May 1916

Monday, May 1, 1916

• Easter Rising - The Irish uprising against British authority came to an end after Major-General John Maxwell, commander of the British forces in Dublin, announced all members of the insurrection had surrendered. The insurrection caused a total 485 deaths, more than half of them civilians, and another 2,600 wounded due to British shelling or cross-fire.
• Augustine Birrell resigned from the British government as Chief Secretary for Ireland after being historically proven wrong that there was no threat of insurrection in Ireland.
• General Robert Nivelle took command of the French Second Army during the Battle of Verdun.
• Oil tycoon Harry Ford Sinclair formed the Sinclair Oil Corporation in Salt Lake City.
• Norwegian transit company A/S Trikken began managing the trolleybus system of Norway, and would continue to do so until 1947.
• The Rhodesian African Rifles were established.
• Born:
• * Glenn Ford, Canadian-born American actor, known for his lead film roles in The Big Heat, Blackboard Jungle and 3:10 to Yuma; as Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford, in Quebec City, Canada
• * Rong Yiren, Chinese state leader, Vice President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 1998; in Wuxi, Republic of China
• * Victor Starffin, Russian baseball player, pitcher for Tokyo Kyojingun and other Japanese baseball teams from 1934 to 1955; as Viktor Starukhin, in Nizhny Tagil, Russian Empire
• Died: William Foulke, 42, English association football player, goalkeeper for Sheffield from 1894 to 1905 and member of the England national football team in 1897; died of cirrhosis

  Tuesday, May 2, 1916

• Easter Rising - A series of courts-martial began against 187 Irish citizens charged for their role in the insurrection under the oversight of Major-General Charles Blackader. Most were conducted secretly at British barracks, with the accused having no access to defense. Ninety were sentenced to death, including all seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Many of the courts-martial were later ruled by British Crown law officers as illegal.
• Eight German Zeppelins raided the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties, but LZ 59 was wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.

  Wednesday, May 3, 1916

• Easter Rising - Following their courts martial, Irish Republican leaders Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Tom Clarke were executed at Kilmainham Gaol.
• The Brazilian Academy of Sciences was established in Rio de Janeiro.
• Born: Henry B. González, American politician, U.S. Representative from Texas from 1961 to 1999; as Enrique Barbosa González, in San Antonio, United States

  Thursday, May 4, 1916

• Battle of Verdun - Germany launched localized attacks from French forces from Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, France in retaliation to French counterattacks in April.
• Easter Rising - Execution of Irish leaders involved in the uprising continued with Joseph Plunkett, Michael O'Hanrahan, Edward Daly and Willie Pearse.
• Born:
• * Li Desheng, Chinese army officer, general for the People's Liberation Army and its director from 1969 to 1975; in Xin County, Henan, Republic of China
• * Jane Jacobs, American-Canadian journalist and activist, leading expert on urban studies, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Systems of Survival; as Jane Isabel Butzner, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States
• * Richard Proenneke, American naturalist, survived thirty years alone at Twin Lakes, Alaska, covered in print as One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey and the documentary Alone in the Wilderness; in Lee County, Iowa, United States
• * Alexander Ratiu, Romanian-American clergy, arrested for his ministry work for the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Oradea Mare in Romania and imprisoned from 1948 to 1964; in Scalp Level, Pennsylvania, United States
• Died:
• * Lord John Hay, 88, British naval officer, noted naval commander during the Crimean War and First and Second Opium War
• * John Murray, 64, Australian politician, 23rd Premier of Victoria, Australia

  Friday, May 5, 1916

• Battle of Verdun - French counterattacks failed to stem the German advance from Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, France.
• Two companies of U.S. Marines from the USS Prairie landed at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, beginning eight years of U.S. occupation in the Caribbean nation.
• Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition - A Sudanese force of 500 men loyal to Sultan Ali Dinar of the Sultanate of Darfur attacked an Anglo-Egyptian garrison stationed at Abiad in an attempt to drive the colonial force out of the region.
• Raid on Glenn Springs - A raiding party of 80 Pancho Villa loyalists surprised nine U.S. Cavalry men posted at Glenn Springs, Texas. The Americans holed up in an adobe building and held off the fighters for three hours before attempting to escape on their horses. Three cavalrymen were killed along with a civilian and two were taken prisoner, leaving three to make it out and report the raid to U.S. authorities.
• Voyage of the James Caird - A massive wave nearly swamped the lifeboat British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton and five companions remodeled for an open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean in their attempt to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition following the loss of its ship Endurance in November.
• Easter Rising - Irish leader John MacBride was executed but compatriot W. T. Cosgrave had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
• The Royal Flying Corps established the No. 54 Squadron.
• The Conference Board was established in Bronxville, New York, with Magnus W. Alexander as president, to address growing labor unrest in the United States.
• Born:
• * Zail Singh, Indian state leader, 7th President of India; as Jarnail Singh, in Sandhwan, Punjab, British India
• * P. U. Chinnappa, Indian singer and actor, best known for his 1940s roles in Uthama Puthiran, Aryamala, Kannagi, and Jagathalapratapan; as Pudukottai Ulaganathan Chinnaswamy Pillai, in Pudukkottai State, British India
• * Doris Lusk, New Zealand artist, best known for painting and pottery work including Landscape, Overlooking Kaitawa, Waikaremoana; in Dunedin, New Zealand

  Saturday, May 6, 1916

• The Rome and Fiuggi Rail Road opened for service.
• The Sydney Conservatorium of Music accepted its first students under the direction of Belgian conductor and violinist Henri Verbrugghen.
• Natsume Sōseki's novel Light and Darkness began serialization in the Tokyo and Osaka editions of The Asahi Shimbun newspaper but would remain unfinished at the author's death on December 9.
• The Markham open coal mine pit near Doncaster, England began operations but stopped on August 24 due to wartime worker shortage. The mine resumed operations in 1922 until closing for good in 1996.
• Born:
• * Bobby Gibbes, Australian air force officer, commander of the No. 3 Squadron for the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II, recipient of the Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross; as Robert Henry Maxwell Gibbes, in Young, New South Wales, Australia
• * Charles T. Horner Jr., American army officer, commander of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division during World War II, two-time recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal and the Distinguished Service Cross; in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States
• * Adriana Caselotti, American singer and model, voice and model for Snow White in the Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States
• * Robert H. Dicke, American physicist, inventor of the lock-in amplifier and the microwave radiometer; in St. Louis, United States
• * Freddie Steele, English association football player, forward for Stoke City and the England national football team from 1933 to 1953; as Frederick Charles Steele, in Hanley, Staffordshire, England

  Sunday, May 7, 1916

• Battle of Kondoa Irangi - A South African force of 3,000 men under command of Jacob van Deventer defended the town of Kondoa Irangi in German East Africa against an attack of 4,000 German colonial troops under command of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
• Battle of Verdun - Germans troops forced the French off Côte 304, a key hill on the Verdun line but failed to hold it due to artillery barrages.
• Juan Isidro Jimenes Pereyra resigned as President of the Dominican Republic as U.S. Marines began to occupy territory in the Caribbean country, allowing Secretary of War Desiderio Arias to take control of Dominican forces.
• The Government of Canada authorized the creation of an all-black battalion that became No. 2 Construction Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
• Born:
• * Eric Butler, Australian political activist, founder of the Australian League of Rights; in Benalla, Victoria, Australia
• * Henry V. Graham, American National Guard officer, commanded National Guard units to protect black activists during the civil rights movement; in Birmingham, Alabama, United States
• * Huw Wheldon, Welsh media broadcaster, managing director of BBC from 1968 to 1975; in Prestatyn, Wales

  Monday, May 8, 1916

• Voyage of the James Caird - The British relief crew led by Ernest Shackleton sighted South Georgia Island after a two-week open water crossing, allowing them a chance to get to civilization and seek help for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition stranded on Elephant Island.
• Easter Rising - Irish leaders Éamonn Ceannt, Con Colbert, Michael Mallin, Seán Heuston were all executed for their role in the insurrection.
• British steamship SS Cymric was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine SM U-20, killing five sailors.
• U.S. Army General Hugh L. Scott ordered an expedition into Mexico to rescue the two prisoners captured by militia loyal to Pancho Villa during the Glenn Springs raid.
• Ross Sea party - Expedition leader Aeneas Mackintosh of the second arm of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and fellow party member Victor Hayward disappeared in a blizzard while searching for a path over the thin ice in the Ross Sea to Cape Evans where the rest of the expedition was stationed. Expedition members Ernest Wild, brother to Frank Wild of the expedition party under Ernest Shackleton, Ernest Joyce and Richard W. Richards followed the pair's tracks after the storm and found them ending at broken ice, leading them to conclude the two fell through into the water and drowned.
• Born:
• * João Havelange, Brazilian sports executive, 7th and longest-serving President of FIFA; as Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid de Havelange, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• * John Mariucci, American hockey player, played defence for the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Flyers from 1940 to 1952, first assistant coach for the Minnesota North Stars; in Eveleth, Minnesota, United States
• * Sylvia Sleigh, Welsh-born American artist, best known for her realist revisions of classic paintings including The Turkish Bath by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres; in Llandudno, Wales