May 31 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 31 History Highlights1909 – The National Negro Committee, the forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), convened for the first time.1911 – The RMS Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland.1971 – Observation of Memorial Day occurred on the last Monday in May… Read More
Tag: May
May 30 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 30 History Highlights1842 – John Francis attempted to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London.1854 – The US territories of Kansas and Nebraska were established.1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ended with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp.1975 –… Read More
May 29 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 29 History Highlights1886 – John Pemberton placed his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, in The Atlanta Journal.1919 – Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was tested (and later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.1953 – Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a… Read More
May 28 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 28 History Highlights1830 – President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which denied Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocated them.1934 – In Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets were born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne1936 – Alan Turing published On Computable Numbers.1961 – Peter Benenson’s article… Read More
May 27 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 27 History Highlights1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg.1933 – The Century of Progress World’s Fair opened in Chicago.1941 – The British navy sank the German battleship, Bismarck, in the North Atlantic near France, killing over 2,000 Germans.1972 – The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty… Read More
May 26 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 26 History Highlights1868 – The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal by a single vote.1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held.1927 – The last Ford Model T rolled off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.1967 – The Beatles’… Read More
May 25 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 25 History Highlights240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.It will next appear in mid-2061.1925 – John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching human evolution in Tennessee.1977 – 1977 – Star Wars (now Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) opened Memorial Day weekend, marking… Read More
May 24 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 24 History Highlights1626 – Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from the Lenape Indians for “60 guilders worth of trade,” approximately $1,143 in 2020 dollars.1844 – Samuel F.B. Morse sent the first public telegraph message – ‘What Hath God Wrought?’ through the Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line.1958 – United Press International (UPI)… Read More
May 23 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 23 History Highlights1430 – 1430 – Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians1788 – South Carolina officially became the eighth US state.1995 – The first version of the Java programming language was released.1873 – The Canadian Parliament established the North-West Mounted Police, later named the Royal Canadian… Read More
May 22 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 22 History Highlights1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially began, from St. Charles, Missouri.US President #16 Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. President to receive a patent, on his floating drydock on May 22, 1849, US patent #6469.1906 – The Wright brothers were granted US Patent (#821,393)… Read More
May 21 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 21 History Highlights1881 – The American Red Cross was established by Clara Barton in Washington, DC.1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was damaged by a mentally disturbed Hungarian, Laszlo Toth.2001 – French Taubira law officially recognized the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes… Read More
May 20 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 20 History Highlights1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, opening 84 million acres of public land to settlers.1883 – Krakatoa began to erupt; the volcano exploded three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.1940 – The first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp.1956 – In Operation… Read More
May 19 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 19 History Highlights1848 – Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day US states to the United States for $15 million.1962 – Marilyn Monroe sang her famous Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy… Read More
May 18 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 18 History Highlights1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.1860 – Abraham Lincoln won the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward.1953 – Jackie Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier.If you were born on May 18th,You were… Read More
May 17 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 17 History Highlights1756 – Seven Years’ War formally began when Great Britain declared war on France.1900 – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, was first published in the United States.1954 – The US Supreme Court declared a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education… Read More
May 16 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 16 History Highlights1866 – The United States Congress established the 5-cent nickel.1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense.It was repealed on December 13, 1920.1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began,… Read More
May 15 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 15 History Highlights1911 – With Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. The United States, the United States Supreme Court declared Standard Oil to be an “unreasonable” monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company to be broken up.1941 – Joe DiMaggio began a 56-game hitting… Read More
May 14 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 14 History Highlights1607 – Jamestown, Virginia was settled as an English colony.1796 – Edward Jenner, “the father of immunology, administered the first smallpox inoculation.1948 – Israel was declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.If you were born on May 14th,You were likely conceived… Read More
May 13 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 13 History Highlights1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 (C/1861 J1) was discovered,and it should return in 2063.1917 – The first reported apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.May 13, 19** Birthday (fictional) Barry Allen (The Flash), DC ComicsIf you were born on May 13th,You were… Read More
May 12 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 12 History Highlights1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers left Independence, Missouri for California, on what became a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.1847 – The Modern Odometer (Roadometer) was invented by William Clayton“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” – Yogi BerraIf you were born on… Read More
May 11 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 11 History Highlights1846 – President James K. Polk requested a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War.1858 – Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd state of the United States1960 -Adolf Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentina.The 1970 Lubbock tornado killed 26 people and causes… Read More
May 10 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 10 History Highlights1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette became King and Queen of France1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.Mother’s Day in Mexico is a set date of May 10th every year, unlike most other countries… Read More
May 9 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 9 History Highlights1662 – The precursor to Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England.1955 – West Germany joined NATO.1961 – FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow gave his Television is a Vast Wasteland Speech.1974 – The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opened impeachment hearings against… Read More
May 8 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 8 History Highlights1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sold his carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine.1933 – Mohandas Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.1945 – Germany’s ‘second surrender’ with StalinMay 8, 21** Birthday (fictional) Katniss… Read More
May 7 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 7 History Highlights1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) was founded.1952 – The concept of the integrated circuit was first published by Geoffrey Dummer.2013 – The Dow Jones Index closed above 15,000 for the first time.If you were born on May 7th,You were likely conceived the week… Read More
May 6 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 6 History Highlights1527 – The Sack of Rome was carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.1840 – The Penny Black postage stamp, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was the first adhesive postal stamp.1937 – The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught… Read More
May 5 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 5 History Highlights1260 – Kublai Khan became the ruler of the Mongol Empire.1847 – The American Medical Association (AMA) was founded.1893 – Stock Market Crash of 1893, the second-worst economic crisis in American history, so far.1987 – Congressional televised hearings in the United States began over the Iran-Contra… Read More
May 4 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 4 History Highlights1776 – Rhode Island was the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.1904 – The United States began the construction of the Panama Canal.May 4 is Star Wars Day. “May the Fourth be with you.”May 4 Birthday (fictional) Alice, In WonderlandIf you were… Read More
May 3 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 3 History Highlights1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 began in Jacksonville, Florida.1948 – CBS Evening News premiered with a 15 minute broadcast.1971 – National Public Radio began broadcasting1979 – Margaret Thatcher won the United Kingdom general election, and became the first female British Prime Minister the following… Read More
May 2 Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryMay 2 History Highlights1611 – The King James Bible was published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.1885 – Good Housekeeping magazine began publication.1939 – Lou Gehrig’s playing streak ended with 2,130 consecutive games played since May 25, 1925.2011 – Osama bin Laden was killed… Read More