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.
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What Happened in May?
Battles, revolts, and explorations. Learn about the noteworthy events in May that have taken place throughout the ages. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The Russian city of St. Petersburg, named after the apostle Saint Peter is founded by Tsar Peter the Great on the site of a captured Swedish fortress. St. Petersburg is a Russian port city on the Baltic Sea and it was the imperial capital for 2 centuries.
It remains Russia's cultural center. Among its many beautiful sites, architecture and art is the Bronze Horseman, an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in the Senate Square opened to the public in 1782. The statue influenced an 1833 poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin.
Andrew Shiva, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The Battle of Ramillies is fought on May 23, 1706 It was a battle of the War of the Spanish Succession ending in victory for the Allied forces (Anglo-Dutch), led by the Duke of Marlborough against the French.
The battle significantly impacted the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), a major European conflict stemming from the death of the Spanish King Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg without an heir. It went on to impact the balance of power in Europe and led to the rise of England as a major global power. More
Yale Center for British Art. By anonymous
The Act of Union, uniting the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into a single political state, becomes effective on May 1, 1707 and Scotland and England formally became the single Kingdom of Great Britain. Whales had already been part of England since the 1500's.
The city of New Orleans is founded by French colonists under the direction of French Louisiana governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. The site was the slightly elevated banks of the Mississippi River approximately 95 miles above its mouth, an area now called the French Quarter, More
The ship "Le Grand St Antoine" arrives in Marseille, France, carrying the last major plague outbreak to affect Europe. The bubonic plague is estimated to have killed around 100,000 people. This event is often referred to as the Great Plague of Marseille.
Johann Beringer, a German scholar, professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg, begins acquiring the controversial "Lügensteine" or "lying stones" on May 31, 1725. Unbeknownst to him, the stones were part of an elaborate hoax to discredit him.
He was supplied with the stones by three local youths he had hired to collect fossils in the area of Mount Eibelstadt near Würzburg, Germany. The stones were actually hand-carved and planted by two of his colleagues, J. Ignatz Roderick and Johann Georg von Eckhart, who wanted to ruin his reputation due to his perceived arrogance. Beringer, completely taken in by the deception, collected around 2,000 of the stones and convinced the stones were genuine fossils of divine origin, published his detailed study book on April 13,1726, "Lithographiae Wirceburgensis" shortly before discovering the fraud.
Beringer initiated judicial proceedings against the hoaxers to clear his name, winning the court case, but the scandal permanently damaged his scientific reputation. Over 400 of the roughly 2,000 original "lying stones" still exist today in various museum collections.
The charter for the Pennsylvania Hospital is granted on May 11, 1751. The nation's first hospital, was founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin "to care for the sick-poor and insane who were wandering the streets of Philadelphia. The first patients were admitted on February 11, 1753. More
Photograph by Chandra Lampreich. (Cropped)
The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required American colonies to provide lodging and supplies to British troops.
The British parliament passes the unpopular Tea Act. More
Louis XVI accedes to the throne of France, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette, becomes the queen consort; later they both were beheaded during the French Revolution. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Marie Antoinette's trial began on 14 October 1793; two days later, she was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793 at the Place de la Révolution.
Ben Franklin reveals his invention of bifocal eyeglasses in a letter, now in the Library of Congress, to his friend George Whatley. Franklin was having problems seeing both up-close and at greater distances and in the prior year, he created a method for placing differently-calibrated lenses into the same frame rather than constantly changing glasses. His new "double spectacles" had pairs of half-lenses arranged in a top-bottom configuration. Franklin commented that all he had to do was but move his eyes up or down, and the proper glass was always ready! Franklin never patented any of his inventions, and wanted to share them freely. More
The First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, sets sail with 11 British ships to establish a penal colony in Australia, Botany Bay. The fleet consisted of two Royal Navy escort ships, six convict transports, and three store ships carrying supplies. Approximately 1,500 people, including convicts, crew, soldiers, and their families, were on board. The First Fleet's journey, took eight months and one week, arriving on January 26, 1788 - marked the beginning of European settlement in Australia.
The Constitutional Convention, a pivotal event in American history, begins in Philadelphia. It had as its primary goal the creation of a stronger, more unified nation by revising or replacing the Articles of Confederation, which had proven insufficient. The convention, ended on September 17, 1987 and resulted in the drafting of the United States Constitution, which established a new federal government and laid the groundwork for the nation's future. More
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The first modern written constitution in Europe is adopted by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The groundbreaking document aimed to strengthen the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by introducing a constitutional monarchy, addressing political inequalities, and providing for a separation of powers but came as too little and too late. Still, the document became the world's second-oldest codified national constitution (after the US Constitution of 1789)
American merchant sea captain Robert Gray, enters Grays Harbor (WA State) during his second exploration trip of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Gray is credited to be the first non-Native American to enter the Columbia River and Grays Harbor, both of which he named.
The NY Stock Exchange is born with the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement by 24 stockbrokers defining how stocks could be traded and establishing set commissions.
British Dr. Edward Jenner successfully demonstrates that inoculation with cowpox matter provides immunity against smallpox, marking the beginning of modern vaccination. He famously vaccinated James Phipps, a boy of age 8, with cowpox, and, then later tested his immunity by exposing him to smallpox. James Phipps did not contract smallpox, proving Jenner's discovery. More
Painting by Ernest Board (1877–1934). Image in the Public domain via Wikimedia
