TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MAY 15
1213 King John submits to the Pope, offering to make England and Ireland papal fiefs. Pope Innocent III lifts the interdict of 1208.
1536 Anna Boleyn & Lord Rochford accused of adultery/incest
1602 English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold discovers Cape Cod.
1618 Johannes Kepler discovers his harmonics law.
1672 1st copyright law enacted by Massachusetts
1718 The world’s first machine gun is patented British lawyer, James Puckle, invented the 25.4 mm caliber “Puckle Gun” for the use on ships. It was designed for two bullet types: round bullets for Christians and (more damaging) square bullets for Turks.
1730 Following the resignation of Lord Townshend, Robert Walpole becomes the sole minister in the English cabinet.
1820 The U.S. Congress designates the slave trade a form of piracy.
1829 Joseph Smith ordained by John the Baptist according to Joseph Smith
1862 The U.S. Department of Agriculture was created by an act of Congress on this day.
1869 National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1886 Emily Dickinson dies in Amherst, Mass., where she had lived in seclusion for the previous 24 years.
1911 The Standard Oil Company, headed by John D. Rockefeller, was ordered dissolved by the Supreme Court, under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1918 Pfc. Henry Johnson and Pfc. Needham Roberts receive the Croix de Guerre for their services in World War I. They are the first Americans to win France’s highest military medal.
1934 Department of Justice offers $25,000 reward for Dillinger, dead or alive
1940 Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the United States.
1948 Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq invade Israel The First Arab-Israeli War was initiated by Israel’s proclamation of independence on the day before the invasion. It lasted nearly 10 months and caused thousands of casualties on both sides.
1960 Taxes took 25% of earnings in US
1963 The last Project Mercury space flight, carrying Gordon Cooper, is launched.
1988 USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan
1993 Masked French police commandos free six girls and their nursery teacher (Ms. Dreyfus) and shot dead Eric Schmitt who called himself the Human Bomb , ending a two-day hostage crisis at a nursery school in Paris.
2006 The United States State Department announced it would be restoring diplomatic relations with the North African country of Libya. The State Department also decided to take the country off of their list of countries that sponsor terrorism after being on the list for nearly thirty years.
2008 California’s Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Same Sex marriages and has said the “right to form a family relationship” applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
