Calendar date · May

What happened on May 15

On May 15, 221: Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

Events

60

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Taurus

Featured moment · 221

Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

Liu Bei, courtesy name Xuande (玄德), was a Chinese warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding Emperor of China emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China.

People

Born on May 15

Haerin 2006– South Korean singer (born 2006)
Chase Hudson 2002– American Internet celebrity (born 2002)
Dayana Yastremska 2000– Ukrainian tennis player (born 2000)
Anastasia Gasanova 1999– Russian tennis player (born 1999)
Lucrezia Stefanini 1998– Italian tennis player (born 1998)
Ousmane Dembélé 1997– French footballer (born 1997)
Scott Drinkwater 1997– Australian rugby league footballer
Birdy 1996– British singer (born 1996)
Jeremy Hawkins 1993– New Zealand rugby league footballer
Show 9 more — notable births on May 15
Tomáš Kalas 1993– Czech footballer (born 1993)
Jordan Eberle 1990– Canadian ice hockey player (born 1990)
Lee Jong-hyun 1990– South Korean musician and actor (born 1990)
Stella Maxwell 1990– British and Irish Model (born 1990)
Susan Soonkyu Lee 1989– South Korean and American singer (born 1989)
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa 1989– French footballer (born 1989)
Indrek Kajupank 1988– Estonian basketball player
Scott Laird 1988– English Footballer (born 1988)
David Adams 1987– American baseball player (born 1987)

People

Died on May 15

Robert Walls Australian rules footballer and coach (1950–2025)
Kamla Beniwal Indian politician (1927–2024)
Frank Curry Australian rugby league footballer and coach (1950–2022)
Kay Mellor English actress and director (1951–2022)
Oliver Gillie British journalist and scientist (1937–2021)
Fred Willard American actor and comedian (1933–2020)
Herbert R. Axelrod American tropical fish expert American tropical fish expert, a publisher of pet books, and an entrepreneur
Elisabeth Bing 20th and 21st-century American physical therapist
Jackie Brookner American sculptor and educator (born 1945)
Show 9 more — notable deaths on May 15
Flora MacNeil Scottish Gaelic Traditional singer (1928–2015)
Garo Yepremian Armenian-Cypriot American football player (1944–2015)
Jean-Luc Dehaene Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999
Noribumi Suzuki Japanese film director
Henrique Rosa President of Guinea-Bissau (1946–2013)
Carlos Fuentes Mexican writer (1928–2012)
Arno Lustiger German historian and author of Jewish origin (1924–2012)
Zakaria Mohieddin Prime Minister of Egypt from 1965 to 1966
Besian Idrizaj Austrian footballer (1987–2010)

Timeline

Every May 15 on record

  1. 221 Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty.

    Emperor of Shu Han from 221 to 223

    Liu Bei, courtesy name Xuande (玄德), was a Chinese warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding Emperor of China emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China.

  2. 392 Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne.

    Roman emperor from 375 to 392

    Valentinian II was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman Empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his half-brother, then was sidelined by a usurper, and finally became sole ruler after 388, albeit with limited de facto powers. He was the youngest emperor (co-ruler) in the Western Roman Empire.

  3. 589 King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility.

    King of the Lombards from 584 to 590

    Authari was king of the Lombards from 584 to his death. He was considered the first Lombard king to have adopted some level of Romanitas (Roman-ness) and introduced policies that led to drastic changes, particularly in the treatment of the Romans and greater tolerance for the Christian faith.

  4. 756 Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain.

    Emir of Córdoba from 756 to 788

    Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya, commonly known as Abd al-Rahman I, was the founder and first emir of the Emirate of Córdoba, ruling from 756 to 788. He established the Umayyad dynasty in al-Andalus, which continued for nearly three centuries.

  5. 908 Constantine VII is crowned Byzantine co-emperor.

    Byzantine emperor from 913 to 959

    Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor Alexander.

  6. 1194 Michael the Syrian reconsecrates the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, which he reconstructed after its destruction by a fire. The monastery stays a center of the Syriac Orthodox Church until the end of the thirteenth century.
  7. 1252 Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.
  8. 1525 Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.
  9. 1532 The English church submits to the king of England in passing a convocation in which it surrenders a number of rights, such as to make provincial ecclesiastic laws independently of the king.
  10. 1536 Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
  11. 1567 The wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell, the chief instigator of the murder of her previous husband Lord Darnley, takes place.
  12. 1571 Venice, Spain, Naples, the Papal States, and other Italian states establish the Holy League to fight the Ottomans, resulting in the victory at Lepanto later that year.
  13. 1602 Cape Cod is sighted by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.
  14. 1618 Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).
  15. 1648 The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty.
Show 15 earlier entries from May 15
  1. 1725 Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
  2. 1791 French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.
  3. 1817 Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).
  4. 1836 Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.
  5. 1849 The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished.
  6. 1850 The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina.
  7. 1851 The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier.
  8. 1864 American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
  9. 1891 Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.
  10. 1905 The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada, United States.
  11. 1911 In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up.
  12. 1911 More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales.
  13. 1916 A seventeen-year-old farmworker, Jesse Washington, is infamously lynched in Waco, Texas, USA, after being convicted of rape and murder.
  14. 1918 The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from Russian troops.
  15. 1919 The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

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