Today in history—May 15

1252: In his bull Ad exstirpanda, Pope Innocent IV authorises for the first time the use of torture—long routine in secular civil proceedings—in ecclesiastical courts.

1718: London lawyer James Puckle receives a patent for the first repeating rifle, which can fire nine shots a minute.  One version uses square bullets; it doesn’t catch on.

1862: President Lincoln signs the act creating the independent Bureau of Agriculture, which will later become the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

1869: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton create the National Woman Suffrage Association in New York City.

1886: Banker Theodore C. Sherwood and liquor magnate Hiram Walker agree to the sale of a cow named Rose.

1902: Future Mayor Richard Joseph Daley (DePaul Law 1933) is born near the south side stockyards in Chicago.

1905: One hundred and ten acres of land is auctioned off near some artestian springs that create a green meadow in the midst of the Nevada desert; the land will go on to become downtown Las Vegas (“the Meadows”).

1911: The United States Supreme Court holds that Standard Oil, which has 64 percent of the U.S. petroleum market, must be dismembered, thus creating what will become Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, and Chevron.

1919: The city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is paralyzed by what is perhaps the best-known general strike in Canadian history.

1928: Mickey and Minnie Mouse make their film debuts in Plane Crazy, a short animated film that bombs.  Success will later come with Steamboat Willie.

1934: The U.S. Department of Justice makes an offer for a unilateral contract when it puts a $25,000 reward on the head of John Dillinger.

1990: Vincent Van Gogh’s Portrait of Doctor Gachet sells for $82.5 million, or about $82.5 million more than he got for it.