On this day:
Tuesday, May 1: Labor Day in most countries (121)
* The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City (1931), with all 1,860 stairs:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=294169
Photos of construction in progress:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=557222
Wednesday, May 2:
* In 1670, King Charles II grants Hudson's Bay Company a permanent charter to conduct fur trade in North America. Today they continue as The Bay, Zeller's and Home Outfitters:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=330110
Thursday, May 3:
* English astronomer Edmund Halley is the first person to forecast a solar eclipse on this day in 1715:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=301930
Friday, May 4:
* Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, IL, three weeks after his 1865 assassination. The coffin would be moved 17 times in the following 36 years until being placed in the current tomb:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=431148
Saturday, May 5: Childrens Day -- Japan (125)
Cinco de Mayo -- Mexico
* New York's Grammercy Park is private (and gated) -- but is open to the public on the 1st Saturday of May:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=137781
Sunday, May 6:
* The Hindenburg explodes and burns outside New York City, ending the era of the zeppelins:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=201580
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Monday, May 7:
* American Medical Association (AMA) founded in Philadelphia in 1847. AMA statistics on doctors practising today:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=714410
Tuesday, May 8:
* Birthday of Friedrich August von Hayek (1899), influential 20th Century economist and Nobel Prize winner in 1974. His works are being republished:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=318354
Wednesday, May 9:
* Schuman Declaration, made on this day in 1950, becomes the foundation of the European Union:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=321068
Thursday, May 10:
* The yen is adopted by Japan on this day in 1871 as the official unit of currency, designed to replace the silver Mexican dollar then widely in use:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=391529
Friday, May 11:
* Rudolph Hess's flight from Germany to Scotland causes alarm in the British government on this day in 1941. Contents of the letter he carried have never been revealed:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=371670
Saturday, May 12:
* Actress Katherine Houghton Hepburn born in 1907. The source of a famous quotation about men and women:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=301980
Sunday, May 13: Mother's Day -- U.S., Canada (133)
* Julia Ward Howe first pushed the idea of a Mother's Day in a published 1870 poem, though it wouldn't become a national day until 1914. Howe had also written "Battle Hymn of the Republic":
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=16483
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Monday, May 14:
* In 1607 Virginia Company colonists arrive at Jamestown Island in Virginia, establishing the first English settlement:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=64274
Tuesday, May 15:
* Abraham Lincoln signs bill in 1862 to create U.S. Bureau of Agriculture, now the U.S.D.A. The department tracks many food-related activities, including how much we eat:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=248719
Wednesday, May 16:
* First Academy Awards ceremony in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Hotel Roosevelt in 1929. Source for the nickname of the "Oscars":
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=396645
Thursday, May 17: Ascension Day (137)
* 24 brokers sign an agreement under a buttonwood tree at 68 Wall Street to form the New York Stock Exchange in 1792. History of the NYSE:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=205447
Friday, May 18:
* Bram Stoker's novel, 'Dracula' published in 1897. Other high points in vampire history:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=18169
Saturday, May 19:
* Yesterday was "Bike to Work" day, so today we explain gyroscopic inertia or "how bicycles work":
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=25883
Sunday, May20:
* Charles Lindbergh departs Long Island, NY for Paris in 1927 in "The Spirit of St. Louis":
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=354563
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Monday, May 21: Victoria Day -- Canada (141)
* American Red Cross founded in 1881 by Clara Barton:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=303328
Tuesday, May 22:
* Wright Brothers granted patent 821,393 for their 'flying machine' in 1906, which was a biplane design:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=321212
Wednesday, May 23: Shavout (143)
* Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker ambushed and killed by police in 1934 at Black Lake, LA. Contributing to their continued fame: Bonnie's poem 'Saga of Bonnie & Clyde', mailed to newspapers:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=381658
Thursday, May 24:
* Samuel Morse sends the first telegraph message on this day in 1844, recorded on paper tape: "What hath God wrought?" What Morse wrought in human communications:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=316685
Friday, May 25:
* Edict of Worms (1521) declares Brother Martinus an outlaw, a turning point in the Protestant Reformation. You know him as Martin Luther:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=161910
Saturday, May 26:
* The original 'Wild Child' wanders into Nuremburg in 1828, his first exposure to civilization:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=186889
Sunday, May 27: Pentecost or Whitsunday (147)
* Earliest known use of word "terrorism" in an English paper. London Times, 1795, "Terroriƒm and Royaliƒm are hard at work ..."
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=546200
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Monday, May 28: Memorial Day -- U.S. (148)
* Criteria for being buried in a U.S. military cemetery:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=196343
Tuesday, May 29:
* Charles II restored to the throne of Great Britain on this day, his birthday, in 1660. During his reign, the term "Tory" would be popularized:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=1007
Wednesday, May 30:
* First Indianapolis 500 run in 1911. Ray Harroun's Marmon Wasp wins with an average speed of 75 mph (vs. averages over 150 mph today):
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=587163
Friday, May 31: Full moon and the only "blue moon" of the year (151)
* Last Model T Ford produced in 1927. By 1930, it has increased the number of miles Americans travel by a factor of 10 -- and by year 2000 travel would increase more than 100 times over 1900:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=408470
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