c 1477 BCE- Israel leaves the Mt. Sinai area after spending almost a year in the wilderness. They resumed their journey when the pillar of cloud rose for the first time from over the Tabernacle - the divine sign that would signal the resumption of their travels throughout their encampments and journeys over the next 38 years, until they reached the eastern bank of the Jordan River on the eve of their entry into the Holy Land. If the Jews hadn't complained about the inhabitants of Canaan, they would have entered the Land of Israel immediately. As it was, they wandered in the desert for 40 years before entering the Land.
1288- Thirteen Jews in Troyes, France, were burned at the stake by the Inquisition. They were accused, in a blood libel, of the supposed murder of a Christian child. The thirteen Jews were chosen from among the richer members of the community. Jews were also killed in a blood libel in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on this date.
1474- Minister Pacheco used an attack he organized against “New Christians” as a diversion in an attempt to capture the citadel of Segovia (and perhaps the King). Although the plot was discovered in time, the Marranos were attacked anyway by an organized mob. Men, women and children were murdered.
May 14, 1637- The Jews of Venice, Italy, were denied the right to practice law or to act as advocates in the Courts of Venice.
May 15, 1800- A community of Jewish slaves, captured over a period of two centuries and held for ransom by the Knights of St. John on the island of Malta, was officially dissolved.
May 15, 1800- D.M. Dyte, an English Jew, saved the life of King George III of England. King George was attending a theater presentation, when a lunatic in the audience fired a gun pointblank at the king. Two bullets missed their target, passing harmlessly over the king's head. It was revealed that D.M. Dyte had struck the would-be assassin's arm as he pulled the trigger. As a reward, Dyte asked for (and was granted) a monopoly on the sale of opera tickets.
May 9, 1939- The Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center was opened on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem. The hospital, designed by renowned Bauhaus architect Erich Mendelssohn, opened as a modern, 300-bed academic medical facility.
May 7, 1942- The Nazis decreed the execution of all expectant Jewish women in the Kovno Ghetto.