May 6, 1863:
American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, scored a decisive Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville near Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia.
May 6, 1937:
The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed while trying to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing over 30 people on board.
May 6, 1994:
The Channel Tunnel, a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover connecting Folkestone, Kent, England to Coquelles, France, officially opened.
Quote of the Day
Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
âSigmund Freud
May 7, 1824:
Ludwig van Beethovenâs last complete symphony, the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, which incorporates part of Friedrich Schillerâs poem âOde to Joyâ in its fourth movement, premiered at the KĂ€rntnertortheater in Vienna.
May 7, 1895:
Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented his radio receiver, refined as a lightning detector, to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.
May 7, 1915:
World War I: The German submarine Unterseeboot 20 torpedoed and sank the ocean liner RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 on board.
May 8, 1541:
The expedition led by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto became the first documented Europeans to reach the Mississippi River.
May 8, 1886:
In Atlanta, Georgia, American pharmacist John Pemberton first sold his carbonated beverage Coca-Cola as a patent medicine, claiming that it cured a number of diseases.
May 8, 1963:
Soldiers of the Catholic South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists who were defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine.
Quote of the Day
Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.
âFriedrich Hayek
May 9, 1671:
Irish-born Colonel Thomas Blood was caught trying to steal the English Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
May 9, 1901:
The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, exactly 26 years (1927) before it moved to Canberraâs Provisional Parliament House, and exactly 87 years (1988) before it moved into the over AU$1.1 billion Parliament House in Canberra.
May 9, 1950:
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard was first published, describing his self-improvement techniques known as Dianetics, which later became part of the wider subject of Scientology.
Quote of the Day
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
âJ. M. Barrie
May 10, 1503:
Christopher Columbus and his crew became the first Europeans to visit the Cayman Islands, naming them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there.
May 10, 1824:
The National Gallery in London, which today houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900, opened to the public inside the former townhouse of the recently deceased art collector John Julius Angerstein.
May 10, 1869:
The golden spike ceremony was held at Promontory Summit, Utah, celebrating the completion of North Americaâs First Transcontinental Railroad between the Missouri and Sacramento Rivers.
May 10, 1924:
J. Edgar Hoover became the first director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
May 11, 1792:
Merchant sea captain Robert Gray first entered the Columbia River, becoming the first recorded European to navigate the largest river flowing into the Pacific Ocean from North America.
May 11, 1812:
In the lobby of the British House of Commons, Spencer Perceval became the first, and to date only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated.
May 11, 1949:
Siam was officially renamed Thailand, a name unofficially in use since 1939.
May 11, 1960:
Israeli Mossad agents captured Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader and fugitive war criminal who was sometimes referred to as âthe architect of The Holocaustâ, hiding in Argentina.
Quote of the Day
Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars â mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is âmereâ. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination â stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern â of which I am a part⊠What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it.
âRichard Feynman
May 12, 1551:
The National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.
May 12, 1941:
German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3 , the worldâs first working programmable, fully automatic computer, to an audience of scientists in Berlin.
May 12, 1958:
Canada and the United States signed a formal agreement establishing the North American Air Defense Command to provide aerospace warning and defense for North America.
May 12, 2008:
An earthquake measuring about 8.0 Ms struck the Sichuan province of China, killing at least 69,000 people, injuring at least 374,000, and leaving at least 4.8 million others homeless.
May 13, 1619:
Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason.
May 13, 1846:
The United States declared war on Mexico after a series of disputes in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, starting the MexicanâAmerican War.
May 13, 1888:
Isabel the Redeemer , heiress of Brazil, signed the Lei Ăurea into law, formally abolishing slavery in Brazil.
May 13, 1917:
Our Lady of Fatima: Ten-year-old LĂșcia Santos and her siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian apparition near FĂĄtima, Portugal.
Quote of the Day
Death and Light are everywhere, always, and they begin, end, strive, attend, into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world, burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty.
âRoger Zelazny
May 14, 1607:
An expedition led by Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher Newport, and John Smith established the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
May 14, 1796:
English scientist Edward Jenner began testing cowpox as a vaccine for protection against smallpox.
May 14, 1804:
The Lewis and Clark Expedition led by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left Camp Dubois near present-day Hartford, Illinois, and began the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.
May 14, 1948:
David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at the present-day Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, officially establishing a new Jewish state in parts of the former British Mandate of Palestine.
Quote of the Day
TB is like sex going wrong its good for a while then before the climax it goes limp.
âPsychopuppet
May 15, 1252:
Pope Innocent IV issued the papal bull ad exstirpanda, authorizing the use of torture on heretics during the Medieval Inquisition.
May 15, 1602:
English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold became the first known European to discover Cape Cod.
May 15, 1928:
Mickey and Minnie Mouse made their film debut in the animated cartoon Plane Crazy.
May 15, 1955:
The Austrian State Treaty was signed in Vienna, re-establishing an independent Austria.
Quote of the Day
Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory.
âIrena Sendler
May 16, 1204:
Fourth Crusade: Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was crowned the first Latin Emperor in Constantinople.
May 16, 1929:
The first ceremony of the Academy Awards were held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
May 16, 1975:
Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its 22nd state.
May 16, 2003:
In the deadliest terrorist attack in Moroccoâs history, a series of suicide bombings in Casablanca killed 33 civilians and 12 out of the 14 bombers.
Quote of the Day
Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.
âMarcus Aurelius
May 17, 1590:
Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen consort of Scotland in the abbey church at Holyrood Palace.
May 17, 1865:
The International Telecommunication Union, an international organization that standardizes and regulates international radio and telecommunications, was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris.
May 17, 1954:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because âseparate educational facilities are inherently unequalâ.
Quote of the Day
You donât wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. Iâm a loner, Dottie. A rebel.
âPeeWee Herman
May 19, 1536:
Anne Boleyn , the second wife and queen consort of Henry VIII of England, was beheaded at the Tower of London for adultery, incest, and high treason.
May 19, 1780:
A combination of thick smoke, fog, and heavy cloud cover caused complete darkness to fall on parts of Canada and the New England area of the United States, requiring candles to be used from noon until midnight.
Quote of the Day
Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say âWhat does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?â If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.
âMustafa Kemal AtatĂŒrk
May 20, 325:
The First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, was formally opened in present-day Iznik, Turkey to resolve disagreements in the Church of Alexandria over the nature of Jesus in relationship to God the Father.
May 20, 1570:
The first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by cartographer Abraham Ortelius, was issued.
May 20, 1873:
Clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis were granted a patent for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim overalls, paving the way for their business Levi Strauss & Co. to start manufacturing their first line of blue jeans.
Quote of the Day
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
âJohn Stuart Mill