Bay to Breakers, the largest footrace in the world with over 70,000 runners crosses the city of San Francisco.
Image: Geoffrey Weber, CC 2.0
Ellen Church became the first airline flight attendant on May 15, 1930 on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Image: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
On 15 May 1856, the American newspaperman who wrote the Wizard of Oz stories was born at Chittenango, NY. Although The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the most famous, Baum also wrote many other books for children, including more than a dozen about Oz. He died at Hollywood, CA, 6 May 1919.
Image: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
On 15 May 1940, nylon hose went on sale at stores throughout the USA. Competing producers bought their nylon yarn from E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (later DuPont). W.H. Carothers, of DuPont, developed nylon, called Polymer 66, in 1935. It was the first totally man-made fiber and over time was substituted for other materials and came to have widespread application.
Image: CC 4.0, International Erik Liljeroth Nordiska Museet
15 May. Peace Officer Memorial Day is a day to remember police and peace officers killed in action .Every 57 hours a police officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in America. During National Police week and on Peace Officer Memorial Day, the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum honors those lost with memorial services and outreach to surviving family.
Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
Biographer’s Day marks the anniversary of the meeting, at London, England, May 16, 1763, of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, beginning history’s most famous biographer-biographee relationship. Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) and his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) are regarded as models of biographical writing. Thus this day is recommended as one on which to start reading or writing a biography.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
Born on 16 May 1801, American statesman, secretary of state under Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $ 7,200,000. At the time some felt the price was too high and referred to the purchase as Seward’s Folly. Seward was governor of New York, 1839 43, and a member of the US Senate, 1848 60. On the evening of Lincolns assassination, 14 April 1865 Seward was stabbed in the throat by Lewis Posell, a fellow conspirator of John Wilkes Booth. Seward recovered and maintained his cabinet position under President Andrew Johnson until 1869. Born at Florida, NY, he died at Auburn, NY, 18 October 1872.
Image: Public Domain via Wikipedia.org
On 17 May 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation of public schools solely on the basis of race denied black children equal educational opportunity even though physical facilities and other tangible factors may have been equal. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. The case was argued before the Court by Thurgood Marshall, who would go on to become the first black appointed to the Supreme Court.
Image: Public Domain
17 May 2004. Massachusetts became the first US state to sanction gay marriage on this date. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples received licenses and were married.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
On 17 May 1792, some two dozen merchants and brokers agreed to establish what is now known as the New York Stock Exchange. In fair weather they operated under a buttonwood tree on Wall St, at New York, NY. In bad weather they moved to the shelter of a coffeehouse to conduct their business.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
Between Oct 12, 1943, and Jan 17, 1944, there were five Allied attempts to take the German position at the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino. Although the abbey had been reduced to rubble, it served as a bunker for the Germans. In the spring of 1944 Marshal Alphonse Pierre Juin devised an operation that crossed the mountainous regions behind the fortress-like structure, using Moroccan troops of the French Expeditionary Force. Specially trained for mountain operations, they climbed 4,850 feet to locate a pass. On May 15, 1944, they attacked the Germans from behind. On May 18 Polish troops attached to this force took Monte Cassino.
Image: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
International Museum Day was created to pay tribute to museums of the world. Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding and peace among people. Observed annually on May 18 since 1977.
Image: Joe Ravi, CC-BY-SA 3.0
On 18 May 1980, a major eruption of Mount Saint Helen’s volcano, in southwestern Washington, blew steam and ash more than 11 miles into the sky. First major eruption of Mount Saint Helen’s since 1857, though on Mar 26, 1980, there had been a warning eruption of smaller magnitude.
Image: Public domain, wikimedia commons
Born around 1501, Anne Boleyn captured the eye of England’s King Henry VIII in 1527. Her demand that he make her a wife, not a mistress, caused the married Henry’s break with the Catholic Church (which didn’t allow divorce), which in turn led to decades of religious turmoil in England. Henry had his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled and wed Boleyn in1533. Boleyn’s inability to bear a male heir (although her daughter with Henry was the future Queen Elizabeth I) and court intrigue caused her arrest on charges of adultery. She was executed by sword on 19 May 1536 at the Tower of London. The morning of her execution she said, I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck.
Image: Public Domain
On 19 May 1780, at midday near-total darkness unaccountably descended on much of New England. Candles were lit, fowls went to roost and many fearful persons believed that doomsday had arrived. At New Haven, Connecticut, Colonel Abraham Davenport opposed adjournment of the town council in these words: I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles maybe brought. No scientifically verifiable cause for this widespread phenomenon was ever discovered.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
American playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born at Chicago, ILon 19 May 1930. For her now classic play A Raisin in the Sun, she became the youngest American and first Black to win the Best Play Award from the New York Critics Circle.
The play, titled after the Langston Hughes poem,deals with issues such as racism, cultural pride and self-respect and was the first stage production written by a Black woman to appear on Broadway (1959). To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, a book of excerpts from her journals, letters, speeches and plays, was published posthumously in 1969.
Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer 12 January 1965, at New York, NY.
On 19 May 1925 Black nationalist and civil rights activist Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little at Omaha, NE. While serving a prison term, he resolved to transform his life. On his release in 1952 he changed his name to Malcolm X and worked for the Nation of Islam until he was suspended by Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad 4 December 1963. Malcolm X later made the pilgrimage to Mecca and became an orthodox Muslim. He was assassinated as he spoke to a meeting at the Audubon Ballroom at New York, New York, 21 February 1965.
May 19 – Shavuot is a Jewish holiday celebrating the day God gave the Torah to the nation of Israel.
Image: Davidbena, CC 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
20 May is Eliza Doolittle Day established to honor Miss Doolittle (heroine of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion) for demonstrating the importance and the advantage of speaking ones native language properly.
Image: Public domain, wikimedia commons
On 20 May 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act which took effect on 1 January 1863, and opened up the West to settlers in the United States.
Image: Public Domain
20-
21 May 1927 is the anniversary of the first solo transatlantic flight. Captain Charles Augustus Lindbergh, 25-year-old aviator, departed from rainy, muddy Roosevelt Field, Long Island, NY, alone at 7: 52AM, 20 May 1927, in a Ryan monoplane named Spirit of St. Louis. He landed at Le Bourget airfield, Paris, France, at 10: 24 PM, Paris time (5: 24 PM, NY time), 21 May winning a $ 25,000 prize offered by Raymond Orteig for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris (3,600 miles). The flying fool, as he had been dubbed by some doubters, became Lucky Lindy, an instant world hero.
National Bike to Work Day raises awareness for bicycle safety and encourages the use of biking for transportation.
Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
Anniversary of international treaty, signed 20 May 1875, providing for the establishment of an International Bureau of Weights and Measures. The bureau was founded on international territory at Svres, France.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
21 May 1881 marks the founding of the American Red Cross by Clara Barton, its first president. The Red Cross had been founded in Switzerland in 1864 by representatives from 16 European nations. It is a not-for-profit organization governed and directed by volunteers and provides disaster relief at home and abroad. Its 1.1 million volunteers are involved in community services such as collecting and distributing donated blood and blood products, teaching health and safety classes and acting as a medium for emergency communication between Americans and their armed forces.
National Learn to Swim Day is a nationwide campaign designed to raise awareness about the importance of teaching children to swim. It takes place annually on the Saturday the week before the unofficial start of summer: Memorial Day weekend. Families nationwide are invited to participate by attending a local event, teaching their children to swim with at-home instruction, visiting a community pool as a family or enrolling children in swim lessons at a local facility.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
