This Week In #History ... May 17- 22nd
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @UlaVovk
May 17
1620 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey)
1792 24 merchants form New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street
1803 John Hawkins and Richard French patent the Reaping Machine
1846 Saxophone is patents by Antoine Joseph Sax
1877 Edwin T. Holmes installs 1st telephone switchboard burglar alarm
1890 Comic Cuts, 1st weekly comic paper, published in London
1916 British Summer Time (Daylight Savings), 1st introduced
1926 German government of Marx takes power
1938 Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy
1948 Soviet Union recognized Israel
1960 1st atomic reactor system patents, J W Flora of Canoga Park, California
1971 Washington State bans sex discrimination
1983 Israel and Lebanon sign a peace treaty
1993 Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled
2010 Iceland's volcano causes Britain's two busiest airports to close in addition to Dublin Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
May 18
1642 Montreal, Canada founded
1703 Dutch and English troops occupy Cologne
1804 Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France
1830 Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for manufacture of his invention, lawn mower.
1897 Irish Music Festival 1st held (Dublin)
1917 U.S. passes Selective Service act
1927 Ritz Hotel opens in Boston
1934 Congress approves "Lindbergh Act," makes kidnapping a capital offense
1942 New York City ends night baseball games for rest of WW II
1953 Jacqueline Cochran is 1st woman to break the sound barrier
1964 Supreme Court rules unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
1978 Italy legalizes abortion
1986 David Goch finishes swimming 55,682 miles in a 25-yd pool
1993 Italian police arrest Mafia boss Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola
2010 Christina Figueres of Costa Rica is appointed by U.N. Secretary - General Ban Ki Moon to lead efforts to combat global warming and climate change
May 19
1568 English queen Elizabeth I arrests Scottish queen Mary
1643 Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Harbor form United Colonies of New England
1848 Mexico gives Texas to U.S., ending the war
1857 William Francis Channing and Moses G Farmer patents electric fire alarm
1885 Jan Matzeliger begins 1st mass production of shoes
1900 World's longest railroad tunnel (Simplon) links Italy and Switzerland, opens
1913 Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill passes, forbidding Japanese from owning land
1923 KPD (communist revolts) in German Ruhr cities occupied by Allies
1939 Churchill signs British-Russian anti-nazi pact
1950 New York Times reports of worlds smallest and dumbest mechanical brain
1958 U.S. and Canada form North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
1971 U.S.S.R. launches Mars 2, 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars
1987 1st American Comedy Award
1995 World's youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates Mount Sinai
2010 Buildings across Bangkok are set on fire by red shirt protesters after the military stormed a protest camp in the center of the city
May 20
1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India
1704 Elias Neau forms school for slaves in New York
1830 D. Hyde patents fountain pen
1874 Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price $13.50 doz
1900 2nd modern Olympic games open in Paris (lasted 5 months)
1910 Funeral for Britain's King Edward VII
1919 Volcano Keluit on Java, erupts killing 550
1930 1st airplane catapulted from a dirigible, Charles Nicholson pilot
1939 1st regular transatlantic airmail (New York to Marsseille France)
1948 1st use of Israeli Air Force and 1st war victory, defeating Syrian army
1967 BBC bans Beatle's "A Day in the Life" (drug references)
1974 Soyuz 14 returns to Earth
1985 FBI arrests John A Walker, Jr., convicted of spying for U.S.S.R.
1993 10m meteor comes within 150,000 km of Earth (1993KA)
2010 Scientists at the Craig J. Venter Institute announce they have successfully created the world's first artificial lifeform by transplanting a synthesized genome into an existing cell
May 21
1502 Portuguese Admiral Da Nova discovers St. Helena
1819 1st bicycles (swift walkers) in U.S. introduced in New York City
1861 Richmond, Virginia is designated Confederate Capital
1904 Federation Internationale de Football Association (Soccer) forms in Paris
1917 Leo Pinckney, 1st American drafted during WW I
1925 Canadians allow to sell beer
1934 Oskaloosa Iowa, becomes 1st U.S. city to fingerprint its citizens
1945 German war criminal Heinrich Himmler captured
1955 1st transcontinental round-trip solo flight-sunrise to sunset
1964 1st nuclear-powered lighthouse begins operations (Chesapeake Bay)
1977 "Fiddler on the Roof" closes at Winter Garden New York City after 167 performances
1987 Military coup in Fiji Islands under Lieutenant Colonel Sitivani Rabuka
1997 Emmy 24th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 17th time
2010 A food crisis in Niger causes Nigerians to flee across the border into Nigeria
May 22
1570 1st atlas, with 70 maps, published
1761 1st life insurance policy in U.S., issued in Philadelphia
1803 1st public library opens (Connecticut)
1807 Townsend Speakman 1st sells fruit-flavored carbonated drinks in Philadelphia
1888 Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers
1900 Edwin S Votey patents pneumatic piano player
1909 1st San Francisco fireboat, David Scannell, launched
1923 Stanley Baldwin succeeds Andrew Bonar Law as British premier
1933 World Trade Day/National Maritime Day 1st celebrated
1943 1st jet fighter is tested
1954 Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan is Bar Mitzvahed
1972 Ceylon becomes Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified
1981 Soyuz 40 returns to Earth
1995 Laverne and Shirley 20th anniversary reunionn special, televised
2010 Air India Express Flight 812 crashes near Mangalore International Airport; eight passengers survive and 158 perish