[Misafir]

Events (May 17th)

• 1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.
• 1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
• 1642 - Paul Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve (1612–1676) founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.
• 1673 - Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
• 1792 - The New York Stock Exchange is formed.
• 1809 - Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.
• 1814 - Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.
• 1814 - The Constitution of Norway is signed and the Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik is elected King of Norway by the Constitutional assembly.
• 1846 - The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.
• 1849 - A fire threatens to burn St. Louis, Missouri, to the ground.
• 1863 - Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.
• 1865 - The International Telegraph Union (the later International Telecommunication Union) is established.
• 1875 - Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.
• 1900 - Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
• 1902 - Archaeologist Spyridon Stais finds the Antikythera mechanism.
• 1915 - The last British Liberal Party government (Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.
• 1919 - Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose Winnipeg General Strike.
• 1933 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.
• 1940 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.
• 1943 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
• 1954 - The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
• 1967 - Six-Day War: President Abdul Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.
• 1969 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
• 1970 - Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1973 - Watergate scandal: Hearings begin in the United States Senate and are televised.
• 1974 - Police in Los Angeles, California, raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.
• 1974 - Thirty-three people are killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.
  
• 1980 - General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.
• 1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
• 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.
• 1987 - An Iraqi fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. warship USS Stark (FFG-31), killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.
• 1992 - In Thailand, the so-called Black May begins. Thai police and protestors start attacking one another. By midnight, the current Thai government declares a state of emergency, and military troops, equipped with M-16 rifles, open fire.
• 1995 - After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac takes office as President of France.
• 1999 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
• 2004 - Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts.

[Misafir]

Events (May 18th)

• 1152 - Henry II marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
• 1268 - The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch; Baibars' destruction of the city of Antioch was so great as to permanently negate the city's importance.
• 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 North America making slavery illegal.
• 1765 - Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec.
• 1783 - First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States.
• 1803 - Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.
• 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.
• 1811 - Las Piedras Battle first great military triumph of the liberating revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay leaded by Jose Artigas.
• 1848 - Opening of the first German National AssemblyNationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany. (
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins, ending on July 4.
• 1869 - Surrender and dissolution of the Ezo Republic to Japan.
• 1876 - Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, Kansas under MarshalLarry Deger.
• 1896 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional.
  
• 1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.
• 1900 - The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
• 1910 - The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
• 1917 - World War I: The Selective Service Act passes the U.S. Congress giving the President 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.
• 1933 - New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• 1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
• 1944 - Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Uniongovernment .
• 1944 - World War II: SS troops burn down six villages in the Brkini hills in south western Slovenia.
  
• 1948 - The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
• 1953 - Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles per hour (1049.835 km/h) at Rogers Dry Lake, California).
• 1958 - An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
• 1959 - Launching of the National Liberation Committee of Côte d'Ivoire in Conakry, Guinea.
• 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches.
• 1974 - Nuclear test: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
• 1974 - Completion of the Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built at the time. It later collapses on August 8, 1991.
• 1980 - 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
• 1980 - Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations, calling for democratic reforms.
• 1980 - Peru: Terrorist group Shining Path attacked a voting poll in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho starting their activities.
• 1983 - In Ireland, scene of remarkable pirate radio broadcasting during the decade, the Government launched a crackdown, with the leading Dublin pirate Radio Nova being put off the air.
• 1992 - The Archivist of the United States issues a proclamation to officially announce that the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been ratified, despite more than 200 years for completion of the ratification process by the state legislatures.
  
• 1995 - Alain Juppé becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1998 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.
• 2004 - Randy Johnson throws the 17th perfect game in Major League Baseball history and became the oldest pitcher to throw a perfect game.

[Misafir]

Events (May 19th)

• 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery.
• 1568 - Queen Elizabeth I of England has Mary Queen of Scots arrested.
• 1604 - The town of Montreal is founded.
• 1643 - Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.
• 1649 - An Act declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
• 1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• 1780 - Never-explained complete darkness falls on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 2 pm.
• 1802 - The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte.
• 1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
• 1848 - Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
• 1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
• 1919 - In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a few followers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1921 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration
• 1922 - Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union is established.
• 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 cross-English Channel landing (D-Day would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather).
• 1960 - Radio personality Alan Freed — aka The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll — is arrested and charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery as part of the government’s payola investigation.
• 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 data).
• 1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday. Thirty-four years later, John F. Kennedy, Jr. had actress Drew Barrymore pose as Monroe for the cover of George magazine with the heading "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in honor of then-President Bill Clinton turning 50.
• 1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1985 - China national football team was eliminated from the preliminary round of FIFA World Cup after being defeated unexpectedly by Hong Kong national football team by 1:2 at Beijing, leading to a local riot by football fans.
• 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is released into theaters worldwide, completing George Lucas' 28 year old saga which first appeared in 1977 and includes 6 episodes.

[Misafir]

Events (May 20th)

• 325 - The First Council of Nicaea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church – is held.
• 526 - An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia.
• 685 - The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
  
• 1217 - The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
• 1293 - King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
• 1497 - John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a 2 May date).
• 1498 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut),India.
  
• 1521 - Battle of Pampeluna; Ignatius Loyola seriously wounded in the battle.
• 1570 - Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
• 1631 - The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.
• 1690 - England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of Catholic James II.
• 1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
  
• 1845 - HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
  
• 1861 - American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
• 1861 - American Civil War: The state of North Carolina secedes from the Union, joining The Confederacy.
• 1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
• 1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
• 1882 - The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed.
• 1883 - The eruption of Krakatoa begins, leading ultimately to the volcano's destruction three months later.
• 1891 - History of cinema: First public display of Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope (shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs).
• 1896 - The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others.
• 1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the first President of Cuba.
• 1916 - The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage").
• 1920 - The Weimarer Nationalversammlung, the national assembly of Germany's Weimar Republic, is permanently dissolved.
• 1920 - Montreal Quebec station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America.
• 1927 - By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged 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 nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, touching 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.
• 1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
• 1949 - In the United States of America, the AFSA (the predecessor of the NSA) is established.
• 1954 - Chiang Kai-shek is selected for another term as President of the Republic of China by the National Assembly
• 1965 - A Pakistani Airlines Boeing 720-B crashes on landing at Cairo airport, killing 121 people.
• 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 virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier[1] and Robert Gallo[2] individually.
• 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.
• 1990 - The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
• 1995 - In a second Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a slight majority the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
• 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 homosexuals.
• 2002 - East Timor becomes independent from Indonesian rule.
• 2006 - The Final of the 51st Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Athens,Greece

[Misafir]

Events (May 21st)

• 996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
• 1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland.
• 1725 - The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I.
• 1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
• 1851 - Abolition of slavery in Colombia, South America.
• 1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
• 1871 - French Government 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.
• 1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique, Chile, battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
• 1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
• 1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
• 1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.
• 1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.
• 1917 - Great Atlanta fire of 1917
• 1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."
• 1927 - Charles Lindbergh touchs down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each 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 became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
• 1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
• 1945 - American screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
• 1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
• 1958 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
• 1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
• 1972 - Michelangelo's Pietà, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is damaged by a vandal.
• 1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
• 1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opens in theaters.
• 1981 - Pierre Mauroy becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
• 1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.
• 1998 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
• 2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashes near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.
• 2001 - French Taubira law which officially recognize the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
• 2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
• 2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
• 2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983
• 2005 - In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece wins the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.
• 2006 - The series finale of Charmed on the WB Television Network.
• 2006 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.