1453– Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (İstanbul), which falls May 29. 1513– Explorer Juan Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain as the first known European to reach Florida. 1792– The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint and authorizing the $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime. 1801 – Napoleonic Wars: The British led by Horatio Nelson destroy the Danish fleet in the naval Battle of Copenhagen. 1917– US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany. 1930– Ras Tafari Makonnen becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). 1979 – The world’s first anthrax epidemic begins in Ekaterinburg, Russia (now Sverdlosk) and ended six weeks later with 62 people dead. 1982 – Several thousand Argentine troops seize the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands from Great Britain.
Births & Deaths: 2005 – The bishop of Rome and the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978, Pope John Paul II, who was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first from a Slavic country, died in Vatican City this day in 2005. 2015 – Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, who was known for richly meditative and often self-reflexive films that were frequently inspired by literary and theatrical works, died at age 106.
Film: 1968 – “2001 A Space Odyssey” directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, premieres at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.
