May 14
One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition leaves St. Louis, Mo., on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. – 1804.
In Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, which establishes the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. – 1948.
Skylab, America’s first space station, is successfully launched into an orbit around the earth. – 1973.
May 15
U.S. president John Adams orders the federal government to pack up and leave Philadelphia and establish the Nation’s new capital in Washington, D.C.. – 1800.
More than eight years after they intervened in Afghanistan to support the pro-communist government, Soviet troops begin their withdrawal. The event marks the beginning of the end to a long, bloody, and fruitless Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. – 1988.
May 16
Japanese mountaineer, Junko Tabei, becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. -1975.
May 17
U.S. Supreme Court outlaws segregation in public schools. – 1954.
In Washington, D.C., the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities begins televised hearings on the escalating Watergate affair. – 1973.
Marcia Kadish, 56, and Tanya McCloskey, 52, of Malden, Mass., marry at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts, to become the first legally-married same-sex partners in the United States. Over the course of the day, 77 other same-sex couples tied the knot across the state, and hundreds more applied for marriage licenses. – 2004.
May 18
A crowd of protesters, estimated to number more than one million, marches through the streets of Beijing, China to call for a more democratic political system. Just a few weeks later, the Chinese government moved to crush the protests when thousands were killed and more than 10,000 were arrested in what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. – 1989.
Mount St. Helens in Washington erupts, and causes a massive avalanche and kills 57. Ash from the volcanic eruption fell as far away as Minnesota. – 1980.
May 19
British prime minister Winston Churchill and U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt set a date for the cross-Channel landing that would become D-Day, May 1, 1944. That date will prove a bit premature, because bad weather becomes a factor. – 1943.
Thirty-one dockworkers are killed, 350 workers and others are injured, when four barges carrying 467 tons of ammunition blow up at South Amboy, N.J.. They were transporting mines that had been deemed unsafe by the Army and were being shipped to the Asian market for sale. – 1950.
May 20
The U.S. Congress passes the Homestead Act which allows adults over the age of 21, male and female, to claim 160 acres of land from the public domain. Eligible persons had to cultivate the land and improve it by building a barn or house, and live on the claim for five years, at which time the land became theirs with a $10. filing fee. – 1862.