May/
1:
THE BATTLE OF MANILA BAY:
May 1, 1898
At Manila Bay in the Philippines, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the Spanish-American War. Nearly 400 Spanish sailors were killed and 10 Spanish warships wrecked or captured at the cost of only six Americans wounded.
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May/
1:
Events that occurred on this day:
1851 Great Exhibition opens
1931 Empire State Building dedicated
1963 An American tops Everest
1997 Labour party returns to power in Britain
1902 Petrol Loco
1863 Battle of Chancellorsville begins
1960 American U-2 spy plane shot down
1973 Lie detector test is used, but not admissible
1941 Citizen Kane premieres
1923 Joseph Heller is born
1852 Calamity Jane is born
1972 North Vietnamese troops capture Quang Tri
1830 Mother Jones
1887 Alan G. Cunningham, British liberator of Ethiopia, is born
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May/
2:
LOCH NESS MONSTER SIGHTED:
May 2, 1933
Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier related an account of a local couple who claimed to have seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface."
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May/
2:
Events that occurred on this day:
1670 Hudson's Bay Company chartered
1808 Madrid revolts against French rule
1972 End of an era at the FBI
1972 Burn, Buddy, Burn
1863 Jackson flanks Hooker at Chancellorsville
1957 Joseph McCarthy dies
1924 A grisly crime leads to rubber gloves
1932 Jack Benny debuts as radio host
1936 Manuscript of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Conversations at Midnight destroyed in hotel fire
1874 John B. Jones becomes Major in Texas Rangers
1970 Joint forces continue attack into Cambodia
1985 Big Firm, Big Swindle
1945 German troops in Italy surrender to the Allies, while Berlin surrenders to Russia's Zhukov.
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May/
3:
NEW JAPANESE CONSTITUTION ENACTED:
May 3, 1947
Japan's postwar constitution goes into effect. The progressive constitution granted universal suffrage, stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power, stipulated a bill of rights, abolished peerage, and outlawed Japan's right to make war. The document was largely the work of Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur and his occupation staff, who had prepared the draft in February 1946 after a Japanese attempt was deemed unacceptable.
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May/
3:
Events that occurred on this day:
1946 Japanese war crimes trial begins
1952 Fletcher lands on the North Pole
1987 The Allisons of Talledega
1863 Confederates take Hazel Grove at Chancellorsville
1951 Congressional hearings on General MacArthur
1992 Exxon executive is murdered
1937 Gone With the Wind wins Pulitzer Prize
1810 Lord Byron swims the Hellespont
1859 Cowboy author Andy Adams is born
1965 173rd Airborne Brigade deploys to South Vietnam
1933 Ross Takes the Reins of the Money Factory
1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea begins
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May/
4:
The Creator of GiGfoot was Born on this Day:
The Creator of GiGfoot was Born on this Day in 1971. True was his given name and he weighed in at 32lbs, 8oz.. He was the first BiGfoot born into captivity. It was reported by Mrs. BiGfoot, that her son's first word was GiG, not Goo. Mrs. BiGfoot also reports that her son was pounding on a computer before he learned to walk. Please join us in wishing him a GiG "Happy Birthday"!
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May/
4:
MARGARET THATCHER SWORN IN:
May 4, 1979
Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, is sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister. The Oxford-educated chemist and lawyer was sworn in the day after the Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in general parliamentary elections.
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May/
4:
Events that occurred on this day:
1886 The Haymarket Square Riot
1970 Four dead in Ohio
1920 Miller Time
1864 Army of the Potomac crosses the Rapidan
1980 Tito dies
1886 A riot breaks out in Haymarket Square
1929 Audrey Hepburn's birthday
1948 Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published
1847 Jack Slade joins the army
1970 Four students killed at Kent State
1930 1,028 Economists Can't Be Wrong
1945 As the Nazi threat dies, the Red Army rises
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May/
5:
IRA'S BOBBY SANDS DIES:
May 5, 1981
Imprisoned Irish-Catholic militant Bobby Sands dies after refusing food for 66 days in protest of his treatment as a criminal rather than a political prisoner by British authorities. His death immediately touched off widespread rioting in Belfast, as young Irish-Catholic militants clashed with police and British Army patrols and started fires.
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May/
5:
Events that occurred on this day:
1821 Napoleon dies in exile
1862 Cinco de Mayo
1945 Six killed in Oregon by Japanese bomb
1961 The first American in space
1914 Cannonball's Run
1864 Grant and Lee clash in the Wilderness forest
1955 Allies end occupation of West Germany
1990 An inhumane execution sparks a new debate
1936 Bette Davis wins Oscar
1816 The Examinerpublishes John Keats' first poem
1877 Sitting Bull leads his people into Canada
1972 North Vietnamese turn back South Vietnamese relief column
1895 Silver Strike in the House
1941 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returns to his capital
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May/
6:
FIRST FOUR-MINUTE MILE:
May 6, 1954
In Oxford, England, 25-year-old medical student Roger Bannister cracks track and field's most notorious barrier: the four-minute mile. Bannister, who was running for the Amateur Athletic Association against his alma mater, Oxford University, won the mile race with a time of 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.
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May/
6:
Events that occurred on this day:
1937 The Hindenburg disaster
1994 English Channel tunnel opens
1928 DeSoto Also Rises
1864 Grant and Lee continue fighting in the Wilderness
1992 Gorbachev reviews the Cold War
1876 The theft of Duchess of Devonshire stirs interest
1955 Grace Kelly meets Prince Rainier
1940 John Steinbeck wins a Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath
1911 Hangman George Maledon dies
1972 South Vietnamese defenders hold on to An Loc
1935 America Goes Back to Work
1942 All American forces in the Philippines surrender unconditionally
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May/
7:
Events that occurred on this day:
1763 Pontiac's Rebellion begins
1954 French defeated at Dien Bien Phu
1967 Snake Attack
1864 Grant leaves the Wilderness for Spotsylvania
1960 Brezhnev becomes president of the USSR
1896 A serial killer is hanged to death
1947 Kraft Television Theater debuts
1812 Robert Browning is born
1901 Gary Cooper is born
1954 French fall to Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu
1998 The DaimlerChrysler Deal
1945 Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at Reims
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May/
7:
LUSITANIA SINKS:
May 7, 1915
On the afternoon of this day, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The attack aroused considerable indignation in the United States, but Germany defended the action, noting that it had issued warnings of its intent to attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.
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May/
8:
DE SOTO REACHES THE MISSISSIPPI:
May 8, 1541
South of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, one of the first European explorers to ever do so. After building flatboats, de Soto and his 400 ragged troops crossed the great river under the cover of night, in order to avoid the armed Native Americans who patrolled the river daily in war canoes. From there the conquistadors headed into present-day Arkansas, continuing their fruitless two-year-old search for gold and silver in the American wilderness.
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May/
8:
Events that occurred on this day:
1973 AIM occupation of Wounded Knee ends
1984 Soviets to boycott L.A. Olympics
1956 Ford's Foundation
1864 Lee beats Grant to Spotsylvania
1984 Soviets announce boycott of 1984 Olympics
1988 Two die after being poisoned with cyanide-laced Excedrin
1914 Paramount Pictures formed
1899 Yeats' The Countess Cathleen opens at the Irish Literary Theatre
1846 Zachary Taylor fights the Battle of Palo Alto
1972 Mining of North Vietnamese harbors is announced
1974 Shultz Steps Down
1945 V-E Day is celebrated in American and Britain-the war in Europe is over
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May/
9:
ALDO MORO FOUND DEAD:
May 9, 1978
The body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro is found, riddled by bullets, in the back of a car in the center of historic Rome. He was kidnapped by Red Brigade terrorists on March 16 after a bloody shoot-out near his suburban home. The Italian government refused to negotiate with the extreme left-wing group, which, after numerous threats, executed Moro on May 9. He was a five-time prime minister of Italy and considered a front-runner for the presidency of Italy in elections due in December.
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May/
9:
Events that occurred on this day:
1671 Captain Blood steals crown jewels
1926 Byrd flies over the North Pole?
1960 FDA approves the pill
1997 Former POW is ambassador to Vietnam
1970 Remembering Walter
1864 Union troops take Snake Creek Gap, Georgia
1955 West Germany joins NATO
1986 A serial rapist begins his spree
1971 Last Honeymooners episode
1860 James Barrie is born
1887 Buffalo Bill's Wild West show opens
1974 House votes to initiate impeachment proceedings
1977 Saving Social Security
1945 Herman Goering is captured by the U.S. Seventh Army
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May/
10:
NELSON MANDELA INAUGURATED:
May 10, 1994
In South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is sworn in as the first black president of South Africa. In his inaugural address, Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life as a political prisoner of the South African government, declared that "the time for the healing of the wounds has come." Two weeks earlier, more than 22 million South Africans had turned out to cast ballots in the country's first-ever multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) party to lead the country.
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May/
10:
Events that occurred on this day:
1865 Jefferson Davis captured
1869 Transcontinental railroad completed
1940 Churchill becomes prime minister
1841 Bennett's Beginnings
1863 Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson dies
1990 China releases Tiananmen Square prisoners
1924 J. Edgar Hoover begins his legacy with the FBI
1954 "Rock Around the Clock" released
1749 The final volume of Tom Jones is published
1869 First transcontinental railroad is completed
1969 Operation Apache Snow is launched
1837 The Panic of 1837
1940 As Germany invades Holland and Belgium, Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Great Britain
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May/
11:
Events that occurred on this day:
1812 British prime minister assassinated
1858 Minnesota enters the Union
1997 Deep Blue beats Kasparov
1946 Ferrari's First Race
1864 Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart is mortally wounded
1988 Kim Philby dies
1949 The Queen of Poisoners takes her toll
1988 Irving Berlin's 100th birthday celebration
1942 Go Down, Moses, by William Faulkner, is published
1896 Western writer Mari Sandoz is born
1969 Paratroopers battle for "Hamburger Hill"
1894 The Pullman Car Strike
1944 Allies attack the Gustav line in drive for Rome
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May/
11:
BUTCHER OF LYON ON TRIAL:
May 11, 1987
Klaus Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, goes on trial in Lyon more than four decades after the end of World War II. He was charged with 177 crimes against humanity.
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May/
12:
BERLIN BLOCKADE LIFTED:
May 12, 1949
An early crisis of the Cold War comes to an end when the Soviet Union lifts its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin's two million citizens.
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May/
12:
Events that occurred on this day:
1937 George VI crowned at Westminster
1970 Blackmun confirmed to Supreme Court
1957 The Fabulous Foyt
1864 Bloody day at the Bloody Angle
1975 American ship Mayaguez seized
1985 A raid is set for MOVE headquarters
1964 Barbra Streisand wins Grammy
1828 Poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti is born
1832 Fur trader William Sublette heads west
1961 Lyndon B. Johnson visits South Vietnam
1902 John Mitchell and the Mine Strike of 1902
1941 Hitler backs Rashid Ali in his fight against Britain
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May/
13:
POPE JOHN PAUL II SHOT:
May 13, 1981
Near the start of his weekly general audience in Rome's St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded while passing through the square in an open car. The assailant, 23-year-old escaped Turkish murderer Mehmet Ali Agca, fired four shots, one of which hit the pontiff in the abdomen, narrowly missing vital organs, and another that hit the pope's left hand. A third bullet struck 60-year-old American Ann Odre in the chest, seriously wounding her, and the fourth hit 21-year-old Jamaican Rose Hill in the arm. Agca's weapon was knocked out of his hand by bystanders, and he was detained until his arrest by police. The pope was rushed by ambulance to Rome's Gemelli Hospital, where he underwent more than five hours of surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition.
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May/
13:
Events that occurred on this day:
1568 Mary Queen of Scots defeated
1607 Jamestown founded
1980 Union On The Board
1863 Grant moves on Jackson, Mississippi
1958 Vice President Nixon is attacked
1981 Pope John Paul II is shot
1898 Edison sues Biograph
1907 Daphne Du Maurier, author of Rebecca, is born
1975 The inventor of western swing dies
1972 Heavy fighting continues at Quang Tri and Kontum
1998 Kmart's Comeback
1940 Churchill announces: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
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May/
14:
STATE OF ISRAEL PROCLAIMED:
May 14, 1948
In Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words "We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel," prompting applause and tears from the crowd gathered at the museum. Ben-Gurion became Israel's first premier.
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May/
14:
Events that occurred on this day:
1796 Jenner tests smallpox vaccine
1804 Lewis and Clark depart
1904 First American Olympiad
1973 Skylab launched
1960 Mr. Speed
1864 The Battle of Resaca, Georgia, begins
1955 The Warsaw Pact is formed
1948 A brutal murder begins an unusual investigation
1944 George Lucas born
1842 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, publishes his popular volume Poems
1861 William Fetterman joins the U.S. Army
1969 President Nixon responds to National Liberation Front proposal
1884 Taming the Trusts
1943 United States and Britain plan Operation Pointblank
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May/
15:
FIRST ALLIED JET FLIES:
May 15, 1941
The jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 aircraft flies successfully over Cranwell, England, in the first test of an Allied aircraft using jet propulsion. The aircraft's turbojet engine, which produced a powerful thrust of hot air, was devised by Frank Whittle, an English aviation engineer and pilot generally regarded as the father of the jet engine.
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May/
15:
Events that occurred on this day:
1756 The Seven Years War begins
1963 The flight of Faith 7
1972 Governor George Wallace shot
1981 Twenty Million Bugs
1864 Battle of New Market, Virginia
1988 Soviets begin withdrawal from Afghanistan
1976 A young woman and her married lover kill her family
1964 The Smothers Brothers debut
1890 Katherine Anne Porter is born
1856 Second vigilante committee organizes in San Francisco
1967 U.S. positions south of the DMZ come under heavy fire
1882 The Skinny on Tariffs
1942 Legislation creating the Women's Army Corps becomes law
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May/
16:
PROTESTS MOUNT IN FRANCE:
May 16, 1968
In France, the May 1968 crisis escalates as a general strike spreads to factories and industries across the country, shutting down newspaper distribution, air transport, and two major railroads. By the end of the month, millions of workers were on strike, and France seemed to be on the brink of radical leftist revolution.
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May/
16:
Events that occurred on this day:
1770 Louis marries Marie Antoinette
1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising ends
1975 Japanese woman scales Everest
1956 House Of Style
1863 Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi
1960 U.S.-Soviet summit meeting collapses
1975 A nurse steals another woman's unborn baby
1990 Jim Henson dies
1717 Voltaire is imprisoned in the Bastille
1881 Outlaw Dick Fellows is released
1968 Navy Corpsman receives Medal of Honor for action
1886 And Now for The Nickel
1943 As Brits launch Operation Chastise, Germans launch Operation Gypsy Baron
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May/
17:
HEYERDAHL SAILS PAPYRUS BOAT:
May 17, 1970
Norwegian ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl and a multinational crew set out from Morocco across the Atlantic Ocean in Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after ancient Egyptian sailing vessels. Heyerdahl was attempting to prove his theory that Mediterranean civilizations sailed to America in ancient times and exchanged cultures with the people of Central and South America. The Ra II crossed the 4,000 miles of ocean to Barbados in 57 days.
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May/
17:
Events that occurred on this day:
1954 Brown v. Board of Education
1973 Televised Watergate hearings begin
1994 So Long, Al
1863 Battle of Big Black River, Mississippi
1990 Gorbachev meets with Lithuanian prime minister
1974 LAPD raid leaves six SLA members dead
1992 Lawrence Welk dies
1873 Dorothy Richardson, pioneer of stream of consciousness, is born
1885 Geronimo flees Arizona reservation
1970 Operations continue in Cambodia
1792 Under the Buttonwood Tree
1943 The Memphis Belle flies its 25th bombing mission
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May/
18:
MOUNT ST. HELENS ERUPTS:
May 18, 1980
At 8:32 a.m. PDT, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffers a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.
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May/
18:
Events that occurred on this day:
1860 Lincoln nominated for presidency
1898 Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson
1974 India joins the nuclear club
1990 Cadillac Man
1863 The siege of Vicksburg commences
1989 One million protesters take to the streets in Beijing
1926 Popular evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears
1927 Grauman's Chinese Theater opens
1593 Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe
1871 Chief Satanta massacres teamsters
1966 Laird charges
1908 In God We Trust
1943 Hitler gives the order for Operation Alaric
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May/
19:
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA DIES:
May 19, 1935
T.E. Lawrence, known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia, dies as a retired Royal Air Force mechanic living under an assumed name. The legendary war hero, author, and archaeological scholar succumbed to injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident six days before
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May/
19:
Events that occurred on this day:
1588 Spanish Armada sets sail
1749 Ohio Company chartered
1991 Racing Against Racism
1864 Battle of Spotsylvania concludes
1967 Soviets ratify treaty banning nuclear weapons from outer space
1715 The early years of species protection
1960 Alan Freed arrested
1897 Oscar Wilde is released from jail
1836 Cynthia Ann Parker is kidnapped
1972 South Vietnamese fight to open road to An Loc
1828 The Tariff of Abominations
1943 Churchill and FDR plot D-Day
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May/
20:
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DIES:
May 20, 1506
The great Italian explorer Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain. Columbus was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century. He explored the West Indies, South America, and Central America, but died a disappointed man, feeling he had been mistreated by his patron, King Ferdinand of Spain.
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May/
20:
Events that occurred on this day:
1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India
1862 The Homestead Act
1927 Spirit of St. Louis departs
1969 Battle for Hamburger Hill ends
1996 Supreme Court defends rights of homosexuals
1961 Sweet Chariot
1862 Union Congress passes the Homestead Act
1956 United States drops hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll
1992 The "Long Island Lolita" is arrested
1922 Valentino arrested for bigamy
1946 W.H. Auden becomes a U.S. citizen
1873 Levi Strauss patents copper-riveted jeans
1969 Kennedy criticizes the "Hamburger Hill" battle
1996 Big Business Battles Big Damage Awards
1940 Germans break through to English Channel at Abbeville, France
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May/
21:
LINDBERGH LANDS IN PARIS:
May 21, 1927
American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. His single-engine monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, had lifted off from Roosevelt Field in New York 33 1/2 hours before.
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May/
21:
Events that occurred on this day:
1542 De Soto dies in the American wilderness
1881 American Red Cross founded
1932 Earhart completes transatlantic flight
1950 The Old Man
1863 The Siege of Port Hudson begins
1988 Gorbachev consolidates power
1924 Leopold and Loeb gain national attention
1945 Bogart and Bacall marry
1910 Serialization of Colette's The Vagabond begins
1539 Black Spanish explorer Estevan is reported killed
1969 Military spokesman defends "Hamburger Hill"
1898 From Russia With Love: The Life and Times of Armand Hammer
1940 Nazis kill "unfit" people in East Prussia
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May/
22:
THE WAR OF THE ROSES:
May 22, 1455
In the opening battle of England's War of the Roses, the Yorkists defeat King Henry VI's Lancastrian forces at St. Albans, 20 miles northwest of London. Many Lancastrian nobles perished, including Edmund Beaufort, the duke of Somerset, and the king was forced to submit to the rule of his cousin, Richard of York. The dynastic struggle between the House of York, whose badge was a white rose, and the House of Lancaster, later associated with a red rose, would stretch on for 30 years.
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May/
22:
Events that occurred on this day:
1843 Great Emigration departs for Oregon
1972 President Nixon in Moscow
1990 Yemen united
1977 Unisex 500
1856 Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner
1977 Jimmy Carter reaffirms his commitment to human rights
1981 The Atlanta child murderer is questioned
1966 Bill Cosby wins Emmy
1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is born
1843 A thousand pioneers head West on the Oregon Trail
1964 Rusk warns North Vietnamese
1824 Victory for Henry Clay
1939 The "Pact of Steel" is signed; the Axis is formed
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May/
23:
EICHMANN CAPTURED:
May 23, 1960
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces to the world that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured and will stand trial in Israel. Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who organized Adolf Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish question," was seized by Israeli agents in Argentina on May 11 and smuggled to Israel nine days later.
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May/
23:
Events that occurred on this day:
1701 Captain Kidd walks the plank
1900 Forgotten Civil War hero honored
1911 New York Public Library dedicated
1934 Bonnie And Clyde
1864 Fighting begins on the North Anna River, Virginia
1949 Federal Republic of Germany is established
1934 Bonnie and Clyde are killed by police
1933 Joan Collins born
1810 Margaret Fuller is born
1923 Curley is buried at Little Big Horn
1967 Congressman claims M-16 is defective
1946 Rail Workers' Wage War
1941 Lord Mountbatten, cousin to a king, sunk by German dive-bombers
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May/
24:
Events that occurred on this day:
1543 Copernicus dies
1844 What hath God wrought?
1903 The Paris Races
1864 Battle of North Anna continues
1959 John Foster Dulles dies
1989 Lori Ann Auker disappears from a parking lot
1974 Duke Ellington dies
1940 Joseph Brodsky is born
1863 Henry Plummer is elected sheriff of Bannack, Montana
1964 Goldwater suggests using atomic weapons
1915 The Pan-American Financial Conference
1941 The Bismarck sinks the Hood
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May/
24:
BROOKLYN BRIDGE OPENS:
May 24, 1883
After 14 years and 27 deaths while being constructed, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is opened, connecting the great cities of New York and Brooklyn for the first time in history. Thousands of residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island turned out to witness the dedication ceremony, which was presided over by President Chester A. Arthur and New York Governor Grover Cleveland. Designed by the late John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge ever built to that date.
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May/
25:
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION BEGINS:
May 25, 1787
Four years after the United States won its independence from England, 55 state delegates, including George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin, convene in Philadelphia to compose a new U.S. constitution.
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May/
25:
Events that occurred on this day:
1660 The English Restoration
1793 Catholic priest ordained in America
1979 Worst air crash in U.S. history
1985 Mecca Of Motorsports
1862 First Battle of Winchester, Virginia
1977 Chinese government removes ban on Shakespeare
1861 President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War
1992 Jay Leno's first Tonight Show
1911 Thomas Mann visits the Lido in Venice
1975 Grizzly bear is classified as a "threatened" species
1969 National Democratic Front formed in Saigon
1805 Dark Day for the Cordwainers
1944 Operation Knight's Move is launched
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May/
26:
CZAR NICHOLAS II CROWNED:
May 26, 1896
Nicholas II, the last czar, is crowned ruler of Russia in the old Ouspensky Cathedral in Moscow.
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May/
26:
Events that occurred on this day:
1637 Pequot massacres begin
1864 Montana Territory created
1868 President Johnson acquitted
1937 The Battle Of The Overpass
1865 The last Confederate army surrenders
1960 United States charges Soviets with espionage
1996 A veteran's flashback defense doesn't hold up in court
1885 Al Jolson's birthday
1897 Bram Stoker's novel Dracula goes on sale in London
1907 John Wayne is born
1965 Australian troops depart for Vietnam
1781 Robert Morris and his National Bank
1940 Britain's Operation Dynamo gets underway as President Roosevelt makes a radio appeal for the Red Cross
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May/
27:
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE OPENS:
May 27, 1937
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opens to the public after five years of construction. On opening day--"Pedestrian Day"--some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. On May 28, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic
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May/
27:
Events that occurred on this day:
1703 St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great
1905 The Battle of Tsushima Strait
1941 Bismarck sunk by Royal Navy
1994 Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia
1923 Twenty-Four Hours Of Le Mans
1863 Ex parte Merryman issued
1972 SALT agreements signed
1895 Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for sodomy
1933 Three Little Pigs debuts
1894 Hard-boiled mystery writer Dashiell Hammett is born
1831 Commanche kill mountain man Jedediah Smith
1965 U.S. warships begin bombardment of Viet Cong targets
1794 King of the Schooners and Rails
1940 British evacuation of Dunkirk turns savage as Germans commit atrocity
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May/
28:
FIRST BLOOD OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR:
May 28, 1754
In the first engagement of the French and Indian War, a Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeats a French reconnaissance party in southwestern Pennsylvania. In a surprise attack, the Virginians killed 10 French soldiers from Fort Duquesne, including the French commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and took 21 prisoners. Only one of Washington's men was killed.
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May/
28:
Events that occurred on this day:
1961 Appeal for Amnesty
1991 Ethiopian capital falls to rebels
1937 Golden Gate
1863 The 54th Massachusetts leaves Boston
1987 Matthias Rust lands his plane in Red Square
1986 The decision in a well-known securities fraud case is upheld
1954 Dial M for Murder debuts
1935 Tortilla Flat is published
1902 The Virginian is published
1969 U.S. troops abandon "Hamburger Hill"
1998 Another Day, More Mergers
1940 Belgium surrenders unconditionally
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May/
29:
MEN REACH EVEREST SUMMIT:
May 29, 1953
At 11:30 a.m. on this day, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. The two, part of a British expedition, made their final assault on the summit after spending a fitful night at 27,900 feet. News of their achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country's future.
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May/
29:
Events that occurred on this day:
1848 Wisconsin enters the Union
1914 The sinking of the Empress of Ireland
1932 Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington
1977 SuperTex
1864 Union troops reach Totopotomoy Creek, Virginia
1988 Reagan arrives in Moscow for summit talks
1979 Woody Harrelson's father is arrested for murder
1951 Fanny Brice dies
1906 T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King, is born
1843 Fremont begins his second western expedition
1972 United States and USSR issue a joint communique
1975 Ford Foils Jobs Bill
1942 Jews in Paris are forced to sew a yellow star on their coats
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May/
30:
JOAN OF ARC MARTYRED:
May 30, 1431
At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy.
Joan was born in 1412, the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domrymy, on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine.
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May/
30:
Events that occurred on this day:
1806 Andrew Jackson wins duel
1868 Civil War dead honored on Decoration Day
1967 Republic of Biafra proclaimed
1971 Mariner 9 departs for Mars
1911 Miles And Miles At Indy
1862 Confederates evacuate Corinth, Mississippi
1990 Gorbachev arrives in Washington for summit
1997 Jonathan Levin is tortured and killed by his former student
1908 Mel Blanc born
1593 Christopher Marlowe killed in tavern brawl
1899 Pearl Hart holds up an Arizona stagecoach
1966 U.S. aircraft carry out new raids
1908 Aldrich on Parade
1942 Brits bombard Cologne in Operation Millennium
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May/
31:
THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD:
May 31, 1889
In a river valley in central Pennsylvania, heavy rain and a neglected dam lead to a catastrophe in which 2,209 people die and a prosperous city, Johnstown, is nearly wiped off the face of the earth.
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May/
31:
Events that occurred on this day:
1902 The Boer War ends
1962 Architect of the Holocaust hanged in Israel
1996 Netanyahu elected prime minister of Israel
1929 Ford In The USSR
1862 Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Virginia
1988 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Moscow ends
1964 A killer who can't keep his mouth shut
1990 Seinfeld premieres
1819 Walt Whitman is born
1887 George Goodfellow investigates earthquake
1965 Operation Rolling Thunder continues
1996 Kathie Lee vs. the Garment Industry
1941 Germans conquer Crete
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