May Calendar for Today in History

May Calendar: Today in History

Today in History, Holidays, Fun Facts, & Links to Relevant Teaching Materials - Today in History - Holiday Worksheets & Games

National Physical Fitness and Sports Month: President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

American Wetlands Month

MAY DAY - Honored as a day to celebrate workers and the labor movement in numerous countries.
ACCORDING TO MOTHER GOOSE - "The young maid who, the first of May, goes to the fields at break of day, and washes with dew from the hawthorn tree, will ever after handsome be."
1707 - Act of Union - England and Scotland became Great Britain.
1948 - North Korea was established.
2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden, founder of the terrorist organization al Qaeda, was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

1994 - Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa.

2003 - New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain collapsed.

1626 - Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island.
1886 - Haymarket Square Riot.
1932 - Al Capone entered prison after being convicted of tax evasion.
1970 - Shooting of students at Kent State University (Ohio).

1925 - John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution (Tennessee).
1961 - The first American went into space, Alan Shepard.
CINCO DE MAYO - Mexican-American holiday honoring a Mexican victory over invading European forces.

1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act.
1937 - Hindenberg disaster (Lakehurst, New Jersey).
NATIONAL SCHOOL NURSE DAY - National Association of School Nurses.

1847 - The American Medical Association was founded.
1915 - Sinking of the Lusitania (World War I).
1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea.
1945 - Germany's unconditional surrender ended World War II in Europe.
2000 - Vladimir Putin became president of Russia (the Russian Federation).

1794 - Antoine Lavoisier guillotined.
1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea.
1945 - V-E Day (Victory in Europe, World War II).
1973 - End of the occupation of Wounded Knee.

1926 - Floyd Bennett and Richard E. Byrd flew over the North Pole.
1962 - The Beatles signed their first record deal.

1775 - Fort Ticonderoga was captured from the British by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.
1869 - Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad.
1924 - J. Edgar Hoover became the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

1858 - Minnesota became a U.S. state.
1894 - Start of the Pullman Strike.
1949 - Siam became Thailand.
1997 - Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM supercomputer Deep Blue.

1551 - The National University of San Marcos was founded in Lima, Peru.
2008 - The Wenchuan Earthquake killed over 69,000 people in China.

1717 - Birth of Austria's Maria Theresa.
1787 - The first fleet of convicts left England for Australia.
1846 - Official start of the Mexican-American War.
1888 - Brazil abolished slavery.
1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded in Rome.

1796 - Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccine.
1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis.
1948 - Birth of the State of Israel.
1955 - Signing of the Warsaw Pact.
1973 - Skylab was launched.

1862 - United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created.
1972 - Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was shot.

1770 - Wedding of Marie Antoinette and the future King Louis XVI.
1929 - First Academy Awards were held.

1792 - Formation of the New York Stock Exchange.
1954 - Brown v. Board of Education decision declared school segregation unconstitutional.
2004 - A law legalizing same-sex marriage was passed in Massachusetts.

1642 - Montreal, Quebec, was founded.
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France.
1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson decision declared segregation constitutional under the "Separate but Equal" doctrine.
1980 - Eruption of Washington's Mount St. Helens.

1536 - Beheading of Anne Boleyn, second wife of England's King Henry VIII.
1921 - Emergency Quota Act passed by the United States Congress.
1992 - Amendment 27 of the United States Constitution.

1506 - Death of Christopher Columbus in Spain.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh, a.k.a. "Lucky Lindy," began the first nonstop solo flight around the world aboard the Spirit of Saint Louis.
1932 - Amelia Earhart began her flight as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo.
1961 - Busload of "Freedom Riders" attacked in Montgomery, Alabama.
2002 - East Timor became an independent nation.

1881 - Predecessor of the American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton.
1956 - Hydrogen bomb dropped over the Bikini Atoll.

1972 - Ceylon became Sri Lanka.
1990 - North Yemen and South Yemen merged as the Republic of Yemen.
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY - Educate yourself on diverse species and the threats they face.

1873 - Predecessor of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed in Canada.
1934 - Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow killed by police.
1949 - Creation of the German Federal Republic.

1844 - Samuel Morse's first telegraph message: "What hath God wrought?"
1883 - Brooklyn Bridge opened.

1787 - Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia.
1961 - John F. Kennedy addressed Congress on the importance of sending a man to the moon.
1968 - Dedication of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

1521 - Edict of Worms banned Martin Luther's works.
1978 - Opening of the first Atlantic City casino.

1703 - Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg, Russia.
1937 - San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened.

1937 - Opening of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
1998 - Pakistan performed nuclear tests.

1790 - Rhode Island became a U.S. state.
1848 - Wisconsin became a U.S. state.

1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

1790 - First United States copyright law was enacted.
1943 - End of the Japanese occupation of the Aleutian Islands.
1961 - South Africa became independent.

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