May 15 in History
1618 — German astronomer Johannes Kepler confirms his third law of planetary motion, which he discovered on March 8 but then rejected.
1648 — The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty. The treaty, agreed on January 30, forms part of the Peace of Westphalia that marks the end of the Eighty Years’ War and the Thirty Years’ War respectively.
1718 — James Puckle, a London lawyer, inventor and writer, patents the world’s first machine gun. The “defence gun” is a revolving firearm with various cylinders for round and square bullets.
1891 — Dutch entrepreneur Gerard Philips and his father Frederik found the Philips Company. Frederik, a banker, finances the purchase and setup of an empty factory building in Eindhoven, where the company starts producing lamps and other electro-technical products in 1892.
1930 — Ellen Church, 25, the first flight attendant, goes on duty aboard an Oakland-Chicago flight operated by Boeing Air Transport. A qualified nurse and pilot who wanted to be a commercial pilot (a job not open to women), she convinced the airline that nurses as attendants would increase safety and help reassure passengers. 1937 — Trini Lopez, singer, guitarist (“If I Had a Hammer”, “Lemon Tree”, “Guantanamera”, “La Bamba” ) and actor, is born Trinidad López III in the Little Mexico neighbourhood of Dallas, Texas. 1948 — The 25-year British Mandate for Palestine ends (and for Transjordan on May 25). Seven countries of the Arab League — Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan and Syria, and volunteers from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Yemen — invade Israel, which declared independence on the 14th. The 1948 (First) Arab-Israeli War ends on March 10 1949 with an Israeli victory.
1972 — The Ryukyu Islands, under US military governance since the end of World War 2 in 1945, reverts back to Japanese control.
1987 — Andy Murray, Scottish tennis player (champion at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, and the US Open in 2012), is born in Glasgow.
1990 — “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” (1890) by Vincent van Gogh is sold at auction for $82.5m, far surpassing the previous high of $53.9m for a painting. Van Gogh created about 2,100 artworks in a decade. However, “The Red Vineyards near Arles” (1888) is the only painting known by name that he sold, for 400 Belgian francs, in his lifetime. He died in poverty on July 29 1890, aged 37, after shooting himself in the chest two days earlier.