[Gravdigr]

Today is May 15.

Peace Officers Memorial Day, as well International Conscientious Objectors Day, is observed today.

Also, today is Nakba Day, so, grab 'em by the nakba.


Events

1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.

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).

1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun,



the Puckle Gun.

1730 – Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1776 – American Revolution: The Fifth Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.

1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5–6 meters, during one of the first attempted manned flights.

1800 – King George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity.

1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier.

1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.

1905 – Las Vega$ is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up.

1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

1941 – Joltin' Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak.

1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb



in Operation Grapple.

1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays



and Elizabeth P. Hoisington



the first female United States Army generals.

1972 – In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while he is campaigning to become President.

2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.

2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.



1856 – L. Frank Baum, 1859 – Pierre Curie, 1902 – Richard J. Daley, 1905 – Joseph Cotten, 1905 – Abraham Zapruder (American businessman and amateur photographer, filmed the Zapruder film), 1909 – James Mason, 1918 – Eddy Arnold, 1923 – Richard Avedon, 1931 – Ken Venturi, 1937 – Madeleine Albright, 1937 – Trini Lopez, 1940 – Roger Ailes, 1940 – Lainie Kazan, 1942 – K. T. Oslin, 1945 – Jerry Quarry, 1948 – Brian Eno, 1952 – Chazz Palminteri, 1953 – George Brett, 1956 – Dan Patrick, 1967 – Smokin' John Smoltz, 1969 – Emmitt Smith, 1976 – Ryan Leaf, 1981 – Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 1987 – Andy Murray



1886 – Emily Dickinson, 1967 – Edward Hopper, 2003 – June Carter Cash, 2007 – Jerry Falwell