French economist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Frédéric Passy was born on May 20, 1822. English economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill was born exactly 16 years earlier.
On May 20, 2002, Portugal recognized the independence of East Timor, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration. Portugal was the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976.
On May 19, 1897, Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Prison. His “Ballad of Reading Gaol” would later become a classic, and his only great work following his imprisonment.
On May 17, 1973, televised hearings regarding the Watergate scandal began in the United States Senate.
On May 16, 1843, one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri, set off for the Pacific Northwest, blazing what became known as the “Oregon Trail.”
On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention instructed its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.
On May 14, 1787, delegates convened a Constitutional Convention, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presided over the convention.
On the same day in 1887, Lysander Spooner — author of the pamphlets titled “The Constitution of No Authority” — died.
On May 13, 1888, Brazil abolished slavery with the passage of the Lei Áurea (“Golden Law”).
On May 12, 1943, during World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.
On May 11, 1858, Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. State. Other May 11th events include Luxembourg’s gaining independence in 1867, and Klaus Barbie going on trial in Lyon, 120 years later, for war crimes committed during World War II.
On May 9, 1800, abolitionist revolutionary (and, technically, terrorist) John Brown was born. In 1883 on this date Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset was born.