1916 John MacBride,
50, Irish patriot, executed by British firing squad for his participation
in the Easter Rising. He had fought in the Irish brigade with the Boers
against the British in 1899.
1913 Henri Moret, French artist born on 12 December
1856. — MORE
ON MORET AT ART “4” MAY with
links to images.
1907 Eugène-Alexis Girardet, French painter born on 31
May 1853. — more
with links to images.
1886 Seven strikers, killed by militia (the Bay View Massacre).
Striking steelworkers, marching toward a mill in the Bay View section of
Milwaukee, are intercepted by a squad of militia, who shoot point blank
into the strikers, killing seven.
1883 Eva Gonzalès, Mme Henri Guérard, during
childbirth, French Impressionist
painter born on 19 April 1849, model and student of Édouard
Manet. — MORE
ON GONZALÈS AT ART “4” MAY
with links to images.
1862
Nearly 500 French and 100 Mexican soldiers at the battle of Puebla
^top^
Cinco de Mayo: During the French-Mexican War, a badly
supplied and outnumbered Mexican army under General Ignacio Zaragoza
defeated a French army attempting to capture Puebla de Los Angeles,
a small town in east central Mexico. Victory at the Battle of Puebla
did not stop the French for long, but it represented a great moral
victory for the Mexican government, and symbolized the country's will
to defend its sovereignty against threat by a powerful foreign nation.
In 1861, after establishing his liberal
Mexican government, Benito Juarez became president of a country in
financial ruin, and he was forced to default on his debts to European
governments. In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces
to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated
with Mexico and withdrew, but France under Napoléon III decided
to use the opportunity to carve a dependent empire out of Mexican
territory.
Late in 1861, a well-armed
French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving
President Juarez and his government into retreat. Certain that French
victory would come swiftly in Mexico, 6000 French troops under General
Charles Latrille de Lorencez set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles.
From his new headquarters in the north, Juarez rounded up a rag-tag
force of loyal men and sent them to Puebla.
Led by Texas-born General Zaragoza, the 2000 Mexicans fortified the
town and prepared for the French assault. On the fifth of May, 1862,
Lorencez drew his army, well-provisioned and supported by heavy artillery,
before the city of Puebla and began his assault from the north. The
battle lasted from daybreak to early evening, and when the French
finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers to the less than
100 Mexicans killed.
Although
not a major strategic victory in the overall war against the French,
Zaragoza's victory at Puebla tightened Mexican resistance, and six
years later, France withdrew. The same year, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand
Maximilian, installed as emperor of Mexico by Napoléon in 1864,
was captured and executed by Juarez's forces. Puebla de Los Angeles,
the site of Zaragoza's historic victory, was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza
in honor of the general.
Today,
Mexicans celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla as Cinco
de Mayo, a national holiday in Mexico. |
1859 Johann
Peter Guztav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician born on
13 February 1805 in the ephemereal empire of the tyrant who died in abject
exile 38 years, to the day, before him. In 1826 Dirichlet proved that in
any arithmetic progression with first term coprime to the difference there
are infinitely many primes. He made many other important contributions
to mathematics.
1821
Napoléon Bonaparte,
52 ^top^
the former French ruler who once ruled an empire that stretched across
Europe, died as a British prisoner on the remote island of Saint Helena
in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
The Corsica-born Napoléon, one
of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the
ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799,
France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoléon returned
home from a campaign in Egypt to take over the reigns of French government
and to save his nation.
After becoming first consul in February
of 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802,
he established the Napoléonic Code, a new system of French
law, and in 1804, was crowned emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral.
By 1807, he controlled an empire that stretched from the River Elbe
in the north down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees
to the Dalmatian coast.
Beginning in 1812, Napoléon
began to encounter the first significant defeats of his military career,
suffering through a disastrous invasion of Russia, losing Spain to
the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula War, and enduring total defeat
against an allied force by 1814.
Exiled to the island of Elba, he escaped
to France in early 1815, and raised a new Grand Army that enjoyed
temporary success before its crushing defeat at Waterloo against an
allied force under Wellington.
Napoléon was subsequently exiled
to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa. Six years later
he died, of stomach cancer it has long been believed, and in 1840,
his body was returned to Paris, where it was interred in the
Hotel des Invalides. However tests showing high level of arsenic in
his hair are adduced to boster the theory that Napoléon was
slowly poisened starting in 1816 by the Count of Montholon, acting
on behalf of the French and British regimes who wanted to make sure
that Napoléon would not make another come-back. |
1811 Antoine de Marcenay de Ghuy, French artist born in
1724.
1809 Joseph-Laurent Malaine (or Malines, Mallache),
French artist born on 21 February 1745.
1794
(16 floréal an II) Condamnés à mort par la Révolution:
^top^
COTTEREAU Perrine, et COTTEREAU Renée,
domiciliées à St Ouen (Mayenne), comme espionnes des brigands de la
Vendée, par la commission militaire séante à Laval
LUGAU Jean, volontaire au St 2ème bataillon du Tarn,
domicilié à Paul-de-Lamialte (Tarn), comme embaucheur, par le tribunal
militaire du 1er arrondissement de l'armée des Pyrénées-Orientales.
MARAIN Augustin, voiturier, domicilié à Lyon (Rhône),
comme distributeur de faux assignats, par le tribunal criminel du
département de l'Ain.
VERLING Marguerite, veuve Commet, domicilié à Vamerange
(Moselle), comme distributrice de faux assignats, par le tribunal
criminel dudit département.
Par le tribunal
révolutionnaire de Paris:
COLIN François, âgé de 54 ans, natif de Metz, ex
substitut du procureur du roi au ci-devant parlement de Metz, ex présidant
du tribunal criminel et administrateur du département, domicilié à
Ars-sur-Moselle.
LAVOISIER Antoine Laurent, ex fermier général, ex
noble âgé de 50 ans, né et domicilié à Paris, membre de la ci-devant
académie des sciences, régisseur des poudres et salpêtre, commissaire
à la trésorerie, comme complice de la conspiration des fermiers généraux
contre le peuple français en mettant dans le tabac, de l'eau et des
ingrédients nuisibles à la santé. Chimiste
français né à Paris le 26 août 1743, guillotiné à Paris le 8 mai 1794.
L'un des créateurs de la chimie moderne. On lui doit la nomenclature
chimique, la connaissance de la composition de l'eau et de l'air,
la découverte du rôle de l'oxygène dans les combustions et dans la
respiration animale, l'énoncé de la loi de conservation de la premières
mesures calorimétriques, Député suppléant, il fit partie de la commission
chargée d'établir le système métrique. Lavoisier fut exécuté avec
les fermiers généraux, en 1794, dont il faisait partie. A ceux qui
intervinrent en sa faveur, le tribunal répondit: “La Révolution
n'a pas besoin de savants.”
LOISELLIER Claude Françoise, ouvrière en modes, âgée
de 44 ans, née et domiciliée à Paris, comme convaincue d'avoir placardé
un écrit portant ces mots: “Peuple, vous qui êtres unis, grand
corps de citoyens, armez-vous donc de force et de courage pour sauver
la vie à ces innocents victimes que l'on fait périr tous les jours,
et faites finir la guillotine.”
SAUVAGE Jean, armurier et canonnier de la section
du Panthéon Français, âgé de 34 ans, natif de Boulang, domicilié à
Paris, , comme contre-révolutionnaire, ayant dit, en mettant la main
sur un bonnet blanc : “Voilà le bonnet que j'aime; pour le bonnet
rouge, je n'en veux pas;” qu'il irait en Angleterre pour se soustraire
à la révolution, que dans les armées on les faisait égorger, et qu'il
aimerait mieux être quillotiné que de repartir.
ENNOUF Félicité Mélanie, âgée de 21 ans, fille, marchande
de modes, née et domiciliée à Paris, pour avoir composé des écrits
et tenu des propos contre-révolutionnaires.
VIROLLE Marie Magdeleine, coiffeuse, âgée de 25 ans,
née à Angoulême, domiciliée à Paris, comme auteur d'écrits, dans lesquels,
les membres de la Convention et des autorités constituées étaient
traités de gueux.
LABUSSIERE Jacques Jean, ex noble et capitaine au
ci-devant régiment d'Auvergne, âgé de 54 ans, né à Angalien (Nièvre),
domicilié à Nevers, même département, comme complice d'un complot
qui a existé le 9 août 1792, de la part du dernier tyran roi et autre.
DREUX Jeanne, femme Lichy, âgée de 62 ans, native
de Sauvigny, département de l'Allier, ex noble, domiciliée à Cosne,
département de la Nièvre, comme contre-révolutionnaire.
DUCHESNE Jacques, âgé de 60 ans, ci-devant domestique,
facteur, militaire, natif de Verdun, domicilié à Chaillot (Seine),
comme contre-révolutionnaire.
DUVERNE M. Joséphine Thomassine Pacôme, âgée de 36
ans, né à Mingot, fille ex noble, domiciliée à Cosne (Nièvre), comme
contre-révolutionnaire. |
1793 CHARRIER Jacques,
laboureur et officier municipal domicilié à Salertaine (Vendée), condamné
à mort comme brigand de la Vendée, par la commission militaire séante aux
Sables.
1793 JICQUIAU Claude, cultivateur, domicilié à Ferel (Morbihan),
condamné à mort, par le tribunal criminel dudit département, comme contre-révolutionnaire.
1793 LAVAL Jacques, ex noble, domicilié à Meri (Orne),
condamné à mort, comme émigré, par le tribunal criminel du département de
l'Orne.
1705 Leopold I, 64, Emperor of Holy Roman Empire.
1601 Jacob-Willemsz Delff I, Dutch artist born in 1550.
|
On
a May 05: 
1789
Back in Brussels, Marx [< photo] wrote
