This Week In #History ... May 23- May 29th
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @UlaVovk
May 23
1430 Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne and sold to the British
1618 2nd Defenestration of Prague; beginning of 30 Years War
1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
1873 Postal cards sold in San Francisco for 1st time
1903 1st direct primary election law in U.S. adopted, by Wisconsin
1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary and Germany during WW I
1923 1st flight of Sabena: Brussel-Lympne, Great Britain
1934 Wallace Carothers manufactures 1st nylon (polymeer 66)
1943 Thomas Mann begins writing his novel Dr. Faustus
1953 Schools 1st use Cliff's Notes
1962 Scott Carpenter orbits Earth 3 times in U.S. Aurora 7
1977 Moluccan extremists hold 105 schoolchildren and 50 others hostage on a hijacked train in Netherlands, children released May 27, siege ends June 11
1986 U.S. and West Europeans veto heavier sanctions against South Africa
1994 Star Trek The Next Generation, finale airs this week in syndication
2009 Under investigation for bribery during his Presidency, former President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, commits suicide
May 24
1626 Peter Minuet buys Manhattan from Indians for trinkets, valued at $24
1738 Methodist Church forms
1862 Beardslee field telegraph used for 1st time
1899 1st auto repair shop opens (Boston)
1909 Bristol University granted Royal Charter
1921 British Legion forms
1930 1st woman to fly from England to Australia solo, lands (Amy Johnson)
1940 Hitler affirms General von Rundstedts "Stopbevel"
1951 Racial segregation in Washington D.C. restaurants ruled illegal
1959 1st house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania
1968 President De Gaulle proposes referendum and students set fire to Paris bourse
1980 Iran rejects a call to World Court to release U.S. hostages
1989 French war criminal Paul Touvier arrested in monastery in Nice
1997 STS-84 (Atlantis 19), lands
2010 After South Korea's ROKS Cheonan ship is sunk by North Korea, South Korea cuts off trade with North Korea and announces North Korean ships will no longer be allowed to use South Korean waters
May 25
1241 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main Germany
1721 John Copson becomes America's 1st insurance agent
1825 American Unitarian Association founded
1900 Eyre M. Shaw, 78, becomes oldest gold medalist in Olympics (yachting)
1914 British House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule
1927 Henry Ford stops producing Model T car (begins Model A)
1937 1st airmail letter to circle globe returns to New York
1948 San Francisco receives its 1st telecast
1959 Supreme Court rules that Louisiana prohibiting black-white boxing is unconstitutional
1965 Muhammad Ali KOs Sonny Liston in 1 for heavyweight boxing title
1973 Argentine Peronist Hector Campora installed as president
1983 1st National Missing Children's Day is proclaimed
1992 Jay Leno becomes permanent host of "Tonight Show"
2002 China Airlines flight 611 crashes near Taiwan, killing 225, crash probably due to structural failure
2002 China Airlines flight 611 crashes near Taiwan, killing 225, crash probably due to structural failure
May 26
1596 England, France and Netherlands signs Drievoudig Covenant against Spain
1805 Napoleon is crowned king of Italy
1864 Territory of Montana formed
1900 British troops under Ian Hamilton attack the Vaal in South Africa
1911 1st Indianapolis 500 auto race is run
1922 Lenin suffers a stroke
1930 Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
1941 German occupiers begin youth labor
1948 South Africa elects a nationalist government with apartheid policy
1958 Ceylon emergency crisis proclaimed
1969 Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth
1977 Movie "Star Wars" debuts
1989 Danish parliament allows legal marriage among homosexuals
1998 Date for Paula Jones sex harassment trial vs. President Clinton
2006 The May 2006 Java earthquake kills over 5,700 people and leaves 200,000 homeless.
May 27
1703 St. Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Peter the Great
1796 James S. McLean patents his piano
1854 Marine Telegraph from Ft. Point to San Francisco completed
1900 Lord Roberts' army fights the Vaal in South Africa
1919 Charles Strite patents pop-up toaster
1921 After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty
1931 1st full scale wind tunnel for testing airplanes, Langley Field, Virginia
1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt declares state of emergency due to Germany's sinking of Robin Moor
1951 Chinese Communists force Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing
1961 1st black light is sold
1970 British expedition climbs south face of Annapurna I
1980 South Korean police ends people's uprising; 2,000 killed
1988 Senate ratified a treaty eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles
1997 1st all female (20 British women) team reaches North Pole
2009 In Venezuela hundreds of opponents of President Hugo Chavez marched in support of press freedom, two years after his government refused to renew the concession of an opposition-aligned television station.
May 28
1539 Hernando de Soto lands in Florida
1674 German Parliament declares war on France
1731 All Hebrew books in Papal State are confiscated
1742 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman's Fields, London)
1863 1st black regiment (54 Mass) leaves Boston to fight in Civil War
1901 Laws against phosphor matches enacted (inhibition white phosphorous)
1915 John B. Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll
1923 Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1937 Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to vehicular traffic
1948 Iraq captures Ge'ulim settlement
1959 Monkeys Able and Baker zoom 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became 1st animals retrieved from a space mission
1971 U.S.S.R. Mars 3 launched, 1st spacecraft to soft land on Mars
1982 Pope John Paul II is 1st pope to visit Great Britain
1990 Longest wheelie (David Robilliard with 5h12m33s (Channel Islands))
1997 Linda Finch completes Amelia Earhart attempted around-the-world flight
2008 The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.
May 29
1167 Lombard League defeat Frederick Barbarossa at Battle of Legnano
1453 Constantinople falls to Muhammad II (Turks); ends Byzantine Empire
1692 Royal Hospital Founders Day 1st celebrated
1790 Rhode Is becomes last of original 13 colonies ratifying Constitution
1900 Trademark "Escalator" registered by Otis Elevator Co
1910 Pope's encyclical on Editae Saepe, against church reformers
1919 Einstein's light-bending prediction confirmed by Arthur Eddington
1928 Fritz von Opel reaches 200 kph in experimental rocket car
1940 In WW II, Germans capture Ostend and Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France
1951 1st North Pole flight in single engine plane - C F Blair
1959 Charles de Gaulle forms French government
1969 Britain's Trans-Arctic expedition makes 1st crossing of Arctic Sea ice
1979 Radio's 1st rock network "Source" premieres
1987 Michael Jackson attempts to buy Elephant Man's remains
1997 Span scientists announce new human species in 780,000 year old fossil
2009 Russian and American officials formally dedicated a high-tech plant in southern Siberia, built with the help of $1 billion from the US and designed to destroy about 2 million chemical weapons shells.