May 1, 1852 (?) - Calamity Jane was born. Her real name was
Martha Jane Cannary Burke. She was a Scout for the U.S. Army, a frontierswoman,
and appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She was involved in several
military operations against Native Americans. There are various theories on how
she got her nickname and questions about the year in which she was born.
May 1, 1857 - The United States Congress chartered Howard
University.
May 2 1931 - The Empire State Building was dedicated.
May 3, 1879 - Maud O'Farrell Swartz, who emigrated from
Ireland, was born. She was a writer, suffragette, and labor union organizer.
She worked for the first woman cabinet member of an American administration,
Frances Perkins, who served as Labor Secretary in the administration of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
May 4, 1778 - The Continental Congress ratified a Treaty of
Alliance with France.
May 4, 1961 - The Freedom Riders began protesting
segregation of interstate bus travel in the South.
May 5, 1891 - Carnegie Hall opened. It was first called The
Music Hall, but was renamed in 1898 after industrialist Andrew Carnegie.
May 6, 1960 - A Civil Rights Act was passed by
Congress, one of several to be passed in the 1960's. It "established
federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties
for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote or actually
vote."
May 8, 1884 - Future President of the United States Harry Truman
was born. He was President from 1945 to 1953. When President Franklin Roosevelt
died early in his fourth term, then Vice President Truman became President. He
then went on to win another term much to the surprise of the pundits.
May 9, 1869 - The Transcontinental Railroad was completed.
May 9, 1914 - President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Mother's
Day.
May 12, 1820 - Florence Nightingale was born, named after
the city in which she was born. She became, against the wishes of her parents,
a nurse. She was a reformer in health care for the poor and members of the
military and a pioneer in linking sanitary conditions and illnesses and deaths.
She blamed bad conditions for the death of many soldiers and
civilians. Nightingale served in the Crimean War in 1854.
May 13, 1872 - Matilda Arabella Evans, who became the first
African-American woman to receive a medical license and to practice
medicine in South Carolina, was born. She was an OB/GYN and Surgeon. She
established the Taylor Lane Hospital, the first African-American
hospital in Columbia, S.C., in 1901. She also was a teacher, ran
her own farm, established a clinic and a newspaper, and organized
recreational activities for underprivileged boys. During W.W.I, she was
appointed to the Volunteer Medical Corps.
May 14, 1804 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an
expedition from St. Louis, MO to explore the area of the Louisiana
Territory which had been purchased from France in 1803 during the
administration of Thomas Jefferson.
May 16, 1991 - Queen Elizabeth II was the first British
monarch to deliver an address to the United States Congress.
May 17, 1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established
when 24 traders met under a Buttonwood tree on Wall Street to set up rules
called "The Buttonwood Agreement."
May 17, 1954 - The United States Supreme Court declared segregation
in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.
The following year on May 32, the Supreme Count ordered school integration.
May 20, 1927 - Charles Lindbergh departed on his historic
flight from Roosevelt Field on Long Island. He landed near Paris the next day.
It was the first solo transatlantic flight.
May 21, 1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to
complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. She was the first woman
to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for this feat. She
was also an author. Earhart disappeared over the Pacific during an
around-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. New clues are being investigated this year.
May 22, 1819 - The steamship Savannah left Georgia for Liverpool,
England. It was the first crossing of the Atlantic by a steamship. The
trip took 26 days.
May 24, 1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse sent the first telegraphic
message. It was sent from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, MD.
May 24, 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge opened.
May 25, 1787 - Delegates met in Philadelphia, PA to begin work on
the United States Constitution. George Washington was elected
President of the Constitutional Congress. In 1789, he was sworn in as the first
President of the new United States of America.
May 25, 1919 - Sarah "Madam C. J." Walker, an
entrepreneur who manufactured hair care products and cosmetics,
died. She was the first person in her family to be born free. Madam
Walker was the first African-American woman to become a millionaire. She
was a philanthropist who contributed to the NAACP and Tuskegee Institute,
among other institutions.
May 25, 2879 - St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue
was dedicated.
May 26, 1803 - The cornerstone was laid for New York's City Hall
which was completed in 1812.
May 26, 1951 - Sally Ride, the first American woman
astronaut, was born. She has a Ph.D. in Physics. She answered a NASA
advertisement in 1978. Before going into space in 1983, she held several
positions with NASA including Capsule Communicator for several missions. Two
Russian women preceded her into space. Ms. Ride died last year.
May 26, 1965 - The Voting Rights Bill was passed
by Congress.
May 28, 1980 - 55 women graduated from the United States
Naval Academy. They were the first women graduates.
May 29, 1917 - Future President John F. Kennedy
was born. He was President from 1961 to 1963. Prior to that he was a Senator
from Massachusetts. He served in W.W. II, during which he was seriously
injured. He appointed his brother, Robert, to be Attorney General, an
unusual circumstance.
May 30, 1909 - The NAACP met for the first time.
May 31, 1824 - Jesse Benton Fremont was born. She was
a prolific writer who wrote books about her husband's and her own
experiences and explorations out West. She also wrote articles for magazines.
Her husband, John Charles Fremont, was an explorer and one of the
first two Senators from California after it became a state, taking office in
1850. Her father, Thomas Hart Benton, was a Senator from Missouri. In
1856, Senator Fremont's anti-slavery views led him to run for President on
the ticket of the newly formed Republican Party. He was the first
candidate to run on an anti-slavery platform. He lost to James
Buchanan. Mrs. Fremont, also an opponent of slavery, worked
alongside him and was active in politics, unusual for a woman in her day. Her
father, a Democrat, did not support their views and refused to vote for him.
Until next month,
I would appreciate you sending your insights and additions.
Historically yours,
Phyllis