On This Day in History - May 16

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

May 16, 1929: First Academy Awards ceremony

On this day in 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out its first awards, at a dinner party for around 250 people held in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

The brainchild of Louis B. Mayer, head of the powerful MGM film studio, the Academy was organized in May 1927 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and improvement of the film industry. Its first president and the host of the May 1929 ceremony was the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Unlike today, the winners of the first Oscars--as the coveted gold-plated statuettes later became known--were announced before the awards ceremony itself.

At the time of the first Oscar ceremony, sound had just been introduced into film. The Warner Bros. movie The Jazz Singer--one of the first "talkies"--was not allowed to compete for Best Picture because the Academy decided it was unfair to let movies with sound compete with silent films. The first official Best Picture winner (and the only silent film to win Best Picture) was Wings, directed by William Wellman. The most expensive movie of its time, with a budget of $2 million, the movie told the story of two World War I pilots who fall for the same woman. Another film, F.W. Murnau's epic Sunrise, was considered a dual winner for the best film of the year. German actor Emil Jannings won the Best Actor honor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh, while 22-year-old Janet Gaynor was the only female winner. After receiving three out of the five Best Actress nods, she won for all three roles, in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise.

A special honorary award was presented to Charlie Chaplin. Originally a nominee for Best Actor, Best Writer and Best Comedy Director for The Circus, Chaplin was removed from these categories so he could receive the special award, a change that some attributed to his unpopularity in Hollywood. It was the last Oscar the Hollywood maverick would receive until another honorary award in 1971.

The Academy officially began using the nickname Oscar for its awards in 1939; a popular but unconfirmed story about the source of the name holds that Academy executive director Margaret Herrick remarked that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar. Since 1942, the results of the secret ballot voting have been announced during the live-broadcast Academy Awards ceremony using the sealed-envelope system. The suspense--not to mention the red-carpet arrival of nominees and other stars wearing their most beautiful or outrageous evening wear--continues to draw international attention to the film industry's biggest night of the year.


955 - Alberich II, (bastard?) son of Octavianus elected pope

1165 - Ramjbam & his family reach Acre Palestine

1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

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 Zolty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks beat John Casimir

1747 - Prince Willem V sworn in as admiral-general of Neth

1763 - Samuel Johnson 1st meets his future biographer James Boswell in London

1770 - Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

1771 - The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

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

1815 - The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.

1817 - Mississippi River steamboat service begins

1822 - Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

1860 - -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln candidate

1861 - Twiggs Surrender, San Antonio, Texas during US Civil war

1861 - Confederate government offers war volunteers $10 premium

1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality

1862 - Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds first 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 the nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)

1868 - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Dalibor," premieres in Prague

1868 - The first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment in the U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.

1869 - Cincinnati Reds play their first baseball game, win 41-7

1872 - Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for first time

1874 - First recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg Mass)

1875 - Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000

1877 - May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.

1879 - Antonin Dvorák's "Slavic Dancing," premieres

1879 - Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia and English

1881 - In Germany, the world's first electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)

1882 - 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40.00

1884 - 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40.25

1888 - The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.

1888 - CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

1888 - The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.

1891 - George A Hormel and; 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 - First transcontinental motorcycle trip begins at SF (George Wymann)

1903 - George Wyman makes 1st motorcycle trip across the US

1910 - The U.S. Bureau of Mines was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1911 - Remains of a neanderthal man found in Jersey UK

1911 - Zeppelin "Deutscheland" wrecked at Dusseldorf

1914 - The American Horseshoe Pitchers Association (AHPA) was formed in Kansas City, Kansas.

1914 - Ewing Field, near Masonic Street, opens

1916 - 41st Preakness: Linus McAtee aboard Damrosch wins in 1:54.8

1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

1920 - Joan of Arc (Jean D'arc) canonized a saint in Rome.

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 5½ day maiden voyage

1924 - 108°F (42°C) 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 - The first Academy Awards were given on this night. The term, Oscars, was not used to describe the statuettes given to actors and actresses until 1931. "Wings," Emil Jennings and Janet Gaynor wins

1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.

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 - First British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France

1936 - 62nd Preakness: George Woolf aboard Bold Venture wins in 1:59

1938 - First 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 - The Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians met at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the first baseball game to be played under the lights in the American League. (Indians 8, Athletics 3 in 10)

1939 - Food stamps are First issued

1940 - Nazi's forbid non-professional auto workers

1940 - Premier Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris

1941 - First 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 - First transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma

1943 - -17th] RAF bombs Möhne & 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 - First of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz

1944 - Milt police attack gypsies

1945 - Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon Okinawa

1946 - The Irving Berlin musical "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman premieres in Broadway, NYC

1946 - Jack Mullin showed the world the first magnetic tape recorder.  

1948 - The body of CBS News correspondent George Polk was found in Solonika Bay in Greece. It had been a week after he'd disappeared.

1948 - Botvinnik wins 5-player tournament to determine world chess champion

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 first postage stamps

1951 - The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

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 - 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 - 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 due to the American U-2 spy plane incident.

1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.  

1961 - 13rd Emmy Awards: Jack Benny Show, Raymond Burr & Barbara Stanwyck

1963 - "Beast in Me" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 4 performances

1963 - After 22 Earth orbits in Faith 7, Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, ending Project 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 went on sale.

1965 - WNJU TV channel 47 in NY-Linden, NY (TEL) begins broadcasting

1965 - The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.

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, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus, and returns data on the atmosphere.

1969 - Who's Pete Townsend and 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 - U.S. postage for a one-ounce first class stamp was increased from 6 to 8 cents.

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

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 climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest.

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

1977 - Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling on top of the Pan Am Building in Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.  

1977 - Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavyweight 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 and 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

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

1983 - Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.

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 Minnesota 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 - Joaquín Balaguers PRSC wins Dominican Rep parliamentary election

1986 - South African Pres P W Botha sends Coetsee to visit Mandela

1986 - The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.

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 - Weird Al Yankovic performs live at 72nd National Orange Show

1987 - The Bobro 400 set sail from New York Harbor with 3,200 tons of garbage. The barge travelled 6,000 miles in search of a place to dump its load. It returned to New York Harbor after 8 weeks with the same load.  

1988 - A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar was as heroin and cocaine.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police do not have to have a search warrant to search discarded garbage.    

1989 - Soviet president Mikhail S Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing

1990 - Dominican Republic President Joaquín 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 II became the first British monarch to address the United States 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 and Clinton could be in a deadlock

1992 - US space shuttle STS-49 landed safely (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 - Suleyman 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 - Joaquín Balaguer (86) elected president of Dominican Republic

1994 - Tennis star Jennifer Capriati arrested on possession of marijuana

1996 - Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.  

1995 - Japanese police arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara and 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 - President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire ended 32 years of autocratic rule when rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila expelled him from the country.

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

2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.  

2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.

2003 - Adam Rich was placed on three years probation after he pled no contest to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He was also ordered to take part ina 60-day treatment program and pay about $1,200 in fines.

2004 - The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.

2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

2005 - Sony Corp. unveiled three styles of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine.

2006 - A large earthquake (7.4 on the Richter scale) occurs near New Zealand.

2007 - Alex Salmond is elected First Minister of Scotland. He is the first Scottish National Party leader to be elected as First Minister after winning a historic victory at the Scottish general election on the 3rd May.

2011 - Space shuttle Endeavour launches for its final commission in space

   

These are the web pages that I used to complete this blog:

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may16.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history