On May 10th...

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1291 Scottish nobles recognized the authority of King Edward I of England.

1624 Dutch Admirals Jacob Willekens and Piet Heyn conquered Salvador da Bahia (Brazil).

1652 John Johnson, a free African-American, was granted 550 acres in Northampton, Virginia.

1774 King Louis XV of France died.

1775 The Second Continental Congress met for the first time.

1787 The British Parliament impeached Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal.

1796 Napoleon Bonaparte defeated an Austrian army in the Battle of Lode Bridge.

1797 The first U. S. Navy ship, the United States, was launched.

1798 Explorer George Vancouver died.

1801 The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declared war on the United States.

1818 Paul Revere, Revolutionary patriot and silversmith, died.

1824 The National Gallery in London, England, opened to the public in a townhouse on Pall Mall.

1838 Actor-turned-assassin John Wilkes Booth was born.

1857 Indian soldiers in Meerut rebelled against their British superiors.

1863 Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson died.

1865 Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured at Irwinsville, Georgia.

1869 The last spike of the Transcontinental Railroad was driven at Promontory Point, Utah.

1871 The Franco-Prussian war ended.

1872 The Equal Rights Party nominated Victoria Woodhull as the first female presidential candidate in U. S. history.

1873 Father Damien began ministering to the lepers of Hawaii.

1876 The Centennial Fair opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1894 Workers at the Pullman factory outside Chicago went on strike, sparking the first nationwide labor strike in U.S. history.

1893 Eddie Lunze rode Lookout to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1898 Historian Ariel Durant was born.

1899 Dancer/actor Fred Astaire was born.

1902 Film and television producer David O. Selznick was born.

1904 Journalist-explorer Henry Morton Stanley died.

1905 Jack Martin rode Agile to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1906 The Russian Duma (Parliament) met for the first time.
1906 King Victor Emmanuelof Italy and Swiss President Ludwig Forrer opened the Simplon Tunnel.

1908 The first "official" Mother's Day celebrations were held in Grafton, West Virginia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1908 U. S. Congressman Carl Bert Albert was born.

1910 Fred Herbert rode Donau to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1913 Roscoe Goose rode Donegal to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1919 Johnny Loftus rode Sir Barton to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1919 Ella Grasso, the first woman to be elected Governor in her own right, was born.

1920 John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of Celluloid, died.

1922 Dr. Ivy Williams became the first woman to be called to the English Bar.

1924 J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the F. B. I.

1925 William Massey, Prime Minister of Australia, died.

1929 Walter Hagen won the British Golf Open.

1930 Adler Planetarium opened in Chicago, Illinois (the first in the U. S.).
1930 Sportscaster Pat Summerall was born.

1940 Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands.
1940 The British Local Defence Volunteers was formed.

1944 Moina Belle Michael, creator of the Memorial Poppy, died.

1945 Allied troops liberated Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
1945 Soviet troops occupied Prague, Czechoslovakia.

1946 Singer Donovan Leitch was born.

1947 Andrew H. Card, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Transportation, was born.

1955 Mark David Chapman, killer of John Lennon, was born.

1957 Colombian President Rojas Pinilla was ousted by a 5-man military junta headed by Major General Gabriel Paris.
1957 Bassist Sid Vicious was born.

1958 The U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range at Point Arguello, California, was dedicated.
1958 U. S. Senator Rick Santorum was born.

1960 The atomic submarine USS Triton completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1960 Lunch counters at four national and two local stores in Nashville, Tennessee, were desegregated without incident after a month of negotiations.
1960 Bono, lead singer of U2, was born.

1969 A second causeway across Lake Pontchartrain, in Louisiana, was opened to traffic.

1973 The New York Knicks defeated the Los AngelesLakers for the NBA Championship.
1973 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Chicago Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup.
1973 Auto racer Dario Franchitti was born.

1975 Auto racer Helio Castroneves was born.

1977 Actress Joan Crawford died.

1979 The Federated States of Micronesia became self-governing.

1983 The last new episode of "Laverne and Shirley" aired on ABC-TV.

1993 Fire in a Bangkok, Thailand, factory killed 145 persons.

1994 Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa's first black President.
1994 Child murderer John Wayne Gacy was executed.

1999 Poet Shel Silverstein died.

2000 A baby girl born at Delhi'sSafdarjung Hospital was designated as India's 1 billionth person.

2005 A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian landed about 65 feet from U. S. President George W. Bush while he was giving a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia, but did not detonate.

2012 Two bombings in Damascus, Syria, killed 55 persons and injured 370 others.
2012 Car designer/builder Carroll Shelby died.

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This page was last updated on November 04, 2018.