What are the important events that happened on May 15? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 15: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 15 is the 135th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 230 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 2, 2025 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 485,352 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatriacontapentagon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 278 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,528 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 15 Historical Events
- 1618 –Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).
- 1701 –The War of the Spanish Succession begins.
- 1791 –Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.
- 1811 –Paraguay declares independence from Spain.
- 1829 –The Aaronic Priesthood is restored to Joseph Smith Jr. and Oliver Cowdery, prior to the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- 1849 –Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily
- 1905 –Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acre, in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
- 1932 –The May 15 Incident: in an attempted Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
- 1951 –The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.
- 1970 –Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.
Who were born on May 15?
- 1891 –Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian writer (d. 1940)
- 1923 –John Lanchbery, British composer (d. 2003)
- 1936 –Wavy Gravy, American clown and activist
- 1942 –Jusuf Kalla, Indonesian politician
- 1943 –David Cronenberg, Canadian screenwriter and film director
- 1946 –Aly Bain, Shetland fiddle player
- 1949 –George Adams, American basketball player
- 1965 –Raí, Brazilian footballer
- 1966 –Pete Wiggs, British musician (Saint Etienne)
- 1967 –Madhuri Dixit, Indian actress
Who died on May 15?
- 1381 –Eppelein von Gailingen, German robber baron
- 1585 –Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (b. 1535)
- 1940 –Menno ter Braak, Dutch author and polemicist (b. 1902)
- 1948 –Edward Flanagan, American priest and founder of Boys Town (b. 1886)
- 1982 –Gordon Smiley, American race car driver (b. 1946)
- 1986 –Theodore White, American writer (b. 1915)
- 1989 –Johnny Green, American songwriter (b. 1908)
- 1991 –Andreas Floer, German mathematician (b. 1956)
- 1994 –Gilbert Roland, Mexican actor (b. 1905)
- 2005 –Alan B. Gold, Quebec Chief Justice (b. 1917)
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