On This Day in History - May 15 The Seven Years War Begins

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/madeleine-albright-is-born

May 15, 1756: The Seven Years War begins

The Seven Years War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, officially begins when England declares war on France. However, fighting and skirmishes between England and France had been going on in North America for years.  

In the early 1750s, French expansion into the Ohio River valley repeatedly brought France into armed conflict with the British colonies. In 1756--the first official year of fighting in the Seven Years War--the British suffered a series of defeats against the French and their broad network of Native American alliances. However, in 1757, British Prime Minister William Pitt (the older) recognized the potential of imperial expansion that would come out of victory against the French and borrowed heavily to fund an expanded war effort. Pitt financed Prussia's struggle against France and her allies in Europe and reimbursed the colonies for the raising of armies in North America.  

By 1760, the French had been expelled from Canada, and by 1763 all of France's allies in Europe had either made a separate peace with Prussia or had been defeated. In addition, Spanish attempts to aid France in the Americas had failed, and France also suffered defeats against British forces in India.  

The Seven Years War ended with the signing of the treaties of Hubertusburg and Paris in February 1763. In the Treaty of Paris, France lost all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. The treaty ensured the colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain and strengthened the 13 American colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and the south. Fifteen years later, French bitterness over the loss of most of their colonial empire contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution on the side of the Patriots.




















May 15, 1988: Soviets begin withdrawal from Afghanistan

More than eight years after they intervened in Afghanistan to support the procommunist government, Soviet troops begin their withdrawal. The event marked the beginning of the end to a long, bloody, and fruitless Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  

In December 1979, Soviet troops first entered Afghanistan in an attempt to bolster the communist, pro-Soviet government threatened by internal rebellion. In a short period of time, thousands of Russian troops and support materials poured into Afghanistan. Thus began a frustrating military conflict with Afghan Muslim rebels, who despised their own nation's communist government and the Soviet troops supporting it. During the next eight years, the two sides battled for control in Afghanistan, with neither the Soviets nor the rebels ever able to gain a decisive victory.  

For the Soviet Union, the intervention proved extraordinarily costly in a number of ways. While the Soviets never released official casualty figures for the war in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence sources estimated that as many as 15,000 Russian troops died in Afghanistan, and the economic cost to the already struggling Soviet economy ran into billions of dollars. The intervention also strained relations between the Soviet Union and the United States nearly to the breaking point. President Jimmy Carter harshly criticized the Russian action, stalled talks on arms limitations, issued economic sanctions, and even ordered a boycott of the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow.  

By 1988, the Soviets decided to extricate itself from the situation. Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev saw the Afghan intervention as an increasing drain on the Soviet economy, and the Russian people were tired of a war that many Westerners referred to as "Russia's Vietnam." For Afghanistan, the Soviet withdrawal did not mean an end to the fighting, however. The Muslim rebels eventually succeeded in establishing control over Afghanistan in 1992.















May 15, 1800: President John Adams orders federal government to Washington, D.C.   

On this day in 1800, President John Adams orders the federal government to pack up and leave Philadelphia and set up shop in the nation's new capital in Washington, D.C.  

After Congress adjourned its last meeting in Philadelphia on May 15, Adams told his cabinet to make sure Congress and all federal offices were up and running smoothly in their new headquarters by June 15, 1800. 

Philadelphia officially ceased to serve as the nation's capital as of June 11, 1800.  At the time, there were only about 125 federal employees. Official documents and archives were transferred from Philadelphia to the new capital by ship over inland waterways. President and Mrs. Adams did not move in to the (unfinished) president's mansion until November of that year. Settling in to the White House was a challenge for the new first lady. In December, Abigail Adams wrote to a friend later she had to line-dry their clothes in what eventually became the East Room.   



















May 15, 1937: Madeleine Albright is born

On this day in 1937, Madeleine Albright, America's first female secretary of state, is born Maria Jana Korbelova in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).  

The daughter of Czech diplomat Josef Korbel, Albright fled to England with her family after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939. Though Albright long believed they had fled for political reasons, she learned as an adult that her family was Jewish and that three of her grandparents had died in Nazi concentration camps. The family returned home after World War II ended but immigrated to the United States in 1948 after a Soviet-sponsored Communist coup seized power in Prague. Josef Korbel became dean of the school of international relations at the University of Denver (where he would later train another female secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice).  

After graduating from Wellesley College in 1959, Albright married Joseph Medill Patterson Albright of the prominent Medill newspaper-publishing family. With an MA and PhD from Columbia University under her belt, Albright headed to Washington, D.C., where she worked for Maine's Senator Edmund S. Muskie and served on the National Security Council in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. She and Joseph Albright divorced in 1982. During the Republican presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Albright worked for several nonprofit organizations and taught at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.  

With a Democrat--Bill Clinton--in the White House again in 1992, Albright found herself at the center of Washington's most powerful circle. In 1993, Clinton appointed her ambassador to the United Nations. In that post, Albright earned a reputation as a straight-talking defender of American interests and an advocate for an increased role for the U.S. in U.N. operations. In late 1996, Clinton nominated Albright to succeed Warren Christopher as U.S. secretary of state. After her nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, she was sworn in on January 23, 1997.  

As secretary of state, Albright pursued an active foreign policy, including the use of military force to pressure autocratic regimes in Yugoslavia and Iraq, among other troubled regions. Her trip to North Korea in October 2000 to meet with leader Kim Jong Il made her the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit that country. She drew some criticism for her tough position on U.S. sanctions against Iraq, which led to many civilian deaths in that country and fueled the rage of Muslim extremists such as Osama bin Laden.  

Albright's term ended with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000. Though there was talk of her entering Czech politics, she returned to her teaching post at Georgetown and became chair of a nonprofit organization, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.






Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:


756 - Abd-al-Rahman I becomes emir of Cordova Spain

884 - Marinus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

1004 - Henry II the Saint crowned king of Italy

1213 - English king John names Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury

1248 - Archbishop Konrad v Hochstaden lays cornerstone for Koln cathedral

1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.

1492 - Cheese & Bread rebellion: German mercenaries kills 232 Alkmaarse

1514 - Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo's Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work.

1525 - German boer army surrounded/slaughters 5,000; ends Boer war

1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War.

1536 - Anna Boleyn & George Boleyn Lord Rochford accused of adultery/incest

1572 - Louis van Nassau & huguenots occupy Valenciennes

1602 - Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold

1610 - Parliament of Paris appoints Louis XIII (8) as French king

1614 - An aristocratic uprising in France ended with the treaty of St.Menehould.

1618 - Johannes Kepler discovered the harmonics law

1625 - 16 rebellious farmers hanged in Vocklamarkt Upper-Austria

1648 - Treaty of Munster: Spain & Netherlands ratified

1665 - Pope Alexander VII convicts Jansenisme

1672 - 1st copyright law enacted by Massachusetts

1701 - War of Spanish Succession began. It was the first American conflict between England and France

1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents world's 1st machine gun

1730 - Robert Walpole becomes England 1st prime minister (was: chief min)

1768 - Under the Treaty of Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.

1791 - Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.

1793 - Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights.

1795 - Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan.

1796 - France and Sardinia sign Peace treaty of Paris

1796 - French troops occupy Milan

1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.

1800 - King George III survives a 2nd assassination attempt

1800 - Pope Pius VII calls on French bishops to return to Gospel principles

1817 - Ambonese uprising against Dutch authority, under T Matulesia

1817 - Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1829 - Joseph Smith ordained by John the Baptist according to Joseph Smith

1836 - Francis Baily observes "Baily's Beads" during annular solar eclipse

1849 - Philadelphia Turngemeinde founded

1849 - Neapolitan troops entered Palermo, and were in possession of Sicily.

1851 - Rama IV, [Phra Chomklao Chaoyuhua], king of Thai (1851-68), crowned

1856 - Second SF Vigilance Committee organized

1856 - Lyman Frank Baum, author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," was born.

1858 - Royal Italian Opera opens in Covent Garden London

1862 - -May 17] Battle of Princeton WV

1862 - Battle of Drewry's Bluff (Ft Darling), Virginia

1862 - Confederate cruiser The Alabama runs aground near London

1862 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture was created by an act of Congress on this day.

1862 - Gen Benjamin F Butler delegates "Woman Order" of NO to be his whores

1862 - Union Grounds, Brooklyn, 1st baseball enclosure, opens

1864 - Battle of New Market, Virginia

1864 - Skirmish at Marksville (Avoyelles) (Red River Campaign)

1868 - Dutch government of Zuylen van Nijevelt falls

1869 - National Woman Suffrage Association forms

1876 - 2nd Kentucky Derby: Bobby Swim aboard Vagrant wins in 2:38.25

1882 - May Laws-Czar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania

1883 - Italy signs military treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany

1885 - Canadian Meti insurgent Louis Reil captured, Saskatchewan

1891 - British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) forms

1891 - Jules Massenets opera "Griselde," premieres in Paris

1891 - Operations begin at Philips & Co in Holland

1891 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Rerum novarum

1894 - 20th Kentucky Derby: Frank Goodale aboard Chant wins in 2:41

1896 - Tornado kills 78 in Texas

1897 - The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in the Greco-Turkish War.

1902 - Lyman Gilmore is 1st person to fly a powered craft

1902 - Portugal bankrupt by revolt in Angola

1905 - Las Vegas Nevada founded

1905 - Pierre de Brazza reaches Leopoldville

1906 - NY Giants' Hooks Wiltse strikes out 4 batters in 1 inning

1910 - The last time a major earthquake happened on the Elsinore Fault Zone.

1911 - British house of commons accept Parliament Bill

1911 - Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Indiana University, incorporates

1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, which was headed by John. D. Rockefeller, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1911 - The Georgios Averof cruiser is bought by Greece.

1912 - 37th Preakness: Clarnence Turner on Colonel Holloway wins in 1:56.6

1912 - Ty Cobb rushes a heckler at a NY Highlander game & is suspended

1914 - Henri Rabauds opera "Marouf, Savetier de Caire," premieres in Paris

1914 - Bolivia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1915 - A T & T becomes 1st corporation to have 1 million stockholders

1916 - U.S. Marines landed in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder.

1916 - Asiago, Italy, fell when Austrian troops attack the Italian front

1918 - The first regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, began under the direction of the Post Office Department, which later became the U.S. Postal Service.

1918 - 43rd Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard War Cloud wins in 1:53.6

1918 - 44th Preakness: Charles Peak aboard Jack Hare Jr wins in 1:53.4

1918 - Greeks troops lands at Smyrna

1918 - Washington Senator Walter Johnson pitches 1-0, 18 inning game

1918 - The Finnish Civil War ends.

1919 - Bkln Dodgers score 10 runs in 13th to beat Reds 10-0

1920 - Soccer team ADO '20 forms in Heemskerk

1923 - Cooperation of Dutch Molen forms

1926 - 52nd Kentucky Derby: Albert Johnson on Bubbling Over wins in 2:03.8

1926 - British general strike ends, but mine workers go on strike

1926 - Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth were forced down in Alaska after a four-day flight over an icecap. Ice had begun to form on the dirigible Norge.

1926 - The New York Rangers were officially granted a franchise in the NHL. The NHL also announced that Chicago and Detroit would be joining the league in November.

1928 - Mickey Mouse made his 1st appearance in "Plane Crazy"

1929 - Fire in X-ray film stock kills 125 at Crile Clinic (Cleve Ohio)

1930 - On a Boeing Air Transport flight between Oakland and Chicago, Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess.

1931 - Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Quadragesimo anno

1932 - The May 15 Incident: in an attempted Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.

1933 - First voice amplification system to be used in US Senate

1934 - Dept of Justice offers $25,000 reward for Dillinger, dead or alive

1934 - Karlis Ulmanis names himself fascist dictator of Latvia

1935 - Pirates beat Phillies 20-5 1935 - The Moscow Metro is opened to public.

1936 - Amy Johnson arrives in Croydon England from S Afr in record 4d16h

1937 - 63rd Preakness: Charley Kurtsinger aboard War Admiral wins in 1:58.4

1938 - Paul-Henri Spak forms red coalition of Belgium

1940 - German armour division moves into Northern France

1940 - German troops occupy Amsterdam, Gen Winkelman surrenders

1940 - Nazi's capture General Dutch Persbureau (ANP)

1940 - USS Sailfish (SS-192) recomisioned, origionaly the Squalus.

1940 - McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

1940 - Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the United States.

1941 - First British turbojet flies

1941 - British attack Halfaya-pass and Fort Capuzzo in Egypt & Libya

1941 - Nazi occupiers in Neth forbid Jewish music

1941 - Joe DiMaggio began his historic major league baseball hitting streak of 56 games, although the Yankees lose the game, 13-1.

1942 - Gasoline rationing began for the first time in the U.S. The limit was 3 gallons a week for nonessential vehicles (17 Eastern states).

1942 - Nazi occupiers in Neth arrests 2,000 Dutch officers

1943 - Halifax bombers sinks U-463

1943 - Warsaw ghetto uprising ends, in it's destruction

1943 - Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).

1944 - 14,000 Jews of Munkacs Hungary deported to Auschwitz

1944 - Cincinnati Red Clyde Shoun no-hits Boston Braves, 1-0

1944 - Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill and George VI discuss D-Day plan

1944 - Sergei Aleksi becomes guardian of Patriarch Throne

1945 - World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

1948 - 28 year old British Mandate over Palestine ends

1948 - 74th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Citation wins in 2:02.4

1948 - Australia scores 721 runs in one day v Essex, world record

1948 - Bradman scores 187 Aust v Essex, 124 minutes, 33 fours 1 five

1948 - Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon only hours after declaring its independence.

1951 - AT&T is 1st US company to have one million stockholders

1951 - The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.

1952 - Detroit Tiger Virgil Trucks no-hits Wash Senators, 1-0

1952 - Johnny Longden becomes 2nd jockey to ride 4,000 winners

1953 - Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano KOs Jersey Joe Walcott in Chicago

1953 - Osip Zadkines monument to "The destroyed city" unveiled in Rotterdam

1954 - KGLO (now KIMT) TV channel 3 in Mason City, IA (CBS) 1st broadcast

1955 - Austrian state treaty signed making Austria independent again

1955 - Building of space travel center at Baikonur Kazachstan begins

1955 - KPUA (now KGMD) TV channel 9 in Hilo, HI (CBS) begins broadcasting

1955 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1955 - Vienna Treaty: Brit, France, US & USSR restores Austria's independence

1955 - The first ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.

1957 - 18,000 people at Madison Sq Garden-Billy Graham launched a crusade

1957 - Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1958 - Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.

1959 - 100th anniversary of 1st college baseball game, between Amherst and Williams Teams reenact the original contest

1960 - Chic Cub Don Cardwell no-hits St Louis Cards, 4-0

1960 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's 7th String quartet, premieres in Leningrad

1960 - KHVO TV channel 13 in Hilo, HI (ABC) begins broadcasting

1960 - Sputnik 4 launched into Earth orbit; later recovery failed

1960 - Taxes took 25% of earnings in US

1961 - "Bonanza" by Al Caiola Orchestra hits #19

1961 - 36 Unification church couples wed in Korea

1961 - Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Mater et Magistra

1962 - US marines arrive in Laos

1963 - Last Project Mercury flight, L Gordon Cooper in Faith 7, launched

1963 - Peter, Paul and Mary win their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer)

1963 - Tottenham Hotspur wins 3rd Europe Cup II at Rotterdam

1964 - Sporting Portugal wins 4th Europe Cup II at Antwerp

1964 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1964 - The Smothers Brothers, Dick and Tom, gave their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City.  

1965 - 91st Preakness: Ron Turcotte aboard Tom Rolfe wins in 1:56.2

1965 - Canadian Football Players Association organizes

1965 - Igor Vodic beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ

1966 - First day of Sunday play in County Cricket, Essex v Somerset

1966 - South Vietnamese army battle Buddhists, about 80 died

1968 - "Wonderwall" with George Harrison premieres at Cannes Film Festival

1968 - First AL game played in Milwaukee, is a 4-2 California win against Chicago

1968 - A tornado strikes Jonesboro Arkansas at 10 PM, killing 36

1968 - Paul McCartney and John Lennon appear on Johnny Carson Show to promote Apple records, Joe Garagiola is substitute host

1969 - Associate Justice Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court

1970 - Beatles' last LP, "Let It Be," is released in US

1970 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1970 - U.S. President Nixon appointed America's first two female generals - Elizabeth Hoisington and Anna Mae Mays.

1970 - Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were killed when police opened fire during student protests.

1970 - South-Africa excluded from Olympic play

1971 - "70, Girls, 70" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 35 performances

1971 - 97th Preakness: Gustavo Avila aboard Canonero II wins in 1:54

1971 - Radio Nordsee International's ship bombed

1972 - "Hard Job Being God" opens at Edison Theater NYC for 6 performances

1972 - Bus plunges into Nile River killing 50 pilgrims. (Minia Egypt)

1972 - Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot and left paralyzed by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, Maryland, as he campaigned for the presidency.

1972 - Ryukyu Is & Daito Is returned to Japan after 27 yrs of US control

1972 - The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

1973 - California Angel Nolan Ryan's 1st no-hitter beats KC Royals, 3-0

1974 - Mail truck terrorists take school in Maalot, 30 killed

1974 - Walter Scheel succeeds Heinemann as president

1974 - Ma'alot massacre: A total of 31 people, including hostage takers, are killed.

1975 - The merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

1975 - 11th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 9-4

1975 - Emmy 2nd Daytime Award and Emmy News and Documentaries Award presentation

1976 - 102nd Preakness: John Lively aboard Elocutionist wins in 1:55

1976 - Emmy Creative Arts Award presentation

1976 - Fonz Song by Heyettes hits #91

1976 - Kentucky Moonrunner by Cledus Maggard hits #85

1980 - The first transcontinental balloon crossing of the United States took place.

1980 - Flyers score 8 goals against Islanders in playoffs

1980 - Shawn Weatherly, (SC (will win Miss Universe), crowned 29th Miss USA

1981 - "Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" airs

1981 - 2nd City TV's (SCTV) network premier (NBC)

1981 - George Harrison releases "All Those Years Ago" in UK

1981 - Len Barker of Cleveland pitches perfect game vs Toronto

1981 - SCTV Network 90, sequel to Second City Television debut on NBC

1981 - Soyuz 40 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Rumanian) to Salyut 6

1982 - 108th Preakness: Jack Kaenel aboard Aloma's Ruler wins in 1:55.4

1983 - In Boston, MA, the Madison Hotel was destroyed by implosion.

1985 - Everton wins 25th Europe Cup II at Rotterdam

1986 - Argentine ex-president Galtieri sentenced to 12 years

1987 - 1st Energiya Launch (USSR)

1987 - Record archery score for a pair over 24 hrs, is set

1988 - "Carrie" closes at Virginia Theater NYC after 5 performances

1988 - "Gospel at Colonus" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 61 perfs

1988 - 2nd American Comedy Award: Robin Williams & Tracey Ullman

1988 - The Soviet Union began their withdrawal of its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years.

1989 - "Chu Chem" closes at Ritz Theater NYC after 44 performances

1989 - Blue Jays fire manager Jimy Williams & replace him with Cito Gaston

1989 - Soviet Pres Gorbachev in Beijing for first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 yrs

1989 - US Basketball League cancels its summer schedule

1989 - Maxwell House coffee runs ads during "Roe vs Wade" movie despite threat of boycott by right-to-lifers

1990 - "Cemetery Club" opens at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC for 56 perfs

1990 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" was sold for $82.5 million. The sale set a new world record.

1990 - Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,822.45

1990 - Mona Grudt, 19, of Norway, crowned 39th Miss Universe

1991 - Defense releases docs claiming Noriega is "CIA's man in Panama"

1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female premier

1991 - Manchester United wins 31th Europe Cup II at Rotterdam

1991 - Nepal premier Bhattarai resigns

1991 - Pres Bush takes Queen Elizabeth to Oakland A's-Balt Oriole game

1991 - Red Sox & White Sox play then slowest 9 inning game (4:11)

1992 - Colombo '92 opens in Genoa Italy

1992 - NY dept store chain Alexanders announces closing of all 11 stores

1992 - Part of Cruger Avenue in Bronx renamed Regis Philbin Avenue

1993 - 119th Preakness: Mike Smith aboard Prairie Bayou wins in 1:56.6

1993 - Alamodome in San Antonio TX opens

1993 - Montreal Expo retires their 1st #, #10 for Rusty Staub

1995 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC

1997 - ABC News and Starwave Corp launch ABCNEWS.com

1997 - The STS 84 (Space shuttle Atlantis 19, 6th Shuttle-Mir Mission) blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station.

1999 - The Russian parliament was unable a attain enough votes to impeach President Boris Yeltsin.

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.

2010 - Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

2012 - Eurozone economy narrowly avoids recession

2012 - Greece's fifth attempt to a form a coalition government fails and new June elections are scheduled





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

http://www.historyorb.com/day/may/15

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may15.htm

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

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/May-15