On May 15, 1602, Cape Cod was discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.
In 1902 Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley was born in Chicago.
In 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Co., ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In 1930 Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyo.
In 1940 nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in this country.
In 1942 gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states, limiting sales to 3 gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.
In 1948 the day-old state of Israel was attacked by Egyptian planes and invaded by troops from Lebanon and Trans-Jordan.
In 1963 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off on the final mission of the Mercury space program. He circled the Earth 22 times in 34 hours.
In 1970 two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed when police opened fire on a campus demonstration.
In 1972 Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer while campaigning in Laurel, Md., for the Democratic presidential nomination; Wallace would remain paralyzed for the rest of his life as a result.
In 1988 the Soviet Union began withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, more than eight years after its forces had entered the country.
In 2002 the White House acknowledged that in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush was told by U.S. intelligence that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network might hijack American airplanes, but that officials did not know that suicide hijackers were plotting to use planes as missiles.
In 2006 a defiant Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea at his trial as a judge formally charged him with crimes against humanity.
