1657 English Lord Protector Cromwell refuses crown

1865 Union forces occupy Confederate capital of Richmond VA & Petersburg VA.  The first troops to march in were the U.S. Colored Troops who played "Dixie".  Playing in the band was Private Cato VanDerzee(my great uncle)  :)

1930 Ras Tafari becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

April 3rd 1948 – The Marshall Plan, an economic recovery program established by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to assist the post-World War II re-building of Europe, was signed into law.

April 4th 1949 – Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.

A sad day in history.

April 4th 1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

A sad day in history.

April 4th 1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.


That's right...today marks the 40th anniversary of this tragic event. :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(

That's right...today marks the 40th anniversary of this tragic event. :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
Yesterday I manage to catch a programme around the events of that sad day and learn more than I knew.

April 5th 1614 – Native American Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia, and was christened Lady Rebecca

1990 Paul Newman wins a court victory over Julius Gold, to keep giving all profits from Newman foods(brand name Newmans Own) to charity

April 5th 1976 – The Tiananmen Incident, a protest against the repression of the Chinese regime nearing the end of the Cultural Revolution, took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

April 6th 1896 – The first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens.

April 6th 1895 - Oscar Wilde is arrested (in Cadogan Hotel, London) after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.

1909 North Pole reached by Americans Matthew Henson & Robert Peary

April 6th 1830 – Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and others formally organized the Church of Christ, starting the Latter Day Saint movement.

April 6th 1886 – Vancouver, one of British Columbia's youngest cities, was incorporated.

April 7th 1948 – The United Nations established the World Health Organization.

0451  Attila's Hun's plunder Metz

1971 President Richard Nixon orders Lieutenant Calley (My Lai) free

1994 Vatican acknowledges Holocaust for 1st time

April 8th 1904 – British occultist, writer Aleister Crowley began transcribing The Book of the Law, a Holy Book in Thelema.

1865 General Robert E Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House in Virginia

1913 17th amendment, requiring direct election of senators, ratified

April 8th 1093 – Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire, one of the largest cathedrals in England, was dedicated by Bishop Walkelin.

April 9th 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces defeated Allied troops at the Battle of Bataan on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines before beginning to forcibly transfer more than 90,000 prisoners of war to prison camps in the Bataan Death March.

April 9th 1912 - Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland for New York

1833 1st tax-supported public library (Peterborough NH)

1939 Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial after being denied access to Daughters of American Revolution Hall.   
        Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from D.A.R. for their refusal, and secures Lincoln Memorial for the concert

1992 John Major, (Conservative Party) elected Prime Minister of England

1413 - Henry V is crowned King of England.

April 10th 1606 - The Charter of the Virginia Company of London was established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

April 10th 1944 - Henry Ford II is named executive vice president of Ford Motor Company.

1955 Dr Jonas Salk successfully tests Polio vaccine

April 11th 1970 - Apollo 13 is launched.

April 11th 1979 – Ugandan–Tanzanian War: The Uganda National Liberation Army and Tanzanian forces captured Kampala, forcing Ugandan President Idi Amin to flee.

April 11th 1905 - Einstein reveals his Theory of Relativity (special relativity).

1890 Ellis Island designated as an immigration station

 

1941 Germany blitzes Conventry, England

1967 Harlem (NYC) voters defy Congress & reelect Adam Clayton Powell Jr

1968 President Lyndon Johnson signs 1968 Civil Rights Act

April 11th 1888 – The Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was inaugurated.

April 12th 1606 – A royal decree established the Union Flag to symbolise the Union of the Crowns, merging the designs of the Flag of England and the Flag of Scotland.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/455306467_9b4cfca5b8_m.jpg

April 12th 1961 – Aboard Vostok 3KA-2, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes.

April 12th 1961 – Aboard Vostok 3KA-2, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes.


Alan Shepard followed shortly afterwards ...

April 12th 1999 - American President Bill Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil lawsuit.

1861 Fort Sumter SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting the Civil War

1908 Fire makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts

April 12th 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

April 13th 1919 – British Indian Army troops opened fire on a peaceful gathering in Amritsar, Punjab in India, killing hundreds of unarmed men, women and children.

April 13th 1970 - An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew into deadly peril.

April 14th 1865 – Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shot U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

April 14th 1860 - The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, U.S..

April 15th 1947 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American to break the baseball color line, played his first game in Major League Baseball.

1865 - President Abraham Lincoln dies of wound sustained when shot by John Wilkes Booth the night before

1877 1st telephone installed Boston-Somerville MA

1912 Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM in North Atlantic

April 15th 1755 – A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson was first published.

April 16th 1943 – Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of the semisynthetic drug LSD.

April 16th 1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre.

1724 1st Easter observed

1746 Battle at Culloden Troops of "James VIII & III" defeat Charles Stuart

1862 Slavery abolished in District of Columbia

1917 Lenin returns to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution

April 16th 1912 – Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

If she flew over the Atlantic Ocean, she could had help with the Titanic.

April 16th 1919 - Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the British slaughter of Indian protestors in the Amritsar Massacre.

April 17th 1982 – A new "patriated" Constitution of Canada, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, was signed into law.

April 17th 1970 Apollo 13 returns back safely to Earth

1534 Sir Thomas More confined in London Tower

1817 1st US school for the deaf founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc (American School for the Deaf-Hartford CT)

1986 Netherlands & Scilly Islands sign peace treaty (war of 1651)

April 18th 1506 – Construction of the current St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, to replace the old St. Peter's Basilica built in the 4th century, began.

1861 Colonel Robert E Lee turns down offer to command Union armies(turns out we didn't really need him)

1906 San Francisco earthquake & fire kills nearly 4,000 & destroys 75% of the city

1991 Census Bureau says it failed to count up to 63 million in 1990 census

1991 Census Bureau says it failed to count up to 63 million in 1990 census
Did the calculators run out of batteries?

April 19th 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the United States will be abandoning the gold standard.

1906 San Francisco earthquake & fire kills nearly 4,000 & destroys 75% of the city






Yes, that was one of the deadliest earthquakes ever... I even wrote a term paper about it shortly before the 100th anniversary of it a couple years ago.

April 19th 1984 – Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick's "Advance Australia Fair", a patriotic song that was first performed in 1878, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem.

1932 President Herbert Hoover suggests 5 day work week

1932 President Herbert Hoover suggests 5 day work week

...and invented the weekend?

April 19, 1995...the Oklahoma City bombing

April 20th 1862 – French physiologist Louis Pasteur and physiologist Claude Bernard completed the first test on pasteurization.

April 21st 1967 – Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos overthrew the government of Prime Minister Panagiotis Kanellopoulos in a coup d'état, establishing the Regime of the Colonels in Greece.

April 22nd 1993 – The first version of Mosaic, created by computer programmers Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was released, becoming the first popular World Wide Web browser and Gopher client.

April 23rd 1564 - William Shakespeare, (guessed to be born on this day) English poet and playwright (d. 1616)

April 23d 1616 - William Shakespeare, English writer and actor, died this day (Julian calendar)

1014  King Brian Boru of Ireland beats Danes at Battle of Clontarf

1942 Luftwaffe bombs Exeter

1984 AIDS-virus identified (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

April 24th 1800 – The Library of Congress, today the de facto national library of the United States, was established as part of an act of Congress providing for the transfer of the nation's capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.

1915 Massacre of Armenians by Turks (Armenian Martyrs Day)

1916 Easter rebellion of Irish against British occupation begins

1989 Tens of thousands of students strike in Beijing China

April 24th 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in mission STS-31.

April 24th 1981 IBM-PC computer introduced

April 25th 1915 - The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula during World War I by Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.

April 25th 1916 - Anzac Day commemorated for the first time, on the first anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove.

April 26th 1865 – American Army soldier Boston Corbett cornered and fatally shot John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

1478 Easter is celebrated for the first time

1514 Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn

1478 Easter is celebrated for the first time

Easter as we know it today?

April 27th 1967 – The Expo 67 World's Fair opened in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with over 50 million visitors and 62 nations participating.

Easter as we know it today?


Yes, at least here in the US.  Most don't know that we weren't much on celebrating Christmas, Easter, or pretty much anything really, in the early days.  Wasn't really until the 1800s that things started to get going.

1861 West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from US

1940 Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Yes, at least here in the US.  Most don't know that we weren't much on celebrating Christmas, Easter, or pretty much anything really, in the early days.  Wasn't really until the 1800s that things started to get going.
It with Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria that started the idea of Christmas Cards and Trees.

April 27th 1565 – Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and 500 armed soldiers arrived at Cebu and established the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

On Friday (April the 25th), I was so busy with other stuff that I forgot to mention that it was 8 years since I discovered amiright.com! (That's right, it was on Tuesday, April 25, 2000. I was googling some song lyrics and came across a site for "misheard" lyrics, so I thought I'd check it out. And I've been stopping by there ever since.)

April 28th 1923 – London's Wembley Stadium, then known as Empire Stadium, was opened to the public for the first time and held the 1923 FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United football clubs.

April 29th 1992 – The acquittal of policemen who had beaten motorist Rodney King sparked civil unrest in Los Angeles that lasted for six days and killed over 50 people.

1856 End of Crimean War

April 30th 1789 – George Washington took the oath as the first President of the United States of America at Federal Hall in New York City.

May 1st 1898 – The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo at the Battle of Manila Bay, the first engagement of the Spanish-American War.

May 1st 1840 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland first issued the Penny Black (pictured), the first official adhesive postage stamp.

1863 Battle of Chancellorsville VA (29,000 injured or died)

1863 Confederate congress passed resolution to kill all black soldiers, none to be taken as POWs

1864 Wilderness campaign

1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba

May 2nd 1829 – Captain Charles Fremantle of the Royal Navy established the Swan River Colony, the first British settlement on the west coast of Australia.

May 3rd: 1947 – A new Constitution of Japan went into effect, providing for a parliamentary system of government, guaranteeing certain fundamental rights, and relegating the Japanese monarchy to a purely ceremonial role.

May 3rd 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Great Britain

1963 Martin Luther King Jr delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech

May 3rd 2003 - New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.

1979 – Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, by taking office in Downing Street.

May 4th 1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.

May 3rd 2003 - New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.


Actually, he just came down to Massachusetts looking for work.  ;D

Actually, he just came down to Massachusetts looking for work.  ;D
That must be a local joke?

1814 Bourbon reign restored in France






That must be a local joke?




Yes, Massachusetts is right below New Hampshire.  A lot of New Hampshirites travel daily to Massachusetts to work because the pay is better and there are more jobs.

1961 13 Freedom riders began bus trip through South

Yes, Massachusetts is right below New Hampshire.  A lot of New Hampshirites travel daily to Massachusetts to work because the pay is better and there are more jobs.
Thanks + K

May 4th 1493 – Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter caetera, establishing a Line of Demarcation dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal.

May 5th 1961 – Project Mercury: Aboard the American spacecraft Freedom 7, astronaut Alan Shepard made a sub-orbital flight, becoming the second person to travel into outer space after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

1864 Battle of Wilderness VA (Germanna Ford, Wilderness Tavern)

May 5th 1891 - The Music Hall in New York City (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

May 6th 1994 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

May 6th 1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

May 6, 2002: Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated.

May 6th 1954 – At Oxford's Iffley Road Track, English athlete Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

May 7th 1895 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented his radio receiver, refined as a lightning detector, to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.

1700 William Penn began monthly meetings for Blacks advocating emancipation

1864 Battle of Wilderness ends (total losses: USA-17,666; CSA-7,500)

1942 Nazi decree orders all Jewish pregnant women of Kovno Ghetto executed

1954 French surrender to Vietminh after 55-day siege at Dien Bien Phu

May 8th 1945 – Most armed forces under German control ceased active operations by 23:01 hours CET at the end of World War II in Europe, in accordance with the capitulation documents signed by General Alfred Jodl on behalf of Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz the day before.

1864 Battle of Antietam VA (Spotslyvania Court House, Laurel Hill)

1886 Atlanta pharmacist (Jacob's Pharmacy) Dr John Styth Pemberton invents Coca Cola (contained cocaine)

1926 A Philip Randolph organizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

1886 Atlanta pharmacist (Jacob's Pharmacy) Dr John Styth Pemberton invents Coca Cola (contained cocaine)



I'll drink to that!

May 8th 1429 – Siege of Orléans: French troops led by Joan of Arc lifted the English siege and turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War.

May 9th 1950 – Speculative fiction author L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was first published, describing his self-improvement techniques known as Dianetics.

1788 English parliament accepts abolishing of slave trade

1945 Jersey liberated from Nazis

1949 Britain's 1st launderette opens in Queensway London

1989 Vice President Dan Quayle says in United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste"

1949 Britain's 1st launderette opens in Queensway London


...and I believe is still operating today, I check on it next I am passing it (and take a picture)

May 9th 1901 – The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

May 10th 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

May 10th 1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad of North America was completed with the golden spike ceremony in Promontory Summit, Utah.

1857 Indian Mutiny begins with revolt of Sepoys of Meerutkazerne, Delhi

May 10th 1503 – Christopher Columbus and his crew became the first Europeans to visit the Cayman Islands, naming them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there.

May 11th 1997 - IBM Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

May 13th 1917 – Our Lady of Fatima: Ten-year-old Lúcia Santos and her siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian apparition near Fátima, Portugal.

May 13th 2006 - The largest shopping mall in Colombia, the Santa Fe Commerical Center, opens in Bogota.

1643 Battle at Grantham: English parliamentary armies beat royalists

1865 South Brownsville TX (Palmito Ranch) Final engagement of Civil War PVT John J Williams of 34th Indiana is last man killed

1947 Senate approved the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions

1989 Approximately 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China
    (over here you couldn't get 2000 students to give up their daily grande latte)

1643 Battle at Grantham


Not to be confused with The Battleaxe From Grantham...Margaret Thatcher!  ;)

May 14th 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition led by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left Camp Dubois near present-day Hartford, Illinois and began the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

1948 PM David Ben-Gurion establishes State of Israel

1970 Cops kill 2 students in racial disturbance (Jackson State University, Mississippi)

May 15th 1602 – English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold became the first European to discover Cape Cod.

15th May 1972 - George C Wallace was shot and left paralysed by Arthur Bremner while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in Laurel, Md

15th May 1975 - Us forces invaded the Cambodian island of Koh Tang to recapture the American merchant ship Mayaguez.  (All 40 crew members had been safely released by Cambodia; some 40 US servicemen were killed in the operation.)

May 15th 1990 – Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold at auction in Christie's New York office for a total of US$82.5 million, at the time the world's most expensive painting.

May 16 th 1866 – Root beer was first prepared commercially by American pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires.

May 16th 1960 - The first working laser was demonstrated on May 16, 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.

http://www.google.co.uk/logos/laser08.gif

1763 Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London

1862 Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds 1st automobile

May 17th 1900 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Mafeking in South Africa was lifted after 217 days, a decisive victory for the British against the Boers.

1954 Supreme Court unanimously rules on "Brown v Topeka Board of Education" reversing 1896 "Plessy Vs Ferguson" separate but equal  decision

1990 European court rules pension rights for both men & women

May 17th 1865 – The International Telecommunication Union, an international organization that standardizes and regulates international radio and telecommunications, was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris.

May 17th 1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.

May 18th 1980 – The stratovolcano Mount St. Helens erupted (pictured), killing 57 people in southern Washington State, reducing hundreds of square miles to wasteland, and causing over a billion U.S. dollars in damages.

1803 Britain declares war on France after General Napoleon Bonaparte continues interfering in Italy & Switzerland

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France

May 18th 1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.

May 19th 1649 – The Rump Parliament passed an act to formally establish the Commonwealth of England.

May 19th 1649 – The Rump Parliament passed an act to formally establish the Commonwealth of England.


Did you take any photos.. :D

Did you take any photos.. :D
There are still being developed at the printers....

1885 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn MA)

May 20th 1873 – Clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis were granted a patent for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim overalls, paving the way for their business Levi Strauss & Co. to start manufacturing their first line of blue jeans.

1639 Dorchester MA, forms 1st school funded by local taxes

1910 Funeral for Britain's King Edward VII

May 20th 1570 – The first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by cartographer Abraham Ortelius, was issued.

1980 710 families in Love Canal area (Niagara Falls NY) are evacuated.  Area declared uninhabitable because of toxic waste in the ground. This led to the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). CERCLA is much more commonly referred to as "Superfund" because of the fund established within the act to help the clean-up of locations like Love Canal.

May 20th 1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the first President of Cuba.

May 21st 1927 – Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, American aviator Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, flying from Roosevelt Field near New York City to Le Bourget Airport near Paris.

May 22nd 1964 – During a speech at the University of Michigan, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the goals of his Great Society domestic social reforms to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.

1455 Opening battle in England's 30-year War of the Roses (St Albans)

1888 Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers

1891 1st motion picture shown to National Federation of Women's Clubs

May 22th 1455 – Forces led by Richard, Duke of York and Richard, Earl of Warwick captured Lancastrian King Henry VI of England, beginning the Wars of the Roses with a Yorkist victory in the First Battle of St Albans.

May 23rd 1873 – The North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was established to bring law and order to and assert Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Territories.

May 23rd 1430 Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English

1934 bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death in a police ambush

1977 The US Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of former Nixon White House aides H R Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John N Mitchell in connection with their Watergate convictions

2007 President Bush portrays the Iraq war as a battle between the US and al-Qaida and contended that Osama bin Laden was setting up a terrorist cell in Iraq to strike targets in America during his speech at the US Coast Guard commencement

1533 King Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon marriage declared null & void

1701 Captain Kidd hung in London after conviction of piracy & murder

1945 Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader & Chief of Police, committed suicide

1990 Cost of rescuing savings & loan failures in U.S. is put at up to $130 billion

May 23rd 2003 - The euro exceeded its initial trading value as it hits $1.18 for the first time since its introduction in 1999.

May 24th 1883 – New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world, was opened.

May 24th 1883 – New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world, was opened.

That was 125 years ago! :o One-eighth of a millennium!

I had no idea that it was opened on that day... you learn something new every day!

That was 125 years ago! :o One-eighth of a millennium!

I had no idea that it was opened on that day... you learn something new every day!
I believe there are big celebrations there today.

1861 Major General Benjamin Butler declares slaves "contraband of war"

1959 Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in England

May 24th 1738 – At a Moravian Church meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, John Wesley experienced a spiritual rebirth, leading him to launch the Methodist movement.

May 25th 1977 – Star Wars, a science fantasy film written and directed by George Lucas, was released, becoming one of the most successful films of all time.

May 25th 1977 – Star Wars, a science fantasy film written and directed by George Lucas, was released, becoming one of the most successful films of all time.
The Uk did not get to see the film till around Christmas the same year.

1914 British House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule

1915 2nd Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties

1991 Israel evacuates 14,000 Ethiopian Jews

May 25th 1961 – During a speech to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo space program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".

May 26th 1986 – The European Community adopted the Flag of Europe, a flag previously adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955.

1896 Last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned

1930 Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution

1989 Danish parliament allows legal marriage among homosexuals

May 26th 1896 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average, representing twelve stocks from various American industries, was first published by journalist Charles Dow as a stock market index.

May 27th 1153 – Malcolm IV became King of Scotland at the age of twelve.

1940 British & French begin evacuation of Dunkirk

May 27th 1937 – The Golden Gate Bridge, at the time the world's longest suspension bridge span, connecting the City of San Francisco to Marin County, California, opened.

May 28th 1961 – The British newspaper The Observer published English lawyer Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners, starting a letter-writing campaign that grew and became the human rights organization Amnesty International.

May 28th 1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC, who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span.

1863 1st black regiment (54 Massachusetts) leaves Boston to fight in Civil War

1959 Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 miles (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became 1st animals retrieved from a space mission

May 28th 1644 – English Civil War: Royalist troops allegedly slaughtered up to 1,600 people during their storm and capture of the Town of Bolton.

May 28th 1930 - The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.

May 29th 1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday.

http://www.google.co.uk/logos/everest08.gif

May 30th 1431 – Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France after being convicted of heresy in a politically motivated trial.

1889 The brassiere is invented

1937 Memorial Day Massacre - Chicago police shoot on union marchers at Republic Steel Plant in Chicago, 10 die

1889 The brassiere is invented



Invented by whom?

May 30th 1536 – Henry VIII of England married Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two queens consort.

May 31st 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, English naval administrator and Member of Parliament Samuel Pepys recorded his last entry in his diary, one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period.

June 1st 1831 – British naval officer and explorer James Clark Ross successfully led the first expedition to reach the North Magnetic Pole.

1495  1st written record of Scotch Whiskey appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. Friar John Cor is the distiller

1864 Battle of Cold Harbour, VA

June 1st 1935 - The first driving tests are introduced in the United Kingdom.

June 2nd 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

June 3rd 1937 – Months after he abdicated the British throne, Edward, The Duke of Windsor married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony near Tours, France, a wedding opposed by the Church of England because Simpson was a divorcée with a living ex-spouse.

June 4th 1783 - The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).

http://www.google.co.uk/logos/balloon08.gif

June 4th 1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina).

June 5th 1798 – In the Battle of New Ross, British forces prevented the United Irishmen from spreading the Irish Rebellion into Munster.

June 5th 1963 - British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal.

June 6th 1933 – The first ever drive-in theater opened in Pennsauken, New Jersey, United States.

June 7th 1776 – Virginia statesman Richard Henry Lee presented the Lee Resolution to the Second Continental Congress, declaring the Thirteen Colonies to be independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain.