On This Day — 15 May

2024

Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and critically injured while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.

Prime Minister of Slovakia

2013

An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

May 2013 Iraq attacks

2010

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

Jessica Watson

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.

Same-sex marriage in California

2004

Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C. with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles".

Arsenal F.C.

2001

A CSX EMD SD40-2 8888 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with flammable chemical, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south driverless for 66 miles (106 km) until it is brought to a halt near Kenton. The incident became the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.

CSX Transportation

1997

The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.

Laotian Civil War

1997

The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

1991

Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister.

Édith Cresson

1988

Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

Soviet–Afghan War

1976

Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes near Viktorivka, Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, killing 52.

Aeroflot Flight 1802

1974

Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren.

Ma'alot massacre

1972

The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since their conquest in 1945, revert to Japanese control.

Ryukyu Islands

1970

President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington as the first female United States Army generals.

Richard Nixon

1963

Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.

Project Mercury

1957

At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

Malden Island

1948

Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel, thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Mandatory Palestine

1945

World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe, is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

Battle of Poljana

1943

Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).

Joseph Stalin

1942

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

Women's Army Corps

1941

First flight of the Gloster E.28/39, the first British and Allied jet aircraft.

Gloster E.28/39

1940

USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus.

USS Sailfish (SS-192)

1940

World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.

World War II

1940

Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant.

Richard and Maurice McDonald

1934

A self coup by prime minister Kārlis Ulmanis succeeds in Latvia, suspending its constitution and dissolving its Saeima.

1934 Latvian coup d'état

1933

All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany are officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe.

Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany)

1932

In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan, Inukai Tsuyoshi, is assassinated.

Coup d'état

1929

A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.

Cleveland Clinic fire of 1929

1919

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

Winnipeg general strike

1919

Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades.

Occupation of Smyrna

1918

The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites take over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from Russian troops.

Finnish Civil War

1916

A seventeen-year-old farmworker, Jesse Washington, is infamously lynched in Waco, Texas, USA, after being convicted of rape and murder.

Farmworker

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.

Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States

1911

More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales.

Torreón massacre

1891

Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.

Pope Leo XIII

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.

Battle of New Market

1851

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

Australian gold rushes

1850

The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina.

Arana–Southern Treaty

1849

The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished.

Sicilian revolution of 1848

1836

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

Francis Baily

1791

French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.

French Revolution

1725

Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

Johann Sebastian Bach

1648

The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty.

Peace of Münster

1602

Cape Cod is sighted by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.

Cape Cod

1571

Venice, Spain, Naples, the Papal States, and other Italian states establish the Holy League to fight the Ottomans, resulting in the victory at Lepanto later that year.

Republic of Venice

1567

The wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell, the chief instigator of the murder of her previous husband Lord Darnley, takes place.

Wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell

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.

Anne Boleyn

1532

The English church submits to the king of England in passing a convocation in which it surrenders a number of rights, such as to make provincial ecclesiastic laws independently of the king.

Church of England

1525

Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer are defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.

Insurgency

1252

Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.

Pope Innocent IV

1194

Michael the Syrian reconsecrates the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, which he reconstructed after its destruction by a fire. The monastery stays a center of the Syriac Orthodox Church until the end of the thirteenth century.

Michael the Syrian

908

Constantine VII is crowned Byzantine co-emperor.

Constantine VII

756

Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain.

Abd al-Rahman I

589

King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility.

Authari

392

Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne.

Valentinian II

221

Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

Liu Bei