May 15

Saturday 15, 2004:

The largest prime number to be discovered, 2^24036583 − 1, is found by Josh Findley and the GIMPS collaborative effort.

Friday 15, 1992:

The Genoa Expo '92 World's Fair opens in Genoa, Italy.

Wednesday 15, 1991:

Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.

Tuesday 15, 1990:

Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time.

Sunday 15, 1988:

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Monday 15, 1978:

Lagumot Harris, having only been elected President less than a month before, is replaced as the leader of the republic of Nauru. He is succeeded by Hammer DeRoburt.

Monday 15, 1972:

In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while Wallace is campaigning to be American President.

Friday 15, 1970:

Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.

Friday 15, 1964:

The Smothers Brothers give their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Wednesday 15, 1963:

Mercury program: America launches the last mission of the program, Mercury 9 (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb told Congress the program was complete).

Sunday 15, 1960:

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.

Thursday 15, 1958:

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

Wednesday 15, 1957:

Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

Sunday 15, 1955:

First ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.

Tuesday 15, 1951:

The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czeslaw Milosz, asks the French government for political asylum.

Saturday 15, 1948:

Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.

Tuesday 15, 1945:

Last skirmish of the Second World War in Europe fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

Saturday 15, 1943:

Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).

Friday 15, 1942:

World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

Thursday 15, 1941:

Baseball player Joe DiMaggio starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak.

Wednesday 15, 1940:

World War II: German troops occupy Amsterdam and invade Northern France.

Tuesday 15, 1934:

K?rlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.

Sunday 15, 1932:

The May 15 incident. In an attempted coup the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.

Thursday 15, 1930:

Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois.

Tuesday 15, 1928:

Release of the animated short "Plane Crazy", featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Thursday 15, 1919:

The Winnipeg General Strike began. By 11:00, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

Wednesday 15, 1918:

The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).

Friday 15, 1914:

Bolivia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

Monday 15, 1911:

The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.

Monday 15, 1905:

Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

Thursday 15, 1902:

In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider).

Saturday 15, 1897:

The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in Greco-Turkish War

Saturday 15, 1869:

Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Sunday 15, 1864:

American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia – Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

Thursday 15, 1862:

President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA).

Saturday 15, 1858:

The third Royal Opera House officially opens in London.

Thursday 15, 1851:

Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.

Sunday 15, 1836:

Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.

Friday 15, 1795:

First Coalition: Napoleon I of France enters Milan in triumph.

Wednesday 15, 1776:

American Revolution: Virginia convention instructs its delegates to propose a declaration of independence from Great Britain.

Saturday 15, 1756:

The Seven Years' War begins when England declares war on France.

Sunday 15, 1718:

James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.

Sunday 15, 1701:

The War of the Spanish Succession begins.

Tuesday 15, 1618:

Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).

Wednesday 15, 1602:

Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod.

Friday 15, 1525:

The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War.

Friday 15, 1514:

Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work.

Wednesday 15, 1252:

Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.

More on May, 15

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