This day in .....

4 May 1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.

1st Annual Grammy Awards

1959 award ceremony for music

The 1st Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 4, 1959. They recognized musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. Two separate ceremonies were held simultaneously on the same day; the first hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and the second in the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City.^[1] Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Domenico Modugno, Ross Bagdasarian, and Henry Mancini, each won 2 awards.^[2][3]

1. ^ "Grammy Awards 1959 (May)". Grammy. Archived from the original on 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
2. ^ Dornbrook, Don (24 May 1959). "And Now the Grammy Awards". The Milwaukee Journal. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
3. ^ "1958 Grammy Winners". Grammy.com. Retrieved 29 May 2022.

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5 May 1912 – The first issue of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was published.

Pravda

Russian newspaper founded in 1912

For other uses, see Pravda (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Pravda.ru, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ukrainska Pravda, pravda DE, pravda EN, pravda ES, pravda FR, or pravda PL.

Pravda (Russian: Правда, IPA: [ˈpravdə] ^ⓘ, lit. 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the country with a circulation of 11 million.^[1] The newspaper began publication on 5 May 1912 in the Russian Empire, but was already extant abroad in January 1911.^[2] It emerged as the leading government newspaper of the Soviet Union after the October Revolution. The newspaper was an organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU between 1912 and 1991.^[3]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Pravda was sold by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to a Greek business family in 1992, and the paper came under the control of their private company Pravda International.^[1][4]

In 1996, there was an internal dispute between the owners of Pravda International and some of the Pravda journalists which led to Pravda splitting into different entities. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation acquired the Pravda paper, while some of the original Soviet Pravda journalists separated to form Russia's first online paper Pravda Online (now Pravda.ru), which is not connected to the Communist Party.^[4][5] After a legal dispute between the rival parties, the Russian court of arbitration stipulated that both entities would be allowed to continue using the Pravda name.^[6]

The Pravda paper is today run by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, whereas the online Pravda.ru is privately owned and has international editions published in Russian, English, French and Portuguese.

1. ^ ^{a b} Specter, Michael (31 July 1996). "Russia's Purveyor of 'Truth', Pravda, Dies After 84 Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
2. ^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Progress Publishers Moscow, Volume 17, p.45
3. ^ Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher. The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers (1980) pp 242–49
4. ^ ^{a b} "Pravda | Soviet newspaper". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
5. ^ "Which Pravda did John McCain write about Syria for?". the Guardian. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
6. ^ "There is no Pravda. There is Pravda.Ru". English pravda.ru. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2015.

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6 May 1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

Roger Bannister

English athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile (1929–2018)

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister CH CBE FRCP (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran among the first sub-4-minute miles.

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres and finished in fourth place. This achievement strengthened his resolve to become the first athlete to finish the mile run in under four minutes. He accomplished this feat on 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. When the announcer, Norris McWhirter, declared "The time was three...", the cheers of the crowd drowned out Bannister's exact time, which was 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. He had attained this record with minimal training, while practising as a junior doctor. Bannister's record lasted just 46 days.

Bannister went on to become a neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 1993. As Master of Pembroke, he was on the governing body of Abingdon School from 1986 to 1993.^[3] When asked whether the 4-minute mile was his proudest achievement, he said he felt prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research into the responses of the nervous system. Bannister was patron of the MSA Trust. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011.^[4]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Roger Bannister at sports-reference.com". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
2. ^ All-Athletics. "Profile of Roger Bannister". Archived from the original on 4 April 2016.
3. ^ "Abingdon School Athletics" (PDF). The Abingdonian. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 October 2018.
4. ^ Sale, Jerome (2 May 2014). "Sir Roger Bannister reveals Parkinson's disease battle". BBC News.

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7 May 2000 – Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia.

Vladimir Putin

President of Russia (1999–2008, 2012–present)

"Putin" redirects here. For other uses, see Putin (disambiguation).

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin^[c][d] (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia. Putin has held continuous positions as president or prime minister since 1999:^[e] as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012.^[f][7] He is the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin.

Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and then as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in August 1999. Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin became acting president and, in less than four months, was elected to his first term as president. He was reelected in 2004. Due to constitutional limitations of two consecutive presidential terms, Putin served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev. He returned to the presidency in 2012, following an election marked by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in 2018.

During Putin's initial presidential tenure, the Russian economy grew on average by seven percent per year,^[8] driven by economic reforms and a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas.^[9][10] Additionally, Putin led Russia in a conflict against Chechen separatists, reestablishing federal control over the region.^[11][12] While serving as prime minister under Medvedev, he oversaw a military conflict with Georgia and enacted military and police reforms. In his third presidential term, Russia annexed Crimea and supported a war in eastern Ukraine through several military incursions, resulting in international sanctions and a financial crisis in Russia. He also ordered a military intervention in Syria to support his ally Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war, ultimately securing permanent naval bases in the Eastern Mediterranean.^[13][14][15]

In February 2022, during his fourth presidential term, Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which prompted international condemnation and led to expanded sanctions. In September 2022, he announced a partial mobilization and forcibly annexed four Ukrainian oblasts into Russia. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes^[16] related to his alleged criminal responsibility for illegal child abductions during the war.^[17] In April 2021, after a referendum, he signed into law constitutional amendments that included one allowing him to run for reelection twice more, potentially extending his presidency to 2036.^[18][19] In June 2023, he survived the Wagner Group rebellion. In March 2024, he was reelected for another term.

Under Putin's rule, the Russian political system has been transformed into an authoritarian dictatorship.^[20][21][22] His rule has been marked by endemic corruption and widespread human rights violations, including the imprisonment and suppression of political opponents, intimidation and censorship of independent media in Russia, and a lack of free and fair elections.^[23][24][25] Putin's Russia has consistently received low scores on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, The Economist Democracy Index, Freedom House's Freedom in the World index, and the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.

1. ^ "Vladimir Putin quits as head of Russia's ruling party". 24 April 2012. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference RFERL080418 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT120505 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Proekt201125 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Times190526 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference SonntagsZeitung was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ "Timeline: Vladimir Putin – 20 tumultuous years as Russian President or PM". Reuters. 9 August 2019. Archived from the original on 29 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
8. ^ Kramer, Andrew E. (18 February 2020). "Pessimistic Outlook in Russia Slows Investment, and the Economy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 February 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Putin 2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fragile Empire 2013 page 17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11. ^ "Fighting in volatile Chechnya kills 13 rebels, police: agency". Reuters. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 9 September 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
12. ^ "Putin Warns 'Mistakes' Could Bring Back '90s Woes". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 17 October 2011. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
13. ^ Borshchevskaya, Anna (2022). Putin's War in Syria. I. B. Tauris. pp. 70, 71, 80, 81, 157, 169, 171, 174. ISBN 978-0-7556-3463-7.
14. ^ "Russia carries out first air strikes in Syria". Al Jazeera. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
15. ^ Geukjian, Ohannes (2022). "5: Russian Diplomacy, War, and Peace Making, 2017–19". The Russian Military Intervention in Syria. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-2280-0829-3.
16. ^ "Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova". International Criminal Court. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
17. ^ "International court issues war crimes warrant for Putin". AP News. 17 March 2023. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
18. ^ Odynova, Alexandra (5 April 2021). "Putin signs law allowing him to serve 2 more terms as Russia's president". CBS News. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
19. ^ "Putin – already Russia's longest leader since Stalin – signs law that may let him stay in power until 2036". USA Today. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
20. ^ Plokhy, Serhii (16 May 2023). The Russo-Ukrainian War: From the bestselling author of Chernobyl. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-80206-179-6. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
21. ^ Zavadskaya, Margarita (2023). "Russia: Nations in Transit 2023 Country Report". Freedom House. Retrieved 25 March 2024. In Russia, national governance represents outright authoritarianism, dominated by widespread oppression and large-scale corruption among the top elites. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has set the Russian regime on a further downward spiral, making it one of the most notorious personalist dictatorships in the world.
22. ^ Kovalev, Alexey (26 March 2024). "Russia Is Returning to Its Totalitarian Past". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
23. ^ Gill, Graeme (2016). Building an Authoritarian Polity: Russia in Post-Soviet Times (hardback ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-13008-1. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
24. ^ Reuter, Ora John (2017). The Origins of Dominant Parties: Building Authoritarian Institutions in Post-Soviet Russia (E-book ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316761649. ISBN 978-1-316-76164-9. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
25. ^ Frye, Timothy (2021). Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia. Princeton University Press. p. ^{[page needed]}. ISBN 978-0-691-21246-3. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2023.

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8 May 1945 – End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.

Prague uprising

Partially successful 1945 rebellion in German-occupied Czechoslovakia

For the 1848 events, see Prague uprising (1848).

The Prague uprising (Czech: Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti-German sentiment and the rapid advance of Allied forces from the Red Army and the United States Army offered the resistance a chance of success.

On 5 May 1945, during the end of World War II in Europe, occupying German forces in Bohemia and Moravia were spontaneously attacked by civilians in an uprising, with Czech resistance leaders emerging from hiding to join them. The Russian Liberation Army (ROA), a collaborationist formation of ethnic Russians, defected and supported the insurgents. German forces counter-attacked, but their progress was slowed by barricades constructed by the insurgents. On 8 May, the Czech and German leaders signed a ceasefire allowing all German forces to withdraw from the city, but some Waffen-SS troops refused to obey. Fighting continued until 9 May, when the Red Army entered the nearly liberated city.

The uprising was brutal, with both sides committing several war crimes. German forces used Czech civilians as human shields and perpetrated several massacres. Violence against German civilians, sanctioned by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, continued after the uprising, and was justified as revenge for the occupation or as a means to encourage Germans to flee. George S. Patton's Third United States Army was ordered by Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower not to come to the aid of the Czech insurgents, which undermined the credibility of the Western powers in post-war Czechoslovakia. Instead, the uprising was presented as a symbol of Czech resistance to Nazi rule, and the liberation by the Red Army was used by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to increase popular support for the party.

1. ^ ^{a b} Mahoney 2011, p. 191.
2. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 34–35.
3. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 55.
4. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 149–150.
5. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 53.
6. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 297.
7. ^ Julicher 2015, p. 171.
8. ^ Dickerson 2018, p. 97.
9. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 54.
10. ^ Jakl 2004, p. 25.
11. ^ Thomas & Ketley 2015, p. 284.
12. ^ Kokoška 2005, p. 258.
13. ^ ^{a b} "Publikace, kterou historiografie potřebovala: padlí z pražských barikád 1945". Vojenském historickém ústavu Praha. 3 May 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
14. ^ Soukup 1946, p. 42.
15. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 285.
16. ^ Soukup 1946, p. 39.
17. ^ Orzoff 2009, p. 207.
18. ^ ^{a b} Marek 2005, pp. 13–14.
19. ^ ^{a b} MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 186.
20. ^ ^{a b} Staněk 2005, p. 197.
21. ^ Merten 2017, p. 114.
22. ^ Lowe 2012, p. 127.
23. ^ Lowe 2012, pp. 127–128.

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9 May 1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom

British royal regalia

The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, originally the Crown Jewels of England, are a collection of royal ceremonial objects kept in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, which include the coronation regalia and vestments worn by British monarchs.^[b]

Symbols of over 800 years of monarchy,^[6] the coronation regalia are the only working set in Europe and the collection is the most historically complete of any regalia in the world.^[7] Objects used to invest and crown British monarchs variously denote their role as head of state of the United Kingdom and other countries of the Commonwealth, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and head of the British armed forces. They feature heraldic devices and national emblems of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Use of regalia by monarchs in England can be traced back to when the country was converted to Christianity in the Early Middle Ages. A permanent set of coronation regalia, once belonging to Edward the Confessor, was established after he was made a saint in the 12th century. These holy relics were kept at Westminster Abbey, the venue of coronations since 1066, and another set of regalia was reserved for religious feasts and State Openings of Parliament. Collectively, these objects came to be known as the Jewels of the Crown. Most of the collection dates from around 350 years ago when Charles II ascended the throne. The medieval and Tudor regalia had been sold or melted down after the monarchy was abolished in 1649 during the English Civil War. Only four original items predate the Restoration: a late 12th-century anointing spoon (the oldest object) and three early 17th-century swords. The regalia continued to be used by British monarchs after the kingdoms of England and Scotland merged in 1707.

The regalia contain 23,578 gemstones, among them Cullinan I (530 carats (106 g)), the largest clear cut diamond in the world, set in the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross. It was cut from the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, the eponymous Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905 and presented to Edward VII. On the Imperial State Crown are Cullinan II (317 carats (63 g)), the Stuart Sapphire, St Edward's Sapphire, and the Black Prince's Ruby – a large red spinel. The Koh-i-Noor diamond (105 carats (21 g)) was acquired by Queen Victoria from the Sikh Empire and has featured on three consort crowns. A small number of historical objects at the Tower are either empty or set with glass and crystal replicas.

At a coronation, the monarch is anointed using holy oil poured from an ampulla into the spoon, invested with robes and ornaments, and crowned with St Edward's Crown. Afterwards, it is exchanged for the lighter Imperial State Crown, which is also usually worn at State Openings of Parliament. Wives of kings, known as queens consort, are invested with a plainer set of regalia.^[c] Also regarded as crown jewels are state swords, trumpets, ceremonial maces, church plate, historical regalia, banqueting plate, and royal christening fonts. They are part of the Royal Collection and belong to the institution of monarchy, passing from one sovereign to the next. In the Jewel House they are seen by 2.5 million visitors every year.

1. ^ Dixon-Smith, et al., p. 12.
2. ^ "Royal Collection Season on the BBC: BBC One The Coronation". Royal Collection Trust. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021.
3. ^ "Crown Jewels". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 211. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 16 July 1992. col. 944W.
4. ^ "Crown Jewels". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 267. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 27 November 1995. col. 447W.
5. ^ Keay (2002), p. 3.
6. ^ Mears, et al., p. 5.
7. ^ Keay (2011), dust jacket.
8. ^ Allison and Riddell, p. 451.

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10 May 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.

Boston Tea Party

1773 American protest against British taxation

For other uses, see Boston Tea Party (disambiguation).

The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts.^[2] The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights. In response, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company.

The demonstrators boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The British government considered the protest an act of treason and responded harshly.^[3] Days later the Philadelphia Tea Party, instead of destroying a shipment of tea, sent the ship back to England without unloading. The episodes escalated into the American Revolution, and the Boston Tea Party became an iconic event of American history. Since then other political protests such as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical successors to the Boston protest of 1773.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, a tax passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act believing it violated their rights as Englishmen to "no taxation without representation", that is, to be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a parliament in which they were not represented. The well-connected East India Company also had been granted competitive advantages over colonial tea importers, who resented the move and feared additional infringement on their business.^[4] Protesters had prevented the unloading of tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Great Britain.

The Boston Tea Party was a significant event that helped accelerate and intensify colonial support for the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston's commerce. Colonists throughout the Thirteen Colonies responded to the Intolerable Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them, culminating in the October 1774 Continental Association. The crisis escalated, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

1. ^ Plate opposite p. 58. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (40)
2. ^ Smith, George (January 17, 2012). The Boston tea party. The institute for humane studies and libertarianism.org. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
3. ^ Sosin, Jack M. (June 12, 2022). "The Massachusetts Acts of 1774: Coercive or Preventive". Huntington Library Quarterly. 26 (3): 235–252. doi:10.2307/3816653. JSTOR 3816653. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
4. ^ Mitchell, Stacy (July 19, 2016). The big box swindle. Retrieved April 20, 2018.

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11 May 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British

Indian Rebellion of 1857

Uprising against British Company rule

"Sepoy Mutiny" redirects here. For other uses, see Sepoy Mutiny (disambiguation).

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown.^[4][5] The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi. It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India,^[b][6][c][7] though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east.^[d][8] The rebellion posed a military threat to British power in that region,^[e][9] and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858.^[10] On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859.

The name of the revolt is contested, and it is variously described as the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Mutiny, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, and the First War of Independence.^[f][11]

The Indian rebellion was fed by resentments born of diverse perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes,^[12][13] and scepticism about the improvements brought about by British rule.^[g][14] Many Indians rose against the British; however, many also fought for the British, and the majority remained seemingly compliant to British rule.^[h][14] Violence, which sometimes betrayed exceptional cruelty, was inflicted on both sides, on British officers, and civilians, including women and children, by the rebels, and on the rebels, and their supporters, including sometimes entire villages, by British reprisals; the cities of Delhi and Lucknow were laid waste in the fighting and the British retaliation.^[i][14]

After the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut, the rebels quickly reached Delhi, whose 81-year-old Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was declared the Emperor of Hindustan. Soon, the rebels had captured large tracts of the North-Western Provinces and Awadh (Oudh). The East India Company's response came rapidly as well. With help from reinforcements, Kanpur was retaken by mid-July 1857, and Delhi by the end of September.^[10] However, it then took the remainder of 1857 and the better part of 1858 for the rebellion to be suppressed in Jhansi, Lucknow, and especially the Awadh countryside.^[10] Other regions of Company-controlled India—Bengal province, the Bombay Presidency, and the Madras Presidency—remained largely calm.^[j][7][10] In the Punjab, the Sikh princes crucially helped the British by providing both soldiers and support.^[k][7][10] The large princely states, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir, as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana, did not join the rebellion, serving the British, in the Governor-General Lord Canning's words, as "breakwaters in a storm".^[15]

In some regions, most notably in Awadh, the rebellion took on the attributes of a patriotic revolt against British oppression.^[16] However, the rebel leaders proclaimed no articles of faith that presaged a new political system.^[l][17] Even so, the rebellion proved to be an important watershed in Indian and British Empire history.^[m][11][18] It led to the dissolution of the East India Company, and forced the British to reorganize the army, the financial system, and the administration in India, through passage of the Government of India Act 1858.^[19] India was thereafter administered directly by the British government in the new British Raj.^[15] On 1 November 1858, Queen Victoria issued a proclamation to Indians, which while lacking the authority of a constitutional provision,^[n][20] promised rights similar to those of other British subjects.^[o][p][21] In the following decades, when admission to these rights was not always forthcoming, Indians were to pointedly refer to the Queen's proclamation in growing avowals of a new nationalism.^[q][r][23]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tyagi1974 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ ^{a b c} Peers 2013, p. 64.
3. ^ Buettner, Elizabeth (2000), "Problematic spaces, problematic races: defining 'Europeans' in late colonial India", Women's History Review, 9 (2): 277–298, 278, doi:10.1080/09612020000200242, S2CID 145297044, Colonial-era sources most commonly referred to individuals whom scholars today often describe as 'white' or 'British' as 'European' or 'English'.
4. ^ Marshall 2007, p. 197
5. ^ David 2003, p. 9
6. ^ ^{a b} Bose & Jalal 2004, pp. 72–73
7. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Marriott, John (2013), The other empire: Metropolis, India and progress in the colonial imagination, Manchester University Press, p. 195, ISBN 978-1-84779-061-3
8. ^ ^{a b} Bender, Jill C. (2016), The 1857 Indian Uprising and the British Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-1-316-48345-9
9. ^ ^{a b} Bayly 1987, p. 170
10. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bandyopadhyay 2004, pp. 169–172, Brown 1994, pp. 85–87, and Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 100–106
11. ^ ^{a b c d} Peers, Douglas M. (2006), "Britain and Empire", in Williams, Chris (ed.), A Companion to 19th-Century Britain, John Wiley & Sons, p. 63, ISBN 978-1-4051-5679-0
12. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 100–103.
13. ^ Brown 1994, pp. 85–86.
14. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Marshall, P. J. (2001), "1783–1870: An expanding empire", in P. J. Marshall (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. 50, ISBN 978-0-521-00254-7
15. ^ ^{a b} Spear 1990, pp. 147–148
16. ^ Bandyopadhyay 2004, p. 177, Bayly 2000, p. 357
17. ^ ^{a b} Brown 1994, p. 94
18. ^ Bandyopadhyay 2004, p. 179
19. ^ Bayly 1987, pp. 194–197
20. ^ ^{a b} Adcock, C.S. (2013), The Limits of Tolerance: Indian Secularism and the Politics of Religious Freedom, Oxford University Press, pp. 23–25, ISBN 978-0-19-999543-1
21. ^ ^{a b} Taylor, Miles (2016), "The British royal family and the colonial empire from the Georgians to Prince George", in Aldrish, Robert; McCreery, Cindy (eds.), Crowns and Colonies: European Monarchies and Overseas Empires, Manchester University Press, pp. 38–39, ISBN 978-1-5261-0088-7, archived from the original on 19 September 2023, retrieved 30 March 2017
22. ^ Peers 2013, p. 76.
23. ^ ^{a b} Embree, Ainslie Thomas; Hay, Stephen N.; Bary, William Theodore De (1988), "Nationalism Takes Root: The Moderates", Sources of Indian Tradition: Modern India and Pakistan, Columbia University Press, p. 85, ISBN 978-0-231-06414-9, archived from the original on 19 September 2023, retrieved 19 September 2023

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12 May 1821 – The first major battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks is fought in Valtetsi.

Greek War of Independence

Greek rebellion against the Ottoman Empire (1821–1829)

The Greek War of Independence,^[a] also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829.^[3] In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their North African vassals. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which would be expanded to its modern size in later years. The revolution is celebrated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March.

All Greek territory, except the Ionian Islands, the Mani Peninsula, and mountainous regions in Epirus, came under Ottoman rule in the 15th century.^[4] During the following centuries, there were Greek uprisings against Ottoman rule. Most uprisings began in the independent Greek realm of the Mani Peninsula, which was never conquered by the Ottomans.^[5] In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends) was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. It planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, and Constantinople. The insurrection was planned for 25 March 1821; the Orthodox Christian Feast of the Annunciation. However, the plans were discovered by the Ottoman authorities, forcing it to start earlier.

The first revolt began on 21 February 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. These events urged Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821, the Maniots were first to declare war. In September 1821, the Greeks, under the leadership of Theodoros Kolokotronis, captured Tripolitsa. Revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece broke out, but were suppressed. Greek fleets achieved success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea. Tensions developed among Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. The Ottoman Sultan called in Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son, Ibrahim Pasha, to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gains. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and brought most of the peninsula under Egyptian control by the end of that year. Despite a failed invasion of Mani, Athens also fell and revolutionary morale decreased.

The three great powers—Russia, Britain, and France—decided to intervene, sending their naval squadrons to Greece in 1827. They destroyed the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet, at the Battle of Navarino, and turned the tide in favor of the revolutionaries. In 1828, the Egyptian army withdrew under pressure from a French expeditionary force. The Ottoman garrisons in the Peloponnese surrendered and the Greek revolutionaries retook central Greece. The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia allowing for the Russian army to move into the Balkans. This forced the Ottomans to accept Greek autonomy in the Treaty of Adrianople and semi-autonomy for Serbia and the Romanian principalities.^[6] After nine years of war, Greece was recognized as an independent state under the London Protocol of February 1830. Further negotiations in 1832 led to the London Conference and the Treaty of Constantinople, which defined the final borders of the new state and established Prince Otto of Bavaria as the first king of Greece.

1. ^ Sakalis, Alex (25 March 2021). "The Italians Who Fought for Greek Independence". Italics Magazine. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
2. ^ Note: Greece officially adopted the Gregorian calendar on 16 February 1923 (which became 1 March). All dates prior to that, unless specifically denoted, are Old Style.
3. ^ "War of Greek Independence | History, Facts, & Combatants". 2 April 2024. See also: Cartledge, Yianni; Varnava, Andrekos, eds. (2022). Yianni Cartledge & Andrekos Varnava (eds.), New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections, Palgrave Macmillan/Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-10849-5. ISBN 978-3031108488. S2CID 253805406.
4. ^ Finkel, Caroline (2007). Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. Basic Books. p. 17. ISBN 978-0465008506.
5. ^ Woodhouse, A Story of Modern Greece, 'The Dark Age of Greece (1453–1800)', p. 113, Faber and Faber (1968)
6. ^ Bushkovitch, Paul (2012). A concise history of Russia. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0521543231.

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13 May 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.

C/1861 J1

Astronomical object

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The Great Comet of 1861, formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, is a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months.^[5] It was categorized as a great comet—one of the eight greatest comets of the 19th century.^[5]

It was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, on May 13, 1861, with an apparent magnitude of +4, a month before perihelion (June 12). It was not visible in the northern hemisphere until June 29, but it arrived before word of the comet's discovery.

On June 29, 1861, Comet C/1861 J1 passed 11.5 degrees (23 Sun-widths) from the Sun.^[6] On the following day, June 30, 1861, the comet made its closest approach to the Earth at a distance of 0.1326 AU (19,840,000 km; 12,330,000 mi).^[1] During the Earth close approach, the comet was estimated to be between magnitude 0^[5] and −2^[1] with a tail of over 90 angular degrees.^[5] As a result of forward scattering, C/1861 J1 even cast shadows at night (Schmidt 1863; Marcus 1997).^[7] During the night of June 30 – July 1, 1861, the famed comet observer J. F. Julius Schmidt watched in awe as the great comet C/1861 J1 cast shadows on the walls of the Athens Observatory.^[7] The comet may have interacted with the Earth in an almost unprecedented way. For two days, when the comet was at its closest, the Earth was actually within the comet's tail, and streams of cometary material converging towards the distant nucleus could be seen.

By the middle of August, the comet was no longer visible to the naked eye, but it was visible in telescopes until May 1862. An elliptical orbit with a period of about 400 years was calculated, which would indicate a previous appearance about the middle of the 15th century, and a return in the 23rd century. Ichiro Hasegawa and Shuichi Nakano suggest that this comet is identical with C/1500 H1 that came to perihelion on April 20, 1500 (based on 5 observations).^[8]

It was hypothesized that C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) and this comet are related, and that in a previous perihelion (possibly the 1500 one), C/1861 G1 broke off of this comet, as the two comets have many similar orbital characteristics. However, this was disproved in 2015 by Richard L. Branham Jr., who used modern computing technology and statistical analysis to calculate a corrected orbit for C/1861 J1.^[9] By 1992, this great comet had traveled more than 100 AU from the Sun, making it even farther away than dwarf planet Eris. It will come to aphelion around 2063.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Cite error: The named reference kronk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Horizons2267 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference barycenter1900 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Yoshida was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Cite error: The named reference great was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference horizons1861 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ ^{a b} Marcus, Joseph C. (2007). "Forward-Scattering Enhancement of Comet Brightness. I. Background and Model". International Comet Quarterly. 29 (2): 39–66. Bibcode:2007ICQ....29...39M.
8. ^ Hasegawa, Ichiro; Nakano, Syuichi (October 1995). "Periodic Comets Found in Historical Records". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 47 (5): 699–710. Bibcode:1995PASJ...47..699H.
9. ^ Branham Jr., Richard L. (2015). "Do comets C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) and C/1861 J1 (great comet) have a common origin?" (PDF). Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica. 51. Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: 247–253. Bibcode:2015RMxAA..51..247B. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.

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14 May 1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.

Edward Jenner

English physician and pioneer of vaccines (1749–1823)

For the New Zealand poet and translator, see Edward Jenner (writer).

Edward Jenner FRS FRCPE^[1] (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine.^[2][3] The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ('pustules of the cow'), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.^[4]

In the West, Jenner is often called "the father of immunology",^[5] and his work is said to have saved "more lives than any other man".^{[6]: 100 [7]} In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10% of the global population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily.^[7] In 1821, he was appointed physician to King George IV, and was also made mayor of Berkeley and justice of the peace. He was a member of the Royal Society. In the field of zoology, he was among the first modern scholars to describe the brood parasitism of the cuckoo (Aristotle also noted this behaviour in his History of Animals). In 2002, Jenner was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.

1. ^ "Jenner, Edward (1749–1823)". rcpe.ac.uk. Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 28 January 2015. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
2. ^ Riedel S (January 2005). "Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination". Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center). 18 (1). Baylor University Medical Center: 21–25. doi:10.1080/08998280.2005.11928028. PMC 1200696. PMID 16200144.
3. ^ Baxby D (2009) [2004]. "Jenner, Edward (1749–1823)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14749. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
4. ^ Baxby D (1999). "Edward Jenner's Inquiry; a bicentenary analysis". Vaccine. 17 (4): 301–307. doi:10.1016/s0264-410x(98)00207-2. PMID 9987167.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference JennerBBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baron1838_vol2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ ^{a b} "How did Edward Jenner test his smallpox vaccine?". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 13 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2017.

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15 May 1905 – The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada, United States.

Las Vegas

Largest city in Nevada, United States

This article is about the city proper in Nevada. For the metropolitan area, see Las Vegas Valley. For other uses, see Las Vegas (disambiguation).

"Vegas" redirects here. For other uses, see Vegas (disambiguation).

City in Nevada, United States

Las Vegas,^[6] often known simply as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States.^[7][8] Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife, with most venues centered on downtown Las Vegas and more to the Las Vegas Strip just outside city limits. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020,^[9] with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053,^[10] making it the 25th-most populous city in the United States.

The city bills itself as the Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels. With over 2.9 million visitors as of 2019, Las Vegas is the sixth-most visited city in the U.S., after New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, and San Francisco.^[11] It is a top-three destination in the U.S. for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world.^[12][13][14] Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations.^[15][16] The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment had earned it the nickname "Sin City",^[17] and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.

Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century (a similar distinction was earned by Chicago in the 19th century). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s and into the 21st century, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city ("Las Vegas" in this case) is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the Strip, which are actually in the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester.^[18][19] Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Southern Nevada, already one of the driest regions in the United States, have been increasing in frequency and severity,^[20] putting a further strain on Las Vegas's water security.

1. ^ "Words and Their Stories: Nicknames for New Orleans and Las Vegas". VOA News. March 13, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
2. ^ Lovitt, Rob (December 15, 2009). "Will the real Las Vegas please stand up?". NBC News. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
3. ^ "ArcGIS REST Services Directory". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
4. ^ "2020 Population and Housing State Data". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
5. ^ "Total Gross Domestic Product for Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV (MSA)". fred.stlouisfed.org.
6. ^ (US: /lɑːs ˈveɪɡəs/ lahss VAY-gəss; from Spanish las vegas 'the meadows')
7. ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
8. ^ Brunn, S.D.; Zeigler, D.J.; Hays-Mitchell, M.; Graybill, J.K. (2020). Cities of the World: Regional Patterns and Urban Environments. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-5381-2635-6. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
9. ^ "QuickFacts: Las Vegas city, Nevada". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
10. ^ "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): Las Vegas city, Nevada". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
11. ^ "America's 10 most visited cities", World Atlas, September 23, 2021
12. ^ Jones, Charisse (August 21, 2013). "Top convention destinations: Orlando, Chicago, Las Vegas". USA Today.
13. ^ Trejos, Nancy (January 17, 2014). "AAA chooses Five Diamond hotels, restaurants for 2014". USA Today. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
14. ^ "Top 5 Cities to Get Hired in Hospitality". Hcareers. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
15. ^ "Overseas Visitation Estimates for U.S. States, Cities, and Census Regions: 2013" (PDF). International Visitation in the United States. US Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, US Department of Commerce. May 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 13, 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
16. ^ "World's Most-Visited Tourist Attractions". Travel + Leisure. November 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
17. ^ Schwartz, David G. (December 10, 2018). "Why Las Vegas Is Still America's Most Sinful City". Forbes. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
18. ^ Schoenmann, Joe (February 3, 2010). "Vegas not alone in wanting in on .vegas". Las Vegas Sun.
19. ^ "Clark County 100 in 2009,Announces Plans" (PDF) (Press release). Clark County, Nevada. October 22, 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 28, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2022. The Las Vegas Strip is in unincorporated Clark County and not in any city.
20. ^ "West megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years". Las Vegas Sun. February 15, 2022. Retrieved March 5, 2022.

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16 May 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.

Canonization of Joan of Arc

Mass of granting sainthood to Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (1412–1431) was formally canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV in his bull Divina disponente,^[4] which concluded the canonization process that the Sacred Congregation of Rites instigated after a petition of 1869 of the French Catholic hierarchy. Although pro-English clergy had Joan burnt at the stake for heresy in 1431, she was rehabilitated in 1456 after a posthumous retrial. Subsequently, she became a folk saint among French Catholics and soldiers inspired by her story of being commanded by God to fight for France against England. Many French regimes encouraged her cult, and the Third Republic was sympathetic to the canonization petition prior to the 1905 separation of church and state.

1. ^ See Régine Pernoud's Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses, p. 98: "Boulainvilliers tells of her birth in Domrémy, and it is he who gives us an exact date, which may be the true one, saying that she was born on the night of Epiphany, 6 January".
2. ^ "Chemainus Theatre Festival > The 2008 Season > Saint Joan > Joan of Arc Historical Timeline". Chemainustheatrefestival.ca. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
3. ^ "Church of England Holy Days".
4. ^ Pope Benedict XV, Divina Disponente (Latin), 16 May 1920, https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/la/bulls/documents/hf_ben-xv_bulls_19200516_divina-disponente.html.

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17 May 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.

Antikythera mechanism

Ancient analogue astronomical computer

The Antikythera mechanism (/ˌæntɪˈkɪθɪərə/ AN-tih-KIH-ther-ə) is an Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery (model of the Solar System), described as the oldest known example of an analogue computer^[1][2][3] used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance.^[4][5][6] It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games similar to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.^[7][8][9]

This artefact was among wreckage retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901.^[10][11] In 1902, it was identified by archaeologist Valerios Stais^[12] as containing a gear. The device, housed in the remains of a wooden-framed case of (uncertain) overall size 34 cm × 18 cm × 9 cm (13.4 in × 7.1 in × 3.5 in),^[13][14] was found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation efforts. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others.^[13][14] The largest gear is about 13 cm (5 in) in diameter and originally had 223 teeth.^[15] All these fragments of the mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, along with reconstructions and replicas,^[16][17] to demonstrate how it may have looked and worked.^[18]

In 2005, a team from Cardiff University used computer x-ray tomography and high resolution scanning to image inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing. This suggests it had 37 meshing bronze gears enabling it to follow the movements of the Moon and the Sun through the zodiac, to predict eclipses and to model the irregular orbit of the Moon, where the Moon's velocity is higher in its perigee than in its apogee. This motion was studied in the 2nd century BC by astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes, and he may have been consulted in the machine's construction.^[19] There is speculation that a portion of the mechanism is missing and it calculated the positions of the five classical planets. The inscriptions were further deciphered in 2016, revealing numbers connected with the synodic cycles of Venus and Saturn.^[20][21]

The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by Hellenistic scientists and been variously dated to about 87 BC,^[22] between 150 and 100 BC,^[4] or 205 BC.^[23][24] It must have been constructed before the shipwreck, which has been dated by multiple lines of evidence to approximately 70–60 BC.^[25][26] In 2022 researchers proposed its initial calibration date, not construction date, could have been 23 December 178 BC. Other experts propose 204 BC as a more likely calibration date.^[27][28] Machines with similar complexity did not appear again until the astronomical clocks of Richard of Wallingford in the 14th century.^[29]

1. ^ Efstathiou, Kyriakos; Efstathiou, Marianna (1 September 2018). "Celestial Gearbox: Oldest Known Computer is a Mechanism Designed to Calculate the Location of the Sun, Moon, and Planets". Mechanical Engineering. 140 (9): 31–35. doi:10.1115/1.2018-SEP1. ISSN 0025-6501.
2. ^ Ken Steiglitz (2019). The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital. Princeton University Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-691-18417-3. Archived from the original on 9 September 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2021. The Antkythera Mechanism [The first computer worthy of the name...]
3. ^ Paphitis, Nicholas (30 November 2006). "Experts: Fragments an Ancient Computer". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Imagine tossing a top-notch laptop into the sea, leaving scientists from a foreign culture to scratch their heads over its corroded remains centuries later. A Roman shipmaster inadvertently did something just like it 2,000 years ago off southern Greece, experts said late Thursday.
4. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference freeth-06 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference freeth-12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference pinotsis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference freeth-08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ "The world's oldest computer is still revealing its secrets". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
9. ^ Iversen, Paul A. (2017). "The Calendar on the Antikythera Mechanism and the Corinthian Family of Calendars". Hesperia. 86 (1): 130 and note 4. doi:10.2972/hesperia.86.1.0129. S2CID 132411755.
10. ^ Jones, Alexander (2017). A Portable Cosmos: Revealing the Antikythera Mechanism, Scientific Wonder of the Ancient World. Oxford University Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0199739349.
11. ^ Cite error: The named reference price-74 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ Palazzo, Chiara (17 May 2017). "What is the Antikythera Mechanism? How was this ancient 'computer' discovered?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
13. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference bibliotec was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference vetenskapens was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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16. ^ Efstathiou, M.; Basiakoulis, A.; Efstathiou, K.; Anastasiou, M.; Boutbaras, P.; Seiradakis, J.H. (September 2013). "The Reconstruction of the Antikythera Mechanism" (PDF). International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era. 2 (3): 307–334. doi:10.1260/2047-4970.2.3.307. S2CID 111280754. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
17. ^ Efstathiou, K.; Basiakoulis, A.; Efstathiou, M.; Anastasiou, M.; Seiradakis, J.H. (June 2012). "Determination of the gears geometrical parameters necessary for the construction of an operational model of the Antikythera Mechanism". Mechanism and Machine Theory. 52: 219–231. doi:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2012.01.020.
18. ^ "The Antikythera Mechanism at the National Archaeological Museum". Antikythera Mechanism Research Project. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
19. ^ Cite error: The named reference sample-06 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. ^ Anastasiou; Bitsakis; Jones; Moussas; Tselikas; Zafeiropoulou (2016). "The Inscriptions of the Antikythera Mechanism". Almagest, International Journal for the History of Scientific Ideas (6. The Front Cover Inscription): 250–297. Archived from the original on 25 July 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Freeth2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
22. ^ Price 1974, pp. 19
23. ^ Carman, Christián C.; Evans, James (15 November 2014). "On the epoch of the Antikythera mechanism and its eclipse predictor". Archive for History of Exact Sciences. 68 (6): 693–774. doi:10.1007/s00407-014-0145-5. hdl:11336/98820. S2CID 120548493.
24. ^ Markoff, John (24 November 2014). "On the Trail of an Ancient Mystery – Solving the Riddles of an Early Astronomical Calculator". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 November 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
25. ^ Iversen 2017, pp. 182–83
26. ^ Jones 2017, pp. 93, 157–60, 233–46
27. ^ Ouellette, Jennifer (11 April 2022). "Researchers home in on possible "day zero" for Antikythera mechanism". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 12 April 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
28. ^ Voularis, Aristeidis; Mouratidis, Chruistophoros; Vossinakis, Andreas (28 March 2022). "The Initial Calibration Date of the Antikythera Mechanism after the Saros spiral mechanical Apokatastasis". arXiv:2203.15045 [physics.hist-ph].
29. ^ Cite error: The named reference marchant-06 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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18 May 1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.

Siege of Vicksburg

Battle of the American Civil War's Anaconda Plan

The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, leading to the successful siege and Confederate surrender.

Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River; therefore, capturing it completed the second part of the Northern strategy, the Anaconda Plan. When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications, on May 19 and 22, were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. After holding out for more than 40 days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison surrendered on July 4. The Vicksburg campaign's successful ending significantly degraded the Confederacy's ability to maintain its war effort. This action, combined with the surrender of the downriver Port Hudson to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks on July 9, yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, which held it for the rest of the conflict.

The Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863, is sometimes considered, combined with General Robert E. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg by Major General George Meade the previous day, the war's turning point. It cut off the Trans-Mississippi Department (containing the states of Arkansas, Texas and part of Louisiana) from the rest of the Confederate States, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two for the rest of the war. Lincoln called Vicksburg "the key to the war".^[4]

1. ^ See: Rawley, pp. 145–169.
2. ^ Kennedy, p. 172.
3. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference K173 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "History & Culture – Vicksburg National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved January 14, 2021.

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19 May 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour.

Legion of Honour

Highest French order of merit

"Legion of Honor" redirects here. For other uses, see Legion of Honor (disambiguation).

The National Order of the Legion of Honour (French: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur [ɔʁdʁ nɑsjɔnal də la leʒjɔ̃ dɔnœʁ]), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour (Ordre royal de la Légion d'honneur), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained (with occasional slight alterations) by all later French governments and regimes.

The order's motto is Honneur et Patrie ("Honour and Fatherland"); its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris.^[a] Since 1 February 2023, the Order's grand chancellor has been retired General François Lecointre, who succeeded fellow retired General Benoît Puga in office.

The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand officier (Grand Officer) and Grand-croix (Grand Cross).

1. ^ Le petit Larousse 2013, p.1567.

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