This day in history.....

April 30th


1789: George Washington is inaugurated as the first president of the United States in New York City.

1803: The United States more than doubles its size with the Louisiana Purchase, a vast territory bought from France for $15 million.

1812: The Territory of Orleans enters the Union as the 18th state, the state of Louisiana.

1939: Franklin D. Roosevelt is the first U.S. president to appear on television when NBC begins regular broadcasting with live coverage of the opening of the New York World's Fair.

1945: Refusing to surrender after Germany is defeated by Allied forces at the end of World War II, German dictator Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker.

1975: The Vietnam War ends when Duong Van Minh, president of South Vietnam, surrenders unconditionally to North Vietnamese communist forces.
 
May 1


1707: The Act of Union unites England and Scotland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain; both countries adopt a single flag, the Union Jack.

1931: The Empire State Building in New York City has its official opening; at the time, the skyscraper is the tallest in the world.

1941: Citizen Kane, starring and directed by Orson Welles, premieres in New York; it will later be hailed as one of the greatest films of all time.

1945: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels commits suicide as Russian troops storm Berlin at the end of World War II.

1963: James W. Whittaker is the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain.

1967: American heartthrob Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.
Learn more about Elvis Aaron Presley.

2003: U.S. president George W. Bush declares coalition forces victorious against the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
 
May 2


1519: Leonardo da Vinci, the great Italian scientist, sculptor, and painter of masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, dies in France.

1670: England's King Charles II grants a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, giving it a trading monopoly and control over the region around Hudson Bay in North America.

1863: During the American Civil War, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson is accidentally shot by his own men at Chancellorsville, Virginia; he dies shortly after.

1945: Berlin surrenders to Russian Allied forces after they stormed the German capital during World War II; less than a week later, the war in Europe ends.

1994: South African President F. W. de Klerk concedes defeat and Nelson Mandela claims victory in the country's first multi-racial presidential election.
 
May 3


1841: New Zealand is proclaimed a British colony.

1934: Famous Funnies, the first comic book to go on sale in the United States, hits newsstands.

1937: American author Margaret Mitchell is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind, her epic novel about life in the south during the Civil War.

1947: Japan introduces a new constitution, in which women vote for the first time.

1979: Margaret Thatcher leads the Conservative Party to victory in Britain's general elections; the next day she is sworn in as the nation's first female prime minister.
 
May 5th


Happy Cinco de Mayo!

1821: Former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena.

1921: Chanel No. 5 perfume, created by perfumer Ernst Beaux for Coco Chanel, is launched.

1925: Biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution, which is outlawed in Tennessee public schools; he is later convicted in the so-called "Monkey Trial."

1961: Astronaut Alan Shepard makes a 15-minute suborbital flight, becoming the first American to travel in space.

1981: Bobby Sands is the first of 10 Irish Republican Army hunger strikers to die in a Belfast prison; they were protesting their treatment as criminals rather than political prisoners.
 
Hope you don't mind mare, just gonna add this one. The documentary kicks ass

1980
In Britain, the SAS storm the terrorist-occupied Iranian Embassy at Knightsbridge in London. Four gunmen are killed in the attack and all 19 hostages are rescued.
Click to expand...
 
May 6th


1626: Dutch settler Peter Minuit allegedly purchases what is now New York's Manhattan Island from Native Americans for goods worth $24.

1915: In New York City, a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox named Babe Ruth hits his first home run in major league baseball; he later becomes an outfielder.

1937: The German dirigible Hindenburg, the largest airship ever built, bursts into flames upon landing in New Jersey; 36 passengers and crew are killed.

1954: British athlete Roger Bannister is the first person to run a mile in under four minutes.

1994: The Channel Tunnel linking England to France officially opens; it is hailed as one of the century's greatest feats of civil engineering.
 
March 7th


1847: The American Medical Association, a federation of state and territorial medical associations, is founded in Philadelphia.

1915: The British ship Lusitania is torpedoed by a German submarine off the Ireland coast; 1,198 people are killed, increasing sentiment in the United States to join World War I.

1945: German Nazi forces surrender unconditionally to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's army in Reims, France; the European phase of World War II officially ends the next day.

1960: Leonid Brezhnev becomes president of the Soviet Union.

1994: The masterpiece The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, is recovered undamaged nearly three months after it was stolen.
 
May 8th


1429: During the Hundred Years' War, the siege of Orléans ends when French troops led by 17-year-old Joan of Arc drive the English from the city.

1794: Antoine Lavoisier, French scientist who is considered the founder of modern chemistry, is guillotined by the revolutionary authorities in Paris, France.

1886: Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents a beverage he names Coca-Cola.

1945: V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) officially goes into effect on the day after Germany surrendered unconditionally to Allied forces.

1967: World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army for religious reasons.

1973: Ending a 71-day siege, armed supporters of the American Indian Movement surrender to federal officials at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
 
May 9th


1671: Irish adventurer Thomas Blood, known as Colonel Blood, is caught after stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London; he is ultimately pardoned by King Charles II.

1926: American aviators Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett allegedly become the first to fly over the North Pole; evidence later indicates that they may not have reached the pole.

1974: The U.S. House Judiciary Committee begins hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal.
 
May 10th


1863: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson dies eight days after he is accidentally shot by his own troops during the American Civil War

1869: A golden spike is driven into the ground in Promontory, Utah, where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet; it marks the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

1940: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns; at the request of King George VI, Winston Churchill agrees to take over as prime minister.

1941: Nazi deputy Rudolf Hess, apparently seeking a peace deal between Germany and Britain, steals a plane and crash lands in Scotland; he is arrested and imprisoned for the rest of the war.

1994: Nelson Mandela is sworn in as the first native African president of South Africa; a new, multi-racial cabinet is formed the following day.
 
May 11th

1858: Minnesota becomes the 32nd state in the Union.

1949: Siam, in southeast Asia, changes its name to Thailand.

1981: Jamaican born reggae singer Bob Marley dies of cancer.

1997: IBM computer Deep Blue beats chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game series; it is the first time a computer beats an international grand master in a multigame match.

330: Constantinople becomes the new capital of the Roman Empire.
 
May 12th


1870: Manitoba becomes a province of the Dominion of Canada.

1932: Over two months after he was kidnapped, American aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby is found dead; Lindbergh had paid the ransom on April 2.

1949: Soviet troops end their 11-month land blockade of Berlin, Germany; the blockade was deemed useless since Western powers airlifted food and supplies to the city.

1978: The U.S. Department of Commerce declares that hurricanes will no longer be named exclusively after women. :alienhuh: they can keep their Damn hurricanes, woman named or not!
 
May 13th


Friday the 13th :alienhuh: :D

1607: Jamestown, Virginia is founded; it is the first permanent English settlement in America.

1846: U.S. President James Polk signs a declaration of war on Mexico two months after fighting begins.

1918: The first U.S. airmail stamps, with a picture of an airplane and costing 24 cents, are introduced.
1940: In his first speech before the British House of Commons, new Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallies the country to war saying, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

1981: Pope John Paul II is shot in the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square; he recovers after weeks in the hospital. :crying4: R.I.P.
 
May 14th


1796: British physician Edward Jenner tests the first smallpox vaccine on an eight-year-old boy.

1904: The United States hosts its first Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri.

1948: When British rule over Palestine ends, Israel is proclaimed an independent state and is declared open to Jewish immigration.

1955: The Warsaw Pact is signed by seven European communist nations including the Soviet Union, creating a military alliance in opposition to NATO.

1973: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launches Skylab, the first American space station.
 
May 15th


1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, marries her third husband James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was acquitted of complicity in her former husband's murder.

1930: United Airlines introduces the first stewardesses on a flight from San Francisco, California to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

1940: Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States.

1941: Baseball player Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak.
1957: Great Britain drops a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific, becoming the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union, with thermonuclear capabilities.

1988: The Soviet Union begins withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan nearly a decade after invading the country.
 
May 16th


1770: At Versailles, Marie-Antoinette marries the future King Louis XVI of France.

1886: U.S. Congress votes to replace the half-dime with a five-cent coin called the nickel.

1929: The first Academy Awards are presented in Hollywood, California; the film Wings wins best picture.

1975: Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei is the first woman to climb to the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain.
 
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