Tell us your Today In History….
We want to know what happened to you on this day in history.
Life Event e.g. marriage or children? Move cities or countries? Start or finish a job?
It can be funny, or a general story, or anything you’d like to share….
Comment at the bottom of the page with your story and go in the draw to win a DVD.
On this day in history…
May 31
1279 BC Rameses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
1837 Astor Hotel opens in NYC, it later becomes the Waldorf-Astoria
1879 Madison Square Garden opens in New York, named after 4th President James Madison
1884 Dr John Harvey Kellogg patents “flaked cereal”
1907 Taxis 1st began running in NYC
1911 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast
1968 American movie star Jimmy Stewart retires from the Air Force after 27 years of service, and is promoted to major general by President Reagan
1969 John Lennon & Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance”
1990 Seinfeld starring Jerry Seinfeld, debuts on NBC as Seinfeld Chronicles
2008 Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, with a wind-legal (+1.7m/s) 9.72 seconds.
*
May 30
1381 English peasant uprising begins in Essex
1431 Hundred Years’ War: in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal.
1445 Coronation as Margaret of Anjou as Queen Consort of England at Westminster Abbey
1821 James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose
1842 John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria
1914 The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1921 Salzburg, Austria, votes to join Germany
1959 The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened in Auckland, New Zealand.
1967 Robert “Evel” Knievel’s motorcycle jumps 16 automobiles
2003 “Finding Nemo”, directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres is released
*
May 29
1660 On his 30th birthday Charles II returns to London from exile in the Netherlands to claim the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth comes to an end
1727 Peter II becomes Tsar of Russia aged 11
1849 Lincoln says “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
1874 Present constitution of Switzerland takes effect
1886 Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola
1913 Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris, provoking a riot.
1919 Albert Einstein’s light-bending prediction confirmed by Arthur Eddington
1919 An expedition sponsored by the Royal Society of London observes a total eclipse of the sun in the Gulf of Guinea, off the African continent
1953 Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition
1982 1st papal visit to Britain since 1531
1994 Great iceball comet seen above North Sea
*
May 28
585 BC Solar eclipse, as predicted by Greek philosopher Thales, while Lydians at war with the Medes leads to a truce. One of the cardinal dates from which other dates calculated.
1431 Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution
1588 Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England
1742 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman’s Fields, London)
1889 Édouard and André Michelin incorporate the Michelin tyre company
1930 Georges Forbes succeeds Joseph Ward as premier of New Zealand
1937 Golden Gate Bridge in SF opens to vehicular traffic
1937 Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1952 The women of Greece are given the right to vote.
1999 In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper” is put back on display.
*
May 27
1120 Richard III of Capua is anointed as prince two weeks before his untimely death.
1679 Habeaus Corpus Act (strengthening person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest & imprisonment) passes in England
1703 St Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great
1849 The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened.
1883 Tsar Alexander III crowned in Moscow
1907 Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco
1930 Richard Drew invents masking tape
1936 RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton for NY on maiden voyage
1937 Golden Gate Bridge, SF, dedicated
1999 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo
*
May 26
451 The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place. The Armenians are defeated militarily but are guaranteed freedom to openly practice Christianity.1647 Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.
1805 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned king of Italy
1828 Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
1896 Last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned
1913 Emily Duncan becomes Great Britain’s first woman magistrate.
1927 Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last (and 15th million) Model T Ford / Tin Lizzie
1946 Patent filed in US for H-Bomb
1984 US President President Ronald Reagan rules out US military intervention in Iran-Iraq war
2012 Pope Benedict XVI’s butler is arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents
2014 World Health Organization confirms that Ebola has reached Sierra Leone
*
May 25
1720 The Ship “Le Grand St Antoine” reaches Marseille, bringing Europe’s last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000
1935 Track and field athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks 6 world records in 45 minutes at Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor US
1659 Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England. Many pubs in England have since been called “Tumbledown Dick” in his memory.
1927 Henry Ford announces that he is ending production of the Model T Ford
1961 JFK announces US goal of putting a man on Moon before the end of decade
1967 John Lennon takes delivery of his psychedelically painted Rolls Royce
1989 Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union
2011 Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty five year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
2012 A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station
*
May 24
1726 People’s revolt due to increase in gin/brandy tax
1738 John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.
1830 “Mary Had A Little Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale is first published by Boston firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon
1844 Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” (1st telegraph message)
1862 Westminster Bridge across Thames opens
1890 Tivoli Theater of Varities opens in London
1921 1st parliament for Northern Ireland elected
1930 1st woman to fly from England to Australia solo, lands (Amy Johnson)
1954 German airline Lufthansa forms
1976 In the Judgment of Paris, wine testers rate wines from California higher than their French counterparts, challenging the notion of France being the foremost producer of the world’s best wines.
2001 Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
*
May 23
1430 Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne & sold to the English
1576 Tycho Brahe given Hveen Island to build Uraniborg Observatory
1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
1813 South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”)
1865 Flag flown at full mast over White House for the first time since Lincoln was shot
1911 NY Public Library building at 5th Avenue dedicated by President Taft
1922 Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films
1998 The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.
2002 The “55 parties” clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
2014 Russia and China veto the U.N. Security Council resolution to establish an International Criminal Court for war crimes in Syria
*
May 22
334 BC The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus
1455 Opening battle in England’s 30-year Wars of the Roses. Richard of York takes St Albans, capturing King Henry VI
1570 1st atlas ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ (Theatre of the World), published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps
1892 Dr Washington Sheffield invents toothpaste tube
1919 Andrew E. Douglass establishes the relative dates of two archaeological sites using ancient wood samples, marking a major step forward in the dating of archaeological sites
1955 Oldest man to drive in the Grand Prix (aged 55) finishes 6th
1961 1st revolving restaurant (Top Of The Needle in Seattle) opens
1977 Final European scheduled run of Orient Express (94 years)
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.
2010 Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral, Poland after a 200 year search for his tomb.
*
May 21
1471 King Edward IV enters London
1602 Martha’s Vineyard first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold
1725 The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1840 Captain William Hobson proclaims British sovereignty over New Zealand; the North Island by treaty and the South Island by ‘discovery’
1881 American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton
1927 Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic
1932 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman (Amelia Earhart) lands in Ireland
1981 Francois Mitterrand becomes president of France
1998 Indonesian president Suharto resigns after 31 years in power
*
May 20
1303 Treaty of Paris restores Gascony to the English and arranges for marriage of English Prince Edward to French Princess Isabella
1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India – first European to reach India by sea
1609 Shakespeare’s Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1784 Britain & Netherlands sign peace treaty (Peace of Paris)
1873 Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent first blue jeans with copper rivets
1910 Funeral for Britain’s King Edward VII
1927 At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St Louis (1st non-stop flight)
1932 Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland as the first woman fly solo across Atlantic
1989 China declares martial law in Beijing
2015 Journal Nature publishes findings of the oldest man-made tools from Kenya’s Turkana basin – 3.3 million years, the 1st found to pre-date the Homo genus.
*
May 19
1506 Columbus selects his son Diego as sole heir
1536 Ann of Boleyn, 2nd wife of English King Henry VIII is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason
1568 English Queen Elizabeth I arrests Mary, Queen of Scots
1802 French Order of Legion d’Honneur forms
1897 Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
1930 White women win voting rights in South Africa
1982 Sophia Loren jailed in Naples for tax evasion
1995 World’s youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates Mount Sinai
2009 Sri Lanka announces victory in its 27 year war against the terrorist organisation, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
2015 Historic first handshake between Prince Charles and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams at the National University of Ireland in Galway
*
May 18
1642 Montreal, Canada, founded
1804 Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate
1830 Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for manufacture of his invention, lawn mower.
1860 Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president
1896 Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, results in the deaths of 1,389 people
1897 Irish Music Festival 1st held (Dublin)
1897 “Dracula”, by Irish author Bram Stoker is published by Archibald Constable and Company in London
1934 TWA began commercial service
1952 Professor WF Libby said Stonehedge dates back to 1848 BC
1953 1st woman to break sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochrane, USA)
1980 Mount St Helens blows its top in Washington State, 60 die
*
May 17
1527 Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men – by 1536 only 4 survive
1620 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey)
1733 England passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum & molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
1881 Revised version of New Testament
1897 The first successful submarine that can run submerged for any considerable distance and combines electric and gasoline engines is launched in the USA by its designer John Philip Holland
1916 British Summer Time (Daylight Savings) introduced
1961 Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers
1984 Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
1989 Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa
1990 World Health Organization takes homosexuality out of its list of mental illnesses
*
May 16
1568 Mary Queen of Scotland flees to England
1815 The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.
1817 Mississippi River steamboat service begins
1881 World’s first electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
1911 Remains of a neanderthal man found on Jersey, Channel Islands
1920 Joan of Arc (Jeanne D’arc) canonized a saint
1936 1st British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France
1947 Billie Holiday is arrested in her New York apartment for possession of narcotics
1975 Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach summit of Mt Everest
1991 Queen Elizabeth II becomes 1st British monarch to address US congress
*
May 15
1248 Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden lays cornerstone for Cologne cathedral
1492 Cheese & Bread rebellion: German mercenaries kill 232 residents of Alkmaar, Netherlands
1536 Anne Boleyn & brother George, Lord Rochford, accused of adultery and incest
1718 James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents world’s 1st machine gun
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.
1918 The Finnish Civil War ends.
1928 Mickey Mouse made his 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”
1940 McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
1967 Paul McCartney meets his future wife Linda Eastman
*
May 14
1643 Louis XIV becomes King of France aged 4
1787 Delegates gather in Philadelphia to draw up US constitution
1842 Illustrated London News; the world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper, begins publication
1878 Vaseline is granted a patent (U.S. Patent 127,568)
1939 Lina Medina becomes the world’s youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1943 Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine.
1944 Generals Rommel, Speidel & von Stulpnagel attempt to assassinate Hitler
1968 Beatles announce formation of Apple Corp
1986 Netherlands Institute for War Documentation publishes Anne Frank’s complete diary’
2005 Pope Benedict XVI observes his first beatification, elevating Blessed Marianne of Molokai on the road to canonisation into sainthood.
*
May 13
1110 Crusaders march into Beirut causing a bloodbath
1787 Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia
1848 First performance of Finland’s national anthem.
1940 Winston Churchill says I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears & sweat
1950 Diner’s Club issues its 1st credit cards
1958 The trade mark Velcro is registered.
1965 Rolling Stones record “Satisfaction”
1989 Approx 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China
1995 New Zealand beats US for the America’s Cup
2014 Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa María, is discovered off the northern coast of Haiti
*
May 12
1215 English barons serve ultimatum on King John; leads to Magna Carta
1733 Maria Theresa crowned queen of Bohemia in Prague
1777 1st ice cream advertisement (Philip Lenzi-NY Gazette)
1789 William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in UK House of Commons, reasons the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice
1897 1800-1900 year old fossil of “girl of Yde” found in Drente, Netherlands
1928 Second Opium Law introduced – international law to control drugs
1932 Body of kidnapped son of Charles Lindbergh is found in Hopewell, NJ
1949 1st foreign woman ambassador received in USA (Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India)
1977 1st quadrophonic concert (Pink Floyd in London)
1997 Russia & Chechnya sign peace deal after 400 years of conflict
*
May 11
1189 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa & 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg for the Third Crusade
1812 Waltz introduced into English ballrooms. Some observers consider it disgusting and immoral.
1813 In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth, lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
1833 “Lady-of-the-Lake” strikes iceberg & sinks in N Atlantic; kills 215
1917 King George V grants Royal Letters Patent to New Zealand
1924 Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging the two companies.
1960 The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
1969 Monty Python comedy troupe forms
1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” (based on T. S. Eliot) premieres in London
*
May 10
1503 Columbus discovers Cayman Islands
1752 Benjamin Franklin tests the lightning conductor with his his kite-flying experiment
1796 Napoleon defeats Austria in Battle of Lodi Bridge
1797 1st US Navy ship, the “United States,” is launched
1872 Victoria Woodhull becomes 1st woman nominated for US presidency by Equal Rights Party at Apollo Hall, NYC
1910 Halley’s Comet closest approach to Earth in 1910 pass
1924 J. Edgar Hoover appointed head of FBI
1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister
1993 Paul Cézanne still life painting sells for US$28,600,000 in NYC
1994 Nelson Mandela sworn in as South Africa’s first black president
*
May 09
1386 Treaty of Windsor between Portugal and England (the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force)
1502 Columbus left Spain on his 4th & final trip to New World
1785 British inventor Joseph Bramah patents beer-pump handle
1922 The International Astronomical Union formally adopt Annie Jump Cannon’s stellar classification system, which with only minor changes, is still used today
1927 Canberra replaces Melbourne as the capital of Australia
1932 Piccadilly Circus, London first lit by electricity
1949 Prince Rainier III becomes monarch of Monaco
1960 US becomes the first country to legalise the birth control pill
1962 The Beatles sign their 1st contract with EMI Parlophone
1988 Australia’s new parliament house is opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Canberra
*
May 08
1521 Parliament of Worms installs edict against Martin Luther
1541 Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi River
1847 Scot Robert Thompson patents rubber tyre
1886 Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta sells first Coca-Cola (contained cocaine)
1926 1st flight over North Pole (Bennett & Byrd)
1967 Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in US Army
1980 World Health Organization announced smallpox had been eradicated
1984 Thames Barrier to stop flooding in London officially completed
1984 USSR announces it will not participate in Los Angeles Summer Olympics
1988 Francois Mitterrand elected president of France
2013 Sir Alex Ferguson announces his retirement as Manchester United’s manager at the end of the season
*
May 07
558 In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses.
1660 Isaack B Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni
1664 Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles.
1888 George Eastman patents “Kodak box camera”
1934 World’s largest pearl (6.4 kg) found at Palawan, Philippines
1945 WWII: unconditional German surrender to the Allies signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims
1952 The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer
1993 South Africa agrees to multi-racial elections
1994 Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” is recovered three months after it was stolen
2007 The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered.
*
May 06
1541 King Henry VIII orders bible be placed in every church in England
1682 Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
1833 John Deere makes 1st steel plough
1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair) opens in Paris with the completed Eiffel Tower
1910 George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1937 German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, NJ (36 die)
1950 Elizabeth Taylor (18) marries for the 1st time to hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton (23)
1960 English princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) at Westminster Abbey
1994 Nelson Mandela and the ANC, finally confirmed winners in South Africa’s first post apartheid election
2001 During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
*
May 05
1260 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
1494 On 2nd voyage to New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica
1809 Mary Kies is the first woman issued a US patent (weaving straw)
1891 Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in New York, Tchaikovsky is guest conductor
1925 Afrikaans is established as an official language in South Africa.
1936 Edward Ravenscroft patents screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip
1941 First modern perfume, Chanel No. 5, released.
1944 Gandhi freed from prison
1955 Indian parliament accepts Hindu divorce
2000 Conjunction of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn & Moon
2015 Archaeornithura meemannae, the oldest known prehistoric bird, is discovered
*
May 04
1839 The Cunard Steamship Company Ltd forms San Bonifacio
1896 1st edition of London Daily Mail (halfpenny)
1904 Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England and go on to form Roll-Royce
1910 Wilfrid Laurier passes the Naval Service Act, which creates the Royal Canadian Navy
1927 Nicaragua agrees to a US supervised presidential election in 1928
1932 Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion
1942 Battle of Coral Sea begins in the Pacific (1st sea battle fought solely in air) between Japanese, US and Australian navies and air forces
1953 Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for “The Old Man & The Sea”
1972 The Don’t Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to “Greenpeace Foundation”.
1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
*
May 03
1374 BC Solar eclipse (2m07s) seen at Ugarit by Mesopotamian astromoners “On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame, and went down in the daytime, with Mars in attendance.”
1808 Day depicted by Spanish painter Goya in his “The of 3rd of May” (painted 1814)
1837 The University of Athens is founded.
1841 New Zealand proclaimed a colony independent of New South Wales
1915 John McCrae writes the poem “In Flanders Fields”
1948 1st broadcast of “CBS Evening News” – longest running network news show in the US
1952 1st landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole
1956 A new range of mountains discovered in Antarctica (2 over 13,000′)
1960 The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2000 The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
2013 Aorun zhaoi, a Theropod dinosaur, dating from 161 million years ago, is discovered in China
*
May 02
1497 John Cabot’s expedition departs Bristol searching for new lands across the Atlantic
1536 Anne Boleyn is arrested and taken to the Tower of London
1780 William Herschel discovers 1st binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris
1885 “Good Housekeeping” magazine is 1st published
1905 French newspapers publish lists of Jules Vernes unpublished work
1929 Billie Holiday (14) and her mother are arrested for prostitution following a raid of a brothel in Harlem
1946 The “Battle of Alcatraz” takes place, killing two guards and three inmates
1955 Pulitzer prize awarded Tennessee Williams for (Cat on Hot Tin Roof)
1969 British liner Queen Elizabeth II leaves on maiden voyage to NY
2011 Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI’s most wanted man is killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
*
May 01
1682 Louis XIV & his court inaugurate Paris Observatory
1753 Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
1786 Mozart’s opera “Marriage of Figaro” premieres in Wien (Vienna)
1840 “Penny Blacks”, first adhesive postage stamps issued by Great Britain
1851 Great Exhibition opens in the Crystal Palace, London
1869 Folies Bergère opens in Paris
1912 Beverly Hills Hotel opens
1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”
1966 Last British concert by Beatles (Empire Pool in Wembley)
1997 Tony Blair elected Prime Minister of UK
*