May 17
U.S. Supreme Court outlaws segregation in public schools. – 1954.
May 18
A crowd of more than one million protesters marches through the streets of Beijing, which was later known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. – 1989.
Mount St. Helens in Washington erupts, and kills 57. Ash from the volcanic eruption fell as far away as Minnesota. – 1980.
May 19
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..
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. – 1862.
May 21
American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh lands at Le Bourget Field in Paris, to complete the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight, 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.
Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.