Today in History

May 4th
1953
Ernest Hemmingway wins Literature Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and The Sea'
1959
The 1st Grammy awards Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como win
Ella 'Ella Sings the Irving Berlin Soundbook'- Best Album
Perry -' Catch a Falling Star' -Record of the Year
 

4th May

1945 - World War II: The North Germany Army surrendered to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1953 - The Duke of Edinburgh was awarded his pilot's 'wings' during a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

1982 - Twenty sailors were killed when the destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War. The Falklands National Monument in Cardiff bears the names of the 255 sailors, soldiers and airmen who died on the UK side.
 
1955 - World famous American virologist Dr Jonas Salk witnessed a ceremonial polio vaccination in London when Margaret Jenkins from Kent became the 500,000th person in London to receive the vaccine to prevent the crippling disease poliomyelitis.

2014 - In Nottinghamshire, a police officer who handcuffed himself to a man on suspicion of assault locked his keys in his patrol car and found that he had no way of taking the pair of them to the police station. Undeterred he sheepishly knocked on the suspect’s door and asked the boy's mother if she would be willing to drive them to the station herself .....and she did.
 
6th May

1954 - Roger Bannister, a 25 year old British medical student, became the first man to run a mile in less than four minute (at the Iffley Road Sports Ground, Oxford). His time was 3 minute 59.4 seconds.

1960 - Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, married Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey in London. It was the first televised royal wedding and was watched by more than 20 million viewers.

2019 - The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to a boy, the first child for Prince Harry and his wife Megan. The baby was delivered at 05:26 BST and weighed 7lbs 3oz (3.2kg). At his birth, he became 7th in line to the throne.
 
May 7th
1718
city of New Orleans founded by Jean-Baptiste LaMoyne de Bienville
1847
American Medical Assoc{AMA} founded in Philadelphia
1977
Janet Guthrie,rookie driver set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indy 500.Her time was 185.607
 
May 9th
1914
Pres. Woodrow Wilson proclaims Mother's Day
1926
Richard Byrd& Floyd Bennett became the 1st American men to fly an airplane over the North Pole
1974
U.S. House Judicary Committee begin formal hearings on Pres. Nixon's impeachment
 
9th May

1671 - Irishman Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the British Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Despite being caught red-handed, he was pardoned by King Charles II.

1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opened in London. His cowboy themed shows also toured Europe as well as the United States.

1945 - World War II: The Channel Islands were liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.
 
May 10th
1924
J.Edgar Hoover appointed head of the FBI, until 1972 when he died of a heart attack
1968
Vietnam Peace Talks began between U.S. and N.Vietnam
2017
Apple becomes the 1st company worth over $800 billion
 
10th May

1773 - The British Parliament passed the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1941 - Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of Nazi Germany, flew a small plane to Scotland and parachuted to the ground in a bizarre attempt to negotiate a peace settlement with Britain. The British authorities arrested Hess immediately on his arrival and held him in custody until the end of the war, when he was returned to Germany to stand trial in the Nuremberg Trials.

1941 - World War II - The worst night of the Blitz in Britain. 550 German bombers dropped 100,000 bombs on London. More than 1500 people were killed and many thousands more were injured.
 
11th May

1812 - British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the House of Commons, apparently mistaken by his killer, bankrupt broker John Bellingham, for someone else. He is the only Prime Minister in Britain to have been assassinated.

1820 - The launch of HMS Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage to test his theories on evolution.

1988 - Kim Philby, the English born Soviet spy, died in the USSR.
 
1910
Glacier National Park in Montana was established
1927
Louis Meyer froms the Academy of Motion Pictures,Arts&Sciences
1969
British comedy troupe "Monty Python" is formed with John Cleese, Eric Idle,Graham Chapman,Terry Gilliam,Terry Jones and Michael Palin
 
May 13th
1918
The 1st U.S. airmail stamps issued,cost 24 cents
1981
Pope JOhn Paul II was shot and critically wounded in St. Peter's Sq
2004
the finale episode of NBC's classic sitcom'Frasier' '93-'04 airs,33 million tune in
 
13th May

1787 - The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England. They arrived in January 1788. 'On This Day' in 1987 several sailing ships left Portsmouth, re-enacting the first voyage.

1995 - A British mother (Alison Hargreaves, aged 33) became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
 
May 14th
1804
Lewis and Clark's expedition from St.Louis to Pacific Coast is commissioned by Pres.Thomas Jefferson
1973
U.S. Supreme Court approves equal rights to females in the military
 
May 15th
1718
James Puckle,a London lawyer patents the world's 1st machine gun
1928
Mickey Mouse debuts in silent film'Plane Crazy'
1951
AT&T becomes the 1st U.S. Corp to have a million stockholders when a young car salesman,Brady Dillion purchases 7 shares worth $ 1,078
 
15th May

1941 - The first flight of Britain's first jet propelled aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39. It was designed to test the Whittle jet engine in flight, leading to the development of the Gloster Meteor.

1957 - Britain's first hydrogen bomb was exploded on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The effect of the radiation on some of the British soldiers who watched the test only came to light many years later.
 
May 16th
1866
U.S. Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece,replaces the silver half dime
1929
The 1st Academy Awards:
Emil Jannings wins Best actor -'The Way of the Flesh'
Janet Gaynor wins Best Actress-" 7th Heaven'
Best Picture-"Wings'
1965
Spaghetti-O's were sold for the first time
 
Donald Goerke, was the Campbell Soup Co. executive who invented SpaghettiOs. Goerke was marketing research director of Campbell's Franco-American line in the early 1960s when his group started dreaming up pasta in shapes that would appeal to kids. He chose the o's. They were marketed with the unforgettable tagline, "Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs."

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16th May

1908 - Britain’s first diesel submarine was launched.

1943 - The famous ‘Dam Busters’ raid by the 617 Squadron of Lancaster bombers led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson breached the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany using the ‘bouncing’ bombs developed by Dr Barnes Wallis.

1951 - The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and Heathrow Airport in London.

1991 - Queen Elizabeth II addressed the U.S. Congress, the first British monarch to do so.
 

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