HMS Beagle launched, 1820
On 11th May 1820, at Woolwich dockyard in London, one of the most famous ships in history was launched. Costing £7,803, the ten-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop carried the name HMS Beagle…
Oldest university founded in Americas, 1551
On 12th May 1551 King Charles I of Spain (also Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) signed a Royal Decree at Valladolid establishing the first university in the Americas at Lima…
Sud-Aviation workers` strike and factory occupation, 1968
On 14th May 1968, young workers at the Sud-Aviation’s Bourguenais factory near Nantes decided to go on strike and lock the plant’s manager in his office along with other supervisors.…
First Formula One Championship race, 1950
Following the conclusion of hostilities in Europe in 1946, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) standardised the rules of automobile racing. The FIA tasked their Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) with…
First machine-gun patented, 1718
The son of a merchant of the same name, James Puckle was born sometime in or before 1667 in London. He inherited his father’s estate in 1690 to add to…
England declared a republic, 1649
From the beginning of his reign, King Charles I’s relations with the Parliament of England were strained. In 1625, he married a Catholic, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV of…
Frankfurt Parliament convened, 1848
1848 was a year of revolutions: the Sicilian Revolution of Independence from the Bourbon monarchy; elsewhere in Italy – the Roman and Venetian republics; the Hungarian Revolution against Hapsburg rule;…
Nuclear submarine sank, 1968
On 29th July 1960, the United States Navy commissioned their latest nuclear-powered submarine, the 3500-ton Skipjack class USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Scorpion (the sixth US Navy ship to carry that name)…