Daily Calendar for Friday, May 15, 2026

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Friday, May 15, 2026

Born

  • L. Frank Baum (author)
  • Williamina Fleming (astronomer)
  • Pierre Curie (chemist)
  • Katherine Anne Porter (novelist)
  • George Brett (baseball player)
  • Emmitt Smith (football player)
  • Rod Smith (football player)
  • Josh Beckett (baseball player)
  • Andy Murray (tennis player)

Died

  • Emily Dickinson (poet)
  • June Carter Cash (singer)
  • Jerry Falwell
  • Barbara Stuart (actress)

Events

  • English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold arrived at Shoal Hope in what is now Massachusetts. They caught so many cod there they renamed it Cape Cod
  • Johannes Kepler verified his Third Law of Planetary Motion
  • James Puckle was granted a patent for his Defence Gun, the world’s first rapid-fire gun
  • The Baily’s Beads solar eclipse phenomenon was first described
  • Rain and fish fell from the sky in Olneyville, Rhode Island. Most of the fish measured 2- to 4-inches long.
  • Mickey Mouse made his first appearance, in a test screening for the short film Plane Crazy
  • Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess, at Boeing Air Transport
  • Maurice and Richard McDonald opened McDonald’s Barbeque, a precursor restaurant to their McDonald’s hamburger chain, in San Bernadino, California.
  • First live TV pictures received from a U.S. spacecraft, (Faith 7)
  • Governor George Wallace of Alabama was shot
  • Boston Red Sox player Manny Ramirez hit his 400th home run
  • Four bear cubs playing on a backyard trampoline was caught on video in Avon, Connecticut

Weather

  • Thirty-six inches of snow, Haverhill, New Hampshire
  • Ninety-two degrees F at Portland, Oregon
  • 94 degrees F in Theilman, Minnesota
  • 85 degrees F, Olympia and Seattle, Washington

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