May
15
Independence
Day
Paraguay : May 15 1811
May
15 : International Day of Families
The
International Day of Families is observed
on the 15th of May every year. The Day was
proclaimed by the UN General Assembly resolution
in 1993 (A/RES/47/237) and reflects the
importance the international community attaches
to families. The International Day provides
an opportunity to promote awareness of issues
relating to families and increase the knowledge
of the social, economic and demographic
processes affecting families
In
its resolution, the General Assembly also
noted that the family-related provisions
of the outcomes of the major United Nations
conferences and summits of the 1990s and
their follow-up processes continue to provide
policy guidance on ways to strengthen family-centred
components of policies and programmes as
part of an integrated comprehensive approach
to development.
The
International Day of Families has inspired
a series of awareness-raising events, including
national family days. In many countries,
that day provides an opportunity to highlight
different areas of interest and importance
to families. Activities include workshops
and conferences, radio and television programmes,
newspaper articles and cultural programmes
highlighting relevant themes.
The
2010's commemoration of the International
Day of Families focuses on the impact of
migration on families around the world.
Events
392
– Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated
while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish
usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in
his residence at Vienne.
1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal
bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but
also limits, the torture of heretics in
the Medieval Inquisition.
1525 – The battle of Frankenhausen ends
the German Peasants' War.
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands
trial in London on charges of treason, adultery
and incest. She is condemned to death by
a specially-selected jury.
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries James
Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third
husband.
1602 – Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first
European to see Cape Cod.
1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously
rejected discovery of the third law of planetary
motion (he first discovered it on March
8 but soon rejected the idea after some
initial calculations were made).
1648 – The Treaty of Westphalia is signed.
1701 – The War of the Spanish Succession
begins.
1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents
the world's first machine gun.
1755 – Laredo, Texas is established by the
Spaniards.
1776 – American Revolution: the Virginia
Convention instructs its Continental Congress
delegation to propose a resolution of independence
from Great Britain, paving the way for the
United States Declaration of Independence.
1791 – Maximilien Robespierre proposes the
Self-denying ordinance.
1792 – War of the First Coalition: France
declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.
1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider
for "about 360 meters", at a height
of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted
manned flights.
1796 – First Coalition: Napoleon enters
Milan in triumph.
1800 – George III of the United Kingdom
survives an assassination attempt by James
Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason
of insanity.
1811 – Paraguay declares independence from
Spain.
1817 – Opening of the first private mental
health hospital in the United States, the
Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived
of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends
Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's
beads" during an annular eclipse.
1849 – Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo
and crush the republican government of Sicily
1850 – The Bloody Island Massacre takes
place in Lake County, California, in which
a large number of Pomo Indians in Lake County
are slaughtered by a regiment of the United
States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel Lyon.
1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera
House in Covent Garden, London.
1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a
bill into law creating the United States
Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed
the United States Department of Agriculture.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca,
Georgia ends.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New
Market, Virginia – students from the Virginia
Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate
Army to force Union General Franz Sigel
out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1869 – Woman's suffrage: in New York, Susan
B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form
the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights
and property rights in the encyclical Rerum
Novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic
social teaching.
1904 – The Russian minelayer Amur lays a
minefield about 15 miles off Port Arthur
and sank Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000
tons, with 496 crew and "Yashima".
1905 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when
110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would
become downtown, are auctioned off.
1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey
v. United States, the United States Supreme
Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable"
monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act
and orders the company to be broken up.
1919 – The Winnipeg General Strike begins.
By 11:00 am, almost the whole working population
of Winnipeg, Manitoba had walked off the
job.
1919 – Greek invasion of İzmir. During the
invasion, the Greek army kills or wounds
350 Turks. Those responsible are punished
by the Greek Commander Aristides Stergiades.
1928 – Mickey Mouse premieres in his first
cartoon, Plane Crazy
1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in
Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.
1932 – The May 15 Incident: in an attempted
Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan
Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
1934 – Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian
government in Latvia.
1935 – The Moscow Metro is opened to public.
1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It
was originally the USS Squalus.
1940 – World War II: After fierce fighting,
the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops
surrender to Germany, marking the beginning
of five years of occupation.
1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant
in San Bernardino, California.
1942 – World War II: in the United States,
a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary
Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern
(or Third International).
1945 – World War II: The final skirmish
in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
1948 – Following the demise of the British
Mandate of Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan,
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade
Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli
War.
1951 – The Polish cultural attache in Paris,
Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government
for political asylum.
1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific,
Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in
Operation Grapple. The device fails to detonate
properly.
1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik
3.
1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik
4.
1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the
final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with
astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board. He
becomes the first American to spend more
than a day in space.
1966 – After a policy dispute, Prime Minister
Nguyen Cao Ky of South Vietnam's ruling
junta launches a military attack on the
forces of General Ton That Dinh, forcing
him to abandon his command.
1969 – People's Park: California Governor
Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park
owned by University of California at Berkeley
fenced off from student anti-war protestors,
sparking a riot called Bloody Thursday.
1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints
Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington
the first female United States Army Generals.
1970 – Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James
Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University
by police during student protests.
1972 – The island of Okinawa, under U.S.
military governance since its conquest in
1945, reverts to Japanese control.
1972 – In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer
shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George
Wallace while he is campaigning to become
President.
1974 – Ma'alot massacre: In an Arab terrorist
attack and hostage taking at an Israeli
school, a total of 31 people are killed,
including 22 schoolchildren.
1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus
prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails
to reach orbit.
1988 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: After
more than eight years of fighting, the Red
Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first
female prime minister.
1997 – The United States government acknowledges
the existence of the "Secret War"
in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial
in honor of Hmong and other "Secret
War" veterans.
2008 – California becomes the second U.S.
state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize
same-sex marriage after the state's own
Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.
2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest
person to sail, non-stop and unassisted
around the world solo.
Holidays
and observances
Aoi
Matsuri (Kyoto)
Christian Feast Day:
Achillius of Larissa
Athanasius of Alexandria (Coptic Church)
Dymphna
Hallvard Vebjørnsson (Norway)
Hilary of Galeata
Isidore the Laborer, celebrated with festivals
in various countries, the beginning of bullfighting
season in Madrid.
Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (Roman Catholic
Church)
Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Denise (Roman Catholic
Church)
Reticius (Roman Catholic Church)
Sophia of Rome (Roman Catholic church)
May 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constituent Assembly Day (Lithuania)
Earliest date on which Armed Forces Day
can fall, while May 21 is the latest; celebrated
on the third Saturday of May. (United States)
Earliest date on which Bike-to-Work Day
can fall, while May 21 is the latest; celebrated
on the third Friday of May. (United States)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence
of Paraguay from Spain in 1811. Celebrations
for the anniversary of the independence
begin on Flag Day, May 14.
International Day of Families (International)
La Corsa dei Ceri begins on the eve of the
feast day of Saint Ubaldo. (Gubbio)
Mercuralia, in honour of Mercury. (Roman
Empire)
Nakba Day (Palestinian communities)
Peace Officers Memorial Day (United States)
Slovenian Army Day (Slovenia)
Teachers' Day (Mexico and South Korea)
For details, contact Datacentre
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