This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

May 13

1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially married at Greenwich.

1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in early Tennessee.

1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.

The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.

1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.

1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.

1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.

1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.

1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.

1954 – The original Broadway production of "The Pajama Game" opens and runs for another 1,063 performances.

1958 – The trademark Velcro is registered.

Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.

1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland is decided.

1972 – The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.

1985 – Police release a bomb on MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.

1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.

1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.

1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

2000 – In Enschede, The Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage.

2012 – 49 dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.

2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners.

Births

1914 – Joe Louis; 1922 – Bea Arthur; 1923 – Red Garland; 1931 – Jim Jones; 1939 – Harvey Keitel; 1941 – Ritchie Valens; 1943 – Mary Wells; 1945 – Magic Dick; 1949 – Franklyn Ajaye; 1950 – Danny Kirwan, Stevie Wonder; 1952 – John Kasich; 1961 – Dennis Rodman; 1964 – Stephen Colbert; 1966 – Lee Altus, Darius Rucker; 1967 – Chuck Schuldiner; 1969 – Buckethead; 1977 – Samantha Morton; 1986 – Lena Dunham

Deaths

1884 – Cyrus McCormick (co-founded International Harvester); 1961 – Gary Cooper; 1972 – Dan Blocker; 1975 – Bob Wills; 1977 – Mickey Spillane (the mobster, not the author); 1988 – Chet Baker; 1999 – Gene Sarazen; 2000 – Paul Bartel; 2001 – Jason Miller (Father Damian in "The Exorcist"); 2005 – Eddie Barclay; 2012 – Donald "Duck" Dunn

[glatt]

1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.

Cool story. I never heard this one.

[Gravdigr]

I also found that one interesting. I've read about him before, but, I keep forgetting.

[glatt]

They could make that into a screenplay and a decent movie if they threw a little background story in there too, and maybe a love interest.

It's like an episode of Horatio Hornblower.

[xoxoxoBruce]

There was a love interest, his wife and family.

[Gravdigr]

May 14

1607 – Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.

1787 – In Philadelphia, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States; George Washington presides.

1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.

1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.

1897 – "The Stars and Stripes Forever" is first performed in public near Willow Grove Park, in Philadelphia.

1925 – Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs Dalloway" is published.

1939 – Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.

1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

1988 – Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, United States hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.

Births

1727 – Thomas Gainsborough; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Peace; 1885 – Otto Klemperer; 1921 – Richard Deacon; 1925 – Oona O'Neill (daughter of Eugene Oneill, wife of Charlie Chaplin); 1932 – Richard Estes; 1936 – Bobby Darin; 1943 – Jack Bruce; 1944 – George Lucas; 1951 – Robert Zemeckis; 1952 – Michael Fallon; 1953 – Tom Cochrane; 1961 – Tim Roth (Mr. Orange); 1962 – Ian Astbury, C.C. DeVille, Danny Huston; 1964 – James M. Kelly (Shuttle astronaut), Eric Peterson; 1966 – Mike Inez; 1967 – Tony Siragusa; 1969 – Cate Blanchett; 1971 – Sofia Coppola; 1979 – Dan Auerbach; 1983 – Frank Gore, Amber Tamblyn; 1984 – Mark Zuckerberg; 1986 – Clay Matthews; 1989 – Rob Gronkowski

Deaths

1610 – Henry IV of France; 1643 – Louis XIII of France; 1919 – Henry J. Heinz; 1925 – H. Rider Haggard; 1968 – Husband E. Kimmel; 1970 – Billie Burke; 1976 – Keith Relf; 1982 – Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver); 1987 – Rita Hayworth; 1992 – Lyle Alzado; 1993 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr.; 1997 – Harry Blackstone Jr.; 1998 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Frank Sinatra; 2003 – Wendy Hiller, Robert Stack; 2004 – Anna Lee (Lila Quartermaine on "General Hospital"; 2015 – B.B. King

[Gravdigr]

May 15

1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death.

1602 – Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first recorded European to see Cape Cod.

1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun, the Puckle gun.

1776 – American Revolution: The Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.

1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5–6 meters, during one of the first attempted manned flights.

1800 – King George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity.

1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.

1905 – Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.

1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft.

1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

1953 – The first pinewood derby is held.

1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.

1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.

1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals.

1972 – In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while he is campaigning to become President.

1988 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdrawal 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

2006 – Cloud Gate was formally dedicated in Chicago's Millennium Park.

Births

1567 – Claudio Monteverdi; 1856 – L. Frank Baum; 1902 – Richard J. Daley; 1905 – Joseph Cotten; 1905 – Abraham Zapruder; 1909 – James Mason; 1918 – Eddy Arnold; 1931 – Ken Venturi; 1936 – Wavy Gravy, Ralph Steadman; 1937 – Madeleine Albright; 1940 – Roger Ailes, Lainie Kazan; 1945 – Jerry Quarry; 1948 – Brian Eno; 1951 – Dennis Frederiksen; 1952 – Chazz Palminteri; 1956 – Dan Patrick; 1969 – Emmitt Smith; 1976 – Ryan Leaf; 1981 – Jamie-Lynn Sigler; 1987 – Andy Murray

Deaths

1886 – Emily Dickinson; 1948 – Edward J. Flanagan (founded Boys Town); 1967 – Edward Hopper; 2003 – June Carter Cash; 2007 – Jerry Falwell

[DanaC]

Wow - the Puckle gun is fascinating. I heartily recommend the wiki page yo've linked to. Really interesting. I hadn't heard of it before (probably because it didn't make into regular usage in the British forces).

[Gravdigr]

Based your recommendation, Dana, I've added a link to to the Wiki article about the Puckle gun itself.

[DanaC]

Nice one, Grav.

Weaponry from this period is really interesting. There's a link on that wiki page to an older design for a repeating firearm that was much lesslike a 'machine gun' but actually allowed for faster firing. Trouble was it was way expensive to make, and way to sensitive to adverse conditions. basically, the slightest damp on the powdr woud totally bollox the gun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalthoff_repeater

No good for mainstream army use, because of the way firearms were mass produced and distributed. Basically - for largescale use, the separate coponents were each mass produced and then assembled, but with something like the Kalthoff repeater, the tolerance for any size or shape variation was so tiny, it just woldn't have worked on that scale. For the standard musket there would still have been problems mixing and matching components, but they had greater tolerance for variation, so far fewer rejected components. Also, much more reliable in adverse weather conditions. Even so, there are countless examples of inadequate guns, and rejected components.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Puckle demonstrated two versions of the basic design: one, intended for use against Christian enemies, fired conventional round bullets, while the second variant, designed to be used against the Muslim Turks, fired square bullets which were considered to be more damaging and would, according to its patent, convince the Turks of the "benefits of Christian civilization."

[Gravdigr]

May 16

1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.

1866 – The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

1868 – United States President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.

1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world's first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).

1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.

1919 – A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards are awarded.

1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

1975 – Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

Births

1801 – William H. Seward (Seward's Folly); 1824 – Levi P. Morton; 1861 – H. H. Holmes (serial killer); 1905 – Henry Fonda; 1912 – Studs Terkel; 1913 – Woody Herman; 1919 – Liberace; 1921 – Harry Carey, Jr.; 1928 – Billy Martin; 1931 – Jack Dodson (Howard Sprague on The Andy Griffith Show); 1944 – Danny Trejo; 1946 – Roger Earl (Foghat); 1947 – Darrell Sweet (Nazareth); 1953 – Pierce Brosnan; 1955 – Olga Korbut; 1959 – Mare Winningham; 1964 – John Salley; 1964 – Boyd Tinsley (violinist for DMB); 1965 – Krist Novoselic; 1966 – Janet Jackson; 1969 – David Boreanaz, Tucker Carlson; 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini; 1986 – Megan Fox

Deaths

1920 – Levi P. Morton; 1953 – Django Reinhardt; 1955 – James Agee; 1956 – H. B. Reese (created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups); 1957 – Eliot Ness; 1984 – Andy Kaufman; 1984 – Irwin Shaw; 1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson; 2000 – Bodacious (American rodeo bull); 2010 – Ronnie James Dio; 2012 - Chuck Brown ("the Godfather of Go-go"); 2013 – Dick Trickle (snicker)

[Gravdigr]

May 17

1536 – The annulment of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s marriage.

1590 – Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.

1673 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.

1875 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.

1943 – World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.

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 Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

1970 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

1974 – The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. It is the deadliest attack of the Troubles and the deadliest terrorist attack in the Republic's history. There are allegations that British state forces were involved.

Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1983 – The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request.

1987 – An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

1995 – Shawn Nelson steals a tank from a military installation and goes on a rampage in San Diego resulting in a 25-minute police chase. Nelson is killed by an officer after the tank got stuck on a concrete barrier.

2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.

2015 – At least nine people are killed and 18 injured, some by law enforcement and others in gunfire exchanges, in a shootout between rival biker gangs in Waco, Texas.

Births

1866 – Erik Satie; 1868 – Horace Elgin Dodge; 1931 – Marshall Applewhite (Heaven's Gate cult leader); 1934 – Ronald Wayne (co-founder Apple Inc); 1936 – Dennis Hopper; 1942 – Taj Mahal (the musician, not the tomb); 1942 – Al White (jive talker on "Airplane!"); 1944 – Jesse Winchester; 1949 – Bill Bruford; 1956 – Sugar Ray Leonard, Bob Saget; 1958 – Paul Di'Anno (Iron Maiden); 1959 – Jim Nantz; 1961 – Enya; 1962 – Craig Ferguson; 1965 – Trent Reznor; 1966 – Qusay Hussein (Saddam's boy); 1967 – Paul D'Amour (Tool); 1973 – Sasha Alexander (NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles); 1973 – Josh Homme; 1976 – Kandi Burruss

Deaths

1510 – Sandro Botticelli; 1829 – John Jay; 1875 – John C. Breckinridge; 1879 – Asa Packer (founder Lehigh University); 1886 – John Deere; 1911 – Frederick August Otto Schwarz (FAO Schwarz); 1985 – Abe Burrows; 1992 – Lawrence Welk; 1996 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson; 2004 – Tony Randall; 2005 – Frank Gorshin (The Riddler); 2011 – Harmon Killebrew; 2012 – Donna Summer; 2013 – Alan O'Day (Undercover Angel); 2013 – Ken Venturi; 2014 – Miss Beazley (GWBush's Scottish Terrier)

[Gravdigr]

May 18

1652 – Rhode Island passes the first law in English-speaking North America making slavery illegal.

1756 – The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France.

1860 – Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.

1896 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.

1896 – Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.

1910 – The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1933 – New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

1944 – World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.

1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

1958 – An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).

1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

1983 – In Ireland, the government launches a crackdown, with the leading Dublin pirate Radio Nova being put off the air.

1990 – In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph).

2005 – A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.

Births

1048 – Omar Khayyám; 1822 – Mathew Brady; 1850 – Oliver Heaviside (Kennelly-Heaviside Layer); 1897 – Frank Capra; 1911 – Big Joe Turner; 1912 – Richard Brooks, Perry Como; 1920 – Pope John Paul II; 1922 – Kai Winding; 1928 – Pernell Roberts; 1931 – Don Martin (cartoonist Mad Magazine); 1943 – Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka; 1946 – Reggie Jackson; 1947 – Gail Strickland (The Drowning Pool); 1949 – Rick Wakeman; 1950 – Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo); 1952 – George Strait (King George); 1955 – Chow Yun-fat; 1970 – Tina Fey; 1975 – Jack Johnson; 1993 – Jessica Watson

Deaths

1808 – Elijah Craig (May God bless and keep him); 1911 – Gustav Mahler; 1927 – Andrew Kehoe (mass murderer - Bath School Disaster, Bath, Michigan); 1955 – Mary McLeod Bethune; Harry Randall Truman (American owner and caretaker of Mount St. Helens Lodge); 1988 – Daws Butler (voice of Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound); 1990 – Jill Ireland; 1992 – Skip Stephenson; 1995 – Elisha Cook, Jr.; 1995 – Elizabeth Montgomery ("Bewitched"); 2009 – Wayne Allwine (voice of Mickey Mouse for 32 years - yes, I sang the song as I typed 'Mickey Mouse'); 2012 – Peter Jones; 2012 – Alan Oakley (designed the Raleigh Chopper); 2013 – Steve Forrest; 2014 – Jerry Vale

[Gravdigr]

May 19

1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.

1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.

1780 – New England's Dark Day: A combination of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover causes complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 10:30 A.M.

1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England. The entire expedition, 129 men, is lost.

1848 – Mexican–American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million.

1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.

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 Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.

1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".

1984 – Michael Larson, a contestant on the television game show Press Your Luck exploits a bug in the prize board, and wins over US$110,000.

Births

1795 – Johns Hopkins; 1861 – Nellie Melba (Melba Toast, Peach Melba); 1870 – Albert Fish (serial killer); 1890 – Ho Chi Minh; 1925 – Pol Pot; 1925 – Malcolm X; 1928 – Colin Chapman (founded Lotus); 1934 – Jim Lehrer; 1935 – David Hartman; 1939 – Dick Scobee; 1941 – Nora Ephron; 1945 – Pete Townshend; 1946 – André the Giant; 1947 – Steve Currie; 1948 – Grace Jones; 1949 – Dusty Hill (ZZTop); 1949 – Archie Manning; 1951 – Joey Ramone; 1953 – Jimmy Thackery; 1953 – Victoria Wood; 1954 – Phil Rudd (AC/DC); 1956 – Steven Ford; 1959 – Nicole Brown Simpson; 1968 – Kyle Eastwood (one of Clint's boys)

Deaths

1536 – Anne Boleyn; 1795 – Josiah Bartlett (signatory of the Declaration of Independence); 1864 – Nathaniel Hawthorne; 1935 – T. E. Lawrence; 1946 – Booth Tarkington; 1971 – Ogden Nash; 1994 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; 2014 – Jack Brabham