| May |
| Today in History, Holidays, Fun Facts, and Teaching Materials |
| National Physical Fitness and Sports Month: President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports | |
| American Wetlands Month | |
| 1 | 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. 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." |
| 2 | 1994 - Nelson Mandela was elected as president of South Africa. |
| 3 | 2003 - New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain collapsed. |
| 4 | 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). |
| 5 | 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. |
| 6 | 1882 -
Chinese Exclusion Act. 1937 - Hindenberg disaster (Lakehurst, New Jersey). NATIONAL SCHOOL NURSE DAY - National Association of School Nurses. |
| 7 | 1847 - American Medical Association
was founded. 1915 - Sinking of the Lusitania. 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). |
| 8 | 1794 - Antoine Lavoisier guillotined. 1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea. 1945 - V-E Day (Victory in Europe). 1973 - End of the occupation of Wounded Knee. |
| 9 | 1926 - Floyd Bennett and Richard E. Byrd
flew over the North Pole. 1962 - The Beatles signed their first record deal. |
| 10 | 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). |
| 11 | 1858 -
Minnesota became a state. 1894 - Start of the Pullman Strike. 1949 - Siam became Thailand. 1997 - Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. |
| 12 | 1551 -
National University of San Marcos
was founded in Lima, Peru. 2008 - Wenchuan Earthquake killed over 69,000 people in China. |
| 13 | 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. |
| 14 | 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 launched. |
| 15 | 1862 - United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) was created. 1972 - Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was shot. |
| 16 | 1770 - Wedding of
Marie Antoinette and the
future King Louis XVI. 1929 - First Academy Awards were held. |
| 17 | 1792 - Formation of the
New York Stock
Exchange. 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education decision declared school segregation unconstitutional. 2004 - Same-sex marriage passed in Massachusetts. |
| 18 | 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. |
| 19 | 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. |
| 20 | 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. |
| 21 | 1881 - Predecessor of the American Red Cross
was founded by Clara Barton. 1956 - Hydrogen bomb dropped over the Bikini Atoll. |
| 22 |
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. |
| 23 | 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. |
| 24 | 1844 - Samuel Morse's first
telegraph
message: "What hath God wrought?" 1883 - Brooklyn Bridge opened. |
| 25 | 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. |
| 26 | 1521 - Edict of Worms banned
Martin Luther's works. 1978 - Opening of the first Atlantic City casino. |
| 27 | 1703 -
Peter the Great founded St.
Petersburg, Russia. 1937 - San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened. |
| 28 | 1937 - Opening of San Francisco's
Golden
Gate Bridge. 1998 - Pakistan performed nuclear tests. |
| 29 | 1790 -
Rhode Island became a state. 1848 - Wisconsin became a state. |
| 30 | 1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. |
| 31 | 1790 - First United States
copyright law
was enacted. 1943 - End of the Japanese occupation of the Aleutian Islands. 1961 - South Africa became independent. |
