ON THIS DAY
MAY 10
1497 Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America is named, leaves Cádiz, Spain, on his first voyage to the New World.
1614 Zacharias Wagenaer, commander of the Cape and who succeeded Jan van Riebeeck, is born in Dresden, Germany.
1801 Africa’s Barbary pirates go to war with the US.
1849 A riot breaks out in Manhattan over a dispute between an American actor and his British counterpart over a Shakespearean role; 25 people die.
1916 With remarkable seamanship, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia island in a lifeboat after an epic journey in frigid waters to seek help.
1924 J Edgar Hoover becomes first director of the FBI, and remains so until his death in 1972.
1940 Britain invades Iceland to prevent the strategically important island nation from being invaded by Germany.
1941 Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to make peace, but is jailed.
1960 The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
1973 World-famous martial artist Bruce Lee collapses in Hong Kong and is diagnosed with cerebral edema. He dies on July 20. His demise is ruled as “death by misadventure”.
1994 Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as the first president of a democratic South Africa.
2012 Pope Benedict XVI signs decree of canonization of Benedictine nun and composer Hildegard von Bingen, completing sainthood process started in 1228.
2016 An Indian fertility clinic announces that a 70 year-old woman gave birth to a boy.
2018 China says it will make for the world’s largest rain-inducing machines to control the weather on the vast Tibetan Plateau.
2018 Mahathir Mohamad becomes Malaysia’s prime minister. At 92, he is Earth’s oldest ruler.
2021 The 1km-long Kazungula trade bridge linking Botswana and Zambia, but with a curve so it doesn’t encroach on Zimbabwe, opens. 2022 Apple discontinues its iconic iPod.
2022 For the first time, Prince Charles delivers the his ailing mothers speech at the state opening of Britain’s parliament.