| Year
| Event Description
| Class
| Action |
|
Masachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage. |
|
profile |
|
Abdel-Zahraa Othman, head of the Iraqi Governing Council is killed in a suicide car bombing as he waited in his vehicle at a US-controlled checkpoint. |
|
profile |
|
The US Military announces that it has found Sarin nerve gas in an exploded shell in Iraq, but Donald Rumsfeld cautions that more testing is necessary. |
|
profile |
|
India's stock market suffered the biggest crash in its 129-year history, on investor fears regarding the economic policies of the incoming Gandhi administration. |
|
profile |
|
The US Military announces it will move 3,600 Army infantry soldiers from South Korea to Iraq in the summer for a one-year deployment to address the worsening Iraqi situation. |
|
profile |
|
PeopleSoft mocks Oracle's lower offer in its hostile takeover bid. PeopleSoft maintains that the U.S. Department of Justice will block the proposed merger due to antitrust issues. |
|
profile |
|
Israelis Fire Missiles at Gaza Camp of Rafah, resulting in three dead, seven wounded |
|
profile |
|
F-16 fighter jets flown by National Guard pilots crash in midair over Indiana; one pilot parachutes to safety but another is killed. |
|
profile |
|
Israeli tanks and bulldozers, supported by helicopter gunships have moved into the town of Rafah on the Gaza strip |
|
profile |
|
The California state Senate approves, by a 22-13 vote, legislation that would require housing developers to include solar panels on a certain percentage of new homes. The rule faces a vote in the state Assembly. |
|
profile |
|
Prof. Susumu Tachi demonstrated the invisibility cloak at NextFest, an expo in San Francisco . Professor Tachi's cloak works by projecting an image onto itself of what is behind the wearer. |
|
profile |
|
Bill Cosby addresses NAACP Dinner. |
|
profile |
|
Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel. |
|
profile |
|
An Iraqi Mirage fighter launches a missile at the USS Stark (FFG-31), killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew. |
|
profile |
|
Televised hearings over the Watergate Scandal begin in the United States Senate. |
|
profile |
|
Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl sails a papyrus boat, called the Ra II, to Morrocco. It would later transport a multinational crew of 7 across the Atlantic. |
|
profile |
|
The President of Egypt, Abdul Nasser, demands that the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Israel be dismantled. |
|
profile |
|
The U.S. Supreme Court issued their Brown v. Board of Education ruling, outlawing racial segregation in public schools. |
|
profile |
|
The U.S. Army contracts with J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly of the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the first all-electronic and programmable computer. |
|
profile |
|
Alfred Letourner shatters all cycle speed records by pedaling a Schwinn Paramount Racer one mile in 33.05 seconds, at the rate of 108.92 miles per hour. |
|
profile |
|
Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium. |
|
profile |
|
U.S. Congress approves the Vinson Naval Act, calling for a two sea navy in response to tensions in Europe and Asia. |
|
profile |
|
Archaeologist Spyridon Stais finds the Antikythera mechanism, the oldest surviving geared mechanism dated to 87 BC Greece and famous for employing a differential gear. |
|
profile |
|
Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French empire. |
|
profile |
|
The New York Stock Exchange is formed when twenty-four stock brokers sign the Buttonwood Agreement outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree. |
|
profile |
May 17