May 10th.

1497 – Amerigo Vespucci leaves Cádiz, Spain for his first voyage to the New World.

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 from bankruptcy, by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the sole right to sell tea directly to North America. 7 months later, a group of colonists in Boston put on a Tea Party in the harbor in objection.

1775 – While the Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia,  Ethan Allen, his Green Mountain Boys, and other militia forces under the command of Benedict Arnold (yes, that Benedict Arnold) take Fort Ticonderoga, New York away from the British in early morning action.

1801 – After President Jefferson refuses to pay the tribute demanded by them, the Barbary pirates of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania declare war on the U.S.

1837 – New York City banks suspend the payment of specie (precious metal coin money), triggering a national banking crisis and an economic depression not surpassed until the Great Depression of the 1930s.

1849 –  A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing 22 people and injuring over 120 more.

1865 – In Spencer County, Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate partisan raider Captain William Quantrill, age 27, who lingers until dying on June 6, in Louisville.

1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah.

1876 – The Centennial Exposition is opened in Philadelphia.

1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the U.S., in Grafton, West Virginia.

1920 – John Dean “Jeff” Cooper is born in Los Angeles, California

1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the Bureau of Investigation, remaining in office until his death in 1972.

1933 – In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

1940 – On the day that Germany invades France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after  Neville Chamberlain resigns.

1946 – Using the technical assistance of captured German scientists, the U.S. Army makes its first successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.

1967 – Piloted by Bruce Peterson, the Northrop M2-F2 Lifting Body aircraft crashes on landing, becoming the inspiration for the Martin Caidin novel Cyborg and TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man.

1969 –The Battle of Dong Ap Bia during the Vietnam War begins with an assault on Hill 937 by troops of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill, becoming the inspiration for the movie of the same name.

1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder.

2002 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to 15 consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Russia over a period of 22 years.

2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 60 feet from President Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.

2013 – One World Trade Center, the replacement for the destroyed World Trade Center complex in New York, is completed with its spire installed, to become the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.