Quiz Monkey
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Quiz Monkey |
| On This Day |
| May |
| 13 May |
| Mary, daughter of Henry VII and widow of King Louis XII of France, officially marries Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, at Greenwich (having previously married in secret in France) |
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1515 |
| Mary Queen of Scots defeated by rebels at the Battle of Langside (Glasgow) |
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1568 |
| The first permanent English settlement in America is established at Jamestown, Virginia |
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1607 |
| Eleven ships full of convicts – Australia's 'first fleet' – leave Portsmouth under the command of Capt. Arthur Phillip |
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1787 |
| Republic of Ecuador founded as Gran Columbia breaks up |
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1830 |
| The Guardia Civil, a military peace–keeping force, is formed in Spain |
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1844 |
| USA declares war on Mexico |
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1846 |
| Queen Victoria issues a "proclamation of neutrality" in respect of the American Civil War, which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights. |
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1861 |
| John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales discovers the Great Comet of 1861 |
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1861 |
| A party of Australian Aboriginal cricketers arrives to tour England, playing 44 matches |
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1868 |
| Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway in Menlo Park, New Jersey |
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1880 |
| The Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery |
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1888 |
| The first Giro d'Italia starts from Milan |
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1909 |
| German economy collapses |
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1927 |
| The German army crosses the Meuse, beginning its conquest of France |
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1940 |
| Winston Churchill addresses the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" |
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1940 |
| Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety |
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1940 |
| Axis (Italian and German) forces in North Africa surrender |
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1943 |
| The first round of the Formula One World Championship begins at Silverstone |
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1950 |
| The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, sits for the first time |
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1952 |
| The Pajama Game opens on Broadway |
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1954 |
| A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria |
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1958 |
| Australian adventurer Ben Carlin becomes the first person (and still the only one) to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled 39,000 miles by land and 11,000 miles by sea |
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1958 |
| French workers join students protesting in Paris, calling for the fall of the government and against police brutality, with a one–day general strike |
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1968 |
| Over 900 unarmed Bengali Hindus are murdered by the occupying army of Pakistan, in the Demra massacre |
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1971 |
| A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two–day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army, in which seven people are killed and over 66 injured |
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1972 |
| England cricket captain Tony Greig is fired, for recruiting players to Australian media mogul Kerry Packer's rival World XI team in what is seen as a "breach of trust". |
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1977 |
| Pope John Paul II survives an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square, Rome, by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agkar, following emergency surgery |
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1981 |
| A group of students begin a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, Beijing |
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1989 |
| British war hero, ex–pilot Jackie Mann, is kidnapped in Beirut |
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1989 |
| 26 killed by a car bomb in Bogota |
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1990 |
| Falun Gong spiritual sect, later followed by millions and banned because authorities claimed it was trying to overthrow Communist rule, founded in China |
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1992 |
| British mother of two Alison Hargreaves becomes the second person, and the first woman, to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen and without the help of Sherpas |
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1995 |
| Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped |
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1998 |
| Co–ordinated suicide bombings in Riyadh kill 29 foreigners and injure 194 |
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2003 |
| Adam Ingram, Armed Forces Minister, announces that photographs published in the Daily Mirror and allegedly showing a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi prisoner were "categorically not taken in Iraq" |
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2004 |
| At least 187 people (the official figure) and perhaps as many as 1,500 are killed when troops open fire on a demonstration in Andijan, Uzbekistan, against the arrest of 23 businessmen in June 2004 |
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2005 |
| The mutilated remains of 49 people, murdered as part of a drugs war, are discovered beside a highway in Mexico |
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2012 |
© Haydn Thompson 2019