What Happened in Past Mays?
May 19, 2009
By Phyllis Barr and The SmartWoman Staff
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May 1, 1852 (approx.) – It’s the birthday of frontierswoman Martha Jane Cannary Burke, a.k.a. Calamity Jane. She appears in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and is involved in several military operations against Native Americans.
May 1, 1893 - The Chicago World’s Fair opens and attracts more than 27 million people during its six-month run.
May 1, 1931 - The 102-story Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City. For 40 years, it is considered the tallest building in the world.
May 3, 1879 – Writer, suffragette and labor union organizer Maud O’Farrell Swartz is born. This Irish emigrant becomes president of the Women’s Trade Union League and later works for Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member of an American administration.
May 4, 1961 – The first Freedom Riders begin protesting segregation of interstate bus travel in the South.
May 5, 1891 – Opening Night at Carnegie Hall (originally called Music Hall) features maestro Walter Damrosch and composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
May 8, 1884 - Future President of the United States Harry Truman is born, to be forever linked with such popular expressions as “The buck stops here” and “If you can’t stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen.”
May 9, 1914 – At the urging of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia and other supporters, President Woodrow Wilson proclaims the first official celebration of Mother’s Day in the United States. Jarvis later becomes an outspoken opponent of the commercialization of what she had envisioned as a solemn, sentimental day. (Mother’s Day 2009 observation – Sunday, May 10.)
May 10, 1869 - The Transcontinental Railroad is opened for traffic after the “last spike” (also known as the “golden spike”) is driven into the track at Promontory Summit, Utah. Traveling from coast to coast is reduced from six months or more to one week.
May 10, 1872 – California suffragist Victoria Woodhull is nominated for President of the United States by the Equal Rights Party, with statesman and former slave Frederick Douglass nominated for vice president. Woodhull’s candidacy is not officially recognized because she is one year shy of the constitutionally prescribed minimum age of 35.
May 11, 1894 – It’s the birthday of dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, regarded as one of the pioneers of modern dance. Enjoying a career that spanned more than 70 years, she is recognized as the first dancer to perform at the White House and to travel abroad as a cultural ambassador.
May 12, 1820 – It’s the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Named after the city in which she is born, she defies her parents to become a nurse. She is a reformer in health care for the poor and military members, and a pioneer in linking sanitary conditions to illness and death. Her work is an inspiration to American nurses during the Civil War.
May 13, 1872 - Matilda Arabella Evans is born. She becomes the first African-American woman to receive a medical license and to practice medicine in South Carolina. She is also a teacher, runs her own farm, and establishes a clinic, a newspaper and organizes recreational activities for underprivileged boys. During World War I, she is appointed to the Volunteer Medical Corps.
May 14, 1804 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead an expedition from St. Louis, Mo., to explore the Louisiana Territory, which had been purchased from France in 1803 during the administration of Thomas Jefferson.
May 16, 1991 - Queen Elizabeth II is the first British monarch to deliver an address to the U.S. Congress.
May 17, 1792 - The New York Stock Exchange is “born” when 24 traders meet under a Buttonwood tree on Wall Street to set up rules called “The Buttonwood Agreement.”
May 17, 1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.
May 20, 1927 - Charles Lindbergh departs on his historic flight from Roosevelt Field on Long Island. He lands near Paris the next day. It is the first solo transatlantic flight.
May 21, 1932 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean and is the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Medal. She disappears over the Pacific during a round-the-world trip in 1937. Some believe she was on a spying mission for the United States; others believe she survived a crash and lived on an island in the Pacific for some time.
May 22, 1819 - The steamship Savannah leaves Georgia for Liverpool, England. The 26-day trip is the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by a steamship.
May 24, 1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first telegraphic message – “What hath God wrought.” It is sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Md.
May 24, 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge, 5,989 feet long with a 1,596-foot main span, opens. It is the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, but has since dropped out of the top 70.
May 25, 1787 - Delegates meet in Philadelphia, Pa., to begin work on the United States Constitution.
May 25, 1919 – The first African-American woman to become a millionaire, Sarah “Madam C. J.” Walker dies. The first person in her family to be born free, she makes her fortune with hair care products and cosmetics. The entrepreneur and philanthropist contributes generously to the NAACP and Tuskegee Institute.
May 26, 1951 - Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut, is born. Holding a Ph.D. in physics, she answers a NASA advertisement in 1978 and goes into space in 1983. Two Russian women preceded her into space.
May 27, 1937 - The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge opens. Its main span measures 4,200 feet, making it one of the 10 longest suspension bridges in the world.
May 28, 1980 – Fifty-five women graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, the first women to do so.
May 29, 1917 - Future President John F. Kennedy is born. Nearly 44 years later, he beseeches Americans, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
May 30, 1868 – The first official Memorial Day (originally Decoration Day) is the brainchild of Civil War Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan. (Memorial Day 2009 observation – Monday, May 25.)
May 31, 1824 – Author Jesse Benton Fremont is born in Virginia. Politically active and vocally anti-slavery, she writes books and magazine articles that often follow the exploits of her husband, famed military officer, explorer and politician John C. Fremont.
Until next month,
Historically yours,
Phyllis
Phyllis Barr, known as “lady history” specializes in historical research. Her company, Corporate Culture Marketing by Barr Consulting, helps companies leverage history and heritage as a marketing tool and uses history to help companies resolve culture clashes after a merger. She also offers services in curating , preserving records, and oral history. Contact her at lady...@earthlink.net
