1985 – A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group’s headquarters. Eleven people died in the fire that resulted.
1110 – Crusaders march into Beirut causing a bloodbath
1277 – As Vizier Mehmet I of Karaman issues a firman (decree) ordering only the Turkish language to be used, not Arabic or Persian
1559 – Excavated corpse of heretic David Jorisz burned in Basel
1568 – Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
1588 – King Henri III flees Paris
1607 – An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrived at Jamestown, Virginia. The passengers went ashore the next day and this site became the first permanent settlement English colony in America.
1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason.
1637 – Cardinal Richelieu of France creates the table knife
1643 – Heavy earthquake strikes Santiago Chile; kills 1/3 of population
1779 – The War of Bavarian Succession ended.
1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed eleven ships full of convicts on January 18, 1788, at Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.
1821 – The first practical printing press was patented in the U.S. by Samuel Rust.
1830 – Ecuador gains its independence.
1846 – The U.S. declared that war existed with Mexico two months after fighting began.
1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of Britain issues a “”proclamation of neutrality”” which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights
1864 – The Battle of Resaca commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta during the American Civil War.
1865 – The last land engagement of the American Civil War was fought at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas, more than a month after Gen. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, VA.
1880 – Thomas Edison tested his experimental electric railway in Menlo Park.
1888 – Slavery was abolished in Brazil.
1897 – Guglielmo Marconi sent the world’s first wireless communication over open sea.
1912 – Royal Flying Corps was established in England.
1913 – Igor Sikorsky flew the first four engine aircraft.
1916 – The first observance of Indian (Native American) Day
1917 – Near Fatima, Portugal, three peasant children reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. https://www.livescience.com/29290-fatima-miracle.html
1927 – “Black Friday” occurred in Germany.
1929 – The first suicidal person jumps off of the Statue of Liberty.
1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the Nazi invasion in the Netherlands to Britain. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1940 – Igor Sikorsky pilots his VS-300 helicopter’s maiden flight, The helicopter was the first successful model to use the single vertical tail rotor that most helicopters feature today.
1940 – Winston Churchill made his first speech as the prime minister of Britain.
1946 – US convicts 58 camp guard of Mauthausen concentration camp to death
1947 – Senate approved the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions
1949 – The first gas turbine to pump natural gas was installed in Wilmar, AR.
1950 – The first Formula One World Championship season kicks off, Giuseppe Farina won the first FIA World Championship of Drivers for the Alfa Romeo team.
1954 – U.S. President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.
1954 – Anti-National Service Riots, a riot in Singapore by Chinese Middle School students.
1958 – French troops took control of Algiers.
1958 – U.S. Vice President Nixon’s limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
1960 – Hundreds of UC Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Un-American Activities Committee. 31 students are arrested, and the Free Speech Movement is born.
1966 – Federal education funding is denied to 12 school districts in the South because of violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
1968 – Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.
1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka. Blocked exits and nonfunctional elevators cause 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
1976 – The final game in the history of the American Basketball Association is played as the New York Nets defeat the Denver Nuggets 112-106 in New York to win the 1976 ABA Championship.
1981 – Mehmet Ali Aca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. The Pope was rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery, and managed to survive.
1985 – A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group’s headquarters. Eleven people died in the fire that resulted. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-14-mn-18979-story.html
1989 – Thousands of students begin a hunger strike on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, The non-violent occupation of the square was part of anti-corruption and pro-democracy demonstrations. Some 3000 unarmed civilians were killed when the army cracked down on the protesters on June 3-4, 1989.
1993 – Methane gas explosion in Secunda coal mine South-Africa, kills 50
1998 – India did a second round of nuclear tests. The first round had been done 2 days earlier. Within hours the U.S. and Japan imposed tough economic sanctions. India claimed that the tests were necessary to maintain India’s national security.
1999 – In Moscow, the impeachment of Russian President Boris Yeltsin began.
2003 – The U.S. government unveiled a newly designed version of the $20 bill. It was the first to be colorized in an effort to stop counterfeiters
2011 – Portugal slips into double-dip recession after the economy contracts by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2011, with a 0.6% contraction in the last quarter of 2010, it is reported today
2012 – 49 dismembered bodies are found on a Mexican highway as part of the Mexican drug war
2014 – 301 miners are killed by an underground explosion and mine fire in Soma Mine, Manisa, Turkey
2017 – 22 year old UK blogger halts spread of global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying “kill switch”
2017 – Portuguese children Francisco and Jacinta Marto (died 1919 & 1920 aged 10 & 9 in flu epidemic) canonized by Pope Francis at Fátima – the youngest Catholic saints not to die as martyrs
2018 – Family of six carry out 3 church bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia, killing at least 13. Islamic State claims responsibility.
2019 – China retaliates against the US as their trade war escalates, raising tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods affecting over 4,000 items
2021 – Gaza conflict has killed 103 people in Palestine, including 27 children, through Israeli airstrikes, more than 1000 rockets fired into Israel by Gaza militants killing seven, city of Lod center of street fighting
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
