German philosopher
English singer-songwriter, musician
Danish philosopher, author
English actor, screenwriter
American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company
Russian chess player
German politician, 2nd Chancellor of West Germany
Australian/Canadian singer-songwriter, journalist
Corsican/French military officer, political leader
Italian cyclist
Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, ascended to the throne of the Mongol Empire in 1260. He was the founder of the Yuan dynasty in China and ruled over a vast territory, including China, Korea, and Mongolia. Under his rule, the empire became more centralized and developed a sophisticated bureaucracy.
Cy Young, a baseball pitcher for the Boston Americans, pitched the first perfect game in modern major league baseball on May 5, 1904. A perfect game is a game in which no opposing player reaches first base. Young’s team won the game 3-0 against the Philadelphia Athletics.
The Three Stooges were a comedy trio known for their slapstick humor. Their first film, “Woman Haters,” was released in 1934. They went on to make over 190 short films and became famous in the United States for their humor.
The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 and was the first organization to work for European integration. It has 47 member countries and is separate from the European Union. Its purpose is to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe.
West Germany, which had been established in 1949 after World War II, regained full sovereignty in 1955. This meant that the country had complete control over its own affairs and was no longer subject to the control of the Allied powers. The provisional capital of West Germany was Bonn until the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, when Berlin was declared the country’s capital.
The first large-scale United States Army ground units arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. This marked a significant escalation in the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War, which had begun several years earlier. The United States would eventually send hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in the war.
In 1980, a group of six gunmen held 26 people hostage for six days at the Iranian Embassy in London. They demanded the release of Iranian Arab prisoners. The siege ended when the British Special Air Service (SAS) and police stormed the building. Two of the hostages were killed during the siege.
Bobby Sands, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a British Member of Parliament, died on May 5, 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike in Maze Prison. Sands was protesting against the British government’s policy of treating IRA prisoners as criminals rather than political prisoners. His death led to further hunger strikes and protests, and nine more prisoners died in the following three months.