May 31: The US Congress approves the Law on Copyright on condition of compliance with prior formalities such as registration, notification and payment of a fee, in 1790.

The Copyright Act of 1790 was the first federal copyright law that was instituted in the United States, although most states have passed various laws to ensure copyright in the years immediately after the War independence.

The stated purpose of the Act was the "Encouragement of Learning", and which is achieved by obtaining the authors' sole right and liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing and selling "copies of their" maps, letters and books "for a period of 14 years, with the right to renew for an additional 14 years if the holder of the copyright still alive. Otherwise it will go public.

The United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790.

May 30: Today is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1814 by virtue of which Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled on the island of Elba, and French Border returned to its origins before the French Revolution of 1789.

The bicentenary of the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815). Oxford Historical Treaties

The Treaty of Paris was signed on May 30, 1814 which ended the war between France and the Sixth Coalition formed by the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Portugal and Prussia. It also forced the abdication of Napoleon I, and also restored the Bourbon in the figure of Louis XVIII.

The boundaries set by the Congress of Vienna, 1815.

France also signed by the representative of Louis XVIII, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, better known as Talleyrand, accepting all the clauses of the Treaty.

The face of Defeat - Napoleon broods over the fall of Paris at Fontainebleau

The winning coalition (all Europe against Napoleon) ordered the Exile of Napoleon on the island of Elba and reinstated the monarchy in France at the head of Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI who was guillotined during the Revolution.

Map of Europe after the Treaty of Paris 1814

However, the victorious forces were aware of the possibility that France were to take over agreements with other states and with that in mind, the surrounding territories to France were reinforced. Those territories were called "buffer states" to block any future French attempt to conquer Europe again. These States were Belgium and the Netherlands, on the northeast; Switzerland, on the southeast; and the Kingdom of Sardinia, on the south.

Elba is the largest remaining stretch of land from the ancient tract that once connected the Italian peninsula to Corsica.

May 29: Today is the anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Turkish-Ottoman Empire ending the Eastern Roman Empire, in 1453. It is also the end of the Middle Age, and the start of Early Modern Age.

We recall that the final collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire based in Rome was in 476, Romulus Augustus being the last Roman emperor.

Siege of Constantinople from Bibliothèque nationale mansucript Français 9087 (folio 207 v). The Turkish army of Mehmet II attacks Constantinople in 1453. Some soldiers are pointing canons to the city and others are pulling boats to the Golden Horn. The city looks like quite gothic.

Constantine (called Constantine the Great) built the Western Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) and founded the capital resembling his name as Constantinople, since 330.

Conquest of Constantinople: Modern painting of Mehmed II and the Turkish-Ottoman Army approaching, by Fausto Zonaro 

With this defeat, disappears the Roman Empire which lasted about 1,500 years. The Turkish Sultan commanded by the young 21-year-old Mehmed II continued to advance into Europe.

Siege of Constantinople as depicted between 1453 and 1475.

Many Greek scholars migrated to Italy. It seems that the Greeks helped the flowering of the Renaissance of the modern age in Florence, Italy.

The Ottoman Turks renamed Constantinople by Istanbul, and established their new capital there. The Hagia Sophia (previously the Saint Sophia Cathedral) made it the largest and most beautiful Mosque in the world.

May 28: Today´s date is the anniversary of the end of the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, which produced the first Russian Revolution by the humiliating defeat they received from the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905).

The Battle of Tsushima in 1905 was the result of the rivalry between the empires of Russia and Japan. The Japanese destroyed the Russian fleet causing a humiliating defeat to Russia´s Empire of the Tsars. The rivalry came by the ambition to take over Manchuria and Korea. Indeed, the war lasted 18 months with an overwhelming Japanese victory that surprised the world observers.

The Revolution of 1868, driven by Emperor Meiji, produced innumerable changes in the cultural, economic, military, and social society in Japan. The Meiji Emperor ordered commissions to copy Western constitutions and progress. So he left behind the ostracism of the old Japanese nation.

The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905

Imperial Russia had been expanding from Poland to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the East. Additionally, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway scared Japan, which produced the declaration of war. That war was an outstanding lesson to the world. It was actually the beginning of the Russian revolutions against the totalitarian Tsarism, inefficient, and unable to understand democratic participation, which eventually led to the demise of the tsars.

Scene of the Battle of Tsushima

Consequently, the balance of power in East Asia was transformed with the emergence of Japan as a new military world power.

Russo japanese war 1904 1905 leonard a lauder collection of Japanese

May 27: The Piedmontese Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on the city of Palermo in Sicily, accompanied by his guerrilla "Thousand Red Shirts" in the struggle to unite Italy, in 1860.

Garibaldi, in a popular color lithograph.

Separatist movements in Sicily were the breeding ground for the expedition of the Thousand Red Shirts, supported by Camilo Benzo, Count of Cavour.

Expedition Garibaldi and his "Thousand Red Shirts"

At the head of his troop of volunteers, Garibaldi arrived in Marsala (after having sailed from Genoa), where he was received with enthusiasm by the rebels who thought that this would achieve the independence of Sicily. As a matter of fact, even some of these joined Garibaldi´s army of the Thousand Red Shirts.

Garibaldi and his army of Red Shirts, also called Expedition of the Thousand.

The Italian nationalism better known as “Risorgimento” (Resurgence) set their sights on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which comprised all of southern mainland Italy and Sicily.

Francesco II of the Two Sicilies

In 1860, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was ruled by the young king, Francisco II, son of Fernando II of the Spanish Borbons. By having a king with little authority and very repressive, the town was prone to rebel.

Provinces of Sicilly

On April 18, two days before Garibaldi arrives at Sicily in 1860, Count Cavour sent two ships of war to Sicily, ostensibly to protect the Piedmontese subjects present on the island, but it was actually for the amount of Bourbon troops and revolutionaries who were on the island.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, “The Sword” of the Italian Unification

May 26: Napoleon I assumed the title of King of Italy, and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, in 1805, in the Duomo di Milano, gothic cathedral of Milan.

It was on May 26, 1805 that the famed Corsican conqueror Napoleone Buonaparte was crowned “King of Italy” with the sacred Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan.

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France since 1804, endeavored to unite his Italian heritage with the Revolutionary and Imperial France. So he chose to be crowned King of Italy in 1805, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, in the Gothic Cathedral of Milan.

Kingdom of Italy in 1807, shown in yellow

The following year, Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and forced Franz II to abdicate to the imperial title but allowed him to wear the crown as king of Austria.

Kingdom of Italy in 1811, shown in pink

With the deposition of Napoleon I in 1814, until the Unification of Italy in 1861, there was no Italian monarch who assumed the title of King of Italy.

Napoleon I King of Italy

The “Risorgimento” (Resurgence) was the political movement that managed to unite Italy, and successfully established the dynasty of the House of Savoy that included Sardinia and the Two Sicilies (modern Sicily and Naples).

The monarchy was replaced by the Italian Republic after a referendum on June 2, 1946, and King Umberto II left the country.

May 25: President John F. Kennedy announced to a special session of Congress in 1961, that the USA is going to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and through the NASA Apollo program, and pledging to make the US not "first but, first and, first if, but first period."

President Kennedy delivers his proposal to put a man on the Moon before a joint session of Congress, May 25, 1961

The Programme or Project Apollo program was the third human spaceflight conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civil space agency for the United States. The program was responsible for the landing of the first humans on the moon in 1969.

John Houbolt (aerospace engineering) explaining the Lunar Orbit Rendevouz concept

During the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower began the space race against Union (USSR) Soviet Socialist Republics who launched the first spacecraft "Sputnik" to orbit Earth.

Apollo 11 crew, from left to right: Nail Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

The goal of President Kennedy was able to complete the mission of Apollo 11 when astronauts Nail Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in the Lunar Module on the Moon on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface while Michael Collins remained in orbit Moon in command of the spacecraft. The three astronauts landed safely on Earth four days later, on July 24, 1969.

Aldrin salutes the US flag

Five Apollo missions followed the program to complete six lunar landings in which 12 American astronauts landed on the moon in the terrestrial TV and walked collecting lunar material for scientific analysis until 1972.

After describing the lunar surface as "very fine grains ... almost like dust," Neil Armstrong descended from the Lunar Module "Eagle" and expressed his famous phrase: "That's one small step for a man but one giant leap for mankind."

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind", Neil Amstrong

Six and a half hours after landing, Buzz Aldrin joined Neil Armstrong and described the Moon as "A Magnificent Desolation".

May 24: Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha in 1822 which secured the independence of the then Royal Audience of Quito, Ecuador today.

The Battle of Pichincha was fought on the slopes of Pichincha volcano, near the city of Quito, under the command of the Venezuelan General Antonio José de Sucre, who entered the next day with his troops to the city of Quito.

Abdon Calderon, Ecudorean national hero.

Sucre agreed the surrender of the Spanish army established in the territory, and commanded by Marshal Melchor Aymerich.

Battle of Pichincha, 24 May 1822. Context of The Spanish American War of Independence.

Lieutenant Abdon Calderon was born in Cuenca, Ecuador in 1804, and 18 years old carried the flag with courage, and always with the glorious cry of Viva la Patria and ¡Viva la Independencia! He was shot to death and became in Ecuadorian history as a hero of Independence and young Lieutenant of Marshal Sucre.

National Holidays: 24th of May – Battle of Pichincha

With the victory of Pichincha Sucre facilitates the incorporation of the Gran Colombia Ecuador. Simón Bolívar is going to Quito and June 16th triumphantly entered the city to incorporate Ecuador to The Great Colombia.

Location of Ecuador in South America

“Sucre’s rag-tag army of approximately 1,700 consisted of a number of Ecuadorians, Colombians sent by Bolívar, a troop of British (mainly Scots and Irish), Spanish who had switched sides, and even some French. In February, they were reinforced by 1,300 Peruvians, Chileans and Argentines sent by San Martín.”

See: http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofecuador/p/battlepichincha.htm

May 23: The "spark" that ignites the conflict of the "Thirty Years' War" in 1618 was the Second Defenestration of Prague, today the capital of the Czech Republic.

The window (top floor) where the second defenestration occurred. 

The Czechs of Bohemia refused to recognize the new King Ferdinand of Styria. Since 1526, the Czechs were dependent on the Habsburg house that ruled the Holy Roman Empire. The Bohemians had chosen their favorite leader, Fredrich V, Elector of Palatine, who in turn was succeeded by Fredrich IV, founder of the League of Evangelical Union.

Añadir lethe Hradcany Castle in Prague

Well, when Emperor Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, sent two Catholic counselors (Martinitz and Slavata) as his representatives to the Hradcany Castle in Prague, on May 23, 1618, in order to prepare a visit and strengthen his royal dignity, Bohemian Calvinists seized both men and threw them through the Castle´s windows.

Second defenestration of Prague

“The Defenestration of Prague of 1618 (from the Latin word fenestra meaning window) refers to the ejection of two Catholic Imperial officials and their secretary out of the Prague Castle's window by the Bohemian Protestant nobles.”

Martinitz and Slavata were thrown from a top window of the castle.

Neither counselor died because they fell in a ditch cushioned by a long swamp that cushioned the fallen bodies. This violent attack made history as the "second defenestration of Prague" and constituted a challenge to Fernando II, thus starting war.

The counselors were seized and thrown from the windows by Czech noblemen.

May 22: Alexander The Great with his Macedonian army defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Granicus in the year 334 before Christ.

Aristotle  tutoring Alexander, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris     

The Battle of the Granicus River, near the present Ergili (Turkey) in May 334 BC. This was the first of the three major battles fought by Alexander the Great against the Persian Empire.

22^nd of May 334 BC

Alexander's army fought in northwest Asia Minor, near the site of Troy, was where Alexander defeated the forces of Persia and Persian satraps or governors in Asia Minor. (Satrap was the name given to the rulers of the Persian provinces).

The Battle of the Granicus River: Part of the wars of Alexander The Great.

After the assassination of King Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander, and accepting it as a leader and heir, he destroyed his enemies and executed. Then he launched into consolidating Greece and continued heading to Asia Minor, in 334 BC.

The Kingdom of Macedon in 336 BC.

Alexander's victory at the Battle of Granicus allowed to claim the domains of Asia Minor, which we call the Middle East today.

Statue of Alexander in Istambul Archeology Museum 

It is pertinent to recall that the Persian Empire, also called Achaemenid Empire stretched from the present territories of Afghanistan, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.