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…
First 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…
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…
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 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…
Collapse of Ronan Point, 1968
At around 5:45 in the morning of Thursday 16th May 1968, in flat 90 of the newly completed Ronan Point high-rise housing block in Newham, East London, a 56 year…
The Catonsville Nine, 1968
In May 1968, while students clashed with police outside, representatives of the United States and North Vietnam began peace talks in Paris to try bring about an end to the…
Work finished on Mount Rushmore sculpture, 1941
During the early 1920s, the state historian of South Dakota, Doane Robinson, promoted his idea of commissioning giant sculptures of key figures in the history of the West, such as…
First aerial bombing, 1911
On 29th September 1911, the Italian government declared war on the Ottoman Empire having failed to achieve their demand for control of those Ottoman territories that make up modern day…
BBC Television Service started broadcasting, 1936
The first television broadcast in Britain was made on 30th September 1929 using an electromechanical system pioneered by the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird. His Baird Television Development Company Ltd…