TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Monday, May 15, the 135th day of 2017. There are 230 days left in the year.

498BC A newly constructed temple in honour of the god Mercury was dedicated in ancient Rome on the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills. To spite the senate and the consuls, the people awarded the dedication to a senior military officer, Marcus Laetorius.

221 Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

908 The three-year-old Constantine VII, the son of Emperor Leo VI the Wise, is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire by Patriarch Euthymius I at Constantinople.

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

1536 Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a speciallyselected jury.

1718 James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world’s first machine gun.

1730 Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the UK.

1793 Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for ‘about 360 meters’, at a height of 5–6 metres, during one of the first attempted manned flights.

1811 Paraguay declares independence from Spain.

1836 Francis Baily observes “Baily’s beads” during an annular eclipse.

1850 The Bloody Island massacre takes place in Lake County, California, in which a large number of Pomo Indians are slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry.

1850 The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending “the existing differences” between Great Britain and Argentina.

1869 In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1905 Las Vegas is founded when 110 acres, in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

1919 The Winnipeg strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

1925 Al-Insaniyyah, the first Arabic communist newspaper, is founded.

1928 Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.

1940 World War II: The poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.