On This Day in History: May 15

The Battle of Mount Gilboa takes place between the Israelites, led by King Saul, and the Philistines. The battle ends in a decisive victory for the Philistines. Saul, injured by arrows, fell on his own sword to avoid capture, and his sons were killed. The battle ended Saul’s reign and led to David's ascension. More

King David captures the city of Jerusalem, establishing it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. More

The temple of the Roman god Mercury was dedicated on the Aventine Hill in Rome. This temple was a significant site for the worship of Mercury, who was the Roman god of commerce.

The Second Crusade starts as European forces begin their journey on c. May 15, 1147.

Baldwin I of Flanders is crowned the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.

King John surrenders the kingdom of England and Ireland to Pope Innocent III, on May 15, 1213 and receives them back as a papal fief; ending the Papal interdict and becoming a vassal of the Pope. Expand +

Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull "Ad Extirpanda," on May 15, 1252 authorizing the use of torture during the Inquisition under specific conditions to extract confessions from suspected heretics. It represented a significant shift in papal policy.

Jack Cade leads a rebellion against King Henry VI of England in the Kent region, known as Cade's Rebellion. Cade and his followers marched to London, briefly entered the city, and executed officials, but were driven out and ultimately defeated in July 1450.

German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three laws of planetary motion, often referred to as the "harmonic law". This law establishes a relationship between a planet's orbital period and its average distance from the Sun, specifically that the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the average distance. Kepler's Third Law implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit. More

The War of the Spanish Succession ("Queen Anne's War"), begins as England declares war on France and Spain on May 15, 1702 to block the unification of French and Spanish crowns atter the death of the childless Spanish King Charles II. The war, fought in Europe and in the Colonies,  concluded with the Treaty of Utrecht, in which Britain acquired new territory and trade concessions.

The first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, opens its doors to patients in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia on May 15, 1817. The hospital, now known as Friends Hospital, was founded by the Quakers in 1813 

The first emigrant wagon train, the Bidwell-Bartleson party, departs Independence, Missouri, on a 1,730-mile journey to California, traveling over the Sierra Nevada mountains. This group, consisting of 70 individuals in 15 wagons, faced starvation and exhaustion along the long trip. They way, ultimately arrived in California almost six months later on November 4, 1841. More

The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was founded in New York City by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The NWSA was formed after the women's rights movement split over the proposed Fifteenth Amendment, which would grant voting rights to African American men but not to women. The NWSA opposed the amendment as written, advocating for women's suffrage along with the rights of Black men. More

The U.S. Postal Service opens its first regularly scheduled airmail route between New York City and Washington, D.C. via Philadelphia. This historic event marked the beginning of a new era in both mail transportation and aviation. More

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse made its debut with the test screen premiere of the cartoon Plane Crazy to a theater audience and potential distributors as a silent film and it failed to pick up a distributor. Later that year, Disney released Mickey's first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, which was an enormous success; Plane Crazy was officially released as a sound cartoon on March 17, 1929. It ended up being the fourth Mickey film to be given a wide release after Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho and The Barn Dance (1929).

Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a drive-in restaurant, in San Bernardino, California. Initially called "McDonald's Bar-B-Q. In 1948 they took a risk by streamlining their operations and introducing their "Speedee" Service System featuring 15 cent hamburgers.  Expand +

The first test of an Allied aircraft using jet propulsion takes place as the Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 aircraft flies successfully over Cranwell, England, The jet engine was the brain child of Frank Whittle, an English pilot and aviation engineer, . A young German physicist, Hans von Ohain, working for Ernst Heinkel, developed the world's first jet plane, the experimental Heinkel He 178. It first flew on August 27, 1939. just before WW II started on September 1, 1939. More