1960 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time.
1386 – Treaty of Windsor between Portugal and England is ratified at Windsor cementing and strengthening ties between the two kingdoms (oldest diplomatic alliance still in force). The treaty guarantees the mutual security of both nations and strengthens commercial ties
1460 – Courtyard of the episcopal palace in Atrecht (akak Arras) has witch burnings
1502 – Christopher Columbus left Spain for his final trip to the Western Hemisphere.
1671 – Colonel Thomas Blood attempts to steal Crown Jewels of England and Scotland from the Tower of London, captured running from the tower with the jewels
1726 – Three men arrested during a February raid on Mother Clap’s molly-house (a coffee house catering to homosexuals) in London are executed by hanging at Tyburn, England
1754 – The first newspaper cartoon in America showed a divided snake “Join or die” in “The Pennsylvania Gazette.”
1768 – John Hancock pays duties on 25 pipes of wine, only one fourth of his ship’s carrying capacity. British officials accuse him of unloading the rest during the night to avoid paying duties on the entire cargo.
1785 – Joseph Bramah patented the beer-pump handle.
1816 – Lady Caroline Lamb publishes the Gothic novel “Glenarvon”, a thinly disguised account of her affair with Lord Byron which also depicts her husband William Lamb
1846 – Battle of Resaca de la Palma-US sends Mexico back to Rio Grande
1873 – Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression
1901 – A financial panic begins in the USA following the struggle between two groups to control the railroads between the Great Lakes and the Pacific
1901 – In Australia, the Duke of Cornwall and York declared the First Commonwealth Parliament open.
1904 – The Great Western Railway Number 3440 City of Truro became the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 miles per hour.
1914 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint congressional resolution that designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
1915 – German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.
1926 – Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly an airplane over the North Pole.
1936 – Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia.
1940 – Vivien Leigh debuted in America on stage in “Romeo and Juliet” with Lawrence Olivier.
1941 – The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by Britain’s Royal navy.
1941 – British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen
1945 – U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1945 – World War II: Hermann Goering is captured by the United States Army
1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by his son Umberto II who reigns for only 34 days before the monarchy is abolished
1951 – The U.S. conducted its first thermonuclear experiment under Operation Greenhouse. “George,” a 225-kiloton device, was detonated on Enewetak Atok in the Marshall Islands.
1955 – West Germany joined NATO.
1956 – War Reparations and Peace Settlement between Philippines and Japan was finally signed at Malacañang Palace under Magsaysay administration
1960 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fda-approves-the-pill
1961 – US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairman Newton N. Minow criticizes TV as a “vast wasteland” during a speech before the National Association of Broadcasters
1962 – Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technologay successfully bounced a laser beam off Moon for the first time.
1969 – Carlos Lamarca begins his fight against Brazil’s military dictatorship, Lamarca was a member of the communist organization Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR) and is well known for his urban guerilla actions. Brazilian forces killed him in 1971.
1974 – The House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.
1978 – The bullet-riddled body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found in an automobile in the center of Rome. The Red Brigades had abducted him.
1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed, An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.
1980 – A Liberian freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. Thirty-five motorists were killed and a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
1981 – The Motherland Monument at 62 m (203 ft) high is opened in Kyiv, Ukraine in ceremony attended by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
1989 – Journalist petition Chinese government for freedom of press
1989 – VP 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”
1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the Karabakh War
1992 – Salem Village Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial dedicated in Danvers (formally Salem Village) to mark 300 year anniversary of trials
1994 – Nelson Mandela was chosen to be South Africa’s first black president.
1996 – In video testimony to a courtroom in Little Rock, AR, U.S. President Clinton insisted that he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan in the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
1997 – Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war
2001 – Accra Sports Stadium Disaster: 129 Ghanaian football fans die in a stampede caused by the firing of teargas by police following a decision by the referee in a crucial match between arch-rivals Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko
2002 – In Bethlehem, West Bank, a deal was reached that would end the 38-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Thirteen suspected militants were to be deported to several different countries. The standoff had begun on April 2, 2002.
2002 – In Kaspiisk, Russia, 39 people were killed and at least 130 were injurde when a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade.
2002 – In Bahrain, people were allowed to vote for representatives for the first time in nearly 30 years. Women were allowed to vote for the first time in the country’s history.
2004 – Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a land mine bomb blast under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya
2015 – A gun fight erupts in Macedonian town of Kumanovo between police and Albanian separatists adding to the government crisis
2017 – Jakarta’s Christian governor Ahok jailed for 2 years for blasphemy
2017 – US President Donald Trump dismisses FBI Director James Comey
2019 – Pope Francis issued a new church law that required all Catholic priests and nuns to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities.
2020 – In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration approved a coronavirus antigen test that could quickly detect virus proteins.
2022 – 44 more inmates die in a prison riot in Ecuador, leading Amnesty International to say imprisonment nearly “a death sentence” now in Ecuador
2022 – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa submits his resignation to his brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, amid continuing violent protests causing four deaths
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
