Welcome to Today In History for Wednesday, May 16, 2012.
On this day in history...
- 0955 - Alberich II, (bastard?) son of Octavianus elected pope
- 1165 - Ramjbam & his family reach Acre Palestine
- 1527 - Florence becomes a republic
- 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor
- 1547 - Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg
- 1568 - Mary Queen of Scotland flees to England
- 1571 - Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, is conceived at 4:37 AM
- 1584 - 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond/Blokker/St-Pietersdal
- 1605 - Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI becomes Paul V
- 1606 - 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia
- 1648 - Battle at Z¢lty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks beat John Casimir
- 1747 - Prince Willem V sworn in as admiral-general of Neth
- 1763 - James Boswell's 1st meeting with Samuel Johnson
- 1763 - Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
- 1770 - Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France
- 1792 - Denmark abolishes slave trade
- 1795 - Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassel state
- 1796 - Lombardije Republic forms
- 1803 - Peace of Amiens ends
- 1804 - Senate & Tribune declare Napolean leader of France
- 1811 - Peninsular War-Allies defeat French at Albuera
- 1817 - Mississippi River steamboat service begins
- 1860 - -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln candidate
- 1861 - Confederate govt offers war volunteers $10 premium
- 1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
- 1862 - Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds 1st automobile
- 1863 - Battle of Champion's Hill, MS-bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
- 1864 - Atlanta Campaign-battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)
- 1864 - Battle of Bermuda Hundred, VA
- 1864 - Last battles at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (6,666 casualties)
- 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
- 1866 - Congress authorizes nickel 5› piece (replaces silver half-dime)
- 1866 - US Treasury Dept authorizes nickel
- 1868 - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Dalibor," premieres in Prague
- 1868 - By one vote, Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson
- 1869 - Cincinnati Reds play their 1st baseball game, win 41-7
- 1872 - Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for 1st time
- 1874 - 1st recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg Mass)
- 1875 - Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000
- 1879 - Antonin Dvor k's "Slavic Dancing," premieres
- 1879 - Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English
- 1881 - World's 1st elec tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
- 1882 - 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40¬
- 1884 - 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40¬
- 1888 - CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
- 1891 - George A Hormel & Co introduce Spam
- 1894 - Fire in Boston destroys baseball stadium & 170 other buildings
- 1901 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Priory School" (BG)
- 1902 - 2 deaf-mutes face each other for 1st time as Dummy Hoy leads off for the Reds against Dummy Taylor of the Giants, Reds win 5-3
- 1903 - 1st transcontinental motorcycle trip begins at SF (George Wymann)
- 1903 - George Wyman makes 1st motorcycle trip across the US
- 1910 - US Bureau of Mines forms
- 1911 - Remains of a neanderthal man found in Jersey UK
- 1911 - Zeppelin "Deutscheland" wrecked at Dusseldorf
- 1914 - American Horseshoe Pitchers Assn organizes in Kansas City
- 1914 - Ewing Field, near Masonic Street, opens
- 1916 - 41st Preakness: Linus McAtee aboard Damrosch wins in 1:54.8
- 1920 - Joan of Arc (Jean D'arc) canonized a saint
- 1920 - Spanish bullfighter Joselito is fatally gored fighting his last bull
- 1921 - 47th Preakness: F Coltiletti aboard Broomspun wins in 1:54.2
- 1922 - White Star Line Majestic completes 5« day maiden voyage
- 1924 - 108øF (42øC) in Blitzen Oregon
- 1925 - 51st Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Flying Ebony wins in 2:07.6
- 1927 - NY Yankee Bob Meusel steals 2nd, 3rd & home
- 1927 - Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
- 1929 - 1st Academy Awards - "Wings," Emil Jennings & Janet Gaynor wins
- 1930 - 6th Walker Cup: US, 10-2
- 1931 - 57th Kentucky Derby: Charley Kurtsinger on Twenty Grand wins 2:01.8
- 1932 - Yanks 4th straight shutout to equal record set by Cleveland & Boston
- 1933 - Cecil Travis becomes 1st player to get 5 hits in his 1st game
- 1936 - 1st British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France
- 1936 - 62nd Preakness: George Woolf aboard Bold Venture wins in 1:59
- 1938 - 1st animal breeding society forms (NJ)
- 1938 - 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire (Atlanta Ga)
- 1938 - In cricket Bradman scores 278 Aust v MCC, 349 mins, 35 fours 1 six
- 1939 - 1st AL night game, Phila Shribe Park (Indians 8, Athletics 3 in 10)
- 1939 - Food stamps are 1st issued
- 1940 - Nazi's forbid non-professional auto workers
- 1940 - Premier Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris
- 1941 - 1st US/radio performance of Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
- 1941 - Germans made their last major air attack on Britain
- 1941 - Italian army under Aosta surrenders to Britain at Amba Alagi Ethiopia
- 1941 - Last great German air attack on Great Britain (Birmingham)
- 1941 - Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
- 1942 - 1st transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma
- 1943 - -17th] RAF bombs M”hne & Eder (Battle of Ruhr)
- 1943 - German troops destroy synagogue of Warsaw
- 1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends after 30 days of fighting
- 1944 - 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
- 1944 - Milt police attack gypsies
- 1945 - Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon Okinawa
- 1946 - Musical "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman premieres in NYC
- 1948 - Botvinnik wins 5-player tournament to determine world chess champion
- 1948 - CBS news correspondent George Polk's body is found in Greece
- 1948 - Chaim Weizmann elected 1st president of Israel
- 1948 - Egyptians enter the Gaza
- 1948 - George Polk, CBS news correspondant, body found
- 1948 - Israel issues its 1st postage stamps
- 1952 - "New Faces (of 1952)" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 365 performances
- 1953 - Phillies Curt Simmons gives up a single, then retires next 27 in a row
- 1954 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA National Capital Golf Open
- 1954 - Ted Williams gets 8 hits in 1st game (DH) since breaking collarbone
- 1954 - WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast
- 1955 - Heavyweight Rocky Marciano KOs Don Cockell in SF
- 1955 - King Baudouin of Belgium visits Congo
- 1955 - Ray Lindwall scores his 2nd Test Cricket century 118 at Bridgetown
- 1955 - Rocky Marciano TKOs Don Cockell in 9 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1956 - Egypt recognizes People's Republic of China
- 1956 - Great Britain performs nuclear Test at Monte Bello Is Australia
- 1956 - Kraft Theater presents an act from "Profiles in Courage"
- 1956 - Laker takes 10-88 for Surrey v Australians at the Oval
- 1957 - Maj Irwin, USAAF flies a Lockheed Starfight to a record 1,404.18 MPH
- 1957 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Invicti Athletae
- 1957 - US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton Conn
- 1957 - Yanks involved in Copacabana Incident, leads to Billy Martin trade
- 1958 - Eli Beeding experiences 83 g deceleration on a rocket sled, New Mex
- 1958 - Walter Irwin flies 2,259 KPH in F-104A Starfighter
- 1959 - 85th Preakness: William Harmatz aboard Royal Orbit wins in 1:57
- 1959 - WTOM TV channel 4 in Cheboygan, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1960 - Big 4 summit in Paris collapses as USSR levels spy charges against US
- 1961 - 13rd Emmy Awards: Jack Benny Show, Raymond Burr & Barbara Stanwyck
- 1963 - "Beast in Me" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 4 performances
- 1963 - Gordon Cooper completes 22 orbits in Faith 7, ends US Proj Mercury
- 1964 - 90th Preakness: Bill Hartack aboard Northern Dancer wins in 1:56.8
- 1964 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1964 - Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ
- 1965 - "Roar of the Greasepaint" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 232 perfs
- 1965 - Balt Oriole Jim Palmer's pitching debut, beats Yankees 7-5 & homers
- 1965 - Bomb destroys USAF base Bien Hoa South Vietnam
- 1965 - Spaghetti-O's 1st sold
- 1965 - Susie Maxwell wins LPGA Muskogee Civitan Golf Open
- 1965 - WNJU TV channel 47 in NY-Linden, NY (TEL) begins broadcasting
- 1966 - Beach Boys' "Pets Sounds" is released
- 1966 - National Welfare Rights Organization organizes
- 1966 - Stokely Carmichael named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating
- 1967 - Phila voters approve a $13 million bond issue to build a new stadium
- 1968 - Earthquake kills 47 in Japan
- 1969 - Barbra Streisand appears at a Friars Club Tribute
- 1969 - Students occupies Magden House Amsterdam
- 1969 - US nuclear sub Guitarro sinks off SF
- 1969 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1969 - Venera 5 lands on Venus, returns data on atmosphere
- 1969 - Who's Pete Townsend & Roger Daltrey charged with assault
- 1970 - 96th Preakness: Eddie Belmonte aboard Personality wins in 1:56.2
- 1970 - Grover Henson Feels Forgotten by Bill Cosby hits #70
- 1971 - 1st class postage now costs 8› (was 6›)
- 1971 - Benjamin Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave," premieres in Aldwych
- 1971 - Bulgaria adopts it's constitution
- 1972 - "Don't Play Us Cheap" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 164 perfs
- 1972 - Greg Luzinski's 500' HR hits Liberty Bell monument in Phila Vet
- 1972 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Suzuki Golf Internationale
- 1973 - ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Dave Soutar
- 1973 - AC Milan wins 13th Europe Cup II in Saloniki
- 1974 - Helmut Schmidt becomes West German chancellor
- 1974 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1975 - India annexes Principality of Sikkim
- 1975 - Japanese Junko Tabei became 1st woman to reach Mt Everest's summit
- 1975 - Muhammad Ali TKOs Ron Lyle in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1975 - Wings release "Listen to What the Man Said" in UK
- 1976 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens sweep Phila Flyers in 4 games
- 1976 - Sue Roberts wins LPGA American Defender Golf Classic
- 1977 - 5 die as NY Airway helicopter topples on Pan Am bldg in NYC
- 1977 - Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavywgt boxing title
- 1979 - FC Barcelona wins 19th Europe Cup II in Basel
- 1979 - NL approves Astros sales from Ford Motors to John J McMullen for $19M
- 1980 - 34th NBA Championship: LA Lakers beat Phila 76ers, 4 games to 2
- 1980 - Brian May of rock group Queen collapses on stage with hepatitis
- 1980 - Paul McCartney releases "McCartney II" album
- 1980 - Former Buggles members Geoff Downes & Trevor Horn replace Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes
- 1981 - "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks
- 1981 - 107th Preakness: Jorge Velasquez aboard Pleasant Colony wins in 1:54.6
- 1981 - Houston Astro Craig Reynolds hits 3 triples beating Cubs 6-1
- 1981 - Pretenders' Martin Chambers weds Tracy Atkinson
- 1982 - "Barnum" closes at St James Theater NYC after 854 performances
- 1982 - "Is There Life after High School?" closes at Barrymore after 12 perfs
- 1982 - Columbia moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating in preparation for STS-4
- 1982 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Lady Michelob Golf Tournament
- 1982 - Salvador Jorge Blanco wins presidential election in Dominican Rep
- 1982 - Stanley Cup: NY Islanders sweep Vancouver Canucks in 4 games
- 1983 - Lebanese parliament accept peace accord with Israel
- 1984 - Guinea-Bissau adopts constitution
- 1984 - Juventus wins 24th Europe Cup II in Basel
- 1984 - Phillie pitcher Steve Carlton hits a grand slam homer
- 1984 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1984 - Mackay pays $218,718 for 44,166 tickets to keep Twins in Minn Twins sell 51,863 tickets but only 6,346 fans show up for the game
- 1985 - Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year
- 1985 - Pope John Paul II arrives in Belgium
- 1986 - "Top Gun," premieres
- 1986 - Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) comes back from dead on Dallas
- 1986 - Joaqu¡n Balaguers PRSC wins Dominican Rep parliamentary election
- 1986 - South African Pres P W Botha sends Coetsee to visit Mandela
- 1987 - "Mystery of Edwin Drood" closes at Imperial NYC after 608 perfs
- 1987 - 113th Preakness: Chris McCarron aboard Alysheba wins in 1:55.8
- 1987 - Rocker David Crosby weds Jan Dance in LA
- 1987 - Weird Al Yankovic performs live at 72nd National Orange Show
- 1987 - "Bobro 400," a barge carrying 3,200 tons of garbage, set sail from NY, beginning an unsuccesful 8-week search for a dumping site
- 1988 - Surgeon Gen C Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin
- 1988 - US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant
- 1989 - Soviet president Mikhail S Gorbachev & Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing
- 1990 - Dominican Republic President Joaqu¡n Ricardo Balaguer re-elected
- 1990 - Juventus wins 19th UEFA Cup in Avellino
- 1991 - Daily Planet fires cub reporter Jimmy Olson (Superman character)
- 1991 - Queen Elizabeth becomes 1st British monarch to address US congress
- 1992 - "Smells Like Nirvana," by Weird Al Yankovic hits #35
- 1992 - 118th Preakness: Chris McCarron aboard Pine Bluff wins in 1:55.6
- 1992 - Polls show Perot, Bush & Clinton could be in a deadlock
- 1992 - US space shuttle STS-49 lands (maiden voyage of Endeavour)
- 1993 - "3 Men on a Horse" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 40 performances
- 1993 - "Wilder, Wilder, Wilder" closes at Circle in Sq NYC after 30 perfs
- 1993 - Farmer Sugeng finds 1.2 million year old Pithecanthropus IX skull
- 1993 - Judd Nelson pleads no contest to kicking Kim Evans in the head
- 1993 - Laura Davies wins LPGA McDonald's Golf Championship
- 1993 - Sleyman Demirel elected president of Turkey
- 1994 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Orlando FL on WTKS 104.1 FM
- 1994 - Jacqueline Onassis admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment
- 1994 - Joaqu¡n Balaguer (86) elected president of Dominican Republic
- 1994 - Tennis star Jennifer Capriati arrested on possession of marijuana
- 1995 - Japanese police arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara & charged him with Nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier
- 1996 - Sammy Sosa is 1st Chic Cub to hit 2 HRS in 1 inning
- 1997 - Atlanta Braves beat St Louis Cardinals, 1-0 in 13 innings
- 1997 - Brandi Sherwood, (Idaho) replaces Brook Lee (Miss Univ) as Miss USA
- 1997 - Brook Mehealani Lee, 26, of US crowned 46th Miss Universe
- 1997 - Expos trailing SF Giants by 9 runs comeback to win 14-13
- 1997 - St Louis Cards Gary Gaetti records his 2,000th hits
- 1998 - 124th Preakness
- 1999 - 125th Preakness