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May
in History
May Day
(not Mae Dey)
In
England this is traditionally a day of great merry-making - the most
well-known celebration being dancing around the maypole. Another custom
was for young men and women to go out on May Day Eve to collect may
(hawthorn) blossom, flowers and blackthorn blossom. A young girl was
elected Queen of the May and she presided over the May Day celebrations.
Gingerbread was traditionally eaten on this day.
1 May
1707
The
Union of England and Scotland was proclaimed by an Act of the English
Parliament, and The Kingdom of Great Britain established: the largest
free-trade area in Europe at the time. To be correct, you must refer to
'England' and 'Scotland', before this date, "Great Britain" after this
date. "The United Kingdom" came later with the incorporation of Ireland in
1801.
1 May
1898
Just
before 6:00am on the morning of 1 May 1898, Commodore George Dewey
commenced the Battle of Manila Bay, uttering the famous command: "You may
fire when ready, Gridley." Within six hours, Dewey's squadron of six
ships, including the flagship USS Olympia, had sunk every ship in the
Spanish fleet. There were few casualties and no loss of life on the
American side.
1 May
1851
Queen
Victoria opened the great exhibition of the works of industry of all
nations ("Crystal Palace" exhibition) in Hyde Park in London.
2 May
1670
The
Hudson Bay Company was incorporated by King Charles II.
3 May
1808
A duel
was fought from two hot-air balloons over Paris, the first of its kind.
4 May
1626
Dutch
explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island.
4 May
1776
Rhode
Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the
Declaration of Independence was adopted.
4 May
1780
First "Derby" horserace was run at Epsom racetrack.
5 May
1821
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and conqueror of much of Europe,
died a British prisoner on the island of St. Helena. According to one
accepted theory, Bonaparte died of a stomach ulcer. More recent theories
argue that he died of arsenic poisoning. In 1840, Bonaparte's remains were
transferred to Paris.
6 May
1626
Dutch
settler Peter Minuit bought the island of Manhattan from native Americans
for goods worth about $25.
6 May
1889
The
Paris Exposition formally opened, featuring the just-completed Eiffel
Tower.
7 May
1821
The
Africa Company was dissolved because of heavy expenses incurred, and
Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Gold Coast were taken over by the British
government to form British West Africa.
7
May 1915
Lusitania was sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland – 1,198
died.
May 8
1779
Spain
entered the war on the American side.
May 8
1794
French
chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was guillotined in Paris for his former
role as tax collector. Lavoisier, often regarded as the founder of modern
chemistry, demonstrated the role of oxygen in chemical processes and made
key observations about respiration. He coined the word 'oxygen'.
9 May
1502
Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to
the Western Hemisphere.
9 May
1754
The
first published political cartoons in the American colonies appeared in
The Pennsylvania Gazette, a newspaper founded by Benjamin Franklin. Many
of the early cartoons did not have the element of satire so common in
today's political cartoons.
11 May
1690
In the
first major engagement of King William’s War, British troops from
Massachusetts seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick)
from the French.
11 May
1709
The
first mass emigration of Germans from the Palatinate to North America
began.
11 May
1775
The
Battle of Fort Ticonderoga NY called "The Gibraltar of America," Fort
Ticonderoga was the first clear-cut American victory of the war. The fort
was captured by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold without a single shot
fired.
11 May
1792
The
Columbia River was discovered by Captain Robert Gray.
13 May
1607
The
English colony at Jamestown VA was settled.
13 May
1846
Formal
declaration of war by USA against Mexico.
14 May
1607
The
first permanent English settlement in what is now the US took place in
Jamestown, Virginia. Named after King James I, the town had an original
population of 104 settlers.
14 May
1804
The Lewis and Clark expedition left St. Louis to explore the Louisiana
Territory.
15 May
1602
Cape
Cod was discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.
16 May
1804
Napoleon was declared Emperor.
17 May
1536
Archbishop Cranmer declared Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn invalid;
she was executed on the 19th.
18 May
1642
The
Canadian city of Montreal was founded.
17 May
1792
24 New
York brokers signed an agreement to trade with one another and charge a
uniform commission rate to their customers. The New York Stock Exchange
emerged from that agreement. According to legend, in good weather the
brokers met beneath a Buttonwood tree, and in bad weather they met at a
nearby coffeehouse.
18 May
1804
French
military commander Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of France,
becoming Napoleon I. Months later, Pope Pius VIII ratified Napoleon's
title. He remained emperor until 1815 when Louis XVIII replaced him.
18 May
1764
The British Parliament amended the Sugar Act from a commercial to a fiscal
measure, to tax American colonists.
19 May
1536
Queen
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded
after being convicted of adultery. In this case, the charge was well
founded.
"The
king has been very good to me. He promoted me from a simple maid to be a
marchioness. Then he raised me to be a queen. Now he will raise me to be a
martyr."
[Anne Boleyn, on her way to the scaffold.]
19 May
1585
English shipping in Spanish ports was confiscated as a reprisal for
depredations of Spanish shipping. This served as a declaration of war on
England.
19 May
1643
The
Confederation of New England was formed by Connecticut, New Haven,
Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colony, whose representatives met in
Boston.
20 May
1191
Richard I 'the Lion Heart' conquered Cyprus from its independent Greek
ruler, then joined the Crusaders at Acre in N W Israel.
20 May
1506
Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain.
21 May
1542
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the
Mississippi River.
21 May
1620
Present-day Martha's Vineyard was first sighted by Captain Bartholomew
Gosnold.
21 May
1767
Townshend introduced taxes on imports of tea, glass, paper, and dyestuffs
in American colonies to provide revenue for colonial administration.
23 May
1430
Burgundian troops captured Joan of Arc and delivered her to the English.
23 May
1533
The
marriage of England's King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon was declared
null and void.
24 May
1607
Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers founded the colony of
Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia.
24 May
1624
After
years of unprofitable operation, Virginia's charter was revoked and it
became a royal colony.
24 May
1726
The
first Circulating Library was opened by Allan Ramsay in Edinburgh,
Scotland.
24 May
1764
Boston
lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation," calling for
the colonies to unite in opposition to Britain's new tax measures.
24 May
1830
The
first passenger railroad in the United States began service between
Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Maryland.
24 May
1844
Samuel
FB Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington
to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line.
25 May
1768
James
Cook sailed on his first voyage of discovery, on which he explored the
Society Islands and charted the coasts of New Zealand and West Australia
(through June 1771).
25 May
1775
Reinforcements arrived in Boston, including General William Howe and
General John Burgoyne.
27 May
1647
The
first recorded American execution of a "witch" took place in
Massachusetts.
27 May
1679
Habeas Corpus Act became law in England. It was later repealed from time
to time, but stands to this day.
27 May
1719
Emperor Charles VI founded the Oriental Company in Vienna to compete with
Dutch trade in the Orient.
27 May
1813
US
forces occupied Fort St George, and the British abandoned the entire
Niagara frontier.
28 May
1863
The
first black regiment from the North left Boston to fight in the Civil War.
The regiment is celebrated in the magnificent Saint-Gaudens monument to
Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th regiment that stands on Beacon
Hill facing the State House. A lesser-known fact: so great was the
enrolment from the black community that the 55th Regiment was
also formed.
30 May
1431
Joan of Arc was burnt as a heretic at Rouen.
30 May
1536
English king Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, his third wife.
31 May
1902
The
Peace of Vereeniging ended the Boer War, in which British casualties
numbered 5,774 killed (and 16,000 Deaths from disease) against 4,000 Boers
killed in action.
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