This Week in History

This Week in History

May 19
1535 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America. 1536 Anne Boleyn is beheaded on Tower Green. 1588 The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, Spain. 1780 Near total darkness descends on New England at noon. No explanation is found. 1935 The National Football League adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936. 1964 U.S. diplomats find at least 40 microphones planted in the American embassy in Moscow. 1967 U.S. planes bomb Hanoi for the first time.

May 20
1520 Hernando Cortes defeats Spanish troops sent against him in Mexico. 1774 Parliament passes the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts close the port of Boston. 1775 North Carolina becomes the first colony to declare its independence. 1874 Levi Strauss begins marketing blue jeans with copper rivets. 1932 Amelia Earhart lands near Londonderry, Ireland, to become the first woman fly solo across the Atlantic. 1961 A white mob attacks civil rights activists in Montgomery, Alabama. 1969 In South Vietnam, troops of the 101st Airborne Division reach the top of Hill 937 after nine days of fighting entrenched North Vietnamese forces. 1970 100,000 people march in New York, supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.

May 21
996 Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned the Roman Emperor. 1506 Christopher Columbus dies. 1620 Present-day Martha’s Vineyard is first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold. 1832 The Democratic party holds its first national convention. 1881 The American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton. 1927 Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris completing the first solo air crossing of the Atlantic. 1970 The U.S. National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State University. 1991 In Madras, India, a suicide bomber kills the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

May 22
1807 A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason. 1856 Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas 1906 Wright brothers granted U.S. patent number for flying machine 1960 An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 1962 Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode. 1967 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the longest-running children's series on U.S. television, airs its first episode. 1968 The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores. 1990 The Windows 3.0 operating system is released by Microsoft. 1992 After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.

May 23
1430 Joan of Arc is captured and sold to the English. 1533 Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void. 1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals. 1900 Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner. 1934 Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers. 1945 Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces. 1960 Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

May 24
1626 Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. 1738 John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day. 1787 The United States Constitutional Convention is convened after a quorum of delegates arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1844 Samuel F. B. Morse sent the first message 1856 John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1883 The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened 1961 American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. 1962 American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

May 25
1659 Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.1895 Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.1925 Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. (1925) 1932 Goofy makes his debut. 1935 Babe Ruth hits his 714th and last home run at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, setting a baseball record that will stand for 39 years. 1977 Star Wars opens in theaters 1979 Florida executes John Spenkelink, the first non-voluntary execution in the United States in more than 10 years. 1965 Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in the first minute of the first round of a boxing match. 1992 Jay Leno takes over as host of The Tonight Show. 2006 Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling are convicted for their roles in the collapse of Enron.

Famous Birthdays

May 19
1762 Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher. 1879 Lady Nancy Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne), the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons. 1890 Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh), Vietnamese nationalist and political leader. 1895 Johns Hopkins, merchant and philanthropist. 1925 Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), African-American activist. 1934 James Lehrer, broadcast journalist. 1941 Jane Brody, food and health writer. 1941 Nora Ephron, screenwriter and director.

May 20
1768 Dolley Madison, first lady of President James Madison. 1799 Honore de Balzac, French novelist (The Human Comedy, Lost Illusions). 1818 William George Fargo, one of the founders of Wells, Fargo & Co. 1882 Sigrid Undset, Norwegian novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter). 1908 Jimmy Stewart, actor (It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington).

May 21
427 BC Plato, Greek philosopher. 1844 Henri Rousseau, French painter. 1856 Grace Hoadley Dodge, philanthropist, helped organize the YWCA. 1860 Willem Einthoven, physiologist, inventor of the electrocardiogram. 1898 Armand Hammer, American entrepeneur and industrialist. 1909 Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, artist. 1917 Raymond Burr, actor (Perry Mason). 1921 Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist. 1944 Mary Bourke Robinson, first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997).

May 22
1813 Richard Wagner, German composer 1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physician and writer 1907 Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor and director 1934 Peter Nero, American musician 1941 Paul Winfield, American actor 1942 Theodore Kaczynski, American terrorist 1970 1970 Naomi Campbell, model.

May 23
1883 Douglas Fairbanks, actor 1910 Scatman (Benjamin) Crothers, entertainer 1952 Marvelous Marvin Hagler, boxer 1958 Drew Carey, comedian 1974 Jewel, singer

May 24
1819 Queen Victoria 1875 Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., president and chairman of the board for General Motors. 1910 Artie Shaw, bandleader and clarinetist. 1928 Rosemary Clooney, singer. 1934 Robert A. Moog, electrical engineer, creator of the Moog synthesizer. 1944 Frank Oz (muppets puppeteer) 1945 Priscilla Beaulieu Presley 1955 Roseanne Cash, singer/songwriter

May 25
1803 Ralph Waldo Emerson (writer) 1878 Bill 'Bojangles' (Luther) Robinson (vaudeville dancer) 1892 Tito (known as Marshal Tito, originally Josip Broz) Yugoslav leader 1898 Gene (James) Tunney, Heavyweight Boxer 1929 Beverly Sills (opera singer) 1926 Miles (Dewey) Davis, musician 1927 Robert Ludlum, writer 1963 Mike Myers, comedian, actor