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May 15: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – May 15 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 15th May 1213: Stephen Langton was today named the Arch Bishop of Canterbury by King John of England.
2. 15th May 1248: Arch Bishop Konrad Von Hochstaden, today, laid the cornerstone for Cologne Cathedral.
3. 15th May 1252: The papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes and also limits the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition, was issued today by Pope Innocent IV.
4. 15th May 1492: In what is known as the Cheese and Bread Rebellion, German mercenaries today killed 232 residents of Alkmaar in the Netherlands.
5. 15th May 1536: Queen Anne Boleyn and brother George, Lord of Rochford were today accused of adultery and incest.
6. 15th May 1602: English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold discovered Cape Cod today.
7. 15th May 1610: Lewis VIII was today appointed as the French King by the Parliament of Paris.
8. 15th May 1618: Astronomer Johannes today discovered the Harmonics Law which relates to the orbital period of a planet.
9. 15th May 1625: In Vocklamarkt in Upper Austria, fifteen rebellious farmers were hanged today.
10. 15th May 1648: Spain and Netherlands today ratified the Treaty of Munster.
18th Century – What Happened on May 15 – The 1700s
11. 15th May 1711: “An Essay on Criticism” written by poet Alexander Pope was anonymously published today.
12. 15th May 1718: The World’s first machine gun was today patented by James Puckle, a Lawyer in London.
13. 15th May 1791: An ordinance making a deputy who sat in the Constituent Assembly could not sit in the succeeding assemblies was proposed today by the Revolutionary Maximilian Robespierre.
14. 15th May 1793: In one of the first attempted flights, a glider was flown for about 360 meters at a height of about 6 meters by Diego Martin Aguilera today.
15. 15th May 1796: Napoleon enters Milan today as French troops occupied Milan.
16. 15th May 1796: France and Sardinia signed A peace treaty in Paris today.
19th Century – May 15 This Day That Year – The 1800s
17. 15th May 1800: There was an assassination attempt on King George III which he survived. This was the second assassination attempt on him.
18. 15th May 1800: The French bishops were called upon to return to Gospel principles by Pope Pious VII.
19. 15th May 1817: In Philadelphia today “Asylum for persons deprived of Use of Their Reason”, a private mental hospital was opened today. This has now become “Friends Hospital”.
20. 15th May 1849: A German-American Gymnastic Club, the “PhiladelphiaTurngemeinde” was founded today.
21. 15th May 1856: The second San Francisco Vigilance Committee was organized today.
22. 15th May 1858: At Covent Garden in London, the Royal Italian Opera opened today.
23. 15th May 1862: The US Department of Agriculture was created in the US today.
24. 15th May 1862: In Brooklyn today, the first baseball enclosure was opened at the Union Grounds.
25. 15th May 1862: “Alabama” the Confederate cruiser runs aground near London.
26. 15th May 1864: The Military Institute Cadets repelled a Union attack at the Battle of “New Market”.
27. 15th May 1869: Founded by Susan B Antony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the National Woman Suffragette Association was formed in New York today.
28. 15th May 1878: Japan’s first public trading institution the “Tokyo Stock Exchange” was formed on this day.
29. 15th May 1882: Jews were today banned from living in Rural Romania by Czar Alexander III.
30. 15th May 1883: Italy today signed a military treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany.
31. 15th May 1891: Encyclical Rerum Novarum was published today by Pope Leo XIII.
32. 15th May 1891: “Griselde” Jules Massenet’s opera Premiered today in Paris.
33. 15th May 1891: Operations of the Philips &Co, of Gerard and Anton Philips started operation by producing light bulbs in Holland today.
34. 15th May 1891: The British African Protectorate was formed on this day. This is now called Malawi.
35. 15th May 1896: A tornado struck Texas today killing 78 people.
36. 15th May 1897: In the Greco-Turkish Greek army suffered heavy losses and retreats.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day May 15th – The 1900s
37. 15th May 1902: The revolt in Angola makes Portugal bankrupt.
38. 15th May 1905: Los Vegas was founded today in the state of Nevada.
39. 15th May 1911: The Supreme Court of America dissolved the Standard Oil Company for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
40. 15th May 1911: Indiana University incorporates Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
41. 15th May 1911: The Parliament Bill was today accepted by the British House of Commons.
42. 15th May 1911: Greece bought the “Georgios Averof” cruiser today.
43. 15th May 1914: Bolivia became a signatory today to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
44. 15th May 1915: AT&T today became the first corporation to have one million shareholders.
45. 15th May 1916: Austrian troops Italian front resulting in the fall of Asiago in Italy.
46. 15th May 1916: To quell civil disorder, US Marines today landed in Santo Domingo.
47. 15th May 1917: As part of the country’s war preparations, the first Officer’s Training Camp was opened today in the US.
48. 15th May 1918: The first regular airmail postal service in the US started today between New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
49. 15th May 1918: This day marks the end of the Finnish Civil War.
50. 15th May 1921: To take care of ex-servicemen, the British Legion was formed.
51. 15th May 1921: In the Italian general elections, 15 out of the 535 parliamentary seats were won by the Italian communist party.
52. 15th May 1922: Germany yields to Allied pressure and turns over the Silesia region to Poland despite the plebiscite in favor of merging with Germany.
53. 15th May 1928: In the silent film “Plain Crazy” Mickey Mouse makes his first appearance.
54. 15th May 1929: At the Crile Clinic in Cleveland, a fire broke out in the X-ray film stock killing 125 people.
55. 15th May 1930: The first airline stewardess Ellen Church started her career aboard a flight operated by Boeing Air Transport from Oakland-Chicago.
56. 15th May 1933: The United States Senate uses the voice amplification system for the first time today.
57. 15th May 1934: There was a $25,000 reward offered for John Dillinger dead or alive, by the US Justice Department.
58. 15th May 1935: The Moscow Metro opened to the public today.
59. 15th May 1938: In Belgium, the red coalition was formed by Paul Henry Spak.
60. 15th May 1940: Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the United States today.
61. 15th May 1940: Gen. Winkelman surrendered today and the German troops occupied Amsterdam.
62. 15th May 1940: Germany made progress as its Armoured Division moved into Northern France.
63. 15th May 1940: General Dutch Persbureau captured by the Nazis.
64. 15th May 1940: The “Squalus” was re-commissioned as USS Sailfish (SS 192).
65. 15th May 1940: McDonald’s today opened its first restaurant in San Bernardino California.
66. 15th May 1941: The first turbojet makes its flight today.
67. 15th May 1941: Jewish music was today forbidden by the Nazi occupiers.
68. 15th May 1942: For the first time gasoline was rationed today in the United States.
69. 15th May 1943: U-boat U-463 was sunk today by Halifax bombers.
70. 15th May 1943: The Communist International “Comintern” was today dissolved by the Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin.
71. 15th May 1944: 14,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz from Munkacs in Hungary.
72. 15th May 1944: The D-Day plan was discussed by Eisenhower, Churchill, Montgomery, and George VI.
73. 15th May 1944: Five German soldiers were killed in a partisan attack on a movie theatre.
74. 15th May 1948: Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon attacked Israel just hours after Israel declared its independence.
75. 15th May 1948: Australia created a world record by scoring 721 runs in a single day against Essex. Bradman scored 187 runs in 124 minutes, with 33 fours and a five.
76. 15th May 1949: Amarillo Texas was struck by a major tornado. Six people died, many were injured and over 50 homes were destroyed.
77. 15th May 1952: Johnny Longden rode 4000th winner and became the second jockey to do so.
78. 15th May 1952: Entry of perchlorate and eight other chemicals into local groundwater and American rivers was barred by the California Central Valley Region Water Pollution Control Board by its resolution # 127.
79. 15th May 1955: At Baikonur Kazakhstan, building of the space travel center commenced today.
80. 15th May 1955: The US today performed a nuclear test at the Nevada test site.
81. 15th May 1955: Britain, France, the US, and the USSR signed the Vienna Treaty to re-establish Austria as an independent state.
82. 15th May 1957: At Christmas Island in the South Pacific, a British hydrogen bomb was detonated today. The yield of the bomb was much less than expected.
83. 15th May 1958: On his return from a violence-marred tour of Latin America, Vice-President Nixon received a hero’s welcome.
84. 15th May 1958: The Soviet Union today launched the first space laboratory Sputnik III.
85. 15th May 1962: This day marks the arrival of US Marines at Laos.
86. 15th May 1964: The US today performed its nuclear test at the Nevada test site.
87. 15th May 1965: The Canadian Football Players Association was formed today.
88. 15th May 1970: The International Olympic Committee today voted to expel South Africa.
89. 15th May 1970: Police opened fire during a student protest at Jackson State University, killing two students and injuring 12 others.
90. 15th May 1974: In a school hostage situation near the Lebanon border 16 children were killed by three Lebanese gunmen who were holding the children as hostages.
91. 15th May 1982: In a ground attack in Falkland Island, on Argentine forces, British commandos destroyed 11 aircraft and an ammunition dump.
92. 15th May 1991: President George Bush today took Queen Elizabeth to Oakland A’s Baltimore Oriole game.
93. 15th May 1993: Masked French commandos shot dead Eric Schmitt, who called himself a human bomb, and rescued six girls and their nursery teacher, bringing to an end a two-day hostage crisis in a nursery school in Paris.
94. 15th May 1995: China today performed a nuclear test at Lop Nor, People’s Republic of China.
21st Century – May 15 This Day In History – The 2000s
95. 15th May 2001: After being challenged by the Office of Fair Trading in Britain supermarkets in Britain offered up to 40% discount on the RPM which was said to be artificially kept high.
96. 15th May 2008: Same-sex marriage was legalized in California. It became the second US state to do so. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004.
97. 15th May 2010: Jessica Watson sailed solo non-stop around the world. She was unassisted. At 16 she was the youngest to achieve the feat.
98. 15th May 2012: Greece today failed in its fifth attempt to form a coalition government. A new election is scheduled for June.
99. 15th May 2013: A sixth straight quarter recession was recorded by the Eurozone.
100. 15th May 2017: The North Korean missile test was today condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
101. 15th May 2017: After an outbreak of cholera which killed 115 people, a state of emergency was declared in Sanaa.
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