May 15

1567 Mary Queen of Scots took the adventurer Earl of Bothwell as her third husband on May 15, 1567. They were married according to Protestant rites at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. Bothwell was suspected of murdering Mary's second husband, but acquitted in a show trial. The public was outraged by their union and even Pope Pius was angered. In 1570 Mary divorced him and Bothwell fled the growing rebellion to Scandinavia where he was imprisoned and died insane in 1578.

Portrait of the Earl of Bothwell, 1566

1567 Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi was baptized (birth date unknown) on May 15, 1567, in Cremona, Duchy of Milan (now Lombardy, Italy). During his childhood, Claudio was taught by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, the maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Cremona. Claudio learned composition, singing and how to play string instruments such as the viol and viola da braccio. He was only 15 when he published his first pieces of music; a book of three part motets.

1602 English lawyer and explorer Bartholomew Gosnold was the first European to see Cape Cod, a cape jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, on May 15, 1602. He said, “We took great store of codfish … and named it Cape Cod.” Gosnold also discovered Martha's Vineyard and named it after his deceased daughter, Martha.

Cape Cod National Shoreline https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3663845

1648 Three decades after the Reformation began an alignment had been reached, with a separation of the Catholic and Protestant churches. The Peace of Westphalia of May 15, 1648 recognized Protestants, and is generally seen as the end of this process.

1711 Alexander Pope's first major work, Pastorals, was published in the sixth part of Tonson's Poetical Miscellanies in 1709. Pastorals was followed by An Essay on Criticism, a summary of critical thought since Aristotle, which was published on May 15, 1711. The work made him famous and for the next thirty years, Pope dominated the London literary world.

1718 On May 15, 1718, an English lawyer, James Puckle, patented the first machine gun. The "Puckle Gun" could be adjusted to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Turks. The picture below is the flier for James Puckle's 1718 patent revolving firearm, showing various cylinders for use with round and square bullets.

Flier for James Puckle's 1718 patent

1779 9-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes in Burgundy. He started his studies there on May 15, 1779.  Napoleon earned high marks at the Brienne Military academy in mathematics and geography, and passable grades in other subjects. Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Napoleon attended Ecole Militaire in Paris where he received training as an artillery man and an officer graduating in September, 1785.

1793 Diego Marín Aguilera, often recognized as the "father of aviation" in Spain, made a significant contribution to the field of flight. On the night of May 15, 1793, Aguilera achieved a noteworthy milestone by piloting one of the earliest gliders for about 360 meters (1,180 feet).  His glider was made of wood and cloth, and it had two wings that were powered by a pair of pedals.

1817 The Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason was the first private mental asylum in America. Founded in 1813 by Quakers, it opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 15, 1817 and is now known as Friends Hospital.

Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, PA

1836 English astronomer Francis Baily first observed "Baily's beads" on May 15, 1836. They are a phenomenon during a solar eclipse in which the rugged lunar limb topography allows beads of sunlight to shine through. 

1852 Salvation Army founder William Booth got engaged to future wife Catherine Mumford on May 15, 1852. William first met Catherine when he came to preach at her church. During their three year engagement, Catherine constantly wrote letters of encouragement to William as he performed the tiring work of a preacher. They married in 1855.

1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill into law creating the independent United States Bureau of Agriculture on May 15, 1862. The USBA was headed by a commissioner without Cabinet status, and the agriculturalist Isaac Newton was appointed to be the first such commissioner. Lincoln called it the "people's department". It was later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.

1869 Susan Anthony devoted herself totally to the cause of equal rights for women from the mid 1850s. Her Quaker background, where unlike most other denominations both men and women were allowed to speak at services, was influential on her beliefs. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association along with Elizabeth Stanton on May 15, 1869.

Susan Antony and Elizabeth Stanton

1886 After several days of worsening symptoms, American poet Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55. Dickinson's chief physician gave the cause of death as Bright's disease. During her lifetime, less than a dozen of her poems were published, although upon her death, she had written nearly 1,800. Many of these were not finished. Her younger sister Lavinia discovered her collection of poems in a locked chest, Dickinson's first volume was published four years after her death.

1905 Las Vegas was founded on May 15, 1905 when 110 acres (0.45 km2), adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, in what later would become downtown, were auctioned off. Las Vegas was incorporated as a city six years later. 1931 was a pivotal year in the growth of Las Vegas with the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression.

1915 Tom Brown's Band from Dixieland was formed when Chicago comedian and dancer Joe Frisco was impressed by the music he heard while in New Orleans. He asked New Orleans' trombonist Tom Brown to assemble a group and bring them north for an engagement at Lamb's Café in Chicago. On May 15, 1915, Tom Brown's Band played at Lamb's Café. The band was the first to be popularly referred to as playing "Jazz", or, as it was spelled early on, "Jass.”

Tom Brown's Band from Dixieland. Source Redhotjazz.com

1926 The Winnipeg General Strike begun on Thursday May 15, 1919. By 11:00 am, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg, Canada, had walked off the job. During the strike, members of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police charged into the crowd of strikers on horseback, beating them with clubs and firing weapons. It was one of the most famous and influential strikes in Canadian history.

1928 Mickey Mouse actually started off as a rabbit. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but after a disagreement over rights with the film distributor, Disney refused a pay cut and with Iwerks created Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse's first appearance was in a cartoon short called Plane Crazy on May 15, 1928. Plane Crazy was not well received and failed to find a distributor. Mickey became an instant hit in November 1928 with the release of Steamboat Willie.

1930 The world's first Flight Attendant, Ellen Church, was a registered nurse. Miss Church approached officials of Boeing Air Transport and proposed that stewardesses be added to flight crews. Her idea was accepted, and she was appointed head stewardess, in charge of several other nurses, known as ‘Sky Girls.’ On May 15, 1930, Miss Church embarked on a Boeing 80A for a 20-hour flight from Oakland/San Francisco to Chicago with 13 stops and 14 passengers.

1932 Charlie Chaplin was one of the planned assassination targets during a May 15, 1932 coup attempt by Japanese naval officers. While the prime minister was killed at home, Chaplin survived as he was at a sumo event with the prime minister's son.

1940 Dick and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant on May 15, 1940. The tiny street corner eatery was located at 1398 North E Street in San Bernardino, Los Angeles. It was originally a barbecue drive-in, but the McDonald brothers discovered that most of their profits came from hamburgers. In 1948, they re-opened it as a walk-up hamburger stand. This new venture introduced the "Speedee Service System," establishing the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant.

1941 RAF fighter pilot Frank Whittle first patented a new kind of aircraft - the turbojet - in 1930, but his new design was so radical that the military wouldn't fund it, nor would any manufacturers, until in 1937 he found a few private backers. The Gloster-Whittle E28/39, powered by Frank Whittle's turbojet, took to the air for the first time on May 15, 1941, The 17-minute test flight took place at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

1948 The Australian cricket team set a first-class world record on May 15, 1948 that still stands by scoring 721 runs in a day against Essex. The Australian team was led by Don Bradman, who scored 234 runs in the innings. He was supported by Sid Barnes (196), Arthur Morris (167), and Neil Harvey (140). The Essex bowlers were all overmatched, and they were unable to stop the Australian onslaught.

1957 On May 15, 1957 Flight Lieutenant Alan Washbrook, the navigator in a four-engined Valiant jet, pressed a button eight miles above the Pacific and turned Britain into an H-bomb power. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had sped up the tests so Britain could make sure the weapons work before talks with Russia and America about banning nuclear weapons.

1963 The founder of Weight Watchers, Queens, New York, homemaker Jean Nidetch, was inspired to start the dieting company when she was mistaken for a pregnant woman at the supermarket. After losing 20 pounds (9.07 kg), and finding her resolve weakening, she contacted several overweight friends and founded a support group which developed into weekly classes, and incorporated on May 15, 1963, into the Weight Watchers organization.

1963 US astronaut Gordon Cooper launched into space on May 15, 1963, for what turned out to be the last of the Project Mercury missions. During that 34-hour mission he became the first American to spend an entire day in space, the first to sleep in space, and the last American launched on an entirely solo orbital mission. Cooper's re-entry vehicle lost nearly all power. He had to manually calculate re-entry by scratching lines on his window for attitude and using his wrist watch for timing.

1968 During the late 1960s, the four Beatles were followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation movement. Their attraction towards this belief helped make adoption of an Eastern religion a trendy thing among the young. On May 15, 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, said their recent involvement with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was "a mistake". The pair told a press conference in New York: "He was human. For a while we thought he was not."

1975 Private Kelton Rena Turner was the last American soldier killed in the Vietnam War on May 15, 1975. Recorded circumstances attributed his death to: "Died through hostile action, air crash at sea, Body not recovered until 1995".

1990 Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet  depicts Dr. Paul Gachet, a homeopathic doctor and artist with whom van Gogh resided following a spell in an asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It
was sold at auction in Christie's New York office on May 15, 1990 for a total of US$82.5 million. At the time it was the world's most expensive painting.

Portrait of Dr. Gachet

2010 On May 15, 2010, Australian sailor Jessica Watson achieved a remarkable feat by becoming the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world solo. She set sail from Sydney, Australia on October 18, 2009, and and completed her solo circumnavigation at the age of 16, just three days before her 17th birthday. Throughout her journey, Jessica faced faced storms, high seas, and technical problems.

2016 Max Verstappen became the youngest driver to win a Formula One race by winning the Spanish Grand Prix on May 15, 2016 aged 18 years and 228 days. Verstappen made his Formula One debut in 2015 at the age of 17 when he became the youngest driver to start a Formula One race. He finished the season in 12th place in the Drivers' Championship.

2016 The Antonov An-225 Mriya was the world's longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes (710 short tons) and a wing area twice that of a Boeing 747. The plane was designed to carry the Soviet Union’s Buran space shuttle between launch and landing site. When the Antonov An-225 Mriya landed at Perth in Australia on May 15, 2016, its cargo, a power generator for a mine, took 12 hours to unload. It was destroyed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.