Today in History, May 15th
On May 15, 1988, Soviet troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan. Plus the shooting of George Wallace and John Adams moves the government to D.C.
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May 15 is best known for 1988, when Soviet troops began pulling out of Afghanistan after roughly eight years of war. The date also saw Alabama Governor George Wallace shot and paralyzed at a campaign rally in 1972 and President John Adams order the federal government to move to Washington, D.C., in 1800.
The big story: The Soviets begin leaving Afghanistan (1988)
Soviet troops first rolled into Afghanistan in December 1979 to shore up a communist, pro-Moscow government that was losing ground to a rebellion at home. Thousands of soldiers and mountains of equipment followed. President Jimmy Carter answered with economic sanctions, stalled arms talks and a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. On the ground, the war bogged down. Afghan Muslim rebels kept fighting, neither side could land a decisive blow, and many in the West started calling it “Russia’s Vietnam.” Moscow never published its losses, but U.S. intelligence put Soviet deaths as high as 15,000, and the bill ran to billions of dollars the struggling Soviet economy could not spare. Mikhail Gorbachev came to see the war as a drain the country could no longer carry. On May 15, 1988, the first Soviet units began heading home. The rebels took control of Afghanistan in 1992.
More events on May 15
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 495 BCE | A temple to the Roman god Mercury was dedicated on Rome’s Aventine Hill. |
| 1765 | Britain’s Parliament passed the Quartering Act, setting rules for housing British soldiers in the American colonies. |
| 1800 | President John Adams ordered the federal government to move from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. |
| 1886 | Poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, Massachusetts. |
| 1928 | Mickey Mouse made his debut at a test screening of the silent short Plane Crazy. |
| 1941 | The first Allied jet-propelled aircraft flew over Cranwell, England. |
| 1942 | Gasoline rationing took effect in 17 eastern states during World War II. |
| 1972 | Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in Laurel, Maryland, and was left paralyzed. |
| 1982 | Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s “Ebony and Ivory” began a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. |
| 2003 | Country music star June Carter Cash died in Nashville. |
| 2009 | General Electric began its government-mandated cleanup of the Hudson River. |
Born on May 15
- 1859: Pierre Curie, French scientist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, born in Paris.
- 1923: Richard Avedon, American photographer, born in New York City.
- 1937: Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, born in Prague.
- 1969: Emmitt Smith, NFL running back and the league’s career rushing leader, born in Pensacola, Florida.
Sources
- Soviets begin withdrawal from Afghanistan, History.com
- This Day in History: May 15, History.com
- On This Day: May 15, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Emily Dickinson, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- June Carter Cash, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Pierre Curie, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Richard Avedon, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Madeleine Albright, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Emmitt Smith, Encyclopaedia Britannica
