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.
The Seven Years War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, officially begins when England declares war on France. However, fighting and skirmishes between England and France had been going on in North America for many years. – 1756.
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
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out its first awards (Oscars), at a dinner party for approximately 250 individuals held in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, Calif.. – 1929.
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
In what may have been baseball’s first labor strike, the Detroit Tigers refuse to play after team leader Ty Cobb is suspended: He went into the stands and beat a fan who had been heckling him. Cobb was reinstated and the Tigers went back to work after the team manager’s failed attempt to replace the players with a local college team. – 1912.
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
Shootout in Matewan, W. Va. between striking union miners, led by police chief Sid Hatfield, and coal company agents. Ten died, including seven agents. – 1920.
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.
San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nev., tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, which marks the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: Blue jeans. – 1873.
The Railway Labor Act took effect today. It was the first federal legislation protecting workers’ rights to form unions. – 1926.