Portal:United States/Anniversaries/May

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These are the selected anniversaries for May that appear on the United States portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.

May 1

1886 - The start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labor Day in most industrialized countries.
1915 - RMS Lusitania departs New York City on her two hundred and second and final crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later the ship was torpedoed off the Irish coast with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.
1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking off a diplomatic crisis.
1971 - Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.

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May 2

1670 - King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
1885 - Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
1918 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
1920 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1955 - Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'

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May 3

1933 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.
1937 - Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
2003 - New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.

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May 4

1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his assassination.
1904 - Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.
1961 - The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
1964 - The long-running soap opera Another World, which would run until 1999, debuts on NBC.
1970 - Kent State shootings – The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, nine are wounded.

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May 5

1925 - John T. Scopes is served an arrest warrant for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1961 - Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space, making a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes.

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May 6

1877 - Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
1882 - The Congress of the U.S.A. pass the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1935 - Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
1937 - The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1941 - At California's March Field Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
1981 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
2004 - US TV series Friends ends after 10 seasons.

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May 7

1763 - Pontiac's Rebellion begins - Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.
1947 - Kraft Television Theater debuts, running for the next 11 years.
1992 - Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.
1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.

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May 8

1877 - At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola".
1919 - Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later resulted in the creation of Remembrance Day.
1970 - The Hard Hat riot occurs in the Wall Street area of New York City as blue-collar construction workers clash with anti-war demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War.
1973 - A 71-day standoff, between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants.
1984 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

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May 9

1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the combined oral contraceptive pill.
1970 - In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 Vietnam War protesters peacefully demonstrate behind a barricaded White House.
1974 - The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.

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May 10

1775 - Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.
1775 - Representatives from the 13 colonies of the United States meet in Philadelphia and raise the Continental Army to defend the new republic. They place it under command of Cavalier George Washington of Virginia.
1801 - The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States.
1837 - New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
1869 - The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, USA).
1922 - The USA annexes the Kingman Reef.
1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.
1954 - Bill Haley and the Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.

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May 11

1792 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to visit the Columbia River.
1841 - Lt. Charles Wilkes lands at Fort Nisqually in Puget Sound.
1858 - Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
1894 - Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.
1910 - An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
1911 - The United States becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1928 - The first analog TV service is inaugurated by WGY, Schenectady, New York.
1934 - A strong two-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl in North America.
1987 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland). The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz, of Stanford University School of Medicine.
1995 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
1996 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.

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May 12

1932 - Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.

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May 13

1846 - The United States declares war on Mexico.
1880 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
1939 - The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later became WDRC-FM.
1976 - The final game in the history of the American Basketball Association is played as the New York Nets defeat the Denver Nuggets 112-106 in New York to win the 1976 ABA Championship.
1985 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police storm MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.

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May 14

1607 - Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States.
1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. It is the last launch of the Saturn V rocket.
1998 - The finale of Seinfeld airs on NBC, with 76 million viewers tuning in.

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May 15

1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed USDA).
1869 - In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1911 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
1918 - The US Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
1940 - McDonald's is founded.
1970 - President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals.
1970 - Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.
1972 - The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese cont

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May 16

1771 - The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators" occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
1910 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
1918 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.

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May 17

1673 - Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange is formed.
1943 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
1998 - David Wells of the New York Yankees pitches the 15th perfect game in baseball history against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium.

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May 18

1631 - In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
1652 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
1869 - The Public Credit Act is passed by Ulysses S. Grant, one of his first actions as President of the United States. The Act endorsed the payment of the national debt after the American Civil War in gold currency instead of greenbacks.
1896 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional.
1927 - The Bath School Disaster: Forty-five people are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Michigan.
1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
1969 - Apollo 10 launches.
1980 - 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
1992 - The Archivist of the United States issues a proclamation to officially announce that the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been ratified, despite more than 200 years for completion of the ratification process by the state legislatures.
1998 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.

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May 19

1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
1848 - Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus ending the Mexican-American War and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.
1921 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration.
1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday.

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May 20

1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1927 - At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, touching down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.
1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
1949 - In the United States of America, the Armed Forces Security Agency (predecessor to the National Security Agency) is established.
1996 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

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May 21

1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.
1956 - In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.