May 15th

The Soviet Union began to withdraw its estimated 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.

Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot and crippled as he campaigned for the presidency.

Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq invade Israel. The First Arab-Israeli War was initiated by Israel's proclamation of independence on the day before the invasion. It lasted nearly 10 months and caused thousands of casualties on both sides.

Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the United States.

On a Boeing Air Transport flight between Oakland and Chicago, Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess.

The first Mickey Mouse film is screened. The 6-minute film “Plane Crazy” directed by Walt Disney shows Mickey trying to fly an airplane in reference to Charles Lindbergh. Today, Mickey Mouse is one of the world's most recognized cartoon characters and the official mascot of the Walt Disney Company.

The first air mail route in the U.S. was established between New York and Washington, DC, with a stop at Philadelphia.

The Standard Oil Company, headed by John D. Rockefeller, was ordered dissolved by the Supreme Court, under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was created by an act of Congress on this day.

Robert Walpole becomes effectively Britain's 1st prime minister (was: chief min).

The world's first machine gun is patented. British lawyer, James Puckle, invented the 25.4 mm caliber “Puckle Gun” for the use on ships. It was designed for two bullet types: round bullets for Christians and (more damaging) square bullets for Turks.

Johannes Kepler discovers harmonics law.

Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.