It commemorates the 185th anniversary of Rhode Island's Independence when, upon May 4, 1776, the General Assembly, by its action, established the first free republic in the New World.

On 20 May 1776 the British forces under the command of Lt. Clayton formally took their leave of Port Egmont, while leaving a plaque asserting Britain's continuing sovereignty over the islands.

In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after he failed to enact reforms.

* 1776 – First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War fought at Turtle Gut Inlet near Cape May, New Jersey

Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other colony.

Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776.

On May 15, 1776, the Convention declared Virginia's independence from the British Empire and adopted George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was then included in a new constitution.

* May 4 – Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general ( b. 1776 )

* May 25 – Samuel Ward, American politician ( d. 1776 )

Amherst was raised to the peerage on 14 May 1776, as Baron Amherst of Holmesdale.

On May 1, 1776 he passed a preliminary candidate exam for medicine, the equivalent of a bachelor's degree.

Originally settled by colonists at what had become the juncture of several plantation farms the name for the town itself comes from a land patent and resurvey granted by patent from the Lord proprietor's land office to James Sulivane in May 1776 just prior to the issuance of the American Declaration of Independence as " New Market.

Hessians occupied the town in 1776, and the British pillaged and razed the town during May and June 1778.

* Revolutionary Petition of Patriots ( May 1776 )

After heavy rains in May 2002, a collapse of the 1776 excavation shaft caused a hole to form in the top of the hill.

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Gentile: Gentiles May Not Be Taught the Torah, Rabbi Jacob Emden ( 1697 – 1776 ) claimed:

On 14 May 1774, when Toup was more than sixty years old, he was appointed by Bishop Keppel to a prebendal stall at Exeter and was admitted on 29 July 1776 to the vicarage of St. Merryn, the parish in which he had been partly educated.

Bunbury's divorce on the grounds of adultery was finally granted by Parliament on 14 May 1776.

On 20 May 1776, King George III, a long time admirer of hers, created her Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon in her own right.

* 20 May 1776 – death: The Rt Hon.

It was initially drafted by George Mason circa May 20, 1776 ; James Madison assisted him with the section on religious freedom.

* Virginia Declaration of Rights ( George Mason's Draft, 20-26 May 1776 )

* Virginia Declaration of Rights ( Committee Draft, 27 May 1776 )

* May 7-David Hume, philosopher ( died 1776 )

Obviously the commander-in-chief had confidence that Morgan would furnish him good intelligence too, for on the 23rd of May, he told Morgan that the British were prepared to move, perhaps in the night, and asked Morgan to have two of his best horses ready to dispatch to General Smallwood with the intelligence obtained.

Colonel Benjamin Ford wrote to Morgan from Wilmington that he understood a Mrs. Sanderson from Maryland had obtained permission from Smallwood to visit Philadelphia, and would return on May 26th, escorted by several officers from Maryland `` belonging to the new levies in the British service ''.

Game reserves have, however, been established in South Africa, British Central Africa, British East Africa, Somaliland, etc., while measures for the protection of wild animals were laid down in an international convention signed in May 1900.

Anne Brontë (; 17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849 ) was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.

From May 1943 onwards there was very close cooperation between the British and American military intelligence organisations.

The poor British performance in the early months of the war forced Asquith to invite the Conservatives into a coalition ( on 17 May 1915 ).

The British War Office did permit the formation of an Experimental Mechanized Force on 1 May 1927, composed of tanks, lorried infantry, self propelled artillery and motorized engineers, but financial constraints prevented the experiment from being extended.

However, the British and French also secretly concluded the Sykes – Picot Agreement on 16 May 1916.

A letter from Queen Elizabeth ( later the Queen Mother ), dated 17 May 1947, showed " her decided lack of enthusiasm for the socialist government " and describes the British electorate as " poor people, so many half-educated and bemused " for electing Attlee over Winston Churchill, whom she saw as a war hero.

Charles Robert Malden ( 9 August 1797 – 23 May 1855 ), was a nineteenth century British naval officer, surveyor and educator.

On 25 May 2006, the then British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was photographed by The Mail on Sunday playing croquet at his official residence, Dorneywood.

" Roache was the only remaining member of the original cast until Dennis Tanner ( Philip Lowrie ) returned on 12 May 2011, and is currently the longest-serving actor in Coronation Street and in British and global soap overall.

The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon follows the old single-track British Rail route for the most part, which was closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink.

The supplies of the 275 settlers were overwhelmed by 250 survivors of the wreck of the British East Indian Ship ATLAS in May, and the colony failed in October.

The summary of the diplomatic cable is as follows: " HMG would like to establish a " marine park " or " reserve " providing comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory ( BIOT ), a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office ( FCO ) official informed Polcouns on May 12.

) is a television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, then, by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969.

With British forces occupying much of the country, Sher Ali's son and successor, Mohammad Yaqub Khan, signed the Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879 to prevent a British invasion of the rest of the country.

On May 14, following the arrival of 100 men recruited by Arnold's captains, and the arrival of a schooner and some bateaux that had been taken at Skenesboro, Arnold and 50 of his men sailed north to raid Fort St. John, on the Richelieu River downstream from the lake, where a small British warship was reported by the prisoners to be anchored.

In late 1939 he brought the Duke of Windsor back from self-impodsed exile in France and in early May 1940, Mountbatten led a British convoy in through the fog to evacuate the Allied forces participating in the Namsos Campaign during the Norwegian Campaign.

All 16 police fatalities and 22 of the British soldiers killed were Irishmen British families came to Dublin Castle in May 1916 to reclaim the bodies and funerals were arranged.

It was rejected by British voters on May 6.