May 16:

1717: Philosopheand satirical writer Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille for insulting the regent of Framce.

1770: Louis, the French dauphin, married Marie Antoinette, daughter of empress Maria Theresa of Austria.

1868: The Senate acquitted the impeachment of Pres. Andrew Johnson. His job was saved by one vote.

1918: Congress passed the Sedition Act to protect American participation in WWI. This curtailment of Americans' free speech rights would later be upheld by the Supreme Court.

1929: The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

1943: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising ended as German forces regained control by destroying the last remaining synagogue and beginning mass deportations of Jews to the death camps.

1960: U.S.-Soviet summit meeting collapsed in the aftermath of the U-2 incident when the Soviets shot down an American spy plane on May 1.

1968: Worker protests in France escalated as a general strike spread across the country.

1980: Magic Johnson played center as a rookie and won a championship.

May 17:

1885: Apache chief Geronimo fled an Arizona reservation causing a panic among local settlers.

1943: The Memphis Belleflew its 25thbombing mission, the first B-17 crew to do so, in an attack on a German submarine base.

1954: The Supreme Court decided the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas unanimously. It was one of the most important Supreme Court cases in U.S. history and helped to propel the modern Civil Rights movement forward, as intended.

1962: Kim Mulkey's birthday

1973: Beginning of televised Watergate hearings.

2004: First legal same-sex "marriage" was performed in Massachusetts.

May 18:

1593: Christopher Marlowe was arrested on charges of heresy based upon the accusations of playwright Thomas Kyd, who himself had been arrested based upon documents found in his room. He testified under torture that they belonged to Marlowe, leading to the latter's arrest.

Napoleon Bonaparte was elected Emperor of France in a national plebiscite.

1860: Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency at the Republican Convention in Chicago.

1863: After surrounding the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, their last possession on the Mississippi River, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant began a siege that would last until early July.

1896: The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, that "separate but equal" public facilities to segregate blacks and whites were legal. It was a gross miscarriage of justice. Ironically, the sole dissenter to the opinion, Justice John Marshall Harlan, was a former slave owner.

1917: Congress passed the Selective Service Act, authorizing the president to draft soldiers into the army to fight WWI.

1920: Birthday of Karol Jozef Wojtla, later Pope John Paul II

1953: Janet Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier.

1974: India successfully detonated their first atomic bomb, similar in power to the one used against Hiroshima.

1980: Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state.

1989: Protestors took to the streets in Beijing, with numbers estimated to be over a million. Weeks later, the totalitarian government brutally crushed the peaceful protests leading to the deaths and imprisonment of thousands. (The same government that lied about the Wuhan coronavirus for months).

2012: Facebook raised $16 billion in the largest tech IPO in U.S. history.

historian said:

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May 18:

1593: Christopher Marlowe was arrested on charges of heresy based upon the accusations of playwright Thomas Kyd, who himself had been arrested based upon documents found in his room. He testified under torture that they belonged to Marlowe, leading to the latter's arrest.

1860: Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency at the Republican Convention in Chicago.

1863: After surrounding the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, their last possession on the Mississippi River, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant began a siege that would last until early July.

1896: The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, that "separate but equal" public facilities to segregate blacks and whites were legal. It was a gross miscarriage of justice. Ironically, the sole dissenter to the opinion, Justice John Marshall Harlan, was a former slave owner.

1917: Congress passed the Selective Service Act, authorizing the president to draft soldiers into the army to fight WWI.

1920: Birthday of Karol Jozef Wojtla, later Pope John Paul II

1974: India successfully detonated their first atomic bomb, similar in power to the one used against Hiroshima.

1980: Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state.

1989: Protestors took to the streets in Beijing, with numbers estimated to be over a million. Weeks later, the totalitarian government brutally crushed the peaceful protests leading to the deaths and imprisonment of thousands. (The same government that lied about the Wuhan coronavirus for months).

2012: Facebook raised $16 billion in the largest tech IPO in U.S. history.

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Lits of interesting stories for today

Yep. Several centuries; international; political, economic, scientific, military, judicial, natural, & social history; etc. Just about any perspective you can think of.

May 18th

1804 - Napoleon becomes the Emperor of France

1953 - Jacqueline Cochran is the 1st female pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound

1952 - Birthday of George Strait (68)

1970 - Birthday of Tina Fey (50)

I'm surprised I missed Napoleon. That's a big one. Cochran is too. Both have been corrected.

Corrected again to get the wording right: on this day in 1804 Napoleon won a plebiscite that would make him emperor but the actual coronation which made it official was in December.

I be-bopped over here upon realizing this was the 40th anniversary of Mt. St. Helens blowing. Happened on a Sunday morning, the day after my Senior Prom (and the only Sunday I ever recall having permission to skip church ... because of the prom, not the volcano).

Didn't affect us in Sacramento, but four weeks later we moved to the Omaha area, where ash remnants were still falling.

May 19:

1536: Execution of Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII's second wife, on charges of treason. She had been accused of adultery but the evidence was almost certainly manufactured.

1588: The Spanish Armada, the largest invasion fleet yet assembled, set sail for the invasion of England. The planned invasion failed, thanks to a storm in the English Channel and the swift ships of the Royal Navy.

1897: Poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was released after two years in prison

1935: Death of British soldier T. E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia.

2016: EgyptAir flight 804 disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea. Weeks later, wreckage was found and the investigation revealed that the plane's demise was caused by a fire.

May 20:

1498: Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama arrived in India.

1506: Death of Christopher Columbus. Although other Europeans were beginning to understand the significance of his 4 journeys to the New World, he died without realizing that he had discovered a new continent instead of reaching the East Indies as he had planned.

1862: Pres. Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law.

1873: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received the patent for blue jeans.

1927: Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York in the Spirit of St. Louis, the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1940: The German army reached the English Channel at Abbeville, France.

1946: English poet A. H. Auden became a U.S. citizen.

1956: The U.S. conducted the first successful test of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. The explosive power was apx. 15 megatons, meaning it was more than a thousand times more destructive than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

1969: Bloody end to the Battle for "Hamburger Hill" in Vietnam. American & South Vietnamese forces finally captured the hill but with heavy casualties. It had been taken mainly as a diversionary tactic and was later abandoned and refortified by the North Vietnamese.

May 21:

1542: Death of Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto

1881: The American Red Cross was established.

1901: Connecticut passed the first speed limit law.

1924: Murderers Leopold & Loeb gained national attention for their murder of a teenager because they felt superior and wanted to commit the perfect murder. (Their strange motive inspired the Hitchcock classic Rope).

1927: Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, completing the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo transatlantic flight.

historian said:

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May 21:

1542: Death of Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto

1881: The American Red Cross was established.

1901: Connecticut passed the first speed limit law.

1924: Murderers Leopold & Loeb gained national attention for their murder of a teenager because they felt superior and wanted to commit the perfect murder. (Their strange motive inspired the Hitchcock classic Rope).

1927: Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, completing the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo transatlantic flight.

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cool that Lindbergh and Earhart are on the same date

Yes, I noticed that too. I suspect Amelia was doing that deliberately.

historian said:

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Yes, I noticed that too. I suspect Amelia was doing that deliberately.

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???,maybe but..,

Wichitabear said:

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historian said:

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Yes, I noticed that too. I suspect Amelia was doing that deliberately.

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???,maybe but..,

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Well, according to Star Trek: Voyager, when Amelia Earhart disappeared it was because aliens abducted her & took her to a distant part of the galaxy. But it's called science fiction for a reason.

historian said:

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Wichitabear said:

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historian said:

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Yes, I noticed that too. I suspect Amelia was doing that deliberately.

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???,maybe but..,

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Well, according to Star Trek: Voyager, when Amelia Earhart disappeared it was because aliens abducted her & took her to a distant part of the galaxy. But it's called science fiction for a reason.

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lolol

May 22:

1453: Yorkist forces defeated the Lancastrian forces under King Henry VI to start the War of the Roses.

1802: Death of Martha Washington, widow of former president George Washington.

1856: Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina barged into the Senate and brutally beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane over criticism the latter had made against his cousin, Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina. The issue was the violence out west known as "Bleeding Kansas" and sectional tensions relating to the question of the expansion of slavery into western territories.

1859: Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the Sherlock Holmes novels.

1939: Hitler and Mussolini signed the "Pact of Steel" to form the Axis alliance.

1990: South Yemen and North Yemen were united as Republic of Yemen.

2017: A suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, UK.

historian said:

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May 22:

1453: Yorkist forces defeated the Lancastrian forces under King Henry VI to start the War of the Roses.

1802: Death of Martha Washington, widow of former president George Washington.

1856: Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina barged into the Senate and brutally beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane over criticism the latter had made against his cousin, Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina. The issue was the violence out west known as "Bleeding Kansas" and sectional tensions relating to the question of the expansion of slavery into western territories.

1859: Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the Sherlock Holmes novels.

1939: Hitler and Mussolini signed the "Pact of Steel" to form the Axis alliance.

1990: South Yemen and North Yemen were united as Republic of Yemen.

2017: A suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, UK.

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1856: irony

1940: The debut of PacMan

Looked it up.

Over 16 billion in revenue.

Originally named Puck-Man, wisely changes for obvious reasons

More of a Defender guy myself

LIB,MR BEARS said:

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historian said:

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May 22:

1453: Yorkist forces defeated the Lancastrian forces under King Henry VI to start the War of the Roses.

1802: Death of Martha Washington, widow of former president George Washington.

1856: Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina barged into the Senate and brutally beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane over criticism the latter had made against his cousin, Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina. The issue was the violence out west known as "Bleeding Kansas" and sectional tensions relating to the question of the expansion of slavery into western territories.

1859: Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the Sherlock Holmes novels.

1939: Hitler and Mussolini signed the "Pact of Steel" to form the Axis alliance.

1990: South Yemen and North Yemen were united as Republic of Yemen.

2017: A suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, UK.

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1856: irony

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How so?

May 23: Criminal Justice edition

1701: British privateer Captain Kidd was hanged for piracy and murder.

1915: Italy declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1934: Police killed notorious gangster couple Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow.

1941: British destroyer HMS Kelly,commanded by Captain Lord Mountbatten, cousin to King George VI, was sunk by German dive bombers in the Mediterranean Sea. One member of the crew was his cousin, Prince Philip of Greece, who later married the king's daughter, now Queen Elizabeth II.

1945: SS Chief Heinrich Himmler committed suicide a day after he was captured by British forces.

1949: The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formally established as the Americans, British, and French united their occupation zones into one. Their occupation zones of the capital city were also united into the city of West Berlin but a capital would be established in the city of Bonn.

1960: Israeli agents captured Adolf Eichmann, one of the top ranking Nazis who had helped to plan and implement the Holocaust, in Argentina. He would be shipped to Israel to stand trial, convicted and executed.

May 24: Innovations edition

1543: Polish Death of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus

1775: John Hancock was elected president of the Continental Congress.

1844: Samuel Morse demonstrated his new invention, the telegraph, with the message, "What hath God wrought?" (Numbers 23:23)

1884: The Brooklyn Bridge opened. It was the first bridge across the East River, connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn, and the longest suspension bridge at the time. It was designed by John Roebling, who died during the construction. Roebling's company aided in the erection of Waco's suspension bridge.

1917: The British Royal Navy introduced the convoy system as a defense against German U-boats which proved very successful.

1935: MLB held the first night game as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Philadelphia Phillies

1943: Dr. Joseph Mengele arrived at his new post: the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

1884. Had no idea. Interesting

About two dozen died in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Different time.

By the standards of the day, that was probably a low number. I'm unsure about the degree of those attitudes, but work safety standards have improved immensely since then.

May 25:

1660: Charles II, son of the late Charles I, landed at Dover. His father had lost the English Civil War and was beheaded for treason by Parliament. The leading of Parliament, Oliver Cromwell, then led the country as Lord Protector until his death, leading to restoration of the monarchy.

1787: The Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with representatives from 12 of the 13 states (not Rhode Island). After 3 months of bitter debates they drafted the U.S. Constitution. 100 years later, British Prime Minister William Gladstone would describe it as, "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."

1861: Pres. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus after a Maryland politician was detained for hindering the movement of Union forces during the Civil War.

1895: Oscar Wilde was sent to prison.

1935: Babe Ruth hit his last home run in Pittsburgh.

1961: In a speech before Congress, Pres. John F. Kennedy announced the American goal of sending a man to the moon before the end of the decade and sought funding for the project.

1977: Premiere of science fiction masterpiece Star Wars. The film revolutionized filmmaking with major innovations in special effects and became a pop culture phenomenon.

historian said:

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1660: Charles II, son of the late Charles I, landed at Dover. His father had lost the English Civil War and was beheaded for treason by Parliament. The leading of Parliament, Oliver Cromwell, then led the country as Lord Protector until his death, leading to restoration of the monarchy.

1787: The Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with representatives from 12 of the 13 states (not Rhode Island). After 3 months of bitter debates they drafted the U.S. Constitution. 100 years later, British Prime Minister William Gladstone would describe it as, "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."

1861: Pres. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus after a Maryland politician was detained for hindering the movement of Union forces during the Civil War.

1895: Oscar Wilde was sent to prison.

1935: Babe Ruth hit his last home run in Pittsburgh.

1961: In a speech before Congress, Pres. John F. Kennedy announced the American goal of sending a man to the moon before the end of the decade and sought funding for the project.

1977: Premiere of science fiction masterpiece Star Wars. The film revolutionized filmmaking with major innovations in special effects and became a pop culture phenomenon.

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1861 Fo you've any idea if the opinion addresses salon owners?

I don't think that applies because the salon owner was detained for violating the quarantine. The problem is that executive orders are not the law--no executive has the authority to make laws under our constitution--but too often is treated that way. Notice how often these executive overreaches during the pandemic are struck down by the courts.

As for 1861 & Lincoln, the constitution explicitly allows for the suspension of habeas corpus during time of rebellion which is exactly what Lincoln faced.

Thankfully, we are not experiencing a crisis nearly that severe in magnitude and almost certainly never will.

May 26:

1637: During the Pequot War, massacres of Pequot villages began.

1868: Pres. Andrew Johnson was acquitted by one vote in his Senate impeachment trial.

1896: Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II

1907: Birthday of John Wayne

May 27:

1703: Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg.

1813: Former President Thomas Jefferson wrote former President John Adams after reflecting upon the death of their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush. They had been friends during the War for Independence but had broken the friendship due to politics, running for president against each other twice, and now renewed their friendship late in their lives.

1905: The Battle of Tsushima Strait during the Russo-Japanese War. The war had begun with a Japanese surprise attack on Russia's Pacific fleet at Port Arthur so the Russians sent their Baltic fleet around the Eurasian land mass (and Africa) to retaliate only to have it decimated by the Japanese at Tsushima Strait.

1937: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened.

1939: The SS St. Louis carrying 937 Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis were turned away from Cuba. After failing to find any country in the New World willing to take them in, they would return to Europe where many would be murdered in the death camps.

1940: Germany's SS Death's Head division massacred 99 unarmed British soldiers during the evacuation at Dunkirk.

1941: The British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck.

1943: U.S. Olympian Louie Zamperini's plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean.

1972: Pres. Richard Nixon & Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. It would prove worthless, though, as the Soviets had no intention of limiting their weapons.

1994: Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after years of exile.

historian said:

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May 27:

1703: Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg.

1813: Former President Thomas Jefferson wrote former President John Adams after reflecting upon the death of their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush. They had been friends during the War for Independence but had broken the friendship due to politics, running for president against each other twice, and now renewed their friendship late in their lives.

1905: The Battle of Tsushima Strait during the Russo-Japanese War. The war had begun with a Japanese surprise attack on Russia's Pacific fleet at Port Arthur so the Russians sent their Baltic fleet around the Eurasian land mass (and Africa) to retaliate only to have it decimated by the Japanese at Tsushima Strait.

1937: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened.

1939: The SS St. Louis carrying 937 Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis were turned away from Cuba. After failing to find any country in the New World willing to take them in, they would return to Europe where many would be murdered in the death camps.

1940: Germany's SS Death's Head division massacred 99 unarmed British soldiers during the evacuation at Dunkirk.

1941: The British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck.

1943: U.S. Olympian Louie Zamperini's plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean.

1972: Pres. Richard Nixon & Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. It would prove worthless, though, as the Soviets had no intention of limiting their weapons.

1994: Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after years of exile.

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An incredible date. It would be interesting to read some opinions from 1939 from around the world on the case for and against the Jews.

Louis Zamparini was an incredible man. God can take anyone in any circumstance, turn their life around and use it for wonderful things.

I was so disappointed as a little girl to learn that the golden gate bridge was not gold. Lol

I know this is Hollywood but it was a great film about a great athlete & American hero.