On this Day in History

On Saturday, May 19, 2001, Apple Inc. opened its first retail store in the US, at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. Steve Jobs, the then CEO had hosted a press event earlier that week at… Read More →

On May 18, 1974, at 8.05 am local time, the Indian Army conducted the first nuclear weapon explosion by the country. The detonation at Pokhran Test Range in the Pokhran region of Rajasthan state in India was codenamed Smiling Buddha, though referred to by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MoEA) as Pokhran- I. The test was overseen… Read More →

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), also commonly called the "Big Board", is the world's largest stock exchange in terms of its market capitalization which is currently worth over 14 trillion dollars. The stock… Read More →

The first Academy Awards ceremony in the history of Hollywood was held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Thursday, May 16, 1929. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) decided to honor the best movies… Read More →

On May 15, 1958, the USSR launched the only Soviet satellite that year – Sputnik 3. Sputnik 3 made it into orbit during the International Geophysical Year (IGY), an international project that was conducted between July 1, 1957 and December 31, 1958. Sputnik 3… Read More →

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Corps of Discovery, was a historic expedition undertaken by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to secure the western regions – the Northwest and Oregon regions of the Pacific coast for the United… Read More →

Shah Jahan, in a bid to deepen the lasting impression of the Mughal Dynasty on Indian history, achieved a major step in the creation of his legacy on May 13, 1648: the Red Fort, a new palace constructed in… Read More →

The battle against addiction has taken many forms throughout the centuries, but none has had a more prominent effect in recent times than Alcoholics Anonymous. The twelve-step program centering on building communities of people to overcome the challenges of recovery together had its first unofficial meeting on May 12, 1935. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith… Read More →

Fifteen months after the first man-versus-machine chess match-up, world champion Garry Kasparov faced Deep Blue -- an IBM supercomputer -- in New York City. Competing in a traditional six-game format, Deep Blue became the first computer to beat a… Read More →

Following 39 days of tense discussion fraught with international implications, Palestinian militants and Israeli officials finally agreed to end the Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on May 10, 2003. The Church of the Nativity is… Read More →