May 02
1519: Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.
1863: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was accidently shot by one of his own men during the battle of Chancellorsville (Virginia). He died eight days later.
1885: Good Housekeeping magazine first published.
1890: Oklahoma Territory was organized.
1932: Jack Benny's first radio show made it debut on NBC's Blue Network.
1965: The Early Bird satellite was used to transmit television pictures acrosss the Atlantic.
1972: J. Edgar Hoover died.
1983: Official groundbreaking for the Devil's Gate Viaduct on the Georgetown Loop in Georgetown, Colorado.
May 03
1802: Washington D.C. was incorporated as a city.
1921: West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.
1927: MEB born in Sperry, Oklahoma.
1937: Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Gone with the Wind.
1947: Doug Henning born.
May 04
1626: The Dutch explorer Peter Minuit lands on Manhattan Island. Later, he "buys" it for $24.00 worth of trinkets.
1776: Rhode Island declares its freedom from England two months before the Declaration of Independence is signed.
1886: During the Haymarket Square labor demonstration for an eight hour work day in Chicago, a riot ensues after a bomb explodes.
1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is founded.
1932: Al Capone, convicted of income tax evasion, enters the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
1970: Four people are killed at Kent State.
May 05
1494: During his second voyage, Christopher Columbus first sights Jamaica.
1813: Soren Kierkegard is born.
1818: Karl Marx is born.
1821: Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena.
1862: Cinco de Mayo: Outnumbered three to one, Mexicans still defeat the French in the Battle of Puebla.
1891: Carnegie Hall opens in New York. There is a concert conducted by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Walter Damrosch.
1903: James Beard is born.
1925: John T. Scopes is arrested in Tennessee for teaching evolution.
1961: Alan B. Shephard, Jr. becomes America's first man in space.
May 06
1840: England introduces its first postage stamp.
1856: Sigmund Freud is born.
1882: Congress overrides President Chester Arthur's veto, and passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, which bans Chinese immigrants from the US for ten years. Similar acts are passed in 1892 and 1902.
1889: The Paris Exposition opens. It features the newly completed Eiffel Tower.
1891: The White House has electrical wiring added for the first time.
1915: Theodore H. White is born.
1915: Boston Red Sox player Babe Ruth hits his first major-league home run.
1935: The WPA (Works Progress Administration) begins operations.
1937: The Hindenberg crashes in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 of the 97 on board.
1954: Roger Bannister breaks the four-minute mile barrier at Oxford, England.
1962: For the first time, a Polaris missile armed with a nuclear warhead is fired (and detonted) above the Pacific Ocean from the USS Ethan Allen.
May 07
1812: Poet Robert browning born in London, England.
1833: Composer Johannes Brahms born in Hamburg.
1840: Composer Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky born in Ural Region of Russia.
1847: The American Medical Association founded in Philadelphia.
1915: A German torpedo sand the British liner Lusitania, killing 1,200.
1943: The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, published.
1975: President Ford declared an end to the "Vietnam era."
May 08
1899: Friedrich August von Hayek born in Vienna, Austria.
1943: The Foiuntainhead, by Ayn Rand published.
1945: V-E Day. War ended with Germany.
May 09
1502: Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain in his fourth and final voyage.
1754: The first American newspaper cartoon was published. Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections, each section representing an American colony. The caption declared, "Join or die."
1865: Civil War ends. Estimates are that nearly 500,000 died.
1913: The 17th Amendment (election of Senate by popular vote) ratified.
1926: TLB born in Oilton, Oklahoma.
1926: Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to make an airplane flight over the north pole.
1960: The FDA approves the sale of birth control pills.
1961: At a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters, FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow declared that television programming was a "vast wasteland."
1974: The House Judiciary Committee begins hearings on the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
May 10
1818: Paul Revere died in Boston, Mass.
1865: Union forces capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Georgia.
1869: The Central Pacific Railroad's "Jupiter" and the Union Pacific's #119 touched pilots at Promontory, Utah.
1908: First Mother's Day observed.
1919: Hostess Cup Cake is introduced.
1924: J. Edgar Hoover is given job as director of the FBI.
1940: Neville Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill formed a new government.
1968: Preliminary peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam begin in Paris.
May 11
1858: Minnesota became the 32nd state.
1888: Irving Berlin born.
1904: Salvador Dali born.
1910: Glacier National Park established.
1947: The BF Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces tubeless tires.
1949: Israel admitted to the United Nations as the 59th member.
1949: Siam changed its name to Thailand.
May 12
1820: Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, born.
1932: The body of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded area of Hopewell, New Jersey.
1949: Berlin blockade ended as the Soviet Union announced the reopening of East German land routes.
1978: The Commerce Department announced that hurricanes would no longer be named exclusively after women.
2000: Roger A. Morse, famous beekeeper/writer, died at age 72.
May 13
1607: The English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, is founded.
1842: Composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, who collaborated with Sir William Gilbert in fourteen comic operas, is born in London, England.
1907: Daphne du Maurier born.
1918: First airmail stamps in US introduced.
1940: Churchill declares, in a speech: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
May 14
1643: Louis XIV becomes King of France (at age 4).
1787: Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia to draw up a Constitution.
1796: Dr. Edward Jenner administered the first small pox vaccine in England.
1804: Lewis and Clark leave St. Louis on the start of their famous Expedition.
1887: Lysander Spooner dies at age 79.
1942: The WACS (Women Auxiliary Army Corps) is established.
1944: George Lucas born.
1048: The nation of Israel is proclaimed in Tel Aviv.
1973: Skylab 1, the first manned space station, is launched.
1997: Harry Blackstone, Jr. dies at age 62.
May 15
1886: Poet Emily Dickinson dies in Amherst, Mass.
1911: The US Supreme Court orders the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1918: US airmail begins service between Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
1930: Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, goes on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
1940: Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States.
1948: Hours after it declares its independence, Israel is attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
1955: Actor Lee Horsley (Ethan Cord of Paradise) born.
1958: USSR launches Sputnik 3.
1972: George Wallace is shot in Laurel, Maryland.
1988: USSR begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
May 16
1770: Marie Antoinette, age 14, marries the future King Louis XVI, age 15.
1866: Congress authorizes minting of a five-cent piece.
1868: The US Senate, by one vote, fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson.
1905: Henry Fonda born in Grand Island, Nebraska.
1912: Studs Terkel born.
1920: Joan of Arc cannonized in Rome.
1929: The first Academy Awards are held. Wings wins best production.
1988: Sugeon General C. Everett Koop declares nicotine addictive.
1990: Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, dies.
1990: Sammy Davis, Jr. dies.
2008: Robert Mondavi, California wine genius, dies in Napa Valley, California, at age 94.
May 17
1792: The New York Stock Exchange is founded under a tree on what is now Wall Street.
1875: The first Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky.
1877: Edwin Holmes, owner of a burglar alarm company in Boston, adds phones to his system.
1937: Hormel Foods, registered the mystery food "Spam" as a trademark.
1947: B.F. Goodrich announced the development of the tubeless tire.
1948: The USSR recognizes Israel.
1954: The US Supreme Court issues Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
1973: The Senate Select Committee opens the Watergate Hearings.
May 18
May 19
1536: Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, was beheaded.
1598: The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon tgo England.
1935: TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) died in England after a motorcycle crash.
1967: The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outerspace.
2002: Walter Lord, author, died at age 84. Lord wrote "A Night to Remember, among many other books.
May 20
1506: Christopher Columbus dies in poverty in Spain.
1799: Honore de Balzac born.
1899: First driver is arressted (and jailed) for speeding.
1908: James Steward born.
1927: Charles Lindberg begins his flight the the Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, across the Atlantic.
1932: Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1939: Regular transatlantic air service begins as a Pan American Airways plane takes off from Port Washington, New York, headed for Europe.
1946: Cher born.
2002: Stephen Jay Gould, author/scientist dies of cancer at age age 60.
May 21
1688: Alexander Pope born.
1832: First Democratic National Convention begins in Baltimore. Andrew Jackson is nominated for a second term.
1881: Clara Barton forms the American Red Cross.
1927: Charles Lindberg lands near Paris, 33- 1/2 hours after leaving the US.
1956: US explodes first airborn hydrogen bomb over the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1941: German U-boat sinks the American freighter SS Robin Moore in the South Atlantic.
May 22
1761: The first life insurance policy in the United States is issued in Philadelphia, Pa.
1859: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle born.
1868: The Great Train Robbery takes place in Indiana. $98,000 is stolen.
1893: Composer Richard Wagner born in Leipzig, Germany.
1907: Laurence Olivier born.
1939: Hilter and Mussolini sign Pact of Steel, committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance.
May 23
1430: Joan of Arc captured by the Burgundians, who sell her to the English.
1701: Captain Kidd is hanged in London for piracy and murder.
1788: South Carolina becomes the eighteenth state to ratify the Constitution.
1873: Canada's Northwest Mounted Police Force is established.
1934: Bonnie & Cldye are shot to death in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
1937: John D. Rockefeller dies.
May 24
1819: Queen Victoria born in London.
1830: The first passenger railroad service in the US begins between Baltimore and Elliott's Mall, Maryland.
1844: Samuel Morse transmits words, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington to Baltimore, as he formally opens the first telegraph line in the US.
1883: Brooklyn Bridge opens.
1941: Bob Dylan born.
1941: Bismark sinks Hood in North Atlantic.
May 25
1787: The Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia.
1803: Ralph Waldo Emerson born in Boston, Mass.
1925: John T. Scopes is arrested in Tennessee for teaching evolution.
1926: Miles Davis born.
1935: Babe Ruth hits his 714th (and final) home run for the Boston Braves against the Pittsburg Pirates at Forbes Field.
1961: John F. Kennedy declares that the US will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
1977: Star Wars opens nationwide.
1986: An estimated seven million individuals participate in the "Hands Across America" campaign against hunger.
May 26
1521: Martin Luther is banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.
1805: Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy.
1868: Andrew Johnson is acquitted by the Senate when the vote fee one short of the necessary two-thirds vote.
1940: Allied evacuations from Dunkirk, France, begins.
May 27
1647: This is the first recorded execution of an alleged witch in the Colonies. The accused is hanged, not burned.
1818: Amelia Jenks Bloomer (after whom the garments called "bloomers" are named) born in Homer, New York.
1837: American gunfighter and frontiersman Wild Bill Hickok is born in Troy Gove, Illinois.
1907: Rachael Carson born.
1912: John Cheever born.
1925: Tony Hillerman born.
1930: John Barth born.
1935: US Supreme Court strikes down the National Industrial Recovery Act.
1937: The Golden Gate bridge opens.
1941: The Bismark sinks after a naval engagement that began of May 24th.
1964: The first prime minister of India, Jawaharal Nehru, dies.
May 28
1892: The Sierra Club is organized in San Francisco, California.
1908: Ian Fleming born.
1929: The first talkie filmed entirely in color, On with the Show, opened in New York
1940: Belgian army surrenders to Nazi Germany.
1987: Mathias Rust, 19 year old German, landed in airplane in the middle of Red Square.
May 29
1453: The Capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, falls to Turks.
1736: Patrick Henry born.
1765: Patrick Henry denounces the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses. When some of those present cry "Treason, treason," Henry replies: "If this be treason, make the most of it!"
1790: Rhode Island becomes 13th state to ratify the US Constitution.
1848: Wisconsin becomes the 30th state.
1874: G.K. Chesterton born.
1903: Bob Hope born.
1906: T.H. White born.
1917: John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the US, born in Brookline, Mass.
1953: Edmund Hillary of New Zealnad climbs Mount Everest.
May 30
1431: Joan of Arc is burned at the stake for the crime of being a heretic.
1539: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto lands in what is now Florida.
1909: Benny Goodman born.
1922: The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.
1925: Actor Clint Walker born.
1958: The Unknown Soldiers of WWII and Korea are buried in Arlington.
May 31
1790: First US Copyright law is passed.
1809: Composer Franz Joseph Haydn dies in Vienna.
1818: Walt Whitman born in West Hill, New York.
1889: More than 2,000 people perished when as a dam broke, sending water roaring through Johnstown, Penn.
1907: First taxi's arrive in US from France.
1930: Clint Eastwood born.
1962: Adolf Eichmann, Gestapo officer, is hanged in Israel.
1977: The Trans-Alaska pipeline is completed after three years of construction.
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