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May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). There are 230 days remaining.
Events
1514 - Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, the oldest know version of that work.
1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War.
1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to discover Cape Cod.
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.
1756 - Seven Years' War: The war begins when England declares war on France.
1795 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France enters Milan in triumph.
1836 - Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.
1851 - Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
1858 - The third Royal Opera House officially opens in London.
1862 - President Abraham Lincoln of America signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA).
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca, Georgia ends.
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.
1869 - Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1902 - In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider).
1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
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.
1918 - Civil War in Finland ends.
1918 - The American Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
1928 - Release of the animated short Plane Crazy, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
1930 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess (the flight was from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois).
1932 - The May 15 incident. In an attempted coup the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
1934 - The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.
1934 - Karlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
1940 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States.
1940 - World War II: German troops occupy Amsterdam and invade Northern France.
1941 - Baseball player Joe DiMaggio starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak.
1942 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).
1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.
1955 - First ascent of Makalu, the World's fifth highest mountain.
1957 - Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.
1958 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
1960 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
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).
1970 - The Beatles' last LP, Let It Be, is released in the United States.
1970 - Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.
1972 - In Laurel, Maryland a disturbed, out-of-work janitor named Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while Wallace is campaigning to be American President.
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.
1988 - Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1990 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.
1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.
1992 - The Genoa Expo '92 World's Fair opens in Genoa, Italy.
1993 - In Millstreet, Ireland, Niamh Kavanagh wins the thirty-ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "In Your Eyes".
2003 - total lunar eclipse
2004 - The largest prime number to be discovered, 224036583 − 1, is found by Josh Findley and the GIMPS collaborative effort.
2004 - In Istanbul, Turkey, Ruslana wins the forty-ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine singing "Wild Dances".
Births
1567 - Claudio Monteverdi, composer (d. 1643)
1773 - Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, statesman (d. 1859)
1817 - Debendranath Tagore, religious reformer (d. 1905)
1856 - L. Frank Baum, author (d. 1919)
1857 - Williamina Fleming, astronomer (d. 1911)
1859 - Pierre Curie, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1903 (d. 1906)
1862 - Arthur Schnitzler, dramatist and narrator (d. 1931)
1889 - Bessie Hillman, founder, Almalgamated Clothing Workers of America
1890 - Katherine Anne Porter, author (d. 1980)
1891 - Mikhail Bulgakov, writer (d. 1940)
1898 - Arletty, model, actress (d. 1992)
1902 - Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago, Illinois (d. 1976)
1905 - Joseph Cotten, actor (d. 1994)
1909 - James Mason, actor (d. 1984)
1911 - Max Frisch, author (d. 1991)
1914 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa and mountaineer (d. 1986)
1915 - Paul Samuelson, economist, recipient of the 1970 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
1918 - Eddy Arnold, singer
1922 - Setouchi Jakucho, Japanese writer and Buddhist nun
1923 - Richard Avedon, photographer (d. 2004)
1923 - John Lanchbery, English ballet composer (d. 2003)
1926 - Peter Shaffer, playwright
1930 - Jasper Johns, painter
1931 - Ken Venturi, golfer
1934 - Alvin F. Poussaint, physicist, psychiatrist, educator
1936 - Anna Maria Alberghetti, actress
1936 - Paul Zindel, novelist, playwright
1937 - Madeline Albright, diplomat, United States Secretary of State (1997-2000)
1937 - Trini López, musician
1941 - K.T. Oslin, country musician
1945 - Lars Berhagen, Swedish singer/songwriter
1945 - Duarte, Duke of Braganza and presumptive heir of the Portuguese crown
1948 - Brian Eno, musician, record producer
1951 - Chazz Palminteri, actor
1951 - Jonathan Richman, musician
1953 - George Brett, baseball star
1953 - Mike Oldfield, composer
1955 - Melinda Culea, actress (The A-Team)
1956 - Dan Patrick, sportscaster
1959 - Andrew Eldritch, singer and songwriter of The Sisters of Mercy
1959 - Kaokor Galaxy, boxer
1959 - Khaosai Galaxy, boxer
1967 - John Smoltz, baseball player
1969 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
1970 - Rod Smith, American football player
1972 - David Charvet, actor
1974 - Ahmet Zappa, musician
1975 - Ray Lewis, American football player
1978 - Amy Chow, Olympic gymnast
1981 - Jamie-Lynn DiScala, actress (The Sopranos)
Deaths
1585 - Niwa Nagahide, Japanese retainer, samurai, and daimyo (b. 1535)
1634 - Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (b. 1585)
1740 - Ephraim Chambers, English encyclopaedist (b. 1680)
1782 - Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese prime minister (b. 1699)
1886 - Emily Dickinson, poet (b. 1830)
1937 - Phillip Snowden, British politician (b. 1864)
1948 - Father Edward Flanagan, priest, founder of Boys Town
1956 - Austin Osman Spare, magician (b. 1886)
1967 - Edward Hopper, painter (b. 1882)
1971 - Sir Tyrone Guthrie, director, producer, writer (b. 1900)
1986 - Theodore H. White, writer (b. 1915)
1994 - Gilbert Roland, Mexican actor (b. 1904)
1995 - Eric Porter, British actor (b. 1928)
1998 - Earl Manigault, basketball player
2003 - June Carter Cash, musician, singer, wife of Johnny Cash (b. 1929)
2003 - George Francis, British suspected mobster
2003 - Rik Van Steenbergen, Belgian cyclist
Holidays and observances
Paraguay - Independence Day celebrations. Independence Day anniversary occurs on 14 May.
Roman Empire - Mercuralia in honor of Mercury held.
International day of families.
International day of climate changes.
International conscientious objectors' day
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May 14 - May 16 - April 15 - June 15 -- listing of all days
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