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May 15
Events - 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.
- 1514 - Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work.
- 1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War.
- 1567 - Mary Queen of Scots weds James Hepburn, 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).
- 1701 - The War of the Spanish Succession begins.
- 1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.
- 1756 - The Seven Years' War begins when England declares war on France.
- 1776 - American Revolution: Virginia convention instructs its delegates to propose a declaration of independence from Great Britain.
- 1791 - Maximilien Robespierre proposed 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 flights.
- 1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.
- 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) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1829 - John the Baptist confers the Aaronic Priesthood onto Joseph Smith Jr. and Oliver Cowdery. <NOT ACCURATE IN ANY WAY>
- 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.
- 1851 - Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
- 1858 - The third Royal Opera House officially opens in London.
- 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA).
- 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.
- 1897 - The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in Greco-Turkish War
- 1902 - In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider).
- 1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
- 1910 - The last time a major earthquake happened on the Elsinore Fault Zone.
- 1911 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
- 1911 - The Georgios Averof cruiser is bought by Greece.
- 1914 - Bolivia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1918 - Finnish Civil War ends.
- 1918 - The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
- 1919 - The Winnipeg General Strike began. By 11:00, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.
- 1919 - Greek invasion of İzmir. During the invasion killed or wounded 350 Turks by the Greek army. The responsible were punished by the Greek Commander Aristides Stergiades. Hasan Tahsin fired the first gun of the Turkish War of Independence.
- 1920 - Council of Lithuania adjourned as newly elected Constituent Assembly of Lithuania met for the first time in Kaunas
- 1928 - Release of the animated short "Plane Crazy", featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
- 1929 - A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.
- 1930 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago.
- 1932 - The May 15 Incident. In an attempted coup the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
- 1934 - The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.
- 1934 - Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
- 1940 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States.
- 1940 - World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Nazi Germany, marking the beginning of 5 years of occupation.
- 1940 - McDonald's is founded.
- 1941 - Baseball player Joe DiMaggio starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak.
- 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 - Last skirmish of the Second World War in Europe fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
- 1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.
- 1951 - The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.
- 1951 - The cartoon Rabbit Fire is released
- 1955 - Austrian Independence Treaty signed.
- 1955 - First ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.
- 1957 - Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.
- 1958 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
- 1960 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
- 1963 - Project Mercury: launch of Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper onboard. He became the first American to spend more than a day in space. Final Mercury mission.
- 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 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 Wallace is campaigning to be American President.
- 1974 – Ma'alot massacre a total of 31 people, including hostage takers, are killed.
- 1978 - Lagumot Harris, having only been elected President less than a month before, is replaced as the leader of the republic of Nauru. He is succeeded by Hammer DeRoburt.
- 1987 - Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform, which failed to reach orbit.
- 1988 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- 1989 - The Golden Toad was last seen due to extinction.
- 1990 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time.
- 1991 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.
- 2004 - The largest known prime number at the time of its discovery, 224036583 − 1, is found by Josh Findley and the GIMPS collaborative effort.
- 2007 - David Bain is released on bail, following a Privy Council ruling that a retrial should be undertaken on the murder of his four family members.
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