May 15
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Featured Event
© Lakeview Images/Alamy; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
On this day in 1928, two of the most recognizable characters in animation history made their first appearance. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are the protagonists in Plane Crazy, a short film created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks that revolves around Mickey attempting to pilot a homemade airplane while romancing Minnie. The film was screened only as a silent test, though, and failed to secure distribution until 1929, after Mickey had made his wider public debut in Steamboat Willie. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
U.S. Department of State
Madeleine Albright, born this day in Prague in 1937, earned a reputation as a savvy defender of American interests while a UN ambassador (1993–97) and was the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state (1997–2001).
Famous Birthdays
More on May 15
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
2003
Singer and songwriter June Carter Cash—a leading figure in country music, especially noted for her work with the Carter Family and her husband Johnny Cash—died in Nashville. [Take our musical forms and styles quiz.]
Laurent Rebours—AP/Shutterstock.com
1991
Edith Cresson of the Socialist Party became the first female premier of France. [Watch: Five famous firsts accomplished by women.]
© Bettmann/Getty Images
1972
While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, known for his staunch segregationist views, was shot and left permanently paralyzed below the waist in an assassination attempt. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidential elections.]
Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum; photograph, Yoichi Okamoto
1969
Abe Fortas became the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to resign under threat of impeachment. [Why are there nine justices on the Supreme Court?]
Tim Boyle/Getty Images
1940
In San Bernadino, California, brothers Maurice (“Mac”) and Richard McDonald opened a drive-in restaurant that gave rise to the fast-food chain McDonald’s. [Take our quiz about food around the world.]
Office of War Information/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-fsa-8b08080)
1940
Nylon stockings first went on sale to the general public, and American stores sold out in days. [How much do you know about fashion?]
Lee Boltin
1918
The first regular airmail route in the United States opened, between New York City and Washington, D.C. [Test your knowledge of U.S. history.]
AP Images
1914
Tenzing Norgay, who, with Sir Edmund Hillary, was the first person to stand atop the summit of Mount Everest, was born in Tshechu, Tibet. [How much do you know about Mount Everest?]
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections (Public Domain)
1886
Emily Dickinson, who commanded a singular brilliance of style and integrity of vision in her poetry, died in Amherst, Massachusetts. [Test your knowledge of Emily Dickinson.]
Library and Archives Canada (ID no. 3228116)
1885
Louis Riel surrendered after leading two rebellions against the Canadian government in response to its efforts to assume the territorial rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company in northwestern Canada. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Canada.]
The Granger Collection, New York
1859
Pierre Curie, cowinner (with his wife, Marie Curie) of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, was born in Paris. [Take our Nobel Prize quiz.]
© Paolo Gallo/stock.adobe.com
495 bce
On the Aventine Hill in Rome, the temple of the Roman god Mercury was dedicated. [Test your knowledge of Greek and Roman gods.]