Browse events, births, deaths and holidays on May 15 throughout history.
The prime minister of Slovakia, officially the chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic, commonly referred to in Slovakia as Predseda vlády or informally as Premiér, is t…
Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and critically injured while meeting with supporters at an event in Handl
The United Nations (UN) is a global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the articulated mission of maintaining interna…
The UN commemorates the Palestinian Nakba Day for the first time
From 15 to 21 May 2013, a series of deadly bombings and shootings struck the central and northern parts of Iraq, with a few incidents occurring in towns in the south and far west …
An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days
Jessica Rose Watson is an Australian sailor who was awarded The Medal of the Order of Australia after attempting a solo circumnavigation at the age of 16 from 18 October 2009 to 1…
Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo
Same-sex marriage has been legal in California since June 28, 2013. The State of California first issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples from June 16, 2008 to November 5, 20…
California becomes the second U
The Arsenal Football Club is an English professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football.…
Arsenal F
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec…
A CSX EMD SD40-2 8888 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with
The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater during …
The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in h
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactur…
The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir
Édith Jeanne Thérèse Cresson is a French politician of the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so and only woman until…
Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister
The Soviet–Afghan War took place in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 47-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Afg…
Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afgha
Aeroflot Flight 1802 was a commercial flight from Vinnytsia to Moscow that crashed after the rudder deflected sharply and the propellers feathered on 15 May 1976. All 52 passenger…
Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes near Viktorivka, Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, killing 52
The Ma'alot massacre was a Palestinian terrorist attack that occurred on 14–15 May 1974 and involved the hostage-taking of 115 Israelis, chiefly school children, which ended in th…
Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli
The Ryukyu Islands , also known as the Nansei Islands or the Ryukyu Arc , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan. Administratively, they are…
The Ryukyu Islands, under U
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in …
President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into …
Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board
Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about 39 km2 (15 sq mi) in area. It is one…
At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple
Mandatory Palestine, officially known as Palestine, was a British administrative territory between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine. From 1922, under the terms of the Leag…
Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq a
The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the town of Prevalje in Yugoslavia between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consi…
World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as general secretary of the Commu…
Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International)