On this day

1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1824 - The National Gallery in London opened to the public.

1869 - A golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States.

1916 - Explorer Ernest Shackleton and companions reached the Falkland island of South Georgia after sailing 800 miles in 16 days in an open boat. They were looking for help for the remaining members of their party marooned on Elephant island, Antarctica.

1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.

1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1941 - World War II - The worst night of the Blitz in Britain. 550 German bombers dropped 100,000 bombs on London. More than 1500 people were killed and many thousands more were injured.

1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.

1981 – Francois Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic.

1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

1310 – In France, fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake as heretics.

1812 - British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the House of Commons, apparently mistaken by his killer, bankrupt broker John Bellingham, for someone else. He is the only Prime Minister in Britain to have been assassinated.

1924 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.

1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945.

1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.

1987 – In Baltimore, Maryland, the first heart-lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

1988 - Athlete Zola Budd flew back to her home in South Africa following the diplomatic row over her eligibility to compete for Britain.

1989 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical 'Cats' , based on T.S.Eliot's Old Possum poems, became the West End's longest-running musical, completing eight years.

1995 – In New York City more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.

1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

(11-05-2012 13:18 )skully Wrote:  ~~~SNIP~~~

1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJarxpYyoFI

1937 – George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

1942 – Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.

1969 - The minimum voting age in Britain was lowered from 21 to 18.

1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an "agent of Moscow".

1997 - Guinness and Grand Metropolitan, two of Britain's leading drinks companies, agreed to a £23 billion mega-merger that would create the world's largest spirits group, GMG Brands.

2001 - For the first time ever the FA Cup Final was held outside England when it took place at the new Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.

1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially married at Greenwich.

1648 – Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.

1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.

1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.

1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.

1995 – 33-year-old British mother Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

2000 – In Enschede, Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage.

2005 – The Binh Bridge opens to traffic in Hai Phong, Vietnam.

1080 - William Walcher, the Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumberland, was murdered. As revenge, William the Conqueror ravaged the area and took the opportunity to invade Scotland and build the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

1643 – Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

1796 - Edward Jenner became the first British physician to carry out a successful vaccination; on an eight year old boy against smallpox.

1889 - The children's charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, was launched in London. Liverpool businessman Thomas Agnew had visited the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and was so impressed that he returned to England determined to provide similar help.

1939 – Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.

1940 – World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands ends with the Netherlands surrendering to Germany.

1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

1965 - The field at Runnymede, the site of the signing of the Magna Carta, was dedicated by the Queen as a memorial to the late John F Kennedy, US President.

1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

Today would have been the 86th birthday of Eric Morecambe. As part of Morecambe & Wise they became the most successful comedy pairing Britain ever produced. Their Xmas shows in the 1970s were legendary, with the 1977 show getting an official audience figure of over 28.3 million. Angela Rippon, Princess Anne, Cliff Richard, Laurence Olivier, John Mills, the Dad's Army cast, Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Elton John, The Beatles and even former Prime Minister Harold Wilson were among the guest stars who appeared on their shows.....and of course Andre Previn.

Absolute masters of delivery, Morecambe and Wise knew exactly when to pause and when to rush on – when to interrupt and when to let the line breathe. It takes years of experience to develop that instinctive ability and make it look effortless. So it was not surprising that Eric Morecambe was incredibly concerned when Andre Previn couldn’t make rehersals for his guest spot on the 1971 Christmas Show. The world famous conductor of the LSO had been invited onto the show as a celebrity guest and to perform a sketch. Yet just before two weeks of rehearsals were to begin, Previn’s mother fell ill and he had to fly to New York. Previn didnt return until the day of the recording and learned his lines on the flight.

He needn't have worried, because the sketch went down as one of the all-time greats. After questioning Eric's abilities as a pianist Previn is finally persuaded by the duo to take part and he says "alright, I'll just go and get my baton......" he leaves the most perfectly timed pause as he starts to turn away and then says "....it's in Chicago".

If you watch you'll see Eric punch the air at that moment and say "Pow!! He's in!!" He said in an interview later that he knew that they were on to something special....even if he did play all the right notes......"but not necessarily in the right order"

I don't care how many times this gets shown, it's sheer genius....happy birthday, Eric

1536 - The trial of Anne Boleyn. She was accused of incest, sleeping with 4 men and an assassination plot against her husband, King Henry VIII. She was found guilty by a specially-selected jury and executed four days later.

1567 - Mary Queen of Scots married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, just three months after the assassination of her husband, Lord Darnley.

1718 - The first machine gun was patented by London lawyer James Puckle. He began to manufacture it in London in 1721.

1800 – George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity.

1905 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

1928 – Mickey Mouse premiered in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy

1936 - Aviator Amy Johnson arrived in England after a record-breaking 12 day, 15 hour flight from London to Cape Town and back.

1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. The device fails to detonate properly.

1972 – The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.

1991 – Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.

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

1568 - Mary Queen of Scots fled to England. Disguised as an ordinary woman, she crossed the River Solway and landed at Workington, Cumbria, spending her first night at Workington Hall.

1770 - Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

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

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

1943 - The famous ‘Dam Busters’ raid by the 617 Squadron of Lancaster bombers led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson breached the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany using the ‘bouncing’ bombs developed by Dr Barnes Wallis.

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

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

1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

2001 - Labour's Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, punched a man who threw an egg at him during his visit to, Rhyl, North Wales.

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

1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street.

1899 - Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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

1970 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

1978 - The coffin containing the body of Charlie Chaplin, missing since his grave was pillaged nearly two months previously, was found.

1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

1992 – Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, many disappearances, hundreds of injuries, and over 3,500 arrests.

2007 – Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.