May 26
The first copies of the classic vampire novel, Dracula, by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops on this day. – 1897.
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.
May 28
A 22-year-old lieutenant colonel of the Virginia militia named George Washington successfully defeats a party of French and Indian scouts in southwest Pennsylvania when Virginia attempts to lay claim to the territory for its settlers. The action snowballed into the Seven Years’ War and began the military career of the first American president. – 1754.
May 29
Rhode Island becomes the 13th state of the United States. – 1790.
Wisconsin enters the Union as the 30th state. – 1848.
Heavy fog causes a collision of boats on the St. Lawrence River in Canada that kills 1,073 individuals. Caused by a horrible series of blunders, it was one of the worst maritime disasters in history. -1914.
On the advice of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler orders all Jews in occupied Paris to wear an identifying yellow star on the left side of their coats. It was just one step of the Nazi regime’s plan to deal with the “Jewish problem.”- 1942.
Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, at 29,035 feet above sea level, is the highest point on earth which straddle the border between Nepal and China. – 1953.
May 30
At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, France, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy. – 1431.
Former U.S. president William Howard Taft dedicates the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall. At the time, Taft was serving as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. – 1922.
May 31
The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen’s Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, England. – 1859.
The South Fork Dam collapses and causes a flood in Johnstown, Pa., that kills more than 2,200 residents. The flood appeared as a rolling hill of debris more than 30 feet high and nearly half-a-mile wide. – 1889.
W. Mark Felt’s family ends 30 years of speculation and identifies Felt, the former FBI assistant director, as “Deep Throat,” the secret source who helped unravel the Watergate political scandal. – 2005.
June 1
Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States. – 1792.
Tennessee becomes the 16th state of the United States. – 1796.
Approximately 12,500 longshoremen strike the Pacific Coast, from San Diego, Calif. to Bellingham, Wash.. – 1916.
A Warsaw Poland underground newspaper, the Liberty Brigade, makes public the news of the gassing of tens of thousands of Jews at Chelmno, a death camp in Poland. – 1942.
A coal mine explosion kills 236 workers at the Yamano mine near Fukuoka, Japan. The tragic disaster might have been avoided if the operators of the mine had taken even the most basic safety precautions. – 1965.
CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. – 1980.