18th May 1152 – Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine. 1756 – The Seven Years' War began when Great Britain declared war on France. 1803 – The Napoleonic Wars began when The United Kingdom revoked the Treaty of Amiens and declared war on France. 1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of the […]

17th May 1521 – Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason. 1536 – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four other men were executed for treason. 1590 – Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland. 1792 – The New York Stock Exchange was formed. 1814 – The Constitution of Norway was signed […]

16th May 1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France. 1836 – Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. 1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc as a saint. 1960 - The first working laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. (But […]

15th May 1567 – Mary Queen of Scots married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, her third husband. 1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patented the world's first machine gun. 1756 – The Seven Years' War began when England declared war on France. 1800 – George III survived two assassination attempts in one day. 1905 […]

14th May 1264 – Henry III of England was captured in France making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England. 1607 – Jamestown, Virginia was settled as an English colony. 1796 – Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination. 1889 – The children's charity the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty […]

13th May 1958 – The trade mark Velcro was registered. 1981 – Pope John Paul II survived an assasination attempt after emergency surgery. 1989 – Large groups of students occupied Tiananmen Square in China and began a hunger strike. 1995 – British mother of two, Alison Hargreaves, conquered Everest.