1643 – Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Harbor form the United Colonies of New England
1649 – England is declared a Commonwealth by an act of the Rump Parliament making England a republic for the next 11 years
1885 -German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon and Togoland
1898 – US Congress passes the Private Mailing Card Act, allowing private publishers and printers to produce postcards, had to be labelled “Private Mailing Cards” until 1901, known as “souvenir cards”
1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Black Sea coast, beginning the Turkish War of Independence
1940 – Amsterdam time becomes MET (Middle European Time)
1960 – Belgian parliament requires rest day for self employed
1974 – Valeri Giscard d’Estaing wins French presidential election
1986 – Anti-apartheid activist Hélène Pastoors sentenced to 10 yrs in South Africa
2001 – Apple Inc. opened its first two retail stores, in McLean, Virginia, and Glendale, California.
2015 – Historic first handshake between Prince Charles and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams at the National University of Ireland in Galway
2018 – Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle; the ceremony, unlike any previous British royal wedding, mixed pomp and circumstance with African American culture, the latter a celebration of the bride’s biracial background.
2020 – Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 17% worldwide in April 2020 when world was in lockdown, in study published in “Nature Climate Change”
Births & Deaths:
1536 – Having been found guilty on charges of adultery, Anne Boleyn—the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I—was beheaded.
1925 – Malcolm X [Little], an African American human rights activist and Muslim minister, was born in Omaha, Nebraska.
1935 – British archaeological scholar, military strategist, and author T.E. Lawrence, whose life inspired the epic film Lawrence of Arabia (1962), died in Clouds Hill, Dorset, England.
Film:
1989 – “Do the Right Thing”, directed by Spike Lee, starring Danny Aiello and Ossie Davis premieres at the Cannes Film Festival
2007 – “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, directed by Gore Verbinksi, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom premieres in Anaheim – most expensive film ($300 million) made at the time
Music:
1958 – “South Pacific” soundtrack album goes #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks
Sport:
1991 – Willy T. Ribbs becomes 1st African American driver to make Indianapolis 500
