This Day In History （请勿跟贴，谢谢！）

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May 04


1996:
José María Aznar approved as prime minister of Spain.

José María Aznar of the conservative Popular Party became prime minister of Spain this day in 1996 and served until 2004, overseeing an improving economy while facing growing terrorism by ETA and Islamic extremists.

1942:
During World War II, U.S. air and naval fleets turned back a Japanese invasion force heading for the strategic Port Moresby, New Guinea, in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

1919:
In what later became known as the May Fourth Movement, patriotic Chinese students protested the decision of the Paris Peace Conference that Japan retain defeated Germany's rights and possessions in Shantung (Shandong).

1886:
Violence between police and labour protesters erupted in the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, dramatizing the labour movement's struggle for recognition in the United States.

1863:
The Battle of Chancellorsville in the American Civil War, a bloody assault by the Union army in Virginia that failed to disperse the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, continued.

1814:
Napoleon landed at the island of Elba to serve the first of his two exiles.

1770:
Baron Fran鏾is Gérard, a French Neoclassical painter best known for his portraits of celebrated European personalities, particularly the leading figures of the French First Empire and Restoration periods, was born in Rome.

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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.

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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 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 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 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 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 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 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 13

1846:
U.S. declaration of war on Mexico approved.
Tensions between Mexico and the United States—stemming from the U.S. annexation of Texas (1845)—led the U.S. Congress on this day in 1846 to approve overwhelmingly a declaration of war against its southern neighbour.

1993:
A methane gas explosion in a coal mine in Secunda, South Africa, claimed the lives of 50 miners.

1981:
Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in Vatican City, in which he was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish national.

1960:
A Swiss expedition led by Max Eiselin reached the summit of Dhaulagiri in the Himalayas.

1950:
American musician Stevie Wonder, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century, was born in Saginaw, Michigan.

1943:
The Somali Youth Club—a precursor to the Somali Youth League, which in 1960 helped to form Somalia's first independent government—was formed in Mogadishu.

1917:
Three children—Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto—reported seeing the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal.

1871:
With the Law of Guarantees, the Italian government attempted to settle the question of its relationship with the pope, who had been deprived of his lands in the process of Italian national unification.

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May 14

1948:
Declaration of Israel's independence.
Israel declared its independence this day in 1948 and was quickly recognized by the United States, the Soviet Union, and numerous other countries, fulfilling the Zionist dream of an internationally approved Jewish state.

1973:
Skylab, the first U.S. space station, was launched.
1804:
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked from the American Midwest on their famous expedition to the Pacific coast of North America.

1796:
Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox.

1771:
Robert Owen, a manufacturer-turned-reformer who was one of the most influential utopian socialists of the early 19th century, was born in Newtown, Wales.

1643:
Four-year-old Louis XIV ascended the throne of France.

1607:
The first permanent British settlement in North America was founded at Jamestown, Virginia.

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May 15


1991:
Edith Cresson appointed French premier.
On this day in 1991, Edith Cresson of the Socialist Party became the first female premier of France, but she lost the office less than a year later because of rising unemployment and declining support from within her party.

1918:
The first regular airmail route in the United States opened between New York City and Washington, D.C.

1914:
Mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who, with Sir Edmund Hillary, was the first person to stand atop the summit of Mount Everest, was born in Tshechu, Tibet.

1886:
American poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, Massachusetts.

1885:
Louis Riel surrendered after leading two rebellions against the Canadian government in response to its efforts to assume the territorial rights of the Hudson's Bay Company in northwestern Canada.

1859:
Physical chemist Pierre Curie, cowinner (with his wife, Marie Curie) of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, was born in Paris.

495:
On the Aventine Hill in Rome, the temple of the Roman god Mercury was dedicated.

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May 16


1868:
U.S. President Andrew Johnson acquitted.
On this day the first of two key votes in the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, was held. It eventually fell one short of the necessary two-thirds needed for conviction, as seven Republicans voted with Johnson's supporters. Johnson was exonerated of the charges that, contrary to statute, he attempted to remove from office Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton—ally of the Radical Republicans within his cabinet. Lesser charges included inducing an army general to violate an act of Congress, as well as contempt of Congress.

1975:
Tabei Junko of Japan, accompanied by Ang Tsering of Nepal, became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1961:
The military seized power in South Korea, overthrowing the Second Republic, as General Park Chung Hee took over the government machinery—dissolving the National Assembly and imposing a strict ban on political activity.

1943:
After four weeks, Nazi soldiers quelled the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of Jews during the Holocaust in World War II.

1920:
Joan of Arc, national heroine of France, was canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XV.

1763:
In London, Samuel Johnson met James Boswell, who later wrote his famous biography, Life of Johnson, in 1791.

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May 17


1954:
School segregation outlawed by U.S. Supreme Court.
On this day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the leading school-desegregation case, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka. The landmark decision overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which permitted “separate but equal” public facilities. Argued from 1938 to 1950, the case was successfully won by Thurgood Marshall—the attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)—who argued against the school board's decision. Chief Justice Earl Warren spoke on behalf of the court, declaring that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” The ruling stipulated that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. The decision was limited to the public schools, but it was believed to imply that segregation was not permissible in other public facilities.

1918:
Swedish operatic soprano Birgit Nilsson was born in West Karup, Sweden.

1875:
The first Kentucky Derby was run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky; the winning horse was Aristides.

1866:
French composer Erik Satie was born in Honfleur, Calvados, France.

1792:
Meeting on what is now Wall Street in New York City, 24 businessmen took the initial steps to the formation of the New York Stock Exchange.

1510:
Italian painter Sandro Botticelli of the Florentine Renaissance died.

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May 18

1980:
Eruption of Mount St. Helens.
This day in 1980, an earthquake with a 5.1 Richter magnitude triggered a gigantic landslide on the north face of Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington. The north slope fell away in an avalanche that was followed by a lateral air blast, which carried a high-velocity cloud of superheated ash and stone outward more than 20 km (12 miles) from Mount St. Helens's summit. The avalanche and lateral blast were followed by mudflows, pyroclastic flows, and floods that buried the river valleys to the east. Meanwhile, simultaneous with the avalanche, a vertical eruption of gas and ash formed a column more than 20 km high that produced ash falls as far east as central Montana. Sixty people and thousands of animals were killed, and 10 million trees were blown down.

1974:
Entering the nuclear arms race, India detonated a nuclear weapon in the Rajasthan desert.

1956:
Swiss climbers Fritz Luchsinger and Ernest Reiss made the first ascent of the Lhotse I mountain in the Himalayan range.

1953:
American aviator Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier, which is Mach 1.

1940:
Brussels, Belgium, fell to the invading German army in World War II and was subjected to harsh terms of occupation.

1933:
The U.S. government established the Tennessee Valley Authority to control floods and produce electrical power along the Tennessee River and its tributaries.

1899:
The first of a series of international conferences that produced the Hague Convention began at The Hague in The Netherlands.

1860:
Abraham Lincoln became the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency on the third ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

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May 19

1884:
Ringling Brothers circus formed.
On this day Charles, Albert, Otto, Alfred, and John Ringling, the sons of August Rüngeling, a German-born harness maker, organized a small circus and opened it in their hometown, Baraboo, Wisconsin, from which they toured the American Midwest. After the opening of the circus in 1884, their progress was slow until the Ringlings acquired their first elephant in 1888, after which the circus expanded rapidly. They acquired the Forepaugh-Sells Circus in 1906 and the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, thus becoming the leading circus in the country.

1930:
American playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago.

1890:
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese founder of the Indochina Communist Party (1930) and its successor, the Viet Minh (1941), and president (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), was born in Hoang Tru, Vietnam, French Indochina.

1802:
Napoleon Bonaparte, then first consul of France, created the Legion of Honour, the premier order of the French republic.

1643:
During the Thirty Years' War, the French army defeated the Spanish army in the Battle of Rocroi, ending Spain's military ascendancy in Europe.

1571:
Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi established the city of Manila in the Philippines.

1536:
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, found guilty on charges of adultery, was beheaded.

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May 20


1862:
U.S. Homestead Act signed.
On this day U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which provided 160 acres (about two-thirds of a square km) of public land virtually free of charge to those who had lived on and cultivated the land for at least five years. One of the early supporters of the Homestead movement was Senator (later President) Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. By the turn of the century, more than 80 million acres (300,000 square km) had been claimed by a total of 600,000 homestead farmers.

1939:
Pan American Airways' Yankee Clipper inaugurated transatlantic airmail service, flying from Port Washington, New York, to Lisbon.

1908:
American actor and motion-picture star Jimmy Stewart was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

1875:
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, an organization founded to bring about the unification of systems of measurement, was established in Paris.

1897:
During the Greco-Turkish wars, the Greeks—fighting for the annexation of Crete—yielded to pressures from European powers to withdraw their troops from Crete and accept armistice on the mainland.

1882:
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy secretly formed the Triple Alliance, a treaty organization that provided for mutual protection against attacks by other European powers until Italy entered World War I.

1806:
English economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill was born in London.

1784:
The Netherlands yielded to Great Britain some of its holdings in India and Indonesia in a treaty signed at the Peace of Paris, a collection of treaties that concluded the American Revolution.

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May 21


1927:
First transatlantic flight made by Charles Lindbergh.
American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean on this day in 1927, traveling from New York to Paris in the monoplane Spirit of Saint Louis in about 33.5 hours.

1972:
Michelangelo's Pietà, a sculpture depicting the Virgin Mary supporting the body of the dead Christ, was attacked and badly damaged in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

1932:
American aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to pilot an airplane solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1871:
The Commune of Paris revolted against the French national government under Adolphe Thiers, beginning a period of violence known as “Bloody Week.”

1856:
During the small civil war known as Bleeding Kansas—a dispute over control of the new U.S. territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty—the town of Lawrence was sacked by a proslavery mob intent on destroying the “hotbed of abolitionism.”

1844:
French painter Henri Rousseau—the archetype of the modern naive artist, known for his richly coloured and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures—was born in Laval.

1542:
Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto, the first European to discover the Mississippi River, died and was buried in the river in Louisiana.

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May 22


337:
Roman Emperor Constantine I baptized.
On this day in 337, Constantine the Great, who had practiced Christianity since his youth and sparked its growth into a world religion, became on his deathbed the first Roman emperor to be baptized in the Christian church.

1972:
Richard M. Nixon arrived in Moscow, the first visit by a U.S. president to the Soviet Union.
1960: One of the largest earthquakes on record struck the southern coast of Chile, killing about 5,700 people and creating seismic sea waves that caused death and destruction in Japan and Hawaii and on the Pacific coast of the United States.

1942:
Mexico entered World War II by declaring war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.

1939:
Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy signed the Pact of Steel, a full military and political alliance between their countries.

1885:
French poet, novelist, and dramatist Victor Hugo died in Paris.

1844:
American painter Mary Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.

1813:
German dramatic composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig.

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May 23


1951:
Tibet was liberated as an autonomous region on this day in 1951.

1934:
Bonnie and Clyde, notorious American outlaws, were killed in a police shoot-out near Gibsland, Louisiana.

1915:
Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I on the side of the Allies.

1707:
Swedish botanist and explorer Carolus Linnaeus, the first to frame principles for defining genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them, was born in R錽hult.

1706:
The French suffered a major loss at the Battle of Ramillies, a turning point in the War of the Spanish Succession.

1618:
The Defenestration of Prague occurred in response to religious persecution, helping set the stage for the Thirty Years' War.

1430:
Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundians near Compiègne, France.