This Day In History （请勿跟贴，谢谢！）

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May 12


1926:
First flight over the North Pole.
Aboard the semirigid airship Norge, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, American scientist Lincoln Ellsworth, and Italian engineer Umberto Nobile made the first undisputed flight over the North Pole on this day in 1926.

1949:
The Soviet Union lifted its blockade of Berlin.

1937:
King George VI of the United Kingdom was crowned following the abdication of Edward VIII.

1925:
American baseball player, manager, and coach Yogi Berra was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1845:
French composer Gabriel Fauré was born in Pamiers, Ariège.

1820:
English nurse Florence Nightingale, who founded trained nursing as a profession for women, was born in Florence, Italy.

1780:
During the American Revolution, Major General Benjamin Lincoln of the Continental Army was forced to surrender with 7,000 troops at Charleston, South Carolina.

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May 11


330:
“New Rome” established by Constantine.
On this day in 330, Constantine the Great dedicated Byzantium (Constantinople; now Istanbul) as the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, an act that helped transform it into a leading city of the world.

1943:
U.S. troops invaded Attu, one of the Aleutian Islands captured by the Japanese in 1942.

1918:
American theoretical physicist Richard P. Feynman was born in New York City.

1910:
Glacier National Park was established in the Rocky Mountain wilderness of northwestern Montana.

1888:
American composer Irving Berlin, who played a leading role in the evolution of the popular song from the early ragtime and jazz eras through the golden age of musicals, was born in Russia.

1885:
American jazz cornetist King Oliver was born in Abend, Louisiana.

1846:
U.S. President James K. Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico.

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May 10


1994:
Nelson Mandela inaugurated as president of South Africa.
Nelson Mandela, whose efforts to end apartheid led to his imprisonment (1962–90) and earned him a share (with F.W. de Klerk) of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, became president of South Africa this day in 1994.

1940:
Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands.
1940:
After losing the support of many Conservatives in the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned his office and was replaced by Winston Churchill.

1869:
The tracks of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific were joined at Promontory, Utah, to form the first transcontinental railway in the United States.

1865:
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.

1857:
The Indian Mutiny erupted in Meerut in reaction to the increased pace of Westernization in India and a military crackdown on Indian troops by their British officers.

1838:
American actor John Wilkes Booth, who would assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, was born near Bel Air, Maryland.

1818:
American patriot Paul Revere died in Boston.

1775:
The Green Mountain Boys, under the joint command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, captured the British-controlled Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolution.

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May 09


1502:
Fourth and final voyage of Christopher Columbus launched.
On this day in 1502, master navigator and admiral Christopher Columbus, long considered the “discoverer” of the New World, set sail from Cádiz, Spain, on his fourth and final voyage, hoping to find a passage to Asia.

1974:
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee launched a formal impeachment investigation of President Richard M. Nixon.

1960:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first birth-control pill.

1939:
American track-and-field athlete Ralph Boston, the first man to jump more than 27 feet (8.23 metres), was born in Laurel, Mississippi.

1936:
Seven months after invading Ethiopia and driving Emperor Haile Selassie I into exile, Italy annexed Ethiopia as part of Italian East Africa.

1860:
Dramatist Sir James Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland.

1800:
American abolitionist John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut.

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May 08


1945:
World War II in Europe ended.
Following Germany's unconditional surrender, World War II in Europe officially ended at midnight on this day in 1945, although the war in the Pacific continued until the Japanese surrender in September.

1942:
In the Battle of the Coral Sea, the USS Lexington became the first U.S. aircraft carrier to be sunk during World War II.

1884:
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945–53), was born in Lamar, Missouri.

1864:
During the American Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant engaged the Confederate forces of General Robert E. Lee at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia.

1846:
U.S. troops under General Zachary Taylor defeated a Mexican force under General Mariano Arista in the Battle of Palo Alto, the first clash of the Mexican War (1846–48).

1737:
English historian Edward Gibbon was born in Putney, Surrey.

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May 07

1663:
Theatre Royal opened.
The Theatre Royal, built by the dramatist Thomas Killigrew for his company of actors and now known as the Drury Lane Theatre, opened in London this day in 1663 and is the oldest English theatre still in use.
1954:
Viet Minh General Vo Nguyen Giap took the French by surprise at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, surrounding their base with 40,000 men and employing heavy artillery to capture it during the First Indochina War.

1945:
A German delegation that included General Alfred Jodl came to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, France, and signed the surrender documents that ended the European phase of World War II.

1918:
The Treaty of Bucharest forced Romania to make territorial and financial reparations following its defeat by the Central Powers during World War I.

1915:
A German submarine sunk the Lusitania, a British ocean liner, indirectly contributing to the entry of the United States into World War I.

1915:
Japan delivered an ultimatum to China, demanding special privileges, which the major European powers were unable to oppose because of their involvement in World War I.

1861:
Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, was born in Calcutta (Kolkata).

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May 06


1937:
Hindenburg disaster.
On this day in 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on its first transatlantic crossing of the year, the German dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames and was destroyed, killing 36 of the 97 persons aboard.

1954:
Roger Bannister of Britain became the first athlete to run a mile in less than four minutes.

1942:
The American garrison on Corregidor Island, under the command of General Jonathan M. Wainwright, surrendered to Japanese invaders after a 27-day standoff during World War II.

1931:
American baseball star Willie Mays was born in Westfield, Alabama.

1915:
American motion-picture actor and director Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

1856:
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was born in Freiberg, Moravia, Austrian Empire (now Príbor, Czech Republic).

1840:
The “penny black” stamp, issued in Great Britain, went into circulation as the first prepaid postage stamp in history.

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May 05

1862:
Mexican victory in the Battle of Puebla.

On this day in 1862, Mexico repelled the French forces of Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla, a victory that became a symbol of resistance to foreign domination and is now celebrated as a national holiday, Cinco de Mayo.

1973:
American racehorse Secretariat (1970–89) won the Kentucky Derby en route to capturing the U.S. Triple Crown, which also includes the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes.

1960:
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev told the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. that a U.S. spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers had been shot down on May 1 over the Soviet Union, referring to the flight as an “aggressive act” by the United States.

1864:
Forces commanded by the generals Ulysses S. Grant of the Union and Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy engaged in the Battle of the Wilderness near Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the American Civil War.

1813:
Danish religious philosopher S鴕en Kierkegaard, regarded as the founder of existentialist philosophy, was born in Copenhagen.

1789:
At the beginning of the French Revolution, the Estates-General met for the first time since 1614 at Versailles and debated the role of the Third Estate.
1640:
King Charles I of England dissolved the Short Parliament, the first parliament to be summoned in 11 years.