May 15.
1536. Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII and Queen of England, stands trial in London for treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death, which sentence is carried out four days later. The trial occurs only three years after Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon, a divorce that precipitated a break from Rome and the advent of Protestantism in England, so that Henry could marry Anne. In the three intervening years, however, Anne was unable to give Henry a male heir, and Henry had become enamored of another woman, Jane Seymour. Anne did have time, however, to bear him the future Queen Elizabeth I.
1701. The War of Spanish Succession, one of those three major wars that King Louis XIV of France was involved in that were mentioned yesterday, begins. The war lasts 13 years (most of the rest of what is left of Louis XIV's life) and involves a struggle by France and Spain against basically the rest of western Europe to try to unite the French and Spanish crowns under one Bourbon king. The result is the ascension of Philip V to the Spanish throne but his renounciation of any claim to the throne of France. With this war the concept of trying to maintain teh balance of power in Europe becomes a central theme in European politics. The war also spills over into North American and the West Indies, where it is generally known to the British colonists as Queen Anne's War.
1756. The Seven Years War begins -- an important development in the lives of some young men in America who will later be involved in the Revolution, most notably George Washington.
1776. The Virginia Convention instructs its delegates to the Constitution Congress to propose independence from Great Britain, paving the path to the Declaration of Independence.
1864. The Battle of New Market is fought in teh Shenendoah Valley by cadets of the Virginia Military Institute fighting alongside Confederate troops against the Union forces led by Franz Sigel. The Union forces are part of Grant's coordinated strategy to bring pressure to bear against multiple fronts to crush the Confederacy. The Confederates win teh battle, forcing a Union retreat and thwarting Grant's plans to seriously threaten Lee's flank.
1911. The United States Supreme Court rules that Standard Oil -- the oil conglomerate founded by John D. Rockefeller, must be broken up under the anti-monopoly laws. The conglomerate is broken up into 34 separate companies, some of which went on to become what was later known as Exxon, Mobile and Chevron. John D. Rockefeller had long since retired from active management, but as he owned nearly 25% of the shares of the various entities, many of which rapidly increased in value following the breakup, the case had the odd result of quickly making him the richest man in the world. There is also a serious question of whether the breakup was necessary (it was mostly politically motivated) as STandard Oil's dominance of the American oil market had greatly decreased the decade before the breakup, and international competition was rapidly increasing. Nonetheless, the breakup of the oil conglomerate was very popular on Main Street, America.
The image below, from 1906 Puck magazine, shows an infant Hercules Teddy Roosevelt (the then-President) battling the Standard Oil hydra.
1928. Mickey Mouse premiers in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.
1940. McDonald's opens its first restaurant, in San Bernadino, California.