May 15

1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Inquisition.

1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest and is condemned to death by a specially selected jury.

1602 – Aboard Concord, English Captain Bartholomew Gosnold sites land that he names Cape Cod for the abundant fish seen there.

1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases as the radius of its orbit increases), first discovered on March 8.

1817 – The first private mental health hospital in the U.S., the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, now Friends Hospital, opens in Philadelphia.

1864 – At New Market, Virginia, students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel and his troops out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1896 – A massive tornado strikes Sherman, Texas, destroying 50 homes and killing 73 people.

1905 – The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada.

1911 – In the case of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an “unreasonable” monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up

1929 – A fire in the nitrocellulose based X-ray film stock stored in the basement at the Crile Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 125 people.

1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald’s restaurant.

1941 – New York Yankees Center Fielder Joe DiMaggio begins a never yet broken, Major League record, of a streak of making at least one base hit in 56 games straight.

1942 – The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) act is signed into law.

1948 – President Harry Truman becomes the first world leader to recognize the State of  Israel.

1957 – Evangelist Billy Graham launches his “crusade” in front of 18,000 people at Madison Square Garden in NYC

1963 – Project Mercury ends with the launch of Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board the capsule Faith 7. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.

1968 – A tornado strikes Jonesboro Arkansas, killing 33 people.

1970 – President Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington as the first female United States Army Brigadier General Officers.

1972 – Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since 1945, revert to Japanese control.

1974 – Terrorists of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at the Netiv Meir Elementary School in Ma’alot Israel, killing 31 people including 22 schoolchildren and wounding 68 more.

1988 – The Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan after occupying the country for 9 years.

1997 – Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

2001 – CSX Transportation EMD SD40-2 locomotive #8888 rolls out of Stanley train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars attached, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south, driverless for 66 miles until it was brought to a halt near Kenton, Ohio. The incident becoming the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.

2010 – Australian Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

2019 – The U.S. birthrate statistics for 2018 are released, showing the lowest rate in 32 years.