Historical Events on Thursday, 15th May

15/05/2024

Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and critically injured while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.

The prime minister of Slovakia, officially the chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic, commonly referred to in Slovakia as Predseda vlády or informally as Premiér, is the head of the government of the Slovak Republic. Officially, the officeholder is the third-highest constitutional official in Slovakia after the president of the Republic (appointer) and chairman of the National Council; in practice, the appointee is the country's leading political figure.

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15/05/2023

The UN commemorates the Palestinian Nakba Day for the first time.

The United Nations (UN) is a global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the articulated mission of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals.

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15/05/2013

An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

From 15 to 21 May 2013, a series of deadly bombings and shootings struck the central and northern parts of Iraq, with a few incidents occurring in towns in the south and far west as well. The attacks killed at least 449 people and left 732 others injured in one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in years.

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15/05/2010

Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

Jessica Rose Watson is an Australian sailor who was awarded The Medal of the Order of Australia after attempting a solo circumnavigation at the age of 16 from 18 October 2009 to 15 May 2010. Although she circled the planet, she did it in a narrow range of latitudes that resulted in her voyage falling short of the distance criterion of 21,600 nautical miles (40,000 km) for a circumnavigation – the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth at the equator – by nearly 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km); Watson was nevertheless named 2011 Young Australian of the Year and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2012 for "...service to sailing and to youth through the achievement of sailing solo and unassisted around the world [sic], and as a role model for young Australians". As of November 2022, she resides in Melbourne. Netflix produced a film, True Spirit (2023), about Watson's voyage.

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15/05/2008

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.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in California since June 28, 2013. The State of California first issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples from June 16, 2008 to November 5, 2008, as a result of the Supreme Court of California finding in the case of In re Marriage Cases that barring same-sex couples from marriage violated the Constitution of California. The issuance of such licenses was halted from November 5, 2008 through June 27, 2013 due to the passage of Proposition 8—a state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages. In 2024, the passage of Proposition 3 repealed Proposition 8. The granting of same-sex marriages resumed following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which restored the effect of a federal district court ruling that overturned Proposition 8 as unconstitutional.

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15/05/2004

Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C. with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles".

The Arsenal Football Club is an English professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. In domestic football, Arsenal have won 13 league titles, a record 14 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 17 FA Community Shields and a Football League Centenary Trophy. In European football, they have won one European Cup Winners' Cup and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In terms of trophies won, it is the third-most successful club in English football.

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15/05/2001

A CSX EMD SD40-2 8888 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with flammable chemical, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south driverless for 66 miles (106 km) until it was brought to a halt near Kenton. The incident became the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.

CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track, it is the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

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15/05/1997

The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.

The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater during the Vietnam War with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. The fighting also involved the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, American and Thai armies, both directly and through irregular proxies. The war is known as the Secret War among the American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict.

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The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985. Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J made from October 3 to 7, 1985.

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15/05/1991

Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister.

Édith Jeanne Thérèse Cresson is a French politician of the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so and only woman until Élisabeth Borne's appointment in 2022. Her political career ended in scandal as a result of corruption charges dating from her tenure as European Commissioner for Research, Science and Technology.

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15/05/1988

Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

The Soviet–Afghan War took place in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 47-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen, aided by Pakistan. While they were backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of the mujahideen's support came from Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in addition to a large influx of foreign fighters known as the Afghan Arabs. American and British involvement on the side of the mujahideen escalated the Cold War, ending a short period of relaxed Soviet Union–United States relations.

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15/05/1976

Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes near Viktorivka, Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, killing 52.

Aeroflot Flight 1802 was a commercial flight from Vinnytsia to Moscow that crashed after the rudder deflected sharply and the propellers feathered on 15 May 1976. All 52 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft perished in the crash.

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15/05/1974

Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren.

The Ma'alot massacre was a Palestinian terrorist attack that occurred on 14–15 May 1974 and involved the hostage-taking of 115 Israelis, chiefly school children, which ended in the murder of 25 hostages and six other civilians. It began when three armed members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) infiltrated Israel from Lebanon. Soon afterwards they attacked a van, killing two Israeli Arab women while injuring a third, and entered an apartment building in the town of Ma'alot, where they killed a couple and their four-year-old son. From there, they headed for the Netiv Meir Elementary School in Ma'alot, where in the early hours of 15 May 1974 they took hostage more than 115 people including 105 children. Most of the hostages were 14- to 16-years-old students from a high school in Safad on a pre-military Gadna field trip spending the night in Ma'alot.

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15/05/1972

The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

The Ryukyu Islands , also known as the Nansei Islands or the Ryukyu Arc , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan. Administratively, they are divided between Kagoshima Prefecture and Okinawa Prefecture. The larger ones are mostly volcanic islands and the smaller mostly coral. The largest is Okinawa Island.

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15/05/1970

President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

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15/05/1963

Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.83 billion. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.

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15/05/1957

At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about 39 km2 (15 sq mi) in area. It is one of the Line Islands belonging to the Republic of Kiribati. The lagoon is entirely enclosed by land, though it is connected to the sea by underground channels, and is quite salty.

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15/05/1948

Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Mandatory Palestine, officially known as Palestine, was a British administrative territory between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine. From 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations, it was the Mandate for Palestine. The territory was administered by the British, who deemed it unfit for self-governance.

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15/05/1945

World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the town of Prevalje in Yugoslavia between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consisted of the German Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces, the Montenegrin People's Army, the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and other collaborationist forces who were on their way to surrender to the British in Austria. The battle was one of the last confrontations of World War II in Europe taking place on 14 and 15 May 1945, 6 days after Germany unconditionally capitulated.

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15/05/1943

Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as general secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as premier from 1941 until his death. Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he eventually consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Stalin codified the Communist Party's official interpretation of Marxism as Marxism–Leninism, and his version of it is referred to as Stalinism.

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15/05/1942

World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

The Women's Army Corps was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), on 15 May 1942, and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United States as the WAC on 1 July 1943. Its first director was Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby. The WAC was disbanded on 20 October 1978, and all WAC units were integrated with male units.

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15/05/1941

First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft.

The Gloster E.28/39, was the first British turbojet-engined aircraft, first flying in 1941. It was the third turbojet aircraft to fly after the German Heinkel He 178 (1939) and Heinkel He 280 (1941).

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15/05/1940

USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus.

USS Sailfish (SS-192) was a Sargo-class submarine of the United States Navy, originally named Squalus. As Squalus, the submarine sank off the coast of New Hampshire during test dives on 23 May 1939. The sinking drowned 26 crew members, but an ensuing rescue operation, using the McCann Rescue Chamber for the first time, saved the lives of the remaining 33 aboard. Squalus was salvaged in late 1939 and recommissioned as Sailfish in May 1940.

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World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant.

Richard James McDonald and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald, known as the McDonald brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded the fast food company McDonald's.

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15/05/1934

A self coup by prime minister Kārlis Ulmanis succeeded in Latvia, suspending its constitution and dissolving its Saeima.

The 1934 Latvian coup d'état known in Latvia also as the 15 May Coup or Ulmanis' Coup, was a self-coup by the veteran Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis against the parliamentary system in Latvia. His regime lasted until the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940.

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15/05/1933

All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe.

The Ministry of Aviation was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse in central Berlin, Germany, which houses the modern German Finance Ministry.

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15/05/1932

In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated.

A coup d'état, or simply a coup, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent person or leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to power through legal means, tries to stay in power through illegal means.

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15/05/1929

A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.

A major structure fire occurred at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on May 15, 1929. Nitrocellulose X-ray film ignited in a basement storage room, emitting a poisonous yellowish-brown gas which spread throughout much of the Clinic and subsequently exploded several times. The fire claimed 123 lives including that of one of the Clinic's founders, Dr. John Phillips. Most of the deaths from the fire were due to toxic inhalation. Many were immediate; some were delayed by hours or even days. A policeman, Ernest Staab, rescued 21 victims from the fire, and left the scene, seemingly in good health. He later collapsed while working on his lawn, was hospitalized, but contrary to many contemporaneous newspaper articles survived and worked for the police department for another 25 years.

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15/05/1919

The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. For six weeks, May 15 to June 26, more than 30,000 strikers brought economic activity to a standstill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which at the time was Canada's third largest city.

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Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades.

The city of Smyrna and surrounding areas were under Greek military occupation from 15 May 1919 until 9 September 1922. The Allied Powers authorized the occupation and creation of the Zone of Smyrna during negotiations regarding the partition of the Ottoman Empire to protect the ethnic Greek population living in and around the city. The Greek landing on 15 May 1919 was celebrated by the substantial local Greek population but quickly resulted in ethnic violence in the area. This violence decreased international support for the occupation and led to a rise in Turkish nationalism. The high commissioner of Smyrna, Aristeidis Stergiadis, firmly opposed discrimination against the Turkish population by the administration; however, ethnic tensions and discrimination remained. Stergiadis also began work on projects involving resettlement of Greek refugees, the foundations for a university, and some public health projects. Smyrna was a major base of operations for Greek troops in Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).

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15/05/1918

The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from Russian troops.

The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of recently independent Finland between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The belligerents were the paramilitary Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party with backup of the Russian bolsheviks, and the paramilitary White Guards of the senate. General C. G. E. Mannerheim led the White Guards with major assistance by both the Finnish Jäger Battalion trained in Germany and the German Imperial Army, along the German goal to control Fennoscandia and Petrograd of Russia. The Reds, composed of industrial and agrarian working class people, controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The Whites, composed of land owners and the middle and upper class, controlled the rural central and northern Finland.

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15/05/1916

A seventeen-year-old farmworker, Jesse Washington, is infamously lynched in Waco, Texas, USA, after being convicted of rape and murder.

A farmworker or farmhand, is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting. Agricultural work varies widely depending on context, degree of mechanization and crop. Low wages for farmworkers have been associated with farmworker shortages and delayed adoption of agricultural technology.

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15/05/1911

In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up.

Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled that John D. Rockefeller's petroleum conglomerate Standard Oil had illegally monopolized the American petroleum industry and ordered the company to break itself up. The decision also held, however, that U.S. antitrust law bans only "unreasonable" restraints on trade, an interpretation that came to be known as the "rule of reason".

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More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales.

The Torreón massacre was a massacre that took place on 13 to15 May 1911 in the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila. A total of 308 Cantonese were killed, amounting to half the Chinese community in Torreón. The victims, accused of collusion with Porfirio Díaz, were killed by a local mob and the revolutionary forces of Francisco I. Madero. A large number of Chinese homes and shops were looted and destroyed.

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15/05/1905

The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada, United States.

Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the seat of Clark County. It is the 24th-most populous city in the United States, with 641,903 residents at the 2020 census. The Las Vegas metropolitan area has an estimated 2.4 million residents and is the 29th-largest metropolitan area in the country. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. Most of these venues are located in downtown Las Vegas or on the Las Vegas Strip, which is outside city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. The Las Vegas Valley serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center in Nevada.

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15/05/1891

Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.

Pope Leo XIII was head of the Catholic Church from 1878 until his death in 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of St. Peter, Pius IX, and John Paul II.

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15/05/1864

American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

The Battle of New Market was fought on May 15, 1864, in Virginia during the Valley Campaigns of 1864 in the American Civil War. A makeshift Confederate army of 4,100 men defeated the larger Army of the Shenandoah under Major General Franz Sigel, delaying the capture of Staunton by several weeks.

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15/05/1851

The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier.

During the Australian gold rushes, starting in 1851, significant numbers of workers moved from elsewhere in Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the colonial government of New South Wales had suppressed the news out of the fear that it would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy.

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15/05/1850

The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina.

The Arana–Southern Treaty or Convention of Settlement, formally known as the Convention for the perfect restoration of friendly relations between the Argentine Confederation and Her Britannic Majesty, was a peace treaty signed between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Argentine Confederation following the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata.

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15/05/1849

The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished.

The Sicilian revolution of independence of 1848 was the first of the numerous Revolutions of 1848 which swept across Europe. It was a popular rebellion against the rule of Ferdinand II of the House of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies. Three revolutions against the Bourbon ruled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies had previously occurred on the island of Sicily starting from 1800: this final one, which commenced on 12 January 1848, resulted in an independent state which survived for 16 months. The Sicilian Constitution of 1848 which survived the 16 months was advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of a unified Italian confederation of states. It was in effect a curtain-raiser to the end of the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies, finally completed by Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, the Siege of Gaeta of 1860–1861 and the proclamation of the unified Kingdom of Italy.

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15/05/1836

Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.

Francis Baily was an English astronomer. He is most famous for his observations of "Baily's beads" during a total eclipse of the Sun. Baily was also a major figure in the early history of the Royal Astronomical Society, as one of the founders and as the president four times.

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15/05/1817

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, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

Friends Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

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15/05/1791

French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.

The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the Coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799. Many of the revolution's ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, and its values remain central to modern French political discourse. It was caused by a combination of social, political, and economic factors which the existing regime proved unable to manage.

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15/05/1725

Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.

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15/05/1648

The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty.

The Peace of Münster, signed on 30 January 1648, was a treaty between Philip IV of Spain and the Lords States General of the Dutch Republic. Negotiated in parallel to, but not part of, the Peace of Westphalia, under its terms Spain formally recognised the independent Dutch Republic, and ended the Eighty Years' War.

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15/05/1618

Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).

Johannes Kepler was a German polymath who was an astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and music theorist. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books Astronomia nova, Harmonice Mundi, and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae. The variety and impact of his work made Kepler one of the founders and fathers of modern astronomy, the scientific method, natural science, and modern science. He has been described as the "father of science fiction" for his novel Somnium.

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15/05/1602

Cape Cod is sighted by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.

Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth-oldest English place-name in the U.S.

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15/05/1536

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.

Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

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15/05/1525

Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.

An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well-equipped, regular military force state adversary. Due to this asymmetry, insurgents avoid large-scale direct battles, opting instead to blend in with the civilian population where they gradually expand territorial control and military forces. Insurgency frequently hinges on control of and collaboration with local populations.

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15/05/1252

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

Pope Innocent IV, born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254.

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15/05/1194

Michael the Syrian reconsecrates the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, which he reconstructed after its destruction by a fire. The monastery stays a center of the Syriac Orthodox Church until the end of the thirteenth century.

Michael the Syrian, also known as Michael the Great, was the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch from 1166 until his death in 1199. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church, remembered both as a saint and as a historian.

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15/05/0756

Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya, commonly known as Abd al-Rahman I, was the founder and first emir of the Emirate of Córdoba, ruling from 756 to 788. He established the Umayyad dynasty in al-Andalus, which continued for nearly three centuries.

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15/05/0589

King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility.

Authari was king of the Lombards from 584 to his death. He was considered the first Lombard king to have adopted some level of Romanitas (Roman-ness) and introduced policies that led to drastic changes, particularly in the treatment of the Romans and greater tolerance for the Christian faith.

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15/05/0392

Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne.

Valentinian II was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman Empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his half-brother, then was sidelined by a usurper, and finally became sole ruler after 388, albeit with limited de facto powers. He was the youngest emperor (co-ruler) in the Western Roman Empire.

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15/05/0221

Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

Liu Bei, courtesy name Xuande (玄德), was a Chinese warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China.

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