May 15, 1940 German troops occupy Amsterdam. Queen Wilhelmina and her family escape to England and stay there until the Allied Forces defeat the Nazis.

May 16, 1945 The Nazi submarine U-234 surrenders to US forces at Portsmouth. It is bound for Tokyo with 10 containers of uranium oxide. The atomic material ends up in the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

May 17, 1426 The Portuguese government establishes the first maritime school in