May 10
Today in History
1503 - Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands.
1676 - In Virginia, Bacon's Rebellion began. Nathaniel Badon led the the rebellion which pitted frontiersmen against the government.
1768 - The imprisonment of the journalist John Wilkes as an outlaw provoked violence in London. Wilkes was returned to parliament as a member for Middlesex.
1773 - The English Parliament passed the Tea Act, which taxed all tea in the American colonies. The legislation led to the Boston Tea Party.
1774 - Louis XVI ascended the throne of France.
1775 - Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold led an attack on the British Fort Ticonderoga and captured it from the British.
1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte won a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.
1824 - In London, the National Gallery opened to the public.
1840 - Mormon leader Joseph Smith moved his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they had experienced in Missouri.
1857 - The Seepoys of India revolted against the British Army.
1865 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville, GA.
1869 - Central Pacific and Union Pacific Rail Roads meet in Promontory, UT. A golden spike was driven in at the celebration of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.
1872 - Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.
1876 - Richard Wagner’s "Centennial Inaugural March" was heard for the first time at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, PA.
1898 - A vending machine law was enacted in Omaha, NE. It cost $5,000 for a permit.
1904 - In Germany, the Horch & Cie. Motorwagenwerke AG was founded. It would eventually become the Audi company.
1908 - The first Mother's Day observance took place during a church service in Grafton, West Virginia.
1922 - American captain Edmund Fanning discovered Kingman Reef between the Hawaiian Islands and American Somoa.
1924 - J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the Bureau of Investigation. The department became known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
1927 - The Hotel Statler in Boston, MA. became the first hotel to install radio headsets in each of its 1,300 rooms.
1928 - WGY-TV in Schenectady, NY, began regular television programming.
1930 - The Adler Planetarium opened to the public in Chicago, IL.
1933 - The Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.
1940 - Germany invaded Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
1941 - England's House of Commons was destroyed by a German air raid.
1941 - Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission.
1942 - U.S. forces in the Philippines began to surrender to the Japanese.
1943 - U.S. troops invaded Attu in the Aleutian Islands to expel the Japanese.
1960 - The U.S.S. Triton completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip started on February 16.
1962 - Marvel Comics published the first issue of "The Incredible Hulk."
1968 - Preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.
1969 - The National and American Football Leagues announced their plans to merge for the 1970-71 season.
1978 - Britain's Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18 years of marriage.
1982 - Elliott Gould made his dramatic television debut after 30 movies in 17 years. He starred in "The Rules of Marriage" on CBS-TV.
1986 - Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran became the first black pilot to fly with the Blue Angels team.
1994 - Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president.
1997 - An earthquake in northeastern Iran killed at least 2,400 people.
1999 - China broke off talks on human rights with the U.S. in response to NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
1999 - The Cezanne painting "Still Life With Curtain, Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit" sold for 60.5 million.
2000 - 11,000 residents were evacuated in Los Alamos, NM, due to a fire that was blown into a canyon. The fire had been deliberately set to clear brush.
2001 - Boeing Co. announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Chicago, IL.
2001 - In Ghana, 121 people were killed in a stampede at a soccer game.
2002 - Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Hanssen, an FBI agent, had sold U.S. secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
2002 - Taiwan test fired a locally made Sky Bow II surface-to-air missile for the first time. They also fired three U.S.-made Hawk missiles.
2002 - Dr. Pepper announced that it would be introducing a new flavor, Red Fusion, for the first time in 117 years.
2011 - It was announced that Microsoft had closed a deal to purchase the internet phone service Skype for $8.5 billion.
2013 - In New York, NY, crane operators hoisted the final pieces of the spire atop One World Trade Center (formerly called the Freedom Tower).
2013 - The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) apologized for the "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups about their tax-exempt status during the 2012 election.
2016 - NASA announced that it's Kepler mission had verified 1,284 new planets. This was the single largest finding of planets to date.
2017 - Apple's stock market value exceeded the $500 billion mark.
