TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, May 16, the 136th day of 2017. There are 229 days left in the year.

1584 Santiago de Vera becomes sixth governor-general of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.

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

1811 Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.

1822 Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.

1834 The Battle of Asseiceira is fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.

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

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

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

1888 Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

1891 The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world’s first long distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).

1916 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.

1929 In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

1991 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the US Congress.

1997 Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.

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

2005 Kuwait permits women’s suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.

2011 STS-134 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center and is final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

2014 Twelve people are killed in explosions in Nairobi, Kenya.