Today is Monday, May 16, the 136th day of 2011. There are 229 days left in the year.
1532 ― Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor
1571 ― Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, is conceived at 4:37 a.m.
1763 ― Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
1770 ― Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France
1860 ― Republican convention (Chicago) selects Abraham Lincoln candidate
1881 ― World's first electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
1920 ― Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) canonized a saint in Rome
1975 ― Japanese Junko Tabei became first woman to reach Mt. Everest's summit
1985 ― Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year
1989 ― Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing