May 21
In Washington, D.C., humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters. – 1881.
Connecticut becomes the first state to pass a law regulating motor vehicles by limiting their speed to 12 mph in cities and 15 mph on country roads. – 1901.
American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, to successfully complete the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first nonstop flight between New York to Paris, which took 33½ hours. – 1927.
May 22
A massive wagon train, made up of 1,000 settlers and 1,000 head of cattle, sets off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Mo., known as the “Great Emigration.” -1843.
May 23
An estimated 100,000 textile workers, including more than 10,000 children, strike in the Philadelphia area. Among the issues: 60-hour work weeks, including night hours, for the children. – 1903.
Ten thousand strikers at Toledo, Ohio’s Auto-Lite plant repel police who have come to break up their strike for union recognition. The next day, two strikers are killed and 15 wounded when National Guard machine gun units open fire. Two weeks later the company recognized the union and agreed to a five percent raise. – 1934.
May 24
After 14 years of construction and the deaths of 27 workers, the Brooklyn Bridge over New York’s East River opens. Newspapers call it “the eighth wonder of the world.” – 1883.
A referee’s call disallowed an apparent goal for Peru in a soccer match between Peru and Argentina, a qualifying game for the 1964 Olympics. The stadium crowd went wild and the resulting panic and crowd-control measures taken causes a stampede in which more than 300 fans were killed and another 500 were injured in the violent melee that followed at National Stadium in Lima, Peru. – 1964.
May 25
With George Washington presiding, the Constitutional Convention formally convenes on this day in 1787. The convention faced a daunting task: The peaceful overthrow of the new American government as it had been defined by the Articles of Confederation. – 1787.
Thousands of unemployed WWI veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. to demand a bonus they had been promised, but never received. They built a shantytown near the U.S. Capitol, but were burned out by U.S. troops after two months. – 1932.
The notorious 11-month Remington Rand strike begins. The strike spawned the “Mohawk Valley (N.Y.) formula,” described by investigators as a corporate plan to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, employ thugs to beat up strikers, and other tactics. The National Labor Relations Board termed the formula “a battle plan for industrial war.” – 1936.
American Airlines Flight 191, with 271 aboard, raises its nose during the initial stage of the takeoff and an engine under the left wing breaks off with its pylon assembly and falls to the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Moments later, the aircraft crashes into an open field about a half-mile from its takeoff point, and kills all 271 aboard and two employees at a nearby repair garage. It was the worst domestic air crash in U.S. history. – 1979.
May 26
One hundred thousand steel workers and miners in mines owned by steel companies strike in seven states. The Memorial Day Massacre, in which 10 strikers were killed by police at Republic Steel in Chicago, took place four days later, May 30. – 1937.
May 27
The Golden Gate Bridge, which connects San Francisco with Marin County, Calif., officially opens amid citywide celebration. – 1937.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces a state of unlimited national emergency in response to Nazi Germany’s threats of world domination on this day in 1941. In a speech on this day, he repeated his famous remark from a speech he made in 1933 during the Great Depression: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. – 1941.
A tornado in Jarrell, Texas, destroys the town and kills nearly 30 persons. This F5 tornado was unusual in that it went south along the ground; nearly all tornadoes in North America move northeast. The tornado stopped on top of Double Creek home development and the only structure to survive was a family’s tornado shelter. – 1997.