960 US atomic submarine USS Triton completes 1st submerged circumnavigation of the globe
1994 Nelson Mandela sworn in as South Africa’s 1st black president
Did You Know?
Victoria Woodhull becomes 1st woman nominated for US presidency by Equal Rights Party at Apollo Hall, NYC
Today in History in 1872
Would You Believe?
In an interview with the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ former Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O’Neill states: “if you give Roman Catholics a good job and a good house, they will live like Protestants, … They will refuse to have 18 children”
Today in History in 1969
May 11th
330 Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes the capital of the Roman Empire
1189 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg for the Third Crusade
1751 Pennsylvania Hospital founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin, in Philadelphia
1995 More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons [1]
2000 India’s population officially reaches 1 billion – Astha Arora named India’s billionth baby
Did You Know?
Waltz introduced into English ballrooms. Some observers consider it disgusting and immoral.
Today in History in 1812
Would You Believe?
British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London. Ironically, descendants of both later stand for the same seat in Parliament at the same time but neither win.
Today in History in 1812
May 12th
1789 William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons, reasoning the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice
1940 Nazi blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with the crossing of the Muese River
1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrender
2002 Former US 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.
2008 Wenchuan earthquake, measuring 7.8 in magnitude occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 87,000, injuring 374,643 and leaving homeless between 4.8 million and 11 million people
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Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world’s first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin
Today in History in 1941
Would You Believe?
Crouching start 1st used in track and field by Charles Sherrill of Yale
Today in History in 1888
May 13th
1787 Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia
1830 Republic of Ecuador is founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president
1934 Great dustbowl storm sweeps across US prairies
1940 Winston Churchill says “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat” in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons
1981 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehemet Ali Agca in St Peter’s Square, Vatican City
1989 Approx 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China
Did You Know?
Cardinal Richelieu of France reputedly creates the table knife
Today in History in 1637
Would You Believe?
22 year old UK blogger halts spread of global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying “kill switch”
Today in History in 2017
May 14th
1787 Delegates gather in Philadelphia to draw up US Constitution
1796 English country doctor Edward Jenner administers his revolutionary cowpox-based vaccine for smallpox, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire
1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark‘s expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson sets out from St Louis for Pacific Coast
1948 Israel declares independence from British administration
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Lina Medina of Peru becomes the world’s youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five
Today in History in 1939
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Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injects misdiagnosed cancer patient Albert Stevens (CAL-1) with 131 kBq (3.55 µCi) of plutonium without his knowledge. Stevens lives another 20 years, surviving the highest known accumulated radiation dose in any human
Today in History in 1945
May 15th
1252 Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition
1618 German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws his “harmonics law”
1940 Richard and Maurice McDonald open the 1st McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California
1951 AT&T becomes the 1st US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078
1988 USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan
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Mickey Mouse makes his 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”
Today in History in 1928
Would You Believe?
James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents world’s 1st machine gun
Today in History in 1718
May 16th
1920 Joan of Arc (Jeanne D’arc) canonized a saint
1943 Operation Chastise: No. 617 Squadron RAF begins the famous Dambusters Raid, bombing the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley with bouncing bombs
1944 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
1989 Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping meet in Beijing and formally end a 30-year rift
2013 Human stem cells are successfully cloned
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Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California
Today in History in 1960
Would You Believe?
US Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson by one vote
Today in History in 1868