May 10 - Events

Events

• 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, opens a full-scale assault on Jerusalem and attacks the city's Third Wall to the northwest.
• 1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England.
• 1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
• 1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
• 1534 – Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.
• 1655 – England, with troops under the command of Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables, annexes Jamaica from Spain.
• 1768 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
• 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the Thirteen Colonies begin the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
• 1796 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
• 1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
• 1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
• 1833 – The desecration of the grave of the viceroy of southern Vietnam Le Van Duyet by Emperor Minh Mang provokes his adopted son to start a revolt.
• 1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
• 1849 – Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 25 and injuring over 120.
• 1857 – Indian Mutiny: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys revolt against their commanding officers at Meerut.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson dies eight days after he is accidentally shot by his own troops.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Colonel Emory Upton leads a 10-regiment "Attack-in-depth" assault against the Confederate works at The Battle of Spotsylvania, which, though ultimately unsuccessful, would provide the idea for the massive assault against the Bloody Angle on May 12. Upton is slightly wounded but is immediately promoted to Brigadier general.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
• 1865 – American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.
• 1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
• 1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
• 1877 – Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire following the Senate adoption of Mihail Kogălniceanu's Declaration of Independence. Recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian War of Independence.
• 1893 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.
• 1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
• 1922 – The United States annex the Kingman Reef.
• 1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.
• 1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
• 1940 – World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
• 1940 – World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• 1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1940 – World War II: Invasion of Iceland by the United Kingdom.
• 1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
• 1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.
• 1942 – World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.
• 1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.
• 1948 – The Republic of China implements "temporary provisions" granting President Chiang Kai-shek extended powers to deal with the Communist uprising; they will remain in effect until 1991.
• 1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.
• 1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
• 1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
• 1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder in Japan.
• 1979 – The Federated States of Micronesia become self-governing.
• 1981 – François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic.
• 1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 156 workers.
• 1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
• 1997 – A 7.3 M_w earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province, killing 1,567, injuring over 2,300, leaving 50,000 homeless, and damaging or destroying over 15,000 homes.
• 1997 – The Maeslantkering, a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands that is one of the world's largest moving structures, is opened by Queen Beatrix.
• 2002 – F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
• 2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 65 feet (20 metres) from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.
• 2008 – An EF4 tornado strikes the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, killing 21 people and injuring over 100.
• 2012 – The Damascus bombings were carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people and injuring 400 others