FRIDAY May 11
330, Constantinople was dedicated as the new capital of the Roman Empire. It was named after theEmperor Constantine and built over the ancient city of Byzantium.
1502, Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his fourth, and last, voyage.
1858, Minnesota becomes the 32nd state to enter the union.
1904, Surreal painter and artist Salvadore Dali was born. He passed away in Spain, in the same town he was born, in 1989.
1910, In northwest Montana, Glacier National Park was established.
1916, Albert Einstein’s Theory Of General Relativity was presented.
1960, Israeli soldiers captured former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was brought back to Israel for trial on charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against Jews, and war crimes. He was found guilty and hanged on May 31st, 1962.
1963, Actress Natasha Richardson was born. She dies after a skiing incident in 2009.
1965, The Byrds make their TV debut, performing their version of Bob Dylan‘s “Mr. Tambourine Man” onHullabaloo.
1969, The Battle Of Hamburger Hill took place in Vietnam.
1974, “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long” by Chicago peaks at Number Nine on the pop chart, where it stays for three weeks.
1974, Buddha And The Chocolate Box by Cat Stevens peaks at Number Two on the album chart, where it stays for three weeks.
1974, Elvis Presley welcomes the members of Led Zeppelin backstage at the Los Angeles Forum after he performs. Presley and Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant sing an impromptu version of “Love Me.”
1981, Bob Marley dies at age 36.
1984, eight teenagers were killed when a fire broke out inside the Haunted Castle attraction at the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in New Jersey.
1985, Southern Accents by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers peaks at Number Seven on the album chart, where it stays for two weeks.
1989, Kenya announced that it would seek a worldwide ban on the trade of ivory — a move intended to preserve its fast-dwindling elephant herds.
1991, “She Talks To Angels” by the Black Crowes peaks at Number 30 on the pop chart.
1994, Arkansas put to death two convicted murderers. It was the first time a state executed two people on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976.
1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed in the Florida Everglades, killing all 109 people on board. The plane had reported smoke in the cockpit shortly after takeoff and was trying to turn back.
1997, IBM computer “Deep Blue” beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, winning a six-game match.
1998, India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years.
2003, Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding dies at age 57.
2005, Jimmy Page plays a bit of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love” to start the trading day at the New York Stock Exchange, to celebrate the initial public offering of the Warner Music Group. Page’s Les Paul and Marshall amps are so loud that no one on the floor of the exchange can hear the opening bell.
SATURDAY May 12
1831, The first indicted bank robber in the United States, Edward Smith, was sentenced to five years at hard labor at Sing Sing Prison In New York.
1888, Charles Sherrill of the Yale track team became the first runner to use the crouching start for a fast break in a foot race.
1932, the body of the kidnapped baby son of Charles & Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded area of Hopewell, New Jersey.
1937, Britain’s King George VI was crowned after his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1938, Sandoz Labs created the hallucinogenic drug LSD.
1943, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered to the Allies during World War II.
1949, the Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade.
1959, Elizabeth Taylor married for the fourth time, to singer Eddie Fisher.
1963 Bob Dylan declines an invitation to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show when he’s told he can’t play the song “Talking John Birch Society Blues.”
1971, Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena De Macia.
1973 “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray peaks at Number Five on the pop chart.
1992 Actor Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch) dies at age 59.
1997, former Boston Celtics NBA great Larry Bird was introduced as the Indiana Pacers’ new head coach. He stepped down after the 2000 season.
1997, Australian Susie Maroney became the first woman to swim all the way from Cuba to Florida, covering the 118-mile distance in 24-and-a-half hours.
2000, Adam Petty, the 19-year-old, fourth-generation driver of NASCAR’s most famous family, died in a crash during practice for the Busch 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway.
SUNDAY May 13
1917, The Virgin Mary first appeared as the Virgin Of The Rosary to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.
1940, during World War II, in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House Of Commons, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
1941 Ritchie Valens (“La Bamba”) is born. He dies in 1959, in the plane crash that also claims Buddy Holly and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.
1950, Diner’s Club issued its first credit cards.
1958, Vice President Richard Nixon‘s limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
1961 Actor Gary Cooper (Meet John Doe, The Pride Of The Yankees, High Noon) dies at age 60.
1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square in Rome by Turkish terroristMehmet Ali Agca. The 24-year-old Agca was arrested and convicted. The Pope later visited with his attacker in jail and forgave him.
1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped a bomb on the group’s headquarters. Eleven people died and 61 homes were destroyed as a result of the bomb and the fire it touched off.