May
Armed Forces Day is celebrated the third Saturday of May
Armed Forces Week begins on the second Saturday of May and ends on the third Sunday of May, the day after Armed Forces Day.
Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month: https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/asia/
Bicycle Safety Month:
Children's Book Week is held in May
By the Book: Activities for Book Week: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson288.shtml?
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month
Garden for Wildlife Month
Memorial Day is celebrated the fourth Monday of May
How Waterloo, NY, became the birthplace of Memorial Day: http://www.syracuse.com/vintage/2016/05/waterloo_celebrates_its_150th.html
The True Story Behind the 1st Memorial Day: http://www.livescience.com/54919-true-story-behind-first-memorial-day.html
Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May
Collection of Mother's Day Activities: http://k6educators.about.com/od/mayholidaylessonplans/qt/Collection-Of-Mothers-Day-Activities.htm
Mother's Day Paper Craft - Doily Lion Card: http://www.ssww.com/blog/doily-lion-paper-craft-for-kids/#more-3756
National Barbecue Month
National Hamburger Month
Physical Fitness and Sports Month
PE Central: http://www.pecentral.com/
"What Works in Physical Education"
PHE America: http://www.pelinks4u.org/
"Physical & Health Education America"
President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition: http://www.fitness.gov/
National Speaking Week is in May
National Speaking Week: http://nationalspeakingweek.org/
National Strawberry Month: http://www.calstrawberry.com/
Space Day is celebrated on the first Thursday in May.
May 1
May 1 is Law Day
May 1 is Lei Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIILDHTqlv0&feature=youtu.be
May 1 is Mother Goose Day.
May 1 is National Teacher Day.
May 1 is Teen Day
-1672: English essayist, poet and dramatist Joseph Addison, born in Milston, England (1672).
-1769: Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington was born.
-1830: American labor leader Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born.
-1855: Nationally known feminist Lucy Stone married Henry Blackwell. The word "obey" was omitted from their wedding vows.
-1893: President Grover Cleveland opened the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago.
-1896: U.S. Gen. Mark Clark was born.
-1898: During the Spanish-American war, Adm. George Dewey routed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.
-1901: Poet and literary critic Sterling Allen Brown was born in Washington, D.C.
-1908: Italian-American writer Niccolo Tucci was born in Lugano, Switzerland.
-1909: Singer Kate Smith was born.
-1916: Actor Glenn Ford was born.
-1918: Television personality Jack Paar was born.
-1923: Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York.
-1924: Novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern was born in Alvarado, Texas.
-1925: Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born.
-1929: Singer Sonny James was born.
-1931: The Empire State Building opened to the public.
-1939: Judy Collins was born.
-1940: Novelist and short story writer Bobbie Ann Mason was born in Mayfield, Kentucky.
-1945: Rita Coolidge was born.
-1960: The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers, who was captured.
-1967: Tim McGraw was born.
-1971: Amtrak, the national passenger rail service that combined the operations of 18 passenger railroads, went into service.
-1992: President Bush ordered 4,000 military troops into the riot-ravaged streets of Los Angeles.
-1993: Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and others in his entourage were killed in a suicide bomb blast.
-1997: 18 years of Conservative Party rule in Great Britain ended with a Labor Party victory in elections, which allowed party leader Tony Blair to succeed John Majors as prime minister.
-1999: Charismatic, a 31-1 long shot, won the 125th Kentucky Derby in Louisville. It was the third highest payoff in Derby history.
-2000: Time Warner yanked ABC-owned TV channels from several of its cable systems in a dispute about payments with Disney, which owns ABC. Public outrage forced Time Warner to restore the network's signal a day later.
May 2
National Day of Prayer
-1729: One of the most famous monarchs in history, Russian Empress Catherine the Great was born Sophie Auguste Friederike in the Prussian province of Pomerania, now part of Poland.
-1859: English author and dramatist Jerome K. Jerome was born in Walsall, England.
-1860: Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl was born in Budapest, Hungary.
-1863: An established 2,543 African American and white civil rights demonstrators protesting segregation were arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama.
-1895: Lyricist Lorenz Hart was born in New York City.
-1903: Dr. Benjamin Spock was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
May 3
-1469: Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence.
1903: Actor Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington.
-1912: Poet, novelist and essayist May Sarton, born Eléanore Marie Sarton in Wondelgem, Belgium.
-1919: Folk singer Pete Seeger was born in New York City.
-1926: The "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, born in a one-room shack in the pinewoods of Barnwell, South Carolina (1928).
-1952: The first aircraft landed on the North Pole, piloted by Lt.Col. J.O. Fletcher Lt.Col. William P. Benedict.
May 4
-1796: Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Massachusetts.
-1825: Thomas Henry Huxley was born in Ealing, England.
-1886: The Haymarket Square Riot broke out in Chicago.
-1928: Irish poet Thomas Kinsella was born in Dublin.
-1939: Israeli novelist Amos Oz was born Amos Klausner in Jerusalem.
-1956: Novelist and short story writer David Guterson was born in Seattle, Washington.
-1961: Thirteen Freedom riders began bus trip through South.
May 5
-1813: Philosopher Søren (Aabye) Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen.
-1818: Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany.
-1862: The Battle of Puebla in Mexico. This day is now known as Cinco De Mayo.
-1903: James Beard, a great food writer and food lover was born in Portland, Oregon.
-1961: The first U. S. astronaut to go into space, Alan Shepard Jr, went up but did not orbit. His space craft was the Mercury Freedom 7.
May 6
-1626: Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the Algonquin Indians for two boxes of hatchets, beads, and pots worth sixty silver guilders, about one hundred dollars.
-1841: The British Postal Service first issued their "black penny" stamp, the first postage stamp anywhere. The idea quickly caught on and stamps are now used all over the world and have even become collectible items for some.
-1856: Sigmund Freud, Austrian physician and psychoanalyst, was born Sigismund Shlomo Freud,
-1868: Writer Gaston Leroux was born in Paris, France.
-1914: Poet and critic Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee.
-1915: Director, actor, and screenwriter Orson Welles was born.
May 7
-1189: Barbarossa granted customs and commercial rights to the German town of Hamburg.
-1824: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor was performed for the first time in Vienna, Austria.
-1832: As a result of the Greek War for Independence, German Prince Otto of Wittlesbach became Otto I, King of Greece. Under Otto's rule, Greece became the first region of the Ottoman Empire to become independent. Otto was highly unpopular due, in part, to his autocratic rule and failure to create a dynasty, and was deposed in 1862.
-1833: Johannes Brahms, German composer, was born.
-1915 A German submarine sank the British liner Lusitania; an act that contributed to the entry of the United States into World War I. More than 1,100 passengers and crew perished. There has been controversy over the cargo as some believe the Lusitania was carrying munitions intended to help the Allied forces. This would have been illegal given the ship's civilian mission.
-1954 Viet Minh's troops defeated the French army in the Dien Bien Phu Battle.
May 8
-1541: Expolorer Hernando de Soto encountered the Mississippi River.
-1792: President George Washington authorized the mint of the first US copper coins.
-1794: Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was decapitated in Paris for his former role as tax collector.
-1884: Harry S. Truman was born.
-1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea, between U.S. and Japanese ships, ended. This battle introduced a new form of naval warfare in which opposing ships never faced each other directly; the entire battle was waged by aircraft. Strategically, the U.S. was victorious, as Japanese forces were prevented from expanding into the Pacific. During the battle the warring ships never came within visual contact.
-1973: A 71-day siege at Wounded Knee in South Dakota ended when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) surrendered. In an effort to bring attention to the plight of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, one of the poorest communities in the U.S., AIM members took hostage 11 people there. The siege ended after U.S. Senate officials promised to investigate their complaints. AIM founder Russell Means was one of the leaders of the siege.
May 9:
-1800: John Brown, American abolitionist, was born.
May 10
-1775: Fort Ticonderoga Day, anniversary of the battle fought there.
-1843: Spanish novelist Benito Pérez Galdós was born in Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island (1843).
-1869: Gold Spike Day commemorates the meeting of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads with the driving of a golden spike. The first transcontinental railroad was finished when the last "Golden Spike" was tapped into place at Promontory Point in Utah Territory. It took six and a half years to link the two coasts with 1,800 miles of track.
-1899: Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz, in Omaha, Nebraska.
-1994: Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.
May 11
Fire Service Recognition Day
-1858: Minnesota was admitted into the Union.
-1896: Mari Sandoz was born near Hay Springs, Nebraska.
-1888: Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline, in Russia.
-1904: Salvador Dali, Catalan Spanish surrealist painter, was born.
-1981: Bob Marley, singer and composer, died of cancer at the age of 36.
-1997: Deep Blue v. Kasparov: IBM's super-computer Deep Blue made history by defeating
Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It was the first time a reigning world champion had been bested in a match by a machine using tournament time controls.
May 12
World Migratory Bird Day
-1812: English nonsense poet Edward Lear was born in London. May 12 is Limerick Day in honor of Edward Lear.
-1820: Florence Nightingale, English nurse and founder of modern nursing, was born.
-1828: Poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London to Italian exiles.
-1832: Gaetano Donizetti 's "L'Elisir d'amore" was first performed.
-1895: Philosophical writer and speaker Jiddu Krishnamurti was born in Mandanapalle, South India.
-1907: English detective writer Leslie Charteris was born in Singapore.
-1921: Canadian writer of animal stories Farley Mowat was born in Belleville, Ontario.
-1926: Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Italian Umberto Nobile, and American Lincoln Ellsworth crossed the North Pole in an airship, dropping flags from Norway, Italy, and the US. Some believe that they were actually the first ones to reach the North Pole, which would discredit the stories by Robert Peary and Richard Byrd that they had been the first to arrive there. Roald Amundsen was also the first human to reach the South Pole.
-1932: The body of Charles Lindbergh's son was found.
-1937: George VI was crowned King of England.
-1939: American novelist and poet Rosellen Brown was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
-1970: The US Senate confirmed Harry Blackmun to the Supreme Court.
May 13
-1842: Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in London.
-1846: Congress declared war against Mexico.
-1882: Painter Georges Braque was born in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, France.
-1888: Lei Aurea Princess Isabel of Brazil signed the "Lei Aurea" (Golden Law) which abolished slavery.
-1907: The novelist who wrote Rebecca (1938), Daphne du Maurier, was born in London.
-1918 The "Inter-Allied Independent Bomber Force" of the Royal Air Force (RAF) was created.
-1937: Science fiction writer Roger Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio.
-1938: Louis Armstrong New Orleans's musician recorded a jazz version of the religious song "When the Saints Go Marching In," making it extremely popular. Scotsman James M. Black composed the melody of the song, while the lyrics were written by Katherine E. Purvis.
-1940: Travel writer and novelist Bruce Chatwin was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
-1944: Novelist Armistead Maupin was born Armistead Jones in Washington, D.C.
-1981: Pope John Paul II was shot twice at close range while riding in an open car at St. Peter's Square in Rome. A Turkish national, Mehmet Ali Agca, was arrested immediately and later convicted.
May 14
-1607: Jamestown Day, anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in America.
-1686: Gaberiel Daniel Fahrenheit, German physicist who invented the Fahreneit temperature scale, was born.
-1727: Thomas Gainsborough, English portrait and landscape painter, was born.
-1796: To treat smallpox, English physician Edward Jenner inoculated eight-year old James Phipps with a small dose of cowpox.
-1973: Skylab was launched.
-1897: John Philip Sousa's march "The Stars and Stripes Forever" premiered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The occasion was the unveiling of a statue of George Washington. In 1985, a bill was introduced in Congress to make "The Stars and Stripes Forever" the official national march of the US. The last piece played by Sousa before his death was "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
May 15
-1811: Paraguay declared its independence from Spain and Argentina, a declaration that started on May 14th.
-1856: Lyman Frank Baum, author of the books about the fictional land of Oz, was born in Chittenango, New York.
-1890: Writer Katherine Anne Porter was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas.
-1918: The first regularly scheduled airmail service took place.
-1930: Painter Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia.
-1940: Nylon stockings were sold throughout the US for the first time.
-1963: Through a Proclamation issued by President John F. Kennedy, May 15th was designated as Peace Officer Memorial Day.
-1972: Presidential candidate George Wallace was shot.
May 16
Feast day of St. Brendan, patron saint of sailors and travelers.
-1866: The US Treasury Department began minting the nickel.
-1888: German inventor Emile Berliner gave the first demonstration of flat disc recording and reproduction at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
-1912: Writer and Chicago radio personality Louis Studs Terkel was born in New York City.
-1920: Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
-1929: The Academy Awards ceremony was held for the first time.
-1929: American poet Adrienne Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
-1975: Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb Mount Everest.
May 17
-1510: Renaissance painter Sandro Boticelli died today in Florence.
-1792: Twenty-four New York brokers signed an agreement to trade with one another and charge a uniform commission rate to their customers. The New York Stock Exchange emerged from that agreement.
-1803: English novelist Robert Smith Surtees was born in County Durham.
-1814: Norwegian leaders adopted a national constitution.
-1873: English novelist Dorothy Miller Richardson was born in Abingdon, Berkshire, England.
-1875: The first Kentucky Derby took place.
-1905: American screenwriter and playwright John Patrick was born John Patrick Goggan in Louisville, Kentucky.
-1935: British writer Dennis Potter was born in Berry Hill, Gloucestershire, England.
-1939: Young adult novelist Gary Paulsen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
-1954: The unanimous US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that ruled segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.
-1987: An Iraqi warplane fired two Exocet missiles at the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in 1987. Thirty-seven sailors lost their lives while another twenty-one were wounded. Saddam Hussein issued a formal apology claiming the attack was a mistake due to pilot error.
May 18
-1048: Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyam was born in Nishapur, Khurasan, Iran.
-1291: Acre, the last major Christian stronghold in what is today Israel, was captured by Muslim troops.
-1872: British philosopher Bertrand Russell was born in Trelleck, Monmouthshire, England.
-1889: Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson was born in Fljótsdalur, Iceland.
-1896: In Plessy v. Ferguson, the US Supreme Court upheld the "separate but equal" policy.
-1921: Patrick Dennis was born Edward Everett Tanner III in Evanston, Illinois.
-1952: Science fiction author Diane Elizabeth Duane was born in Manhattan.
-1980: Although the eruption of Mount St. Helen's on May 18, 1980 was far from the largest volcanic explosion ever recorded, it triggered the largest landslide in history.
May 19
-1536: Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, was beheaded in the Tower of London.
-1857: The electric fire alarm was patented.
-1895: Cuban writer and poet Jose Marti was killed by Spanish troops.
-1925: Civil rights activist Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska.
-1930: American playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois.
-1935: Englishman T. E. (Thomas Edward) Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, died after a motorcycle accident in Dorset, England.
-1941: Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron was born in New York City.
-1971: The former Soviet Union launched Mars 2.
May 20
-325: The first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church, called by Emperor Constantine I, was held at Nicaea in Asia Minor.
-1588: The Spanish Armada departed from Portugal to invade England.
-1799: Author Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours, France.
-1806: Philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill was born in Pentonville, London.
-1862: The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln (1862). The Homestead Act granted 160 acres of land to anyone who was the head of a household and at least 21 years old. In return, the homesteader agreed to live on the land for 5 years.
-1874: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted a patent for the process of riveting pants.
-1882: Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset was born in Kallundborg, Denmark. Her first novel, Mrs. Marta Oulie, was published in 1907 while she was still working as an office secretary. The fir
-1910: Actor Scatman Crothers was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.
-1916: Norman Rockwell's first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.
-1953: Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier.
-1961: A mob attacked Freedom Riders in Montgomery. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy dispatched four hundred U.S. marshals to Montgomery to keep order in Freedom Rider controversy.
May 21
-1927: Lindbergh Flight Day commemorates the landing of Charles Lindbergh in Paris concluding the first successful transatlantic flight.
May 22
-1804: Lewis and Clark began their expedition.
-1844: Mary Cassatt, American impressionist painter, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.
-1848: The French island of Martinique in the lesser Antilles declared the abolition of slavery.
-1859: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physican and author of the Sherlock Holmes books, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
-1897: The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames in London was inaugurated by the Prince and Princess of Wales. At the time, Blackwall was the longest underwater tunnel in the world.
-1927: Novelist and short story writer Peter Matthiessen was born in New York City, New York.
-1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
-1933: Children's author and illustrator Arnold Lobel was born in Los Angeles, California.
-1992: Johnny Carson hosted "The Tonight Show" for the last time.
May 23
-1701: Capt. William Kidd was hanged in London for piracy and murder.
-1707: Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of modern systematic botany was born.
-1734: Austrian physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer was born.
-1810: Social reformer Margaret Fuller was born.
-1824: Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who later was a U.S. senator and for whom sideburns were named, was born.
-1883: Actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was born
-1900: Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his efforts during the Battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.
-1910: Bandleader Artie Shaw was born.
-1928: Singer Rosemary Clooney was born.
-1931: Actresses Barbara Barrie was born.
-1933: Joan Collins was born.
-1934: Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, was born.
-1936: Actor Charles Kimbrough ("Murphy Brown") was born.
-1939: the U.S. Navy submarine "Squalus" went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. 33 of the 59 men aboard were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.
-1960: Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and spirited him back to Israel, where he was tried, convicted and hanged.
-1961: Comedian Drew Carey was born.
-1988: Maryland Gov. Donald Schaefer signed the nation's first law banning the manufacture and sale of cheap handguns, known as "Saturday Night Specials."
-1991: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women's clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients.
-1993: A jury in Baton Rouge, La., acquitted a man who said he was defending his home against what he thought was an intruder when he shot and killed 16-year-old Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori.
-1994: Four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
-1994: Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
-1995: A man with an unloaded handgun climbed over a fence and ran toward the White House. He was tackled by one Secret Service agent and shot and wounded by a second.
-1995: What was left of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, site of the previous month's bombing that killed 169 people, was razed.
-1997: Mohammed Khatami, a "moderate" who favored improved economic ties with the West, was elected president of Iran.
May 24
-1844: Samuel F. B. Morse sent the first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. Morse sent the line, "What hath God wrought?", a Bible verse taken from Numbers 23:23. Morse devised a series of dots and dashes to represent the alphabet, which came to be known as "Morse code." The first transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1861, which brought an end to the Pony Express as the fastest form of communication. It marked the beginning of the telecommunications industry.
-1883: The Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public. Taking nearly 14 years to complete, it spans the East River of New York City and links Brooklyn and Manhattan.
-1940: Poet Joseph Brodsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
-1941: Singer-songwriter Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota.
May 25
May 25 is Africa Day.
-1803: Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
-1908: Poet Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan.
-1938: Raymond Carver was born in the town of Clatskanie, Oregon.
May 26
Australia National Sorry Day
-1521: The German priest and theologian Martin Luther was declared an outlaw and his writings were banned by the Edict of Worms.
-1886: Singer Al Jolson was born.
-1907: Actor John Wayne (Marion Morrison) was born.
-1908: Actor Robert Morley (Adolph Wilton) was born.
-1913: Actor Peter Cushing was born.
-1948: Singer Stevie (Stephanie) Nicks was born.
-1949: Singer Hank Williams was born.
-1981: The first software patent was granted after seven years of battle in the courts. Computer programmer and patent attorney S. Pal Asija was granted a patent for his software program "SwiftAnswer". Prior to this case, software programs were considered copyrightable writings, as opposed to patentable inventions. This case set the legal precedent for future software patents.
May 27
-1794: Capitalist Cornelius Vanderbilt was born.
-1837: US Marshall and Forntiersman Wild Bill (James) Hickok was born.
-1894: Detective novelist Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland.
-1907: Silent Spring author Rachel Carson was born.
-1911: Actor Vincent Price was born.
-1912: Novelist and short story writer John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.
-1922: Actor Christopher Lee was born.
-1923: Henry Kissinger was born.
-1930: Novelist John Barth was born in Cambridge, Maryland.
-1936: Actor Lou Gossett was born.
-1937: Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians , having taken five years to build.
- 1943: Singer Cilla Black (Priscilla Maria Veronica White) was born.
May 28
-1779: Romantic poet Thomas Moore was born in Dublin, Ireland.
-1908: Novelist Ian (Lancaster) Fleming was born in London, England.
-1912: Australian novelist Patrick White was born in London, England.
-1916: Novelist Walker Percy, born in Birmingham, Alabama.
-1919: Poet May Swenson was born in Logan, Utah.
-1940: Novelist Maeve Binchy was born in Dalkey, Ireland.
-1984: President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.
May 29
-1736: American revolutionary Patrick Henry was born in Studley, Virginia.
-1874: British author G.K. Chesterton was born in London, England.
-1906: British novelist T.H. White was born in Bombay, India.
-1917: John F. Kennedy, 35th US President, was born.
-1953: Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.
-1980: Vernon E. Jordan Jr., President of the National Urban League, was critically injured in attempted assassination in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
May 30
-1431: Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
-1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Northern territory to slavery.
-1896: Filmmaker Howard Hawks was born in Goshen, Indiana.
-1901: Actress and author Cornelia Otis Skinner was born in Chicago, Illinois.
-1903: Poet Countee Cullen, who was born.
-1958: Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
May 31
World No Tobacco Day
What Does Advertising Say About Smoking? Lesson Ideas: http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@global/documents/downloadable/ucm_313251.pdf
-1819: American poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, New York.
-1921: In the Tulsa Riot of 1921, it was the first American city to be bombed by airplanes. More people died
this day than in any single event since the Civil War.
Armed Forces Week begins on the second Saturday of May and ends on the third Sunday of May, the day after Armed Forces Day.
Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month: https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/asia/
Bicycle Safety Month:
Children's Book Week is held in May
By the Book: Activities for Book Week: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson288.shtml?
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month
Garden for Wildlife Month
Memorial Day is celebrated the fourth Monday of May
How Waterloo, NY, became the birthplace of Memorial Day: http://www.syracuse.com/vintage/2016/05/waterloo_celebrates_its_150th.html
The True Story Behind the 1st Memorial Day: http://www.livescience.com/54919-true-story-behind-first-memorial-day.html
Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May
Collection of Mother's Day Activities: http://k6educators.about.com/od/mayholidaylessonplans/qt/Collection-Of-Mothers-Day-Activities.htm
Mother's Day Paper Craft - Doily Lion Card: http://www.ssww.com/blog/doily-lion-paper-craft-for-kids/#more-3756
National Barbecue Month
National Hamburger Month
Physical Fitness and Sports Month
PE Central: http://www.pecentral.com/
"What Works in Physical Education"
PHE America: http://www.pelinks4u.org/
"Physical & Health Education America"
President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition: http://www.fitness.gov/
National Speaking Week is in May
National Speaking Week: http://nationalspeakingweek.org/
National Strawberry Month: http://www.calstrawberry.com/
Space Day is celebrated on the first Thursday in May.
May 1
May 1 is Law Day
May 1 is Lei Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIILDHTqlv0&feature=youtu.be
May 1 is Mother Goose Day.
May 1 is National Teacher Day.
May 1 is Teen Day
-1672: English essayist, poet and dramatist Joseph Addison, born in Milston, England (1672).
-1769: Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington was born.
-1830: American labor leader Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born.
-1855: Nationally known feminist Lucy Stone married Henry Blackwell. The word "obey" was omitted from their wedding vows.
-1893: President Grover Cleveland opened the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago.
-1896: U.S. Gen. Mark Clark was born.
-1898: During the Spanish-American war, Adm. George Dewey routed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.
-1901: Poet and literary critic Sterling Allen Brown was born in Washington, D.C.
-1908: Italian-American writer Niccolo Tucci was born in Lugano, Switzerland.
-1909: Singer Kate Smith was born.
-1916: Actor Glenn Ford was born.
-1918: Television personality Jack Paar was born.
-1923: Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York.
-1924: Novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern was born in Alvarado, Texas.
-1925: Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born.
-1929: Singer Sonny James was born.
-1931: The Empire State Building opened to the public.
-1939: Judy Collins was born.
-1940: Novelist and short story writer Bobbie Ann Mason was born in Mayfield, Kentucky.
-1945: Rita Coolidge was born.
-1960: The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers, who was captured.
-1967: Tim McGraw was born.
-1971: Amtrak, the national passenger rail service that combined the operations of 18 passenger railroads, went into service.
-1992: President Bush ordered 4,000 military troops into the riot-ravaged streets of Los Angeles.
-1993: Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and others in his entourage were killed in a suicide bomb blast.
-1997: 18 years of Conservative Party rule in Great Britain ended with a Labor Party victory in elections, which allowed party leader Tony Blair to succeed John Majors as prime minister.
-1999: Charismatic, a 31-1 long shot, won the 125th Kentucky Derby in Louisville. It was the third highest payoff in Derby history.
-2000: Time Warner yanked ABC-owned TV channels from several of its cable systems in a dispute about payments with Disney, which owns ABC. Public outrage forced Time Warner to restore the network's signal a day later.
May 2
National Day of Prayer
-1729: One of the most famous monarchs in history, Russian Empress Catherine the Great was born Sophie Auguste Friederike in the Prussian province of Pomerania, now part of Poland.
-1859: English author and dramatist Jerome K. Jerome was born in Walsall, England.
-1860: Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl was born in Budapest, Hungary.
-1863: An established 2,543 African American and white civil rights demonstrators protesting segregation were arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama.
-1895: Lyricist Lorenz Hart was born in New York City.
-1903: Dr. Benjamin Spock was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
May 3
-1469: Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence.
1903: Actor Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington.
-1912: Poet, novelist and essayist May Sarton, born Eléanore Marie Sarton in Wondelgem, Belgium.
-1919: Folk singer Pete Seeger was born in New York City.
-1926: The "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, born in a one-room shack in the pinewoods of Barnwell, South Carolina (1928).
-1952: The first aircraft landed on the North Pole, piloted by Lt.Col. J.O. Fletcher Lt.Col. William P. Benedict.
May 4
-1796: Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Massachusetts.
-1825: Thomas Henry Huxley was born in Ealing, England.
-1886: The Haymarket Square Riot broke out in Chicago.
-1928: Irish poet Thomas Kinsella was born in Dublin.
-1939: Israeli novelist Amos Oz was born Amos Klausner in Jerusalem.
-1956: Novelist and short story writer David Guterson was born in Seattle, Washington.
-1961: Thirteen Freedom riders began bus trip through South.
May 5
-1813: Philosopher Søren (Aabye) Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen.
-1818: Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany.
-1862: The Battle of Puebla in Mexico. This day is now known as Cinco De Mayo.
-1903: James Beard, a great food writer and food lover was born in Portland, Oregon.
-1961: The first U. S. astronaut to go into space, Alan Shepard Jr, went up but did not orbit. His space craft was the Mercury Freedom 7.
May 6
-1626: Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the Algonquin Indians for two boxes of hatchets, beads, and pots worth sixty silver guilders, about one hundred dollars.
-1841: The British Postal Service first issued their "black penny" stamp, the first postage stamp anywhere. The idea quickly caught on and stamps are now used all over the world and have even become collectible items for some.
-1856: Sigmund Freud, Austrian physician and psychoanalyst, was born Sigismund Shlomo Freud,
-1868: Writer Gaston Leroux was born in Paris, France.
-1914: Poet and critic Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee.
-1915: Director, actor, and screenwriter Orson Welles was born.
May 7
-1189: Barbarossa granted customs and commercial rights to the German town of Hamburg.
-1824: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor was performed for the first time in Vienna, Austria.
-1832: As a result of the Greek War for Independence, German Prince Otto of Wittlesbach became Otto I, King of Greece. Under Otto's rule, Greece became the first region of the Ottoman Empire to become independent. Otto was highly unpopular due, in part, to his autocratic rule and failure to create a dynasty, and was deposed in 1862.
-1833: Johannes Brahms, German composer, was born.
-1915 A German submarine sank the British liner Lusitania; an act that contributed to the entry of the United States into World War I. More than 1,100 passengers and crew perished. There has been controversy over the cargo as some believe the Lusitania was carrying munitions intended to help the Allied forces. This would have been illegal given the ship's civilian mission.
-1954 Viet Minh's troops defeated the French army in the Dien Bien Phu Battle.
May 8
-1541: Expolorer Hernando de Soto encountered the Mississippi River.
-1792: President George Washington authorized the mint of the first US copper coins.
-1794: Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was decapitated in Paris for his former role as tax collector.
-1884: Harry S. Truman was born.
-1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea, between U.S. and Japanese ships, ended. This battle introduced a new form of naval warfare in which opposing ships never faced each other directly; the entire battle was waged by aircraft. Strategically, the U.S. was victorious, as Japanese forces were prevented from expanding into the Pacific. During the battle the warring ships never came within visual contact.
-1973: A 71-day siege at Wounded Knee in South Dakota ended when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) surrendered. In an effort to bring attention to the plight of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, one of the poorest communities in the U.S., AIM members took hostage 11 people there. The siege ended after U.S. Senate officials promised to investigate their complaints. AIM founder Russell Means was one of the leaders of the siege.
May 9:
-1800: John Brown, American abolitionist, was born.
May 10
-1775: Fort Ticonderoga Day, anniversary of the battle fought there.
-1843: Spanish novelist Benito Pérez Galdós was born in Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island (1843).
-1869: Gold Spike Day commemorates the meeting of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads with the driving of a golden spike. The first transcontinental railroad was finished when the last "Golden Spike" was tapped into place at Promontory Point in Utah Territory. It took six and a half years to link the two coasts with 1,800 miles of track.
-1899: Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz, in Omaha, Nebraska.
-1994: Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.
May 11
Fire Service Recognition Day
-1858: Minnesota was admitted into the Union.
-1896: Mari Sandoz was born near Hay Springs, Nebraska.
-1888: Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline, in Russia.
-1904: Salvador Dali, Catalan Spanish surrealist painter, was born.
-1981: Bob Marley, singer and composer, died of cancer at the age of 36.
-1997: Deep Blue v. Kasparov: IBM's super-computer Deep Blue made history by defeating
Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It was the first time a reigning world champion had been bested in a match by a machine using tournament time controls.
May 12
World Migratory Bird Day
-1812: English nonsense poet Edward Lear was born in London. May 12 is Limerick Day in honor of Edward Lear.
-1820: Florence Nightingale, English nurse and founder of modern nursing, was born.
-1828: Poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London to Italian exiles.
-1832: Gaetano Donizetti 's "L'Elisir d'amore" was first performed.
-1895: Philosophical writer and speaker Jiddu Krishnamurti was born in Mandanapalle, South India.
-1907: English detective writer Leslie Charteris was born in Singapore.
-1921: Canadian writer of animal stories Farley Mowat was born in Belleville, Ontario.
-1926: Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Italian Umberto Nobile, and American Lincoln Ellsworth crossed the North Pole in an airship, dropping flags from Norway, Italy, and the US. Some believe that they were actually the first ones to reach the North Pole, which would discredit the stories by Robert Peary and Richard Byrd that they had been the first to arrive there. Roald Amundsen was also the first human to reach the South Pole.
-1932: The body of Charles Lindbergh's son was found.
-1937: George VI was crowned King of England.
-1939: American novelist and poet Rosellen Brown was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
-1970: The US Senate confirmed Harry Blackmun to the Supreme Court.
May 13
-1842: Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in London.
-1846: Congress declared war against Mexico.
-1882: Painter Georges Braque was born in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, France.
-1888: Lei Aurea Princess Isabel of Brazil signed the "Lei Aurea" (Golden Law) which abolished slavery.
-1907: The novelist who wrote Rebecca (1938), Daphne du Maurier, was born in London.
-1918 The "Inter-Allied Independent Bomber Force" of the Royal Air Force (RAF) was created.
-1937: Science fiction writer Roger Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio.
-1938: Louis Armstrong New Orleans's musician recorded a jazz version of the religious song "When the Saints Go Marching In," making it extremely popular. Scotsman James M. Black composed the melody of the song, while the lyrics were written by Katherine E. Purvis.
-1940: Travel writer and novelist Bruce Chatwin was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
-1944: Novelist Armistead Maupin was born Armistead Jones in Washington, D.C.
-1981: Pope John Paul II was shot twice at close range while riding in an open car at St. Peter's Square in Rome. A Turkish national, Mehmet Ali Agca, was arrested immediately and later convicted.
May 14
-1607: Jamestown Day, anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in America.
-1686: Gaberiel Daniel Fahrenheit, German physicist who invented the Fahreneit temperature scale, was born.
-1727: Thomas Gainsborough, English portrait and landscape painter, was born.
-1796: To treat smallpox, English physician Edward Jenner inoculated eight-year old James Phipps with a small dose of cowpox.
-1973: Skylab was launched.
-1897: John Philip Sousa's march "The Stars and Stripes Forever" premiered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The occasion was the unveiling of a statue of George Washington. In 1985, a bill was introduced in Congress to make "The Stars and Stripes Forever" the official national march of the US. The last piece played by Sousa before his death was "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
May 15
-1811: Paraguay declared its independence from Spain and Argentina, a declaration that started on May 14th.
-1856: Lyman Frank Baum, author of the books about the fictional land of Oz, was born in Chittenango, New York.
-1890: Writer Katherine Anne Porter was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas.
-1918: The first regularly scheduled airmail service took place.
-1930: Painter Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia.
-1940: Nylon stockings were sold throughout the US for the first time.
-1963: Through a Proclamation issued by President John F. Kennedy, May 15th was designated as Peace Officer Memorial Day.
-1972: Presidential candidate George Wallace was shot.
May 16
Feast day of St. Brendan, patron saint of sailors and travelers.
-1866: The US Treasury Department began minting the nickel.
-1888: German inventor Emile Berliner gave the first demonstration of flat disc recording and reproduction at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
-1912: Writer and Chicago radio personality Louis Studs Terkel was born in New York City.
-1920: Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
-1929: The Academy Awards ceremony was held for the first time.
-1929: American poet Adrienne Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
-1975: Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb Mount Everest.
May 17
-1510: Renaissance painter Sandro Boticelli died today in Florence.
-1792: Twenty-four New York brokers signed an agreement to trade with one another and charge a uniform commission rate to their customers. The New York Stock Exchange emerged from that agreement.
-1803: English novelist Robert Smith Surtees was born in County Durham.
-1814: Norwegian leaders adopted a national constitution.
-1873: English novelist Dorothy Miller Richardson was born in Abingdon, Berkshire, England.
-1875: The first Kentucky Derby took place.
-1905: American screenwriter and playwright John Patrick was born John Patrick Goggan in Louisville, Kentucky.
-1935: British writer Dennis Potter was born in Berry Hill, Gloucestershire, England.
-1939: Young adult novelist Gary Paulsen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
-1954: The unanimous US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that ruled segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.
-1987: An Iraqi warplane fired two Exocet missiles at the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in 1987. Thirty-seven sailors lost their lives while another twenty-one were wounded. Saddam Hussein issued a formal apology claiming the attack was a mistake due to pilot error.
May 18
-1048: Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyam was born in Nishapur, Khurasan, Iran.
-1291: Acre, the last major Christian stronghold in what is today Israel, was captured by Muslim troops.
-1872: British philosopher Bertrand Russell was born in Trelleck, Monmouthshire, England.
-1889: Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson was born in Fljótsdalur, Iceland.
-1896: In Plessy v. Ferguson, the US Supreme Court upheld the "separate but equal" policy.
-1921: Patrick Dennis was born Edward Everett Tanner III in Evanston, Illinois.
-1952: Science fiction author Diane Elizabeth Duane was born in Manhattan.
-1980: Although the eruption of Mount St. Helen's on May 18, 1980 was far from the largest volcanic explosion ever recorded, it triggered the largest landslide in history.
May 19
-1536: Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, was beheaded in the Tower of London.
-1857: The electric fire alarm was patented.
-1895: Cuban writer and poet Jose Marti was killed by Spanish troops.
-1925: Civil rights activist Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska.
-1930: American playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois.
-1935: Englishman T. E. (Thomas Edward) Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, died after a motorcycle accident in Dorset, England.
-1941: Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron was born in New York City.
-1971: The former Soviet Union launched Mars 2.
May 20
-325: The first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church, called by Emperor Constantine I, was held at Nicaea in Asia Minor.
-1588: The Spanish Armada departed from Portugal to invade England.
-1799: Author Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours, France.
-1806: Philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill was born in Pentonville, London.
-1862: The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln (1862). The Homestead Act granted 160 acres of land to anyone who was the head of a household and at least 21 years old. In return, the homesteader agreed to live on the land for 5 years.
-1874: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted a patent for the process of riveting pants.
-1882: Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset was born in Kallundborg, Denmark. Her first novel, Mrs. Marta Oulie, was published in 1907 while she was still working as an office secretary. The fir
-1910: Actor Scatman Crothers was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.
-1916: Norman Rockwell's first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.
-1953: Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier.
-1961: A mob attacked Freedom Riders in Montgomery. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy dispatched four hundred U.S. marshals to Montgomery to keep order in Freedom Rider controversy.
May 21
-1927: Lindbergh Flight Day commemorates the landing of Charles Lindbergh in Paris concluding the first successful transatlantic flight.
May 22
-1804: Lewis and Clark began their expedition.
-1844: Mary Cassatt, American impressionist painter, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.
-1848: The French island of Martinique in the lesser Antilles declared the abolition of slavery.
-1859: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physican and author of the Sherlock Holmes books, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
-1897: The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames in London was inaugurated by the Prince and Princess of Wales. At the time, Blackwall was the longest underwater tunnel in the world.
-1927: Novelist and short story writer Peter Matthiessen was born in New York City, New York.
-1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
-1933: Children's author and illustrator Arnold Lobel was born in Los Angeles, California.
-1992: Johnny Carson hosted "The Tonight Show" for the last time.
May 23
-1701: Capt. William Kidd was hanged in London for piracy and murder.
-1707: Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of modern systematic botany was born.
-1734: Austrian physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer was born.
-1810: Social reformer Margaret Fuller was born.
-1824: Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who later was a U.S. senator and for whom sideburns were named, was born.
-1883: Actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was born
-1900: Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his efforts during the Battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.
-1910: Bandleader Artie Shaw was born.
-1928: Singer Rosemary Clooney was born.
-1931: Actresses Barbara Barrie was born.
-1933: Joan Collins was born.
-1934: Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, was born.
-1936: Actor Charles Kimbrough ("Murphy Brown") was born.
-1939: the U.S. Navy submarine "Squalus" went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. 33 of the 59 men aboard were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.
-1960: Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and spirited him back to Israel, where he was tried, convicted and hanged.
-1961: Comedian Drew Carey was born.
-1988: Maryland Gov. Donald Schaefer signed the nation's first law banning the manufacture and sale of cheap handguns, known as "Saturday Night Specials."
-1991: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women's clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients.
-1993: A jury in Baton Rouge, La., acquitted a man who said he was defending his home against what he thought was an intruder when he shot and killed 16-year-old Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori.
-1994: Four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
-1994: Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
-1995: A man with an unloaded handgun climbed over a fence and ran toward the White House. He was tackled by one Secret Service agent and shot and wounded by a second.
-1995: What was left of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, site of the previous month's bombing that killed 169 people, was razed.
-1997: Mohammed Khatami, a "moderate" who favored improved economic ties with the West, was elected president of Iran.
May 24
-1844: Samuel F. B. Morse sent the first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. Morse sent the line, "What hath God wrought?", a Bible verse taken from Numbers 23:23. Morse devised a series of dots and dashes to represent the alphabet, which came to be known as "Morse code." The first transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1861, which brought an end to the Pony Express as the fastest form of communication. It marked the beginning of the telecommunications industry.
-1883: The Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public. Taking nearly 14 years to complete, it spans the East River of New York City and links Brooklyn and Manhattan.
-1940: Poet Joseph Brodsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
-1941: Singer-songwriter Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota.
May 25
May 25 is Africa Day.
-1803: Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
-1908: Poet Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan.
-1938: Raymond Carver was born in the town of Clatskanie, Oregon.
May 26
Australia National Sorry Day
-1521: The German priest and theologian Martin Luther was declared an outlaw and his writings were banned by the Edict of Worms.
-1886: Singer Al Jolson was born.
-1907: Actor John Wayne (Marion Morrison) was born.
-1908: Actor Robert Morley (Adolph Wilton) was born.
-1913: Actor Peter Cushing was born.
-1948: Singer Stevie (Stephanie) Nicks was born.
-1949: Singer Hank Williams was born.
-1981: The first software patent was granted after seven years of battle in the courts. Computer programmer and patent attorney S. Pal Asija was granted a patent for his software program "SwiftAnswer". Prior to this case, software programs were considered copyrightable writings, as opposed to patentable inventions. This case set the legal precedent for future software patents.
May 27
-1794: Capitalist Cornelius Vanderbilt was born.
-1837: US Marshall and Forntiersman Wild Bill (James) Hickok was born.
-1894: Detective novelist Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland.
-1907: Silent Spring author Rachel Carson was born.
-1911: Actor Vincent Price was born.
-1912: Novelist and short story writer John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.
-1922: Actor Christopher Lee was born.
-1923: Henry Kissinger was born.
-1930: Novelist John Barth was born in Cambridge, Maryland.
-1936: Actor Lou Gossett was born.
-1937: Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians , having taken five years to build.
- 1943: Singer Cilla Black (Priscilla Maria Veronica White) was born.
May 28
-1779: Romantic poet Thomas Moore was born in Dublin, Ireland.
-1908: Novelist Ian (Lancaster) Fleming was born in London, England.
-1912: Australian novelist Patrick White was born in London, England.
-1916: Novelist Walker Percy, born in Birmingham, Alabama.
-1919: Poet May Swenson was born in Logan, Utah.
-1940: Novelist Maeve Binchy was born in Dalkey, Ireland.
-1984: President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.
May 29
-1736: American revolutionary Patrick Henry was born in Studley, Virginia.
-1874: British author G.K. Chesterton was born in London, England.
-1906: British novelist T.H. White was born in Bombay, India.
-1917: John F. Kennedy, 35th US President, was born.
-1953: Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.
-1980: Vernon E. Jordan Jr., President of the National Urban League, was critically injured in attempted assassination in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
May 30
-1431: Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
-1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Northern territory to slavery.
-1896: Filmmaker Howard Hawks was born in Goshen, Indiana.
-1901: Actress and author Cornelia Otis Skinner was born in Chicago, Illinois.
-1903: Poet Countee Cullen, who was born.
-1958: Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
May 31
World No Tobacco Day
What Does Advertising Say About Smoking? Lesson Ideas: http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@global/documents/downloadable/ucm_313251.pdf
-1819: American poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, New York.
-1921: In the Tulsa Riot of 1921, it was the first American city to be bombed by airplanes. More people died
this day than in any single event since the Civil War.