This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

May 7, 1718

The city of New Orleans is founded.

1763

Odawa war chief Pontiac attempts to seize Fort Detroit from the British, leading to Pontiac's War.

1824

World premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna.

1840

The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.

1915

The RMS Lusitania is sunk by the German sub U-20, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans.

1942

During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between the warring ships.

1974

Willy Brandt resigns as West German Chancellor.

1976

The Honda Accord is officially launched.

1998

Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.

2000

Russia inaugurates Vladimir Putin as President.

2004

American businessman Nick Berg, is beheaded by Islamic militants.

2007

The tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.

Births

1812 – Robert Browning; 1833 – Johannes Brahms; 1840 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; 1885 – George "Gabby" Hayes; 1892 – Archibald MacLeish; 1892 – Josip Broz Tito; 1901 – Gary Cooper; 1909 – Edwin H. Land (co-founded Polaroid Corp.); 1919 – Eva Perón; 1922 – Darren McGavin (Kolchak: The Night Stalker); 1923 – Anne Baxter; 1930 – Totie Fields; 1933 – Johnny Unitas; 1946 – Bill Kreutzmann, Jerry Nolan; 1948 – Susan Atkins (follower of Charles Manson); 1950 – Randall "Tex" Cobb (boxer), Tim Russert; 1951 – Bernie Marsden; 1961 – Phil Campbell (Motorhead); 1965 – Owen Hart (wrestler); 1968 – Traci Lords; 1969 – Eagle-Eye Cherry

Deaths

1896 – H. H. Holmes (serial killer); 1998 – Eddie Rabbitt; 2000 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; 2007 – Yahweh ben Yahweh; 2011 – Seve Ballesteros; 2013 – Ray Harryhausen

[DanaC]

This is a fine public service you're performing Grav. Bravo.

[Gravdigr]

I thought maybe it was too much. Too many links?

But, .

Also, I don't know a lot of 'foreign' history, and may not see the significance of some people or happenings that affect(ed)/effect(ed) other countries.

At least someone reads it.

[Clodfobble]

I admit the subject is interesting, but the formatting puts me off. It would be easier to read if the event were on the same line as the year. But no need to do extra work just for me.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

I thought maybe it was too much. Too many links?

But, .

Also, I don't know a lot of 'foreign' history, and may not see the significance of some people or happenings that affect(ed)/effect(ed) other countries.

At least someone reads it.

I don't think it's too many links. I only click on the ones that are of particular interest to me - I expect others would find different things of interest, and those are the ones they'll click on.

I think you have a decent range of events covered.

[xoxoxoBruce]

it's a buffet, choose what you want to consume.

[Gravdigr]

Onward then...



May 8, 1794 - French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, branded a traitor, is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day.

1861 - Richmond, Virginia is named capital of The Confederate States of America.

1877 - The first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is held at Gilmore's Gardens, in New York, New York.

1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.

1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded.

1919 – Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.

1927 – Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.

1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast.

1941 – The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.

1945 - Victory In Europe Day (V-E Day) combat ends in Europe.

Thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1973 – A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.

1976 – The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

1978 – The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.

1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

1984 – The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Thames Barrier is officially opened.

Births

1720 – William Cavendish; 1847 – Oscar Hammerstein I; 1884 – Harry S. Truman; 1895 – Fulton J. Sheen; 1906 – Roberto Rossellini; 1911 – Robert Johnson; 1919 – Lex Barker; 1926 – David Attenborough, Don Rickles; 1937 – Thomas Pynchon; 1940 – Peter Benchley, Ricky Nelson, Toni Tennille (Capt & Tennille); 1941 – James Traficant; 1943 – Paul Samwell-Smith; 1944 – Gary Glitter, Bill Legend; 1950 – Robert Mugge; 1953 – Billy Burnette, Alex Van Halen; 1955 – Stephen Furst ('Flounder' from "Animal House"); 1956 – Jeff Wincott; 1957 – Bill Cowher; 1958 – Lovie Smith; 1960 – Eric Brittingham; 1961 – Bill de Blasio; 1964 – Bobby Labonte; 1973 – Marcus Brigstocke; 1975 – Enrique Iglesias; 1977 – Joe Bonamassa

Deaths

1794 – Antoine Lavoisier; 1880 – Gustave Flaubert; 1903 – Paul Gauguin; 1947 – Harry Gordon Selfridge; 1982 – Neil Bogart, Gilles Villeneuve; 1984 – Lila Bell Wallace (co-founded Reader's Digest); 1985 – Karl Marx; 1988 – Robert A. Heinlein; 1994 – George Peppard; 1999 – Dirk Bogarde; 1999 – Dana Plato ("Diff'rent Strokes"); 2008 – Eddy Arnold; 2012 – Maurice Sendak; 2013 – Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor on "The Young and the Restless"); 2014 – Roger L. Easton (co-inventor of GPS)

[Gravdigr]

May 9

1662 - Mr. Punch, of Punch and Judy, makes his first recorded appearance.

1763 - Chief Pontiac's siege of Fort Detroit begins.

1877 - An 8.8 earthquake off Peru kills 2,541 people, some as far away as Hawaii, and Japan.

1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.

1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine.

1945 – World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France.

The Channel Islands are liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.

1958 – The film "Vertigo" has its world premiere in San Francisco.

1960 – The United States FDA announced it would approve the use of Searle's Enovid for birth control, making it the first oral contraceptive pill.

1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.

Births

1801 – Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood; 1837 – Adam Opel; 1860 – J. M. Barrie; 1873 – Anton Cermak; 1874 – Howard Carter (found King Tut's tomb); 1882 – Henry J. Kaiser; 1918 – Mike Wallace "The Grand Inquisitor"; 1921 – Daniel Berrigan; 1936 – Terry Downes, Albert Finney, Glenda Jackson; 1937 – Sonny Curtis, Dave Prater (Sam & Dave); 1940 – James L. Brooks ("The Simpsons" producer); 1942 – John Ashcroft, Tommy Roe; 1944 – Richie Furay; 1945 – Steve Katz; 1946 – Candice Bergen; 1949 – Billy Joel; 1950 – Tom Petersson; 1960 – Tony Gwynn; 1962 – Dave Gahan; 1984 – Prince Fielder

Deaths

1914 – C. W. Post (cereal guy); 1968 – Harold Gray (created "Little Orphan Annie"); 2010 – Lena Horne; 2012 – Vidal Sassoon; 2013 – George M. Leader (36th Governor of Pennsylvania)

[Gravdigr]

May 10

28 B.C. - The first recorded observation of a sunspot, by Chinese Han Dynasty astronomers.

70 - Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, opens a full-scale assault on Jerusalem.

1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king.

1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz, Spain for his first voyage to the New World.

1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.

1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.

1865 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.

American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.

1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah with the golden spike.

1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.

1904 – The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded. It would eventually become the Audi company.

1916 – Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.

1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.

1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.

1972 – First flight of the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (a.k.a. "Warthog").

1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

2002 – F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow.

2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 65 feet (20 meters) from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.

2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Births

1838 – John Wilkes Booth; 1899 – Fred Astaire; 1902 – David O. Selznick; 1909 – Maybelle Carter "Mother Maybelle"; 1922 – Nancy Walker; 1933 – Barbara Taylor Bradford; 1940 – Wayne Dyer; 1946 – Donovan, Graham Gouldman, Dave Mason; 1955 – Mark David Chapman; 1957 – Sid Vicious; 1958 – Rick Santorum; 1960 – Bono; 1965 – Linda Evangelista; 1975 – Hélio Castroneves; 1978 – Kenan Thompson

Deaths

1774 – Louis XV of France; 1798 – George Vancouver (namesake of Vancouver Island, and Vancouver, British Columbia); 1818 – Paul Revere; 1863 – Stonewall Jackson; 1977 – Joan Crawford; 1994 – John Wayne Gacy; 1999 – Shel Silverstein; 2010 – Frank Frazetta; 2012 – Carroll Shelby; 2015 – Chris Burden

[Gravdigr]

May 11

Only 227 days til Christmas.

1820 – HMS Beagle, the ship that will take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, is launched.

1846 – President James K. Polk asked for and received a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War.

1907 – Thirty-two Shriners are killed when their chartered train derails at a switch near Surf Depot in Lompoc, California.

1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.

1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.

1942 – William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.

1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of its crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under its own power.

1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand, for the second time.

Israel joins the United Nations.

1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.

1972 – The United States performs a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site, which was part of the series Operation Grommet and Operation Toggle.

1984 – Eight people perish in a fire at Six Flags Great Adventure's Haunted Castle.

1985 – Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.

1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.

The 1996 Mount Everest disaster: on a single day eight people die during summit attempts on Mount Everest.

2010 – David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after elections produced a hung parliament.

2014 – Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into the stand by police officers attempting to defuse a hostile incident.

Births

1799 – John Lowell, Jr. (Lowell Institute); 1811 – Chang and Eng Bunker; 1875 – Harriet Quimby; 1888 – Irving Berlin; 1904 – Salvador Dalí; 1911 – Phil Silvers; 1918 – Richard Feynman; 1920 – Denver Pyle; 1927 – Mort Sahl; 1932 – Valentino Garavani; 1934 – Jim Jeffords; 1941 – Eric Burdon; 1946 – Robert Jarvik; 1947 – Butch Trucks (Allman Brothers Band); 1953 – David Gest; 1959 – Martha Quinn; 1964 – Tim Blake Nelson; 1982 – Cory Monteith; 1989 – Cam Newton

Deaths

1889 – John Cadbury; 1891 – Edmond Becquerel; 1979 – Lester Flatt; 1981 – Bob Marley; 1985 – Chester Gould (created "Dick Tracy"); 2001 – Douglas Adams; 2003 – Noel Redding; 2006 – Floyd Patterson

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

May 11

Only 227 days til Christmas.

Fuck off. Just fuck right off.

[BigV]

I've been onboard the QE2.

Also, I like this thread.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The QE II is very impressive, had a chance to take the tour when my mother and brother sailed to England on her. My father flew over and met them, because he had sailed on the QE I, along with a shitload of other GIs, and didn't like it one damn bit.

[glatt]

I've walked alongside the QEII.

It was docked at the time.

[Gravdigr]

May 12

1926 – The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.

1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Jr., is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.

1935 – Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (founders of Alcoholics Anonymous) meet for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Siberling.

1937 – The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Westminster Abbey.

1942 – World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.

1957 – Alfonso de Portago crashes during the Mille Miglia, killing himself, his co-driver, Ed Nelson and ten spectators – five of whom were children.

1981 – Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign for political prisoner status to be granted to Provisional IRA prisoners.

1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an "agent of Moscow".

1986 – NBC debuts the current well-known peacock as seen in the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration.

1989 – The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people. A week later an underground gasoline pipeline, damaged by earth moving equipment during crash clean-up, explodes killing two more people.

2008 – An ~8.0 earthquake occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

2015 – A train derailment in Philadelphia kills 8 people and injures over 200.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake and six major aftershocks hit Nepal, killing over 200 people.

Births

1820 – Florence Nightingale; 1850 – Henry Cabot Lodge; 1889 – Otto Frank (father of Anne Frank); 1907 – Katharine Hepburn; 1911 – Charles Biro (Daredevil Comics); 1918 – Mary Kay Ash, Julius Rosenberg; 1925 – Yogi Berra; 1928 – Burt Bacharach; 1935 – Felipe Alou; 1936 – Tom Snyder; 1937 – George Carlin; 1942 – Billy Swan; 1945 – Ian McLagan; 1948 – Steve Winwood; 1950 – Bruce Boxleitner, Gabriel Byrne, Billy Squier; 1958 – Eric Singer (KISS drummer); 1959 – Ray Gillen, Ving Rhames; 1961 – Billy Duffy; 1962 – Emilio Estevez; 1966 – Stephen Baldwin; 1968 – Tony Hawk; 1969 – Kim Fields ('Tootie' from "Facts of Life"); 1970 – Jim Furyk, Samantha Mathis, Mike Weir; 1978 – Jason Biggs

Deaths

1864 – J. E. B. Stuart; 1925 – Amy Lowell; 1944 – Max Brand; 1957 – Erich von Stroheim; 1992 – Robert Reed (father on "The Brady Bunch"); 2000 – Adam Petty; 2001 – Perry Como, Alexei Tupolev (designed the Tu-144); 2014 – H. R. Giger