1866 – Berkeley, California named (for George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne)
1895 – Henry Irving becomes the first actor to receive a knighthood
1909 – Bristol University granted Royal Charter
1918 – British officer General Poole lands at Murmansk, the Russian port on the Barents Sea
1944 – Icelandic voters severe all ties with Denmark
1970 – The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union
1978 – American management consultant Marilyn Loden first coins the term “glass ceiling” to describe invisible career barriers for women
1986 – Margaret Thatcher becomes 1st British Prime Minister to visit Israel
1997 – Telstar-5 Proton Launch, Successful
2018 – World’s largest cat-proof fence (44 km / 27.3 miles) completed at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, central Australia to protect endangered species
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 23rd May 2024
1568 – The Netherlands declares independence from Spain
1861 – Virginia citizens vote 3 to 1 in favor of secession from the Union
1865 – Flag flown at full mast over White House for the first time since Lincoln was shot
1915 – Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary during WW I
1928 – Bomb attack on Italian embassy in Buenos Aires, 22 die
1958 – US schools 1st use Cliff’s Notes
1965 – Franz Jonas elected President of Austria
1989 – 3rd American Comedy Award: Paula Poundstone
2013 – Patrick Roy is named head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, his former team where he won two Stanley Cups
2014 – “Pauline” a chamber opera by Margaret Atwood and Tobin Stokes premieres at the York Theatre in Vancouver
Historical Events for 22nd May 2024
1803 – 1st US public library opens in Connecticut
1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner SS Ionic.
1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, only mountain other than Mount St. Helens, to erupt in the continental US during the 20th century
1915 – Local train collides with troop train killing 226 in Gretna, Scotland
1950 – Celal Bayar elected President of Turkey
1956 – “Bob Hope Show” last airs on NBC-TV
1967 – Egyptian President Nasser closes the Straits of Tiran to Israel
1970 – Arab terrorists kill 9 children and 3 adults on a school bus
1996 – Emmy 23rd Daytime Award presentation – Susan Lucci loses for 16th time
2022 – Report released on sexual abuse in US Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, details 20 years of suppressing many allegations
Historical Events for 21st May 2024
879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state
1793 – Curacao Island Council forbids criticism of House of Orange
1911 – French troop enter Fez in Morocco to quell anti-European agitation
1943 – Fastest 9 inning AL baseball night game (89 mins), Chicago White Sox beat visiting Washington Senators, 1-0
1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal
1978 – Yamada Mumon Roshi appointed head of Zen Rinzai Sect
1980 – “Star Wars Episode V – Empire Strikes Back”, produced by George Lucas opens in cinemas in UK and North America
1990 – 43rd Cannes Film Festival: “Wild at Heart” directed by David Lynch starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern wins the Palme d’Or
2001 – French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2019 – More than 600 people, 75% children, identified as HIV in a month in Sindh province, Pakistan, thought to be due to use of infected needles
Historical Events for 20th May 2024
1882 – Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy sign the Triple Alliance
1910 – Funeral for Britain’s King Edward VII held in Westminster Abbey, has one of the largest assemblages of European royalty
1961 – 86th Preakness: Johnny Sellers aboard Carry Back wins in 1:57.6
1961 – White mob attacks “Freedom Riders” in Montgomery, Alabama
1963 – Sukarno appointed president of Indonesia
1980 – Drummer Peter Criss quits rock band Kiss
1985 – US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti
1988 – Howard Stern fans disrupt rival radio station WMMR’s and DJ John DeBella’s “Louie Louie” parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1989 – Toonces The Cat takes the wheel on “Saturday Night Live”
2015 – 5 major world banks (JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup, RBS and UBS) fined US$5.7bn for manipulating currency markets – some of the largest ever fines
Historical Events for 19th May 2024
1585 – Spain confiscates English ships in Spanish harbors – beginning of the The Anglo-Spanish War
1930 – White women win voting rights in South Africa
1944 – German defense line in Italy collapses
1959 – The USS Triton, the first submarine with two nuclear reactors, is completed
1972 – 25th Cannes Film Festival: “The Working Class Goes to Heaven” directed by Elio Petri and “The Mattei Affair” directed by Francesco Rosi jointly awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
1981 – Pirate Jim Bibby gives up a leadoff single to Brave Terry Harper, then retires next 27 batters
1982 – Sophia Loren jailed in Naples, Italy for tax evasion
1990 – “Elvis” TV Drama about early life of Elvis Presley last airs on ABC
2012 – UEFA Champions League Final, Munich: Chelsea beats Bayern Munich, 4-3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw at the end of extra time; Blues’ first title
2021 – New York Yankees pitcher Cory Kluber no-hits Texas Rangers, 2-0 at Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas
Historical Events for 18th May 2024
1848 – Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany
1863 – US General Ulysses S. Grant begins siege on Vicksburg, Mississippi; after 47 days of battle siege, Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton’s troops surrender
1922 – Dutch 2nd Chamber agrees to 48 hour work week (was 45 hrs)
1933 – Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams
1943 – Allied bombers attack Pantelleria, an Italian island 100 km southwest of Sicily
1953 – American Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier
1955 – Queen Juliana opens E55 fair in Amsterdam, Netherlands
1964 – US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
1971 – US President Richard Nixon rejects 60 demands of Congressional Black Caucus
1991 – France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
Historical Events for 17th May 2024
1750 – -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem
1881 – Frederick Douglass appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia
1894 – 19th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Assignee wins in 1:49.25
1957 – Prayer Pilgrimage, biggest civil rights demonstration to date (DC)
1973 – Five British Army soldiers are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army booby-trap bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone
1976 – Earthquake in Uzbekistan: thousands killed
1981 – Islanders score 5 power play goals against Flyers in a playoff
1987 – Musical revue “Stardust – The Mitchell Parish Musical”, featuring songs of the Lithuanian-American lyricist, closes at Biltmore Theater, NYC, after 101 performances
1989 – Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa
2023 – Nepali Sherpa Kami Rita Sherpa (53) climbs of Mt. Everest for a record 27th time
Historical Events for 16th May 2024
1763 – Samuel Johnson 1st meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
1914 – American Horseshoe Pitchers Association organizes in Kansas City
1941 – Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
1946 – Irving Berlin, Dorothy and Herbert Fields’ musical “Annie Get Your Gun” starring Ethel Merman and featuring “There’s No Business Like Show Business” opens at Imperial Theater, NYC
1963 – “Beast in Me” opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 4 performances
1969 – US nuclear sub Guitarro sinks off San Francisco
1977 – 5 die as NY Airway helicopter topples on Pan Am building in NYC
1986 – Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) comes back from the dead on TV show “Dallas”
1988 – US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant
2019 – South African Saray Khumalo is the first black African woman to climb Mt Evervest
Historical Events for 15th May 2024
1248 – Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden lays cornerstone for Cologne Cathedral
1525 – The battle of Frankenhausen: German peasant army surrounded, 5,000 slaughtered ; ends the peasants’ uprising
1928 – Mickey Mouse makes his 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”
1944 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery, Winston Churchill and King George VI discuss the plan for D-Day
1967 – Paul McCartney meets his future wife, American photographer Linda Eastman
1976 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army kill 3 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers in County Fermanagh and 1 in County Down
1983 – Madison Hotel (Boston) destroyed by implosion
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.
2018 – Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim is released from prison after being pardoned by King Muhammad V
2022 – Hassan Sheikh Mohamud elected President of Somalia in a vote restricted to the country’s 328 members pf parliament amid security concerns