Today in History for Friday, May 16, 2008

Events in History:

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

1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.

1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.

1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.

1605 - Paul V becomes Pope.

1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.

1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.

1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.

1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.

1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.

1910 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.

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

1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.

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

1938 - A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.

1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.

1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.

1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.

1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.

1966 - Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.

1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.

1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1988 - A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.

2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in cinemas.

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

2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.