May

Wednesday may 21st :
1851: Gold discovered in Australia
birthdays:
1527: King Philip II of Spain
1904: Fats Waller, American musician
1916: Harold Robbins, American novelist
1917: Raymond Burr, American actor

Addendum:

was gold first discovered or was it just discovered in Australia?????? i think the latter because the Inca Maya Pharaohs and all other civilizations use to flash it
 
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Apparently gold is discovered for the first time in Australia.
Seing as the date and thats what it says.
Not "metal discovered in Australia, later known as gold"
 
okay
may 22nd:
1972: Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka
1988: Hungarian Communist Party leader ousted
birthdays:
1813: Richard Wagner, German operatic composer
1907: Laurence Olivier, British actor of stage and screen
1924: Charles Aznavour, French born singer

coincidentally Ceylon is the tea that sri lanka exports most
 
may 23rd:
1618: The Thirty Years War begins
1926: Lebanon becomes a republic

birthdays:
1718: William Hunter, Scottish anatomist
1848: Otto Lilienthal, German glider builder
1883: Douglas Fairbanks Snr, American film star
 
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1337: The Hundred Years War between England and France begins when France confiscates Gascony from Edward III. (trumps your measly little 30 year war Ali ! )

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1941: HMS 'Hood' is sunk by the German battleship 'Bismarck', with just three survivors from the 1,419 crew.

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1943: Germany calls off the Battle of the Atlantic by withdrawing its U-boats from North Atlantic convoy routes.
 
re 1941 vs. 1943: Funny how history just keeps re-hashing itself; the difference between winning and losing barely has a meaning...
 
Yes. And of course 41 provoked another Churchillian quote ( or directive)
"Sink the Bismarck !"

The difference between 41 and 43 of course, the entry of the US into the war. Patrols from both sides of the Atlantic squeezed the U-boats into a ever smaller strip of the mid ocean, which became untenable. ( RAF bomber command suffered 50% casualties in WW2, but U boat crew death rate was 75% ! )
 
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1805: Napoleon Bonaparte crowned King of Italy
1924: The United States start limiting immigration, banning all Japanese
1991: Presidential elections, after the collapse of the USSR, are held in Georgia
1992: With the break up of the Soviet Union, Russia and the Ukraine decide to split the Black Sea fleet

birthdays:
1886: Al Jolson, American singer
1907: John Wayne, American actor who made many westerns
1913: Peter Cushing, British born film actor
1925: Roy Dotrice, American actor
 
27th May

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1940: 'Operation Dynamo', the mass evacuation of encircled British and French troops from Dunkirk, begins.

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1941: The German battleship 'Bismark' is sunk by the Royal Navy, with only 110 survivors from its 2,192 crew.

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1942: Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of Nazi genocide, is fatally wounded by Czech partisans in Prague.


28th May


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1830: The 'Indian Removal Act' - deporting native Americans to West of the Mississippi - is signed into US law.

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1936: A paper by British mathematician Alan Turing sets out the theoretical basis for modern computers.

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1961: The 'Appeal for Amnesty' campaign - forerunner of Amnesty International - is launched by the Observer.
 
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1906: The Tsar of Russia makes large areas of land available to the peasants
1915: Women in Berlin demonstrate for peace
1940: Holland and Belgium surrender to German forces, during WW2
1961: Last ever Orient Express from Paris to Bucharest
birhtdays:
1660: George I, British King
1908: Ian Fleming, British writer
 
With regards to Ian Fleming - funny how "his" next novel has just been released!
I guess it's probably not a coincidence that it marks the 100th anniversary of his birth.
 
No, he's dead; hence my use of the term "100th anniversary of his birth" rather than "100th birthday."
A different author has just published a new novel in the Bond series.
 
Just heard on the Channel 5 news - Kylie Minogue is celebrating her 40th birthday tonight in Paris.

(little Kylie - forty !!!)
 
oh kool
may 29th:
1919: Einstein's theories given a practical test during an eclipse
1940: British forces begin their evacuation from Dunkirk, France
1990: Brois Yeltsin elected leader of the Russian Federation
birthdays:
1630: King Charles II of Britain
1874: Gilbert Keith Chesterton, English novelist
1903: Bob Hope, US entertainer
1917: John F. Kennedy, Former (35th) American President
 
Interesting clash of sources ! re 1940 see my entry from 27th.

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1453: The Roman empire in the east comes to an end as Ottoman sultan Mehmet II captures Constantinople.

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1660: Charles II arrives in London from exile in the Netherlands to reclaim his throne. It is his birthday.

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1953: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first men to climb Everest, the world’s highest mountain
 
Mine's from the BBC History site. How about you ?
Here's a more detailed chronology
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/operation_dynamo.html
which suggests the official start is actually even earlier at 6:57 pm on the 26th. I suppose it's all a matter of degree.
Is the start when the man in charge says "Go" ? When the first man jumps on an available boat and leaves ? When the first evacuation craft arrives ? etc etc.
 
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