May 3rd

1765 - 1st US Medical school opens

1830 - 1st regular steam train passenger service starts

1919 - America's 1st passenger flight (NYC to Atlantic City)

On this day in 1968, a Braniff plane crashed near Dawson, Texas (about 45 mile northeast of Waco). There were no survivors. My uncle, who lived in Hubbard, was one of the first on the scene.

Braniff International Airways Flight 352 was a scheduled domestic flight from William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, United States, to Dallas Love Field in Dallas; on May 3, 1968, a Lockheed L-188A Electra flying on the route, registration N9707C, broke up in midair and crashed near Dawson, Texas, after flying into a severe thunderstorm. It was carrying 5 crew and 80 passengers; there were no survivors. Among those killed was Texas state representative Joseph Lockridge, the first black man to represent Dallas County in the Texas Legislature. Investigation revealed that the accident was caused by the captain's decision to penetrate an area of heavy weather followed by a structural over-stress and failure of the airframe while attempting recovery from loss of control during a steep 180-degree turn executed in an attempt to escape the weather.[1]

May 4: Star Wars Day ("May the 4thbe with you!"

1776: Rhode Island was the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain.

1865: Pres. Lincoln was buried in Springfield, Illinois.

1886: The Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago: As police tried to break up a Knights of Labor rally and strike, an anarchist threw a bomb at them and chaos ensued resulting in several deaths. The Knights never recovered their reputation although they had nothing to do with those who threw the bomb.

1916: Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare during WWI.

1929: Birthday of actress Audrey Hepburn

1965: Willie Mays hit his 512th home run to break the National League record.

1970: The National Guard clashed with student protestors at Kent State University resulting in the deaths of 4 students.

1979: Margaret Thatcher was sworn in as Britain's first woman Prime Minister.

historian said:

---

May 4: Star Wars Day ("May the 4thbe with you!"

1970: The National Guard clashed with student protestors at Kent State University resulting in the deaths of 4 students.

---

Quote:

---

1979: Margaret Thatcher was sworn in as Britain's first woman Prime Minister

---

I was in London when Thatcher was elected. We were at Buckingham Palace watching the changing of the guard when PM James Callaghan rode by in a carriage to resign the government prior to the election.

In honor of Star Wars day (& for no historical reason whatsoever):

May 4th

1626 - Indians sell Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth and buttons

1871 - 1st pro baseball game is played (Ft Wayne defeats Cleveland 2-0)

On May 4, 197050 years ago todayNational Guard troops fired on a crowd of anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others. Jeffrey Miller, was shot in the mouth from a distance of nearly 100 yards; Allison Krause was shot in the left side from a distance of more than 100 yards; William Schroeder shot in the left side of the back from a distance of nearly 400 feet, and Sandra Scheuer was also nearly 400 feet from the troops when she was shot in the left front side of the neck. The shootings ignited student strikes at campuses across the country and some say they marked the beginning of the slide into the Watergate scandal that destroyed the Nixon administration. The troops later testified during a number of hearings that they fired because they were afraid for their lives as the demonstrators advanced on them. Eight guard members were named in federal indictments, but the charges were later dismissed. During a civil trial five years after the shootings, a jury ruled 9-3 that none of the troops bore legal responsibility for the deaths and injuries, but an appeals court ordered a new trial and in 1979 more than two-dozen defendants agreed to an out-of-court settlement that provided $675,000 to the wounded students and parents of those who were killed.

I included this event in my original post, but without extensive details.

May 5:

1816: John Keats' first poem was published in a London newspaper, The Examiner.

1821: Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the remote island of St. Helena.

1877: Legendary Native American leader Sitting Bull led his people into Canada.

1955: The Allies ended their postwar occupation of West Germany.

1961: Alan Shephard became the first American in space aboard the Freedom 7capsule. His suborbital flight only lasted 15 minutes but paved the way for future successes in America's space program.

May 6:

1916: The German government signed the Sussexpledge promising to restrict their use of submarine warfare. It would not last long.

1937: German dirigible Hindenburg, the largest ever built, burst into flames when it touched its moors in Lakehurst, NJ killing 36 passengers and crewmembers.

1935: Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt singed an executive order to create the Works Progress Administration.

1940: John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer prize for his Depression-era novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

1942: American forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese eventually leading to the brutal Bataan Death March.

1954: Roger Bannister ran the first 4-minute mile.

1994: The "Chunnel", a tunnel underneath the English Channel connecting England and France, opened.

2004: The final episode of Friends aired.

VE!

Yep, VE Day. The surrender was signed on May 7 but May 8 is VE Day because that's when the Germans finally surrendered on both fronts, Eastern & Western.

I got a bit ahead of myself.

May 7:

1763: Ottawa Chief Pontiac's Rebellion against the British.

1901: Birthday of actor Gary Cooper

1902: Mount Pele on the Caribbean island of Martinique erupted almost completely destroying the city of Sainte Pierre. It was the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20thcentury.

1915: British liner Lusitaniastruck by 2 torpedoes from a German submarine off the coast of Ireland killing 1200 passengers, including 128 Americans. The captain of the ship failed to take precautions against the known threat while ignoring warnings. Americans were angered and the Germans made concessions, for a time.

1945: Germany surrendered unconditionally to the allies ending WWII in Europe.

1954: Battle of Dien Bien Phu: French forces in Indochina (Vietnam) lost decisively in their fight against nationalists, led by communist Ho Chi Minh. The fall of the stronghold convinced the French government to pull out of Vietnam.

1960: Leonid Brezhnev became the new dictator of the Soviet Union after Nikita Khrushchev had been forced into retirement.

1998: Daimler-Benz announced the purchase of American automobile manufacturer Chrysler Corp.

May 7, 1995:

May 8:

1541: Spanish Conquistador Hernando De Soto arrived at the Mississippi River.

1792: Congress passed conscription as part of the Militia Act.

1846: Gen. Zachary Taylor won the Battle of Palo Alto north of the Rio Grande. His successes in the Mexican-American War would make him a national hero and propel him to the White House.

1884: Birthday of Harry S. Truman

1945: V-E Day (Victory in Europe): German forces finally laid down their arms throughout Europe.

1963: Premier of Dr. No, the first James Bond movie, starring Sean Connery.

1970: Nixon defended the attacks of Cambodia, a "neutral" country being used by communist forces to supply Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam. But he did a poor job of it, especially after promising that the U.S. would not invade the country. It was a PR disaster despite the ultimate military successes that would result.

1973: The American Indian Movement (AIM) ended their occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

1884: The Soviets boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in retribution for American Pres. Jimmy Carter's decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

May 10:

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union forces.

1869: The presidents of the Union Pacific & Central Pacific railroads met in Promontory, Utah to drive the symbolic last spike into the first transcontinental railroad.

1877: The first telephone was installed in the White House during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration.

1940: Winston Churchill became prime minister of Great Britain.

1994: Inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president.

historian said:

---

May 10:

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union forces.

1869: The presidents of the Union Pacific & Central Pacific railroads met in Promontory, Utah to drive the symbolic last spike into the first transcontinental railroad.

1877: The first telephone was installed in the White House during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration.

1940: Winston Churchill became prime minister of Great Britain.

1994: Inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president.

---

Big day

May 10th

1502 - Columbus left Spain on his 4th & final trip to the New World

1913 - 17th Amendment providing for election of Senators by popular vote

1926 - Americans Byrd & Bennett make 1st airplane flight over the North Pole

1944 - 1st eye bank opened in NYC

1945 - Czechoslovakia liberated from Nazi occupation (Natl Day)

May 10:

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union forces.

1869: The presidents of the Union Pacific & Central Pacific railroads met in Promontory, Utah to drive the symbolic last spike into the first transcontinental railroad.

1877: The first telephone was installed in the White House during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration.

1940: Winston Churchill became prime minister of Great Britain.

1994: Inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president.

May 11:

1858: Minnesota became the 32ndstate.

1864: Confederate Cavalry Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded near Richmond, Virginia.

1934: A huge storm sent millions of tons of topsoil from the drought suffering Great Plains to the eastern seaboard. The "dust bowl" added to the miseries farmers had experienced since WWI and for many years before.

1961: Pres. John F. Kennedy ordered more American troops and military advisors sent to South Vietnam.

1969: Beginning of the bloody Battle at "Hamburger Hill" in Vietnam.

1987: Klaus Barbie, aka the "Butcher of Lyon", was charged with war crimes for his acts as Gestapo chief in German occupied Lyon, France during WWII.

May 11, 1953

Waco Tornado killed 114 and changed the look of downtown forever.

Nguyen One Soon said:

---

May 11, 1953

Waco Tornado killed 114 and changed the look of downtown forever.

---

so horrible

17 years later to the day Lubbocks worst ever tornado hit in 1970

F5 Killed 25 or so

May 12:

1780: Americans defeated by the British at Charleston, their worst defeat of the war.

1907: Birthday of actress Katharine Hepburn

1932: The Lindbergh baby, son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh who had been kidnapped two months earlier, was found dead less than a mile from their home.

1949: The Soviet Union lifted the nearly year-long blockade of West Berlin.

1961: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visited South Vietnam. He was enthusiastic about their government and their leader Ngo Dinh Diem and would return to Washington urging American support.

May 13:


1568: Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by a group of Scottish Protestants.

1607: About 100 English colonists arrived in Virginia to establish the colony of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

1846: The U.S. declared war on Mexico.

1940: Britain's new prime minister, Winston Churchill, gave his first major speech before Parliament promising, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

1958: During a goodwill trip through Latin America, Vice President Richard Nixon's car was attacked by an angry mob in Caracas, Venezuela. Nixon's handling of the situation gained him standing with the American people.

1981: Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square by an escaped murderer.

Nguyen One Soon said:

---

historian said:

---

May 13:


1568: Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by a group of Scottish Protestants.

1607: About 100 English colonists arrived in Virginia to establish the colony of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

1846: The U.S. declared war on Mexico.

1940: Britain's new prime minister, Winston Churchill, gave his first major speech before Parliament promising, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

1981: Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square by an escaped murderer.

---

A Texas brag I like to use. It took the United States two years to defeat Mexico. It took Texas six weeks.

---

Lol I like it

Nguyen One Soon said:

---

historian said:

---

May 13:


1568: Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by a group of Scottish Protestants.

1607: About 100 English colonists arrived in Virginia to establish the colony of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

1846: The U.S. declared war on Mexico.

1940: Britain's new prime minister, Winston Churchill, gave his first major speech before Parliament promising, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

1981: Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square by an escaped murderer.

---

A Texas brag I like to use. It took the United States two years to defeat Mexico. It took Texas six weeks.

---

True. But Texas was merely trying to gain independence. The U.S. invaded Mexico. That's an awful lot of territory to conquer. Also, Pres. Polk made the mistake of trusting Santa Anna & helping him come back to Mexico. As soon as he returned, he betrayed Polk & pursued his own agenda. At least the Mexican-American War gave the Marines an opportunity to add that line to their song, "To the halls of Montezuma."

Texas also had great luck in capturing Santa Anna at San Jacinto. When you capture the dictator of the country you are at war with, you can impose whatever terms you like on the peace treaty. The Mexican government back in Mexico City did not really accept that and the Republic of Texas was not all that stable for its nine years of existence. It did not help that they kept trying to attack Mexico again, failing each time, or that Mexico invaded Texas twice, occupying San Antonio each time.

It sounds great, but the facts are a bit murkier.

May 14:

1787: The opening of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

1796: Edward Jenner, an English doctor, tested the first smallpox vaccine.

1804: The Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, departed St. Louis, Missouri to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory.

1904: The First American Olympiad opened in St. Louis, Missouri.

1948: David Ben-Gurion, Chairman of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the State of Israel. It was the first Jewish state in almost 2,000 years.

1955: The Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact with most communist nations in eastern Europe.

1973: America's first space station, Skylab, was launched into orbit.

1998: Death of Frank Sinatra

1999: Pres. Bill Clinton apologized to the Chinese Pres. Jiang Zemin on the phone for the accidental bombing of their embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia by NATO forces.

Know it's either a typo or a test, but you are 100 years off on Israel.

1999 well that was embarrassing lololol

corrected

Wichitabear said:

---

1999 well that was embarrassing lololol

---

I think it's safe to say that most everything about that administration was embarrassing.

May 15:

1756: England declared war on France initiating the Seven Years' War. Fighting between British & French colonial forces in America had been fighting for 2 years in what was called the French and Indian War but this extended the war to Europe and beyond.

1800: Pres. John Adams ordered the federal government to move to Washington, D.C.

1941: The Allies tested the Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 aircraft over Cranwall, England. It was the first jet-propulsion aircraft flown by the Allies.

1972: Gov. George Wallace of Alabama was shot.

1988: The Soviets began the withdrawal of their forces from Afghanistan.