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- 1204 Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1527 Florence becomes a republic
- 1527 The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
- 1532 Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor
- 1547 Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg
- 1568 Mary Queen of Scotland flees to England
- 1568 Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
- 1571 Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, is conceived at 4:37 AM
- 1584 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond/Blokker/St-Pietersdal
- 1605 Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI becomes Paul V
- 1605 Paul V becomes Pope.
- 1606 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia
- 1648 Battle at Zólty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks beat John Casimir
- 1747 Prince Willem V sworn in as Admiral-General of Netherlands
- 1763 Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
- 1770 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
- 1770 Marie Antoinette (age 14) marries the future King Louis VI of France (age 15)
- 1771 The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators" occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
- 1777 Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
- 1791 Near Moodus, Connecticut, the largest historical earthquake in Connecticut occurred
- 1792 Denmark abolishes slave trade
- 1795 Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassel state
- 1796 Lombardije Republic forms
- 1803 Britain and France renew war, the French complete their occupation of Hanover, and they threaten to invade England from Boulogne, where they begin to assemble an invasion fleet
- 1803 Peace of Amiens ends
- 1804 Senate & Tribune declare Napolean leader of France
- 1811 Peninsular War - Allies (Spain, Portugal & Britain) defeat French at the Battle of Albuera.
- 1811 Peninsular War-Allies defeat French at Albuera
- 1817 Mississippi River steamboat service begins
- 1836 Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
- 1843 The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
- 1861 Confederate Government offers war volunteers $10 premium
- 1861 Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
- 1862 Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds first automobile
- 1863 Battle of Champion's Hill MS-bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
- 1864 Atlanta Campaign-battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)
- 1864 Battle of Bermuda Hundred VA
- 1864 Last battles at Drewry's Bluff VA (6,666 casualties)
- 1866 Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
- 1866 Congress authorizes nickel 5¢ piece (replaces silver half-dime)
- 1866 The U S Congress authorizes the minting of a 5-cent coin The nickel is born
- 1866 The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
- 1868 The U S Senate falls one vote short of convicting President Andrew Johnson of one of the 11 articles of impeachment against him
- 1872 Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for first time
- 1874 A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroyed much of four villages and killed 139 people.
- 1874 The first recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg MA)
- 1875 Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000
- 1877 May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
- 1879 Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English
- 1881 World's first elec tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
- 1888 CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver British Columbia
- 1891 George A Hormel & Company introduce Spam
- 1909 In North Dakota a 5.5 quake occurred, the largest historical earthquake in the state
- 1910 US Bureau of Mines forms
- 1911 Zeppelin "Deutscheland" wrecked at Dusseldorf
- 1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
- 1919 US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1920 In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
- 1920 Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) canonized a saint in Rome
- 1920 Spanish bullfighter Joselito is fatally gored fighting his last bull
- 1922 White Star Line Majestic completes 5½ day maiden voyage
- 1927 Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
- 1929 In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
- 1929 The first-ever Academy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
- 1930 6th Walker Cup: US 10-Great Britain/Ireland 2
- 1936 62nd Preakness: George Woolf aboard Bold Venture wins in 1:59
- 1936 The first British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France
- 1938 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire (Atlanta GA)
- 1938 A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.
- 1938 In cricket Bradman scores 278 Australia vs MCC, 349 minutes, 35 fours 1 six
- 1938 The first animal breeding society forms (New Jersey)
- 1939 Food stamps are first issued
- 1940 Nazis forbid non-professional auto workers
- 1941 Italian army under Aosta surrenders to Britain at Amba Alagi Ethiopia
- 1941 Last great German air attack on Great Britain (Birmingham)
- 1941 Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
- 1942 The first transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma
- 1943 German troops destroy synagogue of Warsaw
- 1943 Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1943 Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends after 30 days of fighting
- 1943 Nazi officer Jergen Stroop reports to his superiors that the Warsaw ghetto is no longer in existence. According to his calculations 7,000 Jews have been killed in street fighting, 30,000 have been deported to Treblinka and 5-6,000 have perished in flames.
- 1943 RAF bombs Möhne & Eder (Battle of Ruhr)
- 1944 Military police attack gypsies
- 1944 Rabbi Weissmandl sends out pleas to bomb camp and rail lines - based on his "Auschwitz Protocol" - a 31 page report from escapees' eyewitness accounts of Rudolph Verba and Alfred Wetzler.
- 1944 The first of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
- 1945 9th Division lands at Brunei
- 1945 Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon Okinawa
- 1946 The Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun opens
- 1948 CBS news correspondent George Polk's body is found in Greece
- 1948 Chaim Weizmann elected first President of Israel
- 1948 Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
- 1948 Egyptians enter the Gaza
- 1948 Israel issues its first postage stamps
- 1951 The first regularly-scheduled transatlantic flights begin between New York and London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
- 1955 Ray Lindwall scores his 2nd Test Cricket century 118 at Bridgetown
- 1956 Egypt recognizes People's Republic of China
- 1957 Major Irwin, USAF flies a Lockheed Starfighter to a record 1,404.18 MPH
- 1957 US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton CT
- 1958 Eli Beeding experiences 83 g deceleration on a rocket sled, New Mexico
- 1958 Walter Irwin flies 2,259 KPH in F-104A Starfighter
- 1960 Big 4 summit in Paris collapses as USSR levels spy charges against US
- 1960 Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
- 1960 Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1961 13th Emmy Awards: Jack Benny Show, Raymond Burr & Barbara Stanwyck
- 1962 Visitor posting - owner of the Oyster Restaurant and Infinity Pub at Kothrud - India
- 1963 Gordon Cooper completes 22 orbits in Faith 7, ends US Project Mercury
- 1965 Bomb destroys USAF base Bien Hoa South Vietnam
- 1965 Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.
- 1965 Spaghetti-O's first sold
- 1966 Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" is released
- 1966 Visitor posting - May 16 1966 Janet Damita Jackson is born
- 1966 National Welfare Rights Organization begins
- 1966 Stokely Carmichael named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- 1967 Philadelphia voters approve a $13 million bond issue to build a new stadium
- 1967 The city Jerusalem is taken over by the nation of Israel
- 1968 Battle for Fire Support Base CORAL in Vietnam
- 1968 Earthquake kills 47 in Japan
- 1968 Honshu, Japan a7.0 quake killed 47 people, 281 injured, and $131 million property damage was sustained.
- 1969 Students occupies Magden House Amsterdam
- 1969 The Who's Pete Townsend & Roger Daltrey charged with assault
- 1969 Venera 5 lands on Venus, returns data on atmosphere
- 1970 "Grover Henson Feels Forgotten" by Bill Cosby hits #70
- 1970 Number one hit on UK music charts - England World Cup Squad - Back Home
- 1971 Bulgaria adopts it's constitution
- 1971 First class postage now costs 8¢ (was 6¢)
- 1973 AC Milan wins 13th Europe Cup II in Saloniki
- 1973 Zimbian troops kill two Canadian women at Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) border; believed they were saboteurs.
- 1974 Helmut Schmidt becomes West German chancellor
- 1974 Josip Broz Tito was re-elected as president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This time he was elected for life.
- 1974 Visitor posting - Jennifer M Grant is born Norfolk, VA - USA
- 1975 India annexes Principality of Sikkim
- 1975 India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
- 1975 Japanese Junko Tabei became first woman to reach Mount Everest's summit
- 1975 Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1975 Muhammad Ali TKOs Ron Lyle in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1975 Wings release "Listen to What the Man Said" in UK
- 1977 5 die as New York Airway helicopter topples on the Pan Am Building in NYC
- 1977 Visitor posting - Fameeda Khan was born on this day - South Africa
- 1977 Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavywgt boxing title
- 1979 FC Barcelona wins 19th Europe Cup II in Basel
- 1980 Brian May of rock group Queen collapses on stage with hepatitis
- 1980 Former Buggles members Geoff Downes & Trevor Horn replace Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes
- 1980 Visitor posting - May 16, 1980 - Ridgewood, New Jersey Haydee Millet was born
- 1981 "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks
- 1981 Pretenders' Martin Chambers weds Tracy Atkinson
- 1982 Columbia moves to Vandenberg Air Force Base for mating in preparation for STS-4
- 1982 Salvador Jorge Blanco wins presidential election in Dominican Republic
- 1983 Lebanese parliament accept peace accord with Israel
- 1983 Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebelled against the Sudanese government
- 1984 Guinea-Bissau adopts constitution
- 1984 Juventus wins 24th Europe Cup II in Basel
- 1984 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1985 Actress Margaret Hamilton, who portrayed the Wicked witch of the West in the MGM film The Wizard of Oz, dies of a heart attack at age 82
- 1985 Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year
- 1986 "Top Gun" premieres
- 1986 Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) comes back from dead on Dallas
- 1986 Joaquín Balaguers PRSC wins Dominican Republic parliamentary election
- 1986 The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.
- 1987 "Bobro 400", a barge carrying 3,200 tons of garbage, set sail from New York, beginning an unsuccesful 8-week search for a dumping site
- 1987 Rocker David Crosby weds Jan Dance in Los Angeles
- 1987 Weird Al Yankovic performs live at 72nd National Orange Show
- 1988 A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- 1988 Surgeon General C Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin
- 1988 The U S Supreme Court rules that police can search discarded garbage without a search warrant
- 1989 Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping meet in Beijing, ending a 30-year rift between the two Communist powers
- 1990 Dominican Republic President Joaquín Ricardo Balaguer re-elected
- 1990 Visitor posting - Brittany Leigh Kellogg of was born in Killeen/Fort Hood, TX. - USA
- 1990 St.-Amable Quebec, fire breaks out at Quebec's largest tire dump (3 million tires) near Montreal; rages for four days before being put out.
- 1991 Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the U S Congress
- 1992 "Smells Like Nirvana" by Weird Al Yankovic hits #35
- 1992 Polls show Perot, Bush & Clinton could be in a deadlock
- 1992 STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
- 1992 Visitor posting - Cc Thompson of Prestonsburg Ky was born. - USA
- 1992 Visitor posting - May 16th 1992, Marlene Louise Pistocco was born
- 1993 Farmer Sugeng finds 1.2 million year old Pithecanthropus IX skull
- 1993 Judd Nelson pleads no contest to kicking Kim Evans in the head
- 1993 Süleyman Demirel elected President of Turkey
- 1994 Jacqueline Onassis admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment
- 1994 Joaquín Balaguer (86) elected President of Dominican Republic
- 1994 Tennis star Jennifer Capriati arrested on possession of marijuana
- 1995 Japanese police arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara & charged him with Nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier
- 1995 Visitor posting - Bethany Polson was born-New Orleans, LA - USA
- 1997 Brandi Sherwood, (Idaho) replaces Brook Lee (Miss Universe) as Miss USA
- 1997 Visitor posting - Joel Epling was born! - USA
- 1997 Visitor posting - May 16 1997 Reanne Stockford was born- Canada, BC
- 2003 In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- 2004 The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100.000 Ukrainian civilians.
- 2005 Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.
- 2005 Visitor posting - 1st Grand Slam - USA
- 2006 Visitor posting - Dakota was born to Thomas & Melissa - USA
- 2006 A large earthquake (7.4 on the Richter scale) occurs near New Zealand.
- 2008 Lehman announces it is cutting 1,400 jobs, or about 5% of its work force.
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