Barcelona wins European Cup Winners’ Cup
1997 - A first-half penalty coolly converted by Brazilian world Footballer of the Year Ronaldo gave Barcelona a deserved 1-0 win over holders Paris Saint Germain in an exciting European Cup Winners’ Cup final. The only goal of a match that could easily have finished with a bigger score line came after 37 minutes when Ronaldo picked himself up after being hauled down by Bruno N’Gotty in the box and wrong-footed PSG goalkeeper Bernard Lama from the spot. Ronaldo’s 33rd goal of the season proved enough to give Barcelona the cup for a record fourth time, condemned PSG to enter the record books as the eighth holders to fail to retain the trophy the following year and proved to N’Gotty how cruel the game of football can be.
May 14
1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation in England.
1811 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain.
1814 - Mayon Volcano erupts in the Philippines, killing approximately 1,200 people.
1904 - The first Olympic Games to be held in the United States open in St Louis, Missouri.
1913 - American philanthropist John D. Rockefeller establishes the Rockefeller Foundation to promote the worldwide well-being of mankind.
1921 - Fascists gain in Italian elections and bolster Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship.
1948 - British mandate in Palestine ends and an independent state of Israel is formed.
1955 - Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union form the Warsaw Pact.
1963 - Kuwait joins the United Nations.
1964 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev opens Aswan Dam in Egypt.
1988 - Iraqi fighter jets attack and set ablaze five ships at an Iran offshore oil-loading terminal.
1989 - Carlos Saul Menem wins the presidential election in Argentina.
1992 - Intense fighting in Sarajevo traps 350 United Nations personnel in the Bosnian city.
1996 - A severe tornado kills more than 450 in Bangladesh.
1997 - Nato and Russia strike a deal on forging a peaceful new relationship between the former Cold War enemies.
2010 - Thai troops open fire on rioting demonstrators, turning Bangkok’s commercial district into a bloody battlefield.
2015 - Blues legend BB King dies at the age of 89.
