| 756 |
|
Abd-al-Rahman is proclaimed emir of Cordoba, Spain. |
| 1213 |
|
King John submits to the Pope, offering to make England and Ireland papal fiefs. Pope Innocent III lifts the interdict of 1208. |
| 1602 |
|
English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold discovers Cape Cod. |
| 1614 |
|
An aristocratic uprising in France ends with treaty of St. Menehould. |
| 1618 |
|
Johannes Kepler discovers his harmonics law. |
| 1702 |
|
The War of Spanish Succession begins. |
| 1730 |
|
Following the resignation of Lord Townshend, Robert Walpole becomes the sole minister in the English cabinet. |
| 1768 |
|
By the Treaty of Versailles, France purchases Corsica from Genoa. |
| 1795 |
|
Napoleon enters the Lombardian capital of Milan in triumph. |
| 1820 |
|
The U.S. Congress designates the slave trade a form of piracy. |
| 1849 |
|
Neapolitan troops enter Palermo, Sicily. |
| 1862 |
|
The Union ironclad Monitor and the gunboat Galena fire on Confederate troops at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Virginia. |
| 1864 |
|
At the Battle of New Market, Virginia Military Institute cadets repel a Union attack. |
| 1886 |
|
Emily Dickinson dies in Amherst, Mass., where she had lived in seclusion for the previous 24 years. |
| 1916 |
|
U.S. Marines land in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder. |
| 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. |
| 1930 |
|
Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess. |
| 1942 |
|
The United States begins rationing gasoline. |
| 1958 |
|
Sputnik III is launched by the Soviet Union. |
| 1963 |
|
The last Project Mercury space flight, carrying Gordon Cooper, is launched. |
| 1968 |
|
U.S. Marines relieve army troops in Nhi Ha, South Vietnam after a fourteen-day battle. |
| 1972 |
|
George Wallace is shot by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, Maryland. |
| 1975 |
|
The merchant ship Mayaguez is recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. |
| 1988 |
|
Soviets forces begin their withdrawal from Afghanistan. |
|
Born on May 15 |
| 1773 |
|
Prince Clemens Von Metternich, Chancellor of Austria. |
| 1856 |
|
Lyman Frank Baum, author (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). |
| 1858 |
|
Emily Folger, Shakespeare scholar. |
| 1859 |
|
Pierre Curie, physicist. |
| 1860 |
|
Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, first wife of President Woodrow Wilson. |
| 1890 |
|
Katherine Anne Porter, novelist (Ship of Fools). |
| 1891 |
|
Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist (Notes of a Dead Man, Heart of a Dog). |
| 1902 |
|
Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago through the 1960s and early 1970's. |
| 1923 |
|
Richard Avedon, photographer. |
| 1926 |
|
Anthony Shaffer, English playwright (Sleuth), twin brother of Peter Shaffer. |
| 1926 |
|
Peter Shaffer, English playwright (Equus, Amadeus), twin brother of Anthony Shaffer. |
| 1930 |
|
Jasper Johns, Jr., painter, leader of the Pop Art movement. |
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