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Events in History for Friday 15th May 2015

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Today's Significant Events

1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.

1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers harmonics law
1730 - Robert Walpole becomes effectively Britain's 1st prime minister (was: chief min)

1869 - National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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

1988 - USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan

Today's Historical Events

Events 1 - 260 of 260

756 - Abd-al-Rahman I becomes emir of Cordova, Spain
884 - Marinus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1004 - Henry II the Saint crowned king of Italy
1213 - King John of England names Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury
1248 - Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden lays cornerstone for Cologne cathedral
1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.
1492 - Cheese & Bread rebellion: German mercenaries kill 232 residents of Alkmaar, Netherlands
1514 - Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo's Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work.
1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen: German peasant army surrounded, 5,000 slaughtered ; ends the peasants' uprising

Queen Anne Boleyn1536 - Anne Boleyn & brother George, Lord Rochford, accused of adultery and incest
1572 - Louis van Nassau & huguenots occupy Valenciennes
1602 - Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold
1610 - Parliament of Paris appoints Louis XIII (8) as French king
1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers harmonics law
1625 - 16 rebellious farmers hanged in Vocklamarkt, Upper-Austria
1648 - Treaty of Munster ratified by Spain & Netherlands
1665 - Pope Alexander VII appoints committe to investigate Jansenism
1672 - 1st copyright law enacted by Massachusetts
1701 - The War of the Spanish Succession begins.
1711 - Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism" is published anonymously
1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents world's 1st machine gun

Poet Alexander Pope1730 - Robert Walpole becomes effectively Britain's 1st prime minister (was: chief min)
1791 - Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.
1793 - Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 metres", at a height of 5-6 metres, during one of the first attempted flights.
1796 - France & Sardinia sign Peace treaty of Paris
1796 - French troops occupy Milan
1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.
1800 - King George III survives a 2nd assassination attempt
1800 - Pope Pius VII calls on French bishops to return to Gospel principles
1817 - Ambonese uprising against Dutch authority (modern Indonesia), under Thomas Matulesia (aka Kapitan Pattimura)
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.

Religious Leader Joseph Smith Jr1829 - Joseph Smith ordained by John the Baptist according to Joseph Smith
1836 - Francis Baily observes "Baily's Beads" during annular solar eclipse
1849 - Philadelphia Turngemeinde founded
1851 - Rama IV, [Phra Chomklao Chaoyuhua], king of Thai (1851-68), crowned
1856 - 2nd SF Vigilance Committee organized
1858 - Royal Italian Opera opens in Covent Garden London
1862 - -May 17] Battle of Princeton WV
1862 - Battle of Drewry's Bluff (Ft Darling), Virginia
1862 - Confederate ship Alabama launched as the Enrica at Birkenhead, England, where she had been built in secret
1862 - US Department of Agriculture created
1862 - Major Gen Benjamin F Butler issues order (New Orleans) that confederate women abusing union soldiers be treated as whores
1862 - Union Grounds, Brooklyn, 1st baseball enclosure, opens
1864 - Battle of New Market, Virginia
1864 - Skirmish at Marksville (Avoyelles) (Red River Campaign)
1868 - Dutch government of Zuylen van Nijevelt falls

Women's Rights Activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton1869 - National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1876 - 2nd Kentucky Derby: Bobby Swim aboard Vagrant wins in 2:38.25
1882 - May Laws-Tsar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania
1883 - Italy signs military treaty with Austria-Hungary & Germany
1885 - Canadian Meti insurgent Louis Reil captured, Saskatchewan
1891 - British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) forms
1891 - Jules Massenet's opera "Griselde" premieres in Paris
1891 - Operations begin at Philips & Co in Holland
1891 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Rerum novarum
1894 - 20th Kentucky Derby: Frank Goodale aboard Chant wins in 2:41
1896 - Tornado kills 78 in Texas
1897 - The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in the Greco-Turkish War.
1902 - Lyman Gilmore is 1st person to fly a powered craft
1902 - Portugal bankrupt by revolt in Angola
1905 - Las Vegas Nevada founded
1905 - Pierre de Brazza reaches Leopoldville
1906 - NY Giants' Hooks Wiltse strikes out 4 batters in 1 inning
1910 - The last time a major earthquake happened on the Elsinore Fault Zone.
1911 - British House of Commons accept Parliament Bill
1911 - Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Indiana University, incorporates
1911 - Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil (Sherman Antitrust Act)
1911 - The Georgios Averof cruiser is bought by Greece.
1912 - 37th Preakness: Clarnence Turner on Colonel Holloway wins in 1:56.6

MLB Legend Ty Cobb1912 - Ty Cobb rushes a heckler at a NY Highlander game & is suspended
1914 - Henri Rabaud's opera "Marouf, Savetier de Caire" premieres in Paris
1914 - Bolivia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1914 - US Colonel Edward House sails for Europe to persuade major powers to reduce armies and navies; from Germany, House reports: 'Everybody's nerves are tense; it only needs a spark to set the whole thing off'
1915 - AT&T becomes 1st corporation to have 1 million stockholders
1916 - Asiago, Italy, falls when Austrian troops attack the Italian front
1916 - Claiming that the USA must act to quell dangerous disorder, the government orders US Marines to land in Santo Domingo; the American occupation will continue until 1924
1917 - The first officer's training camp is opened in the US, as the country prepares for war
1918 - 1st airmail postal service (NY, Phila & Wash DC)
1918 - 1st regular airmail service (between NY & Wash) inaugurated
1918 - 43rd Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard War Cloud wins in 1:53.6
1918 - 44th Preakness: Charles Peak aboard Jack Hare Jr wins in 1:53.4
1918 - Greeks troops lands at Smyrna

MLB Pitcher Walter Johnson1918 - Washington Senator Walter Johnson pitches 1-0, 18 inning game
1918 - The Finnish Civil War ends.
1919 - Brooklyn Dodgers score 10 runs in 13th to beat Reds 10-0
1920 - Soccer team ADO '20 forms in Heemskerk
1922 - Germany turns over the Upper Silesia region to Poland under Allied pressure and despite a plebiscite in favor of merging with Germany
1923 - Cooperation of Dutch Molen forms
1926 - 52nd Kentucky Derby: Albert Johnson on Bubbling Over wins in 2:03.8
1928 - Mickey Mouse made his 1st ever appearance in silent film "Plane Crazy"
1929 - Fire in X-ray film stock kills 125 at Crile Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio)
1930 - Ellen Church becomes 1st airline stewardess, United (SF to Cheyenne)
1931 - Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Quadragesimo anno
1932 - The 15th May Incident: in an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
1933 - 1st voice amplification system to be used in US Senate
1934 - US Department of Justice offers $25,000 reward for Dillinger, dead or alive
1934 - Karlis Ulmanis names himself fascist dictator of Latvia
1935 - Pirates beat Phillies 20-5
1935 - The Moscow Metro is opened to public.
1936 - Amy Johnson arrives in Croydon England from S Afr in record 4d16h
1937 - 63rd Preakness: Charley Kurtsinger aboard War Admiral wins in 1:58.4
1938 - Paul-Henri Spak forms red coalition of Belgium
1940 - German armoured division moves into Northern France
1940 - German troops occupy Amsterdam, Gen Winkelman surrenders
1940 - Nazis capture General Dutch Persbureau (ANP)
1940 - USS Sailfish (SS-192) recomisioned, origionaly the Squalus.
1940 - McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
1941 - 1st British turbojet flies
1941 - British attack Halfaya-pass & Fort Capuzzo in Egypt & Libya

Baseball Player Joe DiMaggio1941 - Joe DiMaggio starts 56-game hitting streak; Yanks lose 13-1
1941 - Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid Jewish music
1942 - Gasoline 1st rationed in US (17 Eastern States)
1942 - Nazi occupiers in Netherlands arrest 2,000 Dutch officers
1943 - Halifax bombers sinks U-463
1943 - Warsaw ghetto uprising ends in its destruction
1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).
1944 - 14,000 Jews of Munkacs, Hungary, deported to Auschwitz
1944 - Cincinnati Red Clyde Shoun no-hits Boston Braves, 1-0
1944 - Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill & George VI discuss D-Day plan
1944 - Sergei Aleksi becomes guardian of Patriarch Throne
1945 - World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
1948 - 28 year old British Mandate over Palestine ends

34th US President & WWII General Dwight D. Eisenhower1948 - 74th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Citation wins in 2:02.4
1948 - Australia scores 721 runs in one day v Essex, world record
1948 - Bradman scores 187 Aust v Essex, 124 minutes, 33 fours 1 five
1948 - Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Saudi-Arabia troops attack Israel
1951 - AT&T is 1st US company to have one million stockholders
1951 - The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.
1952 - Detroit Tiger Virgil Trucks no-hits Wash Senators, 1-0
1952 - Johnny Longden becomes 2nd jockey to ride 4,000 winners
1953 - Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano KOs Jersey Joe Walcott in Chicago
1953 - Osip Zadkine's monument to "The destroyed city" unveiled in Rotterdam
1954 - KGLO (now KIMT) TV channel 3 in Mason City, IA (CBS) 1st broadcast
1955 - Building of space travel center at Baikonur Kazachstan begins
1955 - KPUA (now KGMD) TV channel 9 in Hilo, HI (CBS) begins broadcasting

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano1955 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1955 - Vienna Treaty: Britain, France, US & USSR restore Austria's independence
1955 - The first ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.
1957 - 18,000 people at Madison Sq Garden-Billy Graham launched a crusade
1957 - 1st British H-bomb explosion (over Christmas Island)
1958 - USSR launches Sputnik III
1959 - 100th anniversary of 1st college baseball game, between Amherst & Williams Teams reenact the original contest
1960 - Chic Cub Don Cardwell no-hits St Louis Cards, 4-0
1960 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's 7th String quartet premieres in Leningrad
1960 - KHVO TV channel 13 in Hilo, HI (ABC) begins broadcasting
1960 - Sputnik 4 launched into Earth orbit; later recovery failed
1960 - Taxes took 25% of earnings in US
1961 - "Bonanza" by Al Caiola Orchestra hits #19
1961 - 36 Unification church couples wed in Korea

Pope John XXIII1961 - Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Mater et Magistra
1962 - US marines arrive in Laos
1963 - Last Project Mercury flight, L Gordon Cooper in Faith 7, launched
1963 - Peter, Paul & Mary win their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer)
1963 - Tottenham Hotspur of England win 3rd European Cup winner's Cup against Atlético Madrid of Spain 5-1 at Rotterdam
1963 - 5th Grammy Awards: I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Robert Goulet wins
1964 - Sporting Portugal win 4th European Cup Winner's Cup against MTK Budapest of Hungry 1-0 at Antwerp (replay)
1964 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1965 - 91st Preakness: Ron Turcotte aboard Tom Rolfe wins in 1:56.2
1965 - Canadian Football Players Association organizes
1965 - Igor Vodic beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ

American Singer and Actor Robert Goulet1966 - 1st day of Sunday play in County Cricket, Essex v Somerset
1966 - Clifford Ann Creed wins LPGA Dallas Civitan Golf Invitational
1966 - South Vietnamese army battle Buddhists, about 80 die
1967 - Jo Ann Prentice wins LPGA Dallas Civitan Golf Open
1967 - Paul McCartney meets his future wife Linda Eastman
1967 - "In re Gault", US Supreme Court rules juveniles accused of crimes should be given same legal rights as adults
1968 - "Wonderwall" with George Harrison premieres at Cannes Film Festival
1968 - 1st AL game played in Milwaukee, is a 4-2 California win against Chicago
1968 - A tornado strikes Jonesboro Arkansas at 10 PM, killing 36
1968 - Paul McCartney & John Lennon appear on Johnny Carson Show to promote Apple records, Joe Garagiola is substitute host
1969 - Associate Justice Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court
1970 - Elizabeth Hoisington & Anna Mae Mays named 1st female US generals

Musician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartney1970 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1970 - Mississippi Highway Patrol kills 2 at Jackson State College
1970 - South-Africa excluded from Olympic play
1971 - "70, Girls, 70" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 35 performances
1971 - 97th Preakness: Gustavo Avila aboard Canonero II wins in 1:54
1971 - Radio Nordsee International's ship bombed
1971 - Irish Republican Army member William 'Billy' Reid is shot dead by British soldiers in Belfast
1972 - Assassination attempt on US Governor George Wallace of Alabama by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, Md
1972 - "Hard Job Being God" opens at Edison Theater NYC for 6 performances
1972 - Bus plunges into Nile River killing 50 pilgrims. (Minia Egypt)
1972 - Ryukyu Is & Daito Is returned to Japan after 27 yrs of US control
1972 - The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

MLB Pitching Legend Nolan Ryan1973 - California Angel Nolan Ryan's 1st no-hitter beats KC Royals, 3-0
1974 - Mail truck terrorists take school in Maalot, 30 killed
1974 - Walter Scheel succeeds Heinemann as president
1974 - Ma'alot massacre: A total of 31 people, including hostage takers, are killed.
1974 - Beginning of the Ulster Workers' Council strike called by Ulster loyalists and unionists who were against the Sunningdale Agreement, which proposed the sharing of political power with Irish nationalists
1975 - 11th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 9-4
1975 - Emmy 2nd Daytime Award & Emmy News & Documentaries Award presentation
1976 - 102nd Preakness: John Lively aboard Elocutionist wins in 1:55
1976 - Emmy Creative Arts Award presentation
1976 - Fonz Song by Heyettes hits #91
1976 - Kentucky Moonrunner by Cledus Maggard hits #85
1976 - The Ulster Volunteer Force launch gun and bomb attacks on 2 pubs in County Armagh, killing 4 Catholic civilians and wounding many more; a British Army soldier is later convicted for taking part in the attacks
1976 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army kill 3 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers in County Fermanagh and 1 in County Down
1977 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Greater Baltimore Golf Classic
1980 - 1st trans-US balloon crossing
1980 - Flyers score 8 goals against Islanders in playoffs
1980 - Shawn Weatherly, (SC (will win Miss Universe), crowned 29th Miss USA
1981 - "Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" airs
1981 - 2nd City TV's (SCTV) network premier (NBC)

Singer-Songwriter George Harrison1981 - George Harrison releases "All Those Years Ago" in UK
1981 - Len Barker of Cleveland pitches perfect game vs Toronto
1981 - SCTV Network 90, sequel to Second City Television, debuts on NBC
1981 - Soyuz 40 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Romanian) to Salyut 6
1982 - 108th Preakness: Jack Kaenel aboard Aloma's Ruler wins in 1:55.4
1983 - Lenore Muraoka wins LPGA United Virginia Bank Golf Classic
1983 - Madison Hotel (Boston) destroyed by implosion
1985 - Everton of England wins 25th European Cup Winner's Cup against Rapid Wien of Austria 3-1 in Rotterdam
1986 - Argentine ex-president Galtieri sentenced to 12 years
1987 - 1st Energiya Launch (USSR)
1987 - Record archery score for a pair over 24 hrs, is set
1988 - "Carrie" closes at Virginia Theater NYC after 5 performances
1988 - "Gospel at Colonus" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 61 perfs

Actor & Comedian Robin Williams1988 - 2nd American Comedy Award: Robin Williams & Tracey Ullman
1988 - USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan
1988 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Chrysler-Plymouth Golf Classic
1989 - "Chu Chem" closes at Ritz Theater NYC after 44 performances
1989 - Blue Jays fire manager Jimy Williams & replace him with Cito Gaston
1989 - Soviet Pres Gorbachev in Beijing for 1st Sino-Soviet summit in 30 yrs
1989 - US Basketball League cancels its summer schedule
1989 - Maxwell House coffee runs ads during "Roe vs Wade" movie despite threat of boycott by right-to-lifers
1990 - "Cemetery Club" opens at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC for 56 perfs
1990 - "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" by Vincent van Gogh sold for $82.5 million
1990 - Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,822.45
1990 - Edmonton Oiler Klima beats Boston Bruins in 6th period
1990 - Mona Grudt, 19, of Norway, crowned 39th Miss Universe

Artist and painter Vincent van Gogh1991 - Defense releases docs claiming Noriega is "CIA's man in Panama"
1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's 1st female premier
1991 - Manchester United of England win 31th European Cup Winner's Cup against Barcelona 2-1 in Rotterdam
1991 - Nepal premier Bhattarai resigns
1991 - President Bush takes Queen Elizabeth to Oakland A's-Balt Oriole game
1991 - Red Sox & White Sox play then slowest 9 inning game (4:11)
1992 - Colombo '92 opens in Genoa Italy
1992 - NY dept store chain Alexanders announces closing of all 11 stores
1992 - Part of Cruger Avenue in Bronx renamed Regis Philbin Avenue
1993 - 119th Preakness: Mike Smith aboard Prairie Bayou wins in 1:56.6
1993 - Alamodome in San Antonio TX opens
1993 - Montreal Expo retires their 1st #, #10 for Rusty Staub
1994 - 40th McDonald's LPGA Championship won by Laura Davies

LPGA Golfer Laura Davies1995 - China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
1997 - ABC News & Starwave Corp launch ABCNEWS.com
1997 - STS 84 (Atlantis 19), launches, 6th Shuttle-Mir Mission
1999 - 125th Preakness: Chris Antley aboard Charismatic wins in 1:55.20
2002 - "Bowling for Columbine", a documentary directed by Michael Moore has its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival
2004 - 130th Preakness: Stewart Elliott aboard Smarty Jones wins in 1:55.59
2005 - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith directed by George Lucas, starring Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman premieres at the Cannes Film Festival
2007 - 42nd Academy of Country Music Awards: Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood & Brad Paisley wins
2008 - California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.

Singer Carrie Underwood2009 - The French Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies announce that French gross domestic product shrank 1.2% in the first quarter of 2009 after falling by 1.5% in the final quarter of 2008; the French economy had avoided narrowly a recession in 2008
2009 - Eurostat report that Austria, Belgium, and Romania have all entered recession in the first quarter of 2009
2010 - Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.
2010 - 136th Preakness: Martin Garcia aboard Lookin At Lucky wins in 1:55.47
2012 - Eurozone economy narrowly avoids recession
2012 - Greece's fifth attempt to a form a coalition government fails and new June elections are scheduled
2013 - The Eurozone records a recession for the sixth straight quarter
2013 - Chelsea defeats Benfica to win the UEFA Europa League
2015 - Real Madrid of Spain win FIFA Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen of Germany 2-1 in Glasgow

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