Fast Facts for May:

100 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar was born

64 AD - The Great Fire of Rome began.

118 AD - Hadrian, Rome 's new emperor, made his entry into the city.

326 AD – Constantine the Emperor refused to carry out the traditional Roman pagan sacrifices, after converting to Christianity.

455 AD - Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul , became Emperor of the West.

1099 - Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.

1376 - The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin leading rats out of town is said to have occurred.

1453 - France defeated England at Castillon , France , which ended the 100 Years' War.

1498 - Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere , arrived at the island of Trinidad .

1533 - Henry VIII, who divorced his wife and became head of the Church of England, was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Clement VII.

1588 - The English defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines.

1619 - The first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown , VA . (House of Burgesses)

1630 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony celebrated Thanksgiving Day. The day is recognized as the first Thanksgiving.

1663 - The British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, which required all goods bound for the colonies to be sent in British ships from British ports.

1715 - The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts.

1729 - The city of Baltimore was founded in Maryland .

1750 - Johann Sebastian Bach died after an unsuccessful eye operation.

1773 - The first schoolhouse to be located west of the Allegheny Mountains was built in Schoenbrunn , OH .

1775 - A postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States . The first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin.

1776 - The amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, was approved and signed by John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress in America .

1778 - In support of the American Revolution, Louis XVI of France declared war on England .

1786 - Morocco agreed to stop attacking American ships in the Mediterranean for a payment of $10,000.

1786 - Morocco agreed to stop attacking American ships in the Mediterranean for a payment of $10,000.

1786 - "The Pittsburgh Gazette" became the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies to be published. The paper's name was later changed to "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette".

1787 - The U.S. Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which established the rules for governing the Northwest Territory , for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.

1790 - The first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for his process for making potash and pearl ashes. The substance was used in fertilizer.

1792 - The cornerstone of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia , PA , was laid. It was the first building to be used only as a U.S. government building.

1798 - The U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by "An Act for Establishing a Marine Corps" passed by the U.S. Congress. The act also created the U.S. Marine Band. The Marines were first commissioned by the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775 .

1798 - The U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by "An Act for Establishing a Marine Corps" passed by the U.S. Congress. The act also created the U.S. Marine Band. The Marines were first commissioned by the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775 .

1799 - The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with hieroglyphic translations into Greek, was found in Egypt .

1802 - The U.S. Military Academy officially opened at West Point , NY .

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase was announced in newspapers. The property was purchased, by the U.S. from France , was for $15 million (or 3 cents an acre). The "Corps of Discovery," led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, began the exploration of the territory in May, 1804.

1804 - The United States' first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, was killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in a duel.

1805 - Aaron Burr visited New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans as the capital city.

1817 - Construction began on the Erie Canal , to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River .

1827 - The first swimming school in the U.S. opened in Boston , MA .

1829 - William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.

1835 - John Ruggles received patent #1 from the U.S. Patent Office for a traction wheel used in locomotive steam engines. All 9,957 previous patents were not numbered.

1845 - American writer Henry David Thoreau began his two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond , near Concord , MA .

1855 - The first edition of "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman, was published in Brooklyn , NY .

1847 - The U.S. Post Office issued its first adhesive stamps.

1850 - U.S. President Zachary Taylor died in office at the age of 55. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Taylor had only served 16 months.

1861 - The first major battle of the U.S. Civil War began. It was the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas Junction, VA . The Confederates won the battle.

1863 - The U.S. Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, PA, ended after three days. It was a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated.

1863 - Opponents of the Civil War draft began three days of rioting in New York City , which resulted in more than 1,000 casualties.

1865 - C.E. Barnes patented the machine gun.

1866 - Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the U.S. Civil War.

1866 - Cyrus Field successfully completed the Atlantic Cable. It was an underwater telegraph from North America to Europe .

1867 - Canada became an independent dominion.

1872 - The doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel.

1873 - Jesse James and his gang pulled off the first train robbery in the U.S. They took $3,000 from the Rock Island Express at Adair , IA .

1874 - The Philadelphia Zoological Society zoo opened as the first zoo in the United States .

1877 - Alexander Graham Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders and Thomas Watson formed the Bell Telephone Company.

1877 - The first municipal railroad passenger service began in Cincinnati , Ohio .

1878 - John Wise flew the first dirigible in Lancaster , PA .

1878 - The corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe.

1879 - The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco , CA .

1880 - "Science" began publication. Thomas Edison had provided the principal funding.

1881 - Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounded U.S. President James A. Garfield in Washington , DC .

1881 - Edward Berner, druggist in Two Rivers , WI , poured chocolate syrup on ice cream in a dish. To this time, chocolate syrup had only been used for making ice-cream sodas.

1881 - Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny execute a patent application for a facsimile telegraph (U.S. Pat. 479,184).

1886 - Steve Brodie, a New York saloonkeeper, claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River .

1889 - Vladimir Zworykin, called the "Father of Television" was born in Russia . He invented the iconoscope.

1890 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1893 - Commercial production of the Addressograph started in Chicago , IL .

1898 - During the Spanish American War, a fleet of Spanish ships in Cuba 's Santiago Harbor attempted to run a blockade of U.S. naval forces. Nearly all of the Spanish ships were destroyed in the battle that followed.

1898 - "Scientific America " carried the first magazine automobile ad. The ad was for the Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland , OH .

1900 - ‘His Master's Voice', was registered with the U.S. Patent Office. The logo of the Victor Recording Company, and later, RCA Victor, shows the dog, Nipper, looking into the horn of a gramophone machine.

1901 - The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, committed its last American robbery near Wagner , MT . They took $65,000 from a Great Northern train.

1903 - The first cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu , Midway, Guam and Manila .

1904 - The ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis , MO.

1907 - The Chester was launched. It was the first turbine-propelled ship.

1908 - U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order that created an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.

1909 - Orville Wright set a record for the longest airplane flight. He was testing the first Army airplane and kept it in the air for 1 hour 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

1910 - W.R. Brookins became the first to fly an airplane a mile in the air.

1912 - Rube Marquand of the New York Giants set a baseball pitching record when earned his 19th consecutive win.

1912 - Bradley A. Fiske patented the airplane torpedo.

1913 - The highest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was 134 degrees in Death Valley , CA .

1914 - Babe Ruth debuted in the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox.

1914 - Robert H. Goddard patented liquid rocket-fuel.

1914 - Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I.

1914 - The first transcontinental telephone service was inaugurated when two people held a conversation between New York, NY and San Francisco, CA.

1918 - 101 people were killed when an inbound local train collided with an outbound express in Nashville , TN .

1918 - Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg , Russia .

1922 - " Fruit Garden and Home" magazine was introduced. It was later renamed "Better Homes and Gardens."

1922 - Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim the 100 meters freestyle in less than a minute.

1924 - Clarence Birdseye founded the General Seafood Corp.

1925 - The "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton , TN . John T. Scopes was convicted of violating the state law for teaching Darwin 's theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned.

1926 - The U.S. Congress established the Army Air Corps.

1926 - The first underwater color photographs appeared in "National Geographic" magazine. The pictures had been taken near the Florida Keys .

1926 - Babe Ruth caught a baseball at Mitchell Field in New York . The ball was dropped from an airplane flying at 250 feet.

1928 - George Eastman first demonstrated color motion pictures.

1928 - MGM's Leo the lion roared for the first time. He introduced MGM's first talking picture, "White Shadows on the South Seas ."

1929 - The U.S. government began issuing paper money in a smaller size.

1932 - Enzo Ferrari retired from racing. In 1950 he launched a series of cars under his name.

1933 - A minimum wage of 40 cents an hour was established in the U.S.

1933 - All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

1933 - The first singing telegram was sent. It was given to Rudy Vallee on his 32nd birthday.

1935 - Norman Bright ran the two mile event in the record time of 9 minutes, 13.2 seconds at a meet in New York City .

1935 - Oklahoma City became the first city in the U.S. to make use of parking meters.

1937 - American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.

1938 - Howard Hughes completed a 91-hour flight around the world.

1939 - Judy Garland recorded "Over the Rainbow." (In July, 2004, the recording was voted first in the American Film Institute's list of 100 best movie songs. In 2001, it tied for first, with Bing Crosby's “White Christmas” as the best 365 "Songs of the Century" as selected by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America.)

1940 - In Washington , the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened to traffic. The bridge collapsed during a windstorm 5 months later, in November, 1940.

1940 - Adolf Hitler ordered preparations to begin for the invasion of England , known as Operation Sea Lion.

1940 - Bugs Bunny made his official debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "A Wild Hare."

1940 - John Sigmund of St. Louis , MO completed a 292-mile swim down the Mississippi River . The swim from St. Louis to Caruthersville , MO took him 89 hours and 48 minutes.

1941 - Bulova Watch company sponsored the first TV commercial in New York City , NY .

1941 - The longest hitting streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians pitchers held New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio hitless for the first time in 57 games.

1942 - L.A. Thatcher received a patent for a coin-operated mailbox. The device stamped envelopes when money was inserted.

1942 - The WAVES were created by legislation signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The members of the Women's Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service were a part of the U.S. Navy.

1945 - The United States detonated the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo , NM .

1945 - The first passenger train observation car was placed in service by the Chicago , Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

1945 - A U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York City 's Empire State Building . 14 people were killed and 26 were injured.

1945 - The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian . Only 316 out of 1,196 men aboard survived the attack.

1947 - An object crashed near Roswell , NM . The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1947 - U.S. President Truman signed The National Security Act. The act created The National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1948 - Soviet occupation forces in Germany blockaded West Berlin . The U.S.-British airlift began.

1948 - Babe Ruth was seen by the public for the last time, when he attended the New York City premiere of the motion picture, "The Babe Ruth Story".

1948 - U.S. President Truman signed executive orders that prohibited discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.

1948 - U.S. President Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport ) at Idlewild Field.

1949 - The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

1950 - American ground troops arrived in South Korea to stem the tide of the advancing North Korean army.

1950 - The largest crowd in sporting history was 199,854. They watched the Uruguay defeat Brazil in the World Cup soccer finals in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil .

1951 - Bob Feller set a major league baseball record as he pitched his third no-hitter for the Cleveland Indians.

1953 - Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba . Castro eventually ousted Batista six years later.

1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim , CA .

1955 - Marilyn Bell of Toronto , Canada , at age 17, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel .

1956 - The phrase "In God We Trust" was adopted as the U.S. national motto.

1957 - Marine Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

1958 - The army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.

1958 - The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , under orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine." The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the North Pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958 .

1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by the Congress.

1959 - The 49-star U.S. flag was debuted.

1960 - The 50-star U.S. flag made its debut in Philadelphia , PA .

1960 - The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale.

1961 - British troops landed in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.

1961 - The first community air-raid shelter was built. The shelter in Boise , ID had a capacity of 1,000 people and family memberships sold for $100.

1961 - The first tie in All-Star Game major league baseball history was recorded when it was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain at Boston 's Fenway Park .

1962 - The Telstar Communications satellite was launched. The satellite relayed TV and telephone signals between Europe and the U.S. The first transatlantic TV transmissions were sent through the Telstar I satellite.

1962 - Fred Baldasare swam the English Channel underwater. It was a 42 miles and took 18 hours.

1963 - The U.S. postmaster introduced the five-digit ZIP (Zone Instant Post) code.

1964 - U.S. President Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race.

1965 - The American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, and sent back photographs of the planet.

1965 - The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act was signed into law. The law required health warnings on all cigarette packages.

1965 - U.S. President Johnson signed into law a Social Security Act that established Medicare and Medicaid. It went into effect the following year.

1966 - The Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.

1966 - U.S. President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the following year.

1967 - Eddie Mathews of the Houston Astros hit his 500th career home run.

1967 - In Detroit , MI , rioting claimed 43 lives.

1968 - The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed by 60 countries. It limited the spreading of nuclear material for military purposes. On May 11, 1995 , the treaty was extended indefinitely.

1968 - Hank Aaron, while with the Atlanta Braves, hit his 500th career home run.

1969 - Britain 's Prince Charles was invested as the Prince of Wales.

1969 - The U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the game "Twister."

1969 - The National League was divided up into two baseball divisions.

1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.

1969 - A Moscow police chief reported that thousands of Moscow telephone booths had been made inoperable by thieves who had stolen phone parts in order to convert their acoustic guitars to electric.

1971 - Men rode in a vehicle on the moon for the first time in a lunar rover vehicle (LRV).

1972 - The U.S. launched Landsat 1 (ERTS-1). It was the first Earth-resources satellite.

1973 - Britain granted the Bahamas their independence after three centuries of British colonial rule.

1974 - The U.S. Congress asked for impeachment procedures against President Richard Nixon.

1976 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam were reunited.

1976 - The United States celebrated its Bicentennial.

1978 - Billy Martin was fired for the first of three times as the manager of the New York Yankees baseball team.

1978 - Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham , England . She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

1979 - Sony introduced the Walkman.

1979 - The abandoned U.S. space station Skylab returned to Earth. It burned up in the atmosphere and showered debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia .

1979 - Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq after forcing Hasan al-Bakr to resign.

1980 - "O Canada" was proclaimed the national anthem of Canada .

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that provided for 2 acres of land near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1981 - England 's Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married.

1984 - Dwight ‘Doc' Gooden, of the New York Mets, became the youngest player to appear in an All-Star Game as a pitcher. He was 19 years, 7 months, and 24 days old.

1984 - Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate. Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

1984 - Hank Aaron broke Ty Cobb's record, as he appeared in the 3,034th game of his career.

1984 - Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb's record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit.

1985 - Coca-Cola resumed selling the old formula of Coke, it was renamed "Coca-Cola Classic." It was also announced that they would continue to sell "New" Coke.

1985 - Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros became the first major league pitcher to earn 4,000 strikeouts in a career.

1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship had sank in 1622 40 miles of the coast of Key West , FL.

1985 - Walt Disney released their 25th full-length cartoon. The work was "The Black Cauldron."

1987 - Bo Jackson signed a contract to play football for the L.A. Raiders for 5 years. He was continued to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals.

1987 - Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji . Hulda became the oldest person to climb Japan 's highest peak.

1989 - Mel Blanc, the "man of a thousand voices," died at age 81. He was known for such cartoon characters as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev won re-election as the leader of the Soviet Communist Party.

1991 - Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic.

1991 - Dennis Martinez (Montreal Expos) pitched the 13th perfect game in major league baseball history.

1994 - Kenny Rogers (Texas Rangers) pitched the 14th perfect game in major league baseball history.

1994 - Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.

1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington , DC , by U.S. President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.

1997 - The Mars Pathfinder , an unmanned spacecraft, landed on Mars. A rover named Sojourner was deployed to gather data about the surface of the planet.

1997 - NATO invited Poland , Hungary , and the Czech Republic to join the alliance in 1999.

1997 - Scientists in London said DNA from a Neanderthal skeleton supported a theory that all humanity descended from an "African Eve" 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

1997 - The U.S.S. Constitution, which defended the United States during the War of 1812, set sail under its own power for the first time in 116 years.

1998 - U.S. Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, a casualty of the Vietnam War, was laid to rest near his Missouri home. He had been positively identified from his remains that had been enshrined in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington , VA.

1998 - An entire village was swept away in Papua New Guinea by a 23-foot wave that was triggered by an undersea earthquake. Eight days later the government reported that 1,500 people were dead, 2,000 were missing and thousands were homeless.

1998 - U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 "carbon-copy" mice, with a cloning technique.

1999 - The U.S. space shuttle Discovery completed a five-day mission commanded by Air Force Col. Eileen Collins. It was the first shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman.

2001 - A train derailed, involving 60 cars, in a Baltimore train tunnel. The fire that resulted lasted for six days and virtually closed down downtown Baltimore for several days.

2003 - In India , elephants used for commercial work began wearing reflectors to avoid being hit by cars during night work.

2003 - It was reported by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) that there was no monster in Loch Ness. The investigation used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch. Reports of sightings of the "Loch Ness Monster" began in the 6th century.

2003 - In Mexico , the last 'old style' Volkswagon Beetle rolled off an assembly line.

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