MAY

May 1

–  birthdays:  1830 –  Mother Jones (labor activist)  /  1852 – Calamity Jane  /  1907 –  Kate Smith (singer – “God Bless America”)  /  1916 –  Glenn Ford (actor –  “Blackboard Jungle”)  /  1923 –  Joseph Heller (author –  Catch-22)  /  1924 – Patricia Roberts Harris (first African-American woman Cabinet member) /  1939 –  Judy Collins (singer – biggest hit –  “Amazing Grace”)  /  1954 –  Ray Parker, Jr.  (singer –  “Ghostbusters”)  /  1967 –  Tim McGraw (country singer –  biggest hit = “It’s Your Love”)  

–  1863 –  Battle of Chancellorsville begins

–  1898 –  Battle of Manila Bay

–  1931 –  Empire State Building opens up

–  1937 –  FDR signs the Neutrality Acts

–  1939 – first appearance of Batman in the comics

–  1941 –  “Citizen Kane” premieres

–  1945 –  Joseph Goebbels commits suicide with his wife after poisoning their kids

–  1951 –  Mickey Mantle hits his first home run

–  1952 –  Mr. Potato Head debuts

–  1955 –  Babe Didrikson Zaharias wins her last golf tournament

–  1960 –  U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers shot down over the Soviet Union

–  1961 –  Harper Lee wins the Pulitzer Prize for To Kill a Mockingbird

–  1963 –  Gloria Steinem’s expose on Playboy bunnies is published in “Show” magazine

–  1967 –  Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu (they divorce in 1973)

–  1981 –  Billie Jean King becomes first prominent sportswoman to come out as a lesbian

–  1991 –  Ricky Henderson sets the record for most stolen bases in a career

–  1991 –  Nolan Ryan pitches his record 7^th no-hitter

–  1999 –  “Spongebob Squarepants” debuts on Nickelodeon

–  2003 –  George W. Bush gives his “Mission Accomplished” speech

Quote:   A lie told often enough becomes the truth.  –  Lenin

May 2

–  birthdays:  1892 –  Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron)  /  1903 – Benjamin Spock  (Common Sense Book of Baby Care)  /  1904 –  Bing Crosby (actor/singer –  biggest hit = “White Christmas”)  /  1972 – Dwayne Johnson (The Rock)   

–  1863 –  Stonewall Jackson is shot by his own men during the Battle of Chancellorsville

–  1885 – “Good Housekeeping” magazine debuts

–  1916 –  Wilson signs the Harrison Narcotics Act

–  1939 –  Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak ends

–  1982 –  the Weather Channel debuts

–  2008 – first movie in the Marvel Universe (“Iron Man”) is released

–  2011 –  Osama Bin Laden killed

Quote:  Hitch your wagon to a star.  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

May 3

–  birthdays:  1849 –  Jacob Riis (muckraker – “How the Other Half Lives”)  /  1903 – Bing Crosby  /  1920 –  Sugar Ray Robinson (championship boxer)  /  1933 – James Brown  (soul singer – biggest hit =  “I Feel Good”)  /  1934 –  Frankie Valli (singer –  biggest hit =  “Sherry”)  /  1975 –  Christina Hendricks (actress – “Mad Men”) 

–  1926 –  Sinclair Lewis wins Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith

–  1936 –  Joe Dimaggio makes his major league debut

–  1937 –  Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind

–  1969 –  Jimi Hendrix arrested in Toronto for possession of heroin

Quote:  Good nature and good sense must ever join; To err is human; to forgive, divine.  –  Alexander Pope

May 4

–  birthdays:  1796 –  Horace Mann (Father of American Public Education)  /  1929 – Audrey Hepburn (actress – “My Fair Lady”)  /  1959 –  Randy Travis (country music singer)  /  1979 – Lance Bass (singer – “NSYNC” – biggest hit =  “No Strings Attached”) 

–  1878 –  Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time

–  1886 –  the Haymarket Affair

–  1893 –  black cowboy Bill Pickett invents bull-dogging

–  1932 –  Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary for income tax evasion

–  1953 –  Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea

–  1961 –  the “Freedom Riders” leave from Washington, D.C.

–  1970 –  4 college kids killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University

Quote:   The unexamined life is not worth living. –  Socrates

May 5

–  birthdays:  1818 –  Karl Marx  /  1865 –  Nellie Bly (writer –  “Ten Days in a Mad House”)  /  1926 –  Ann B. Davis (Alice on “The Brady Bunch”)  /  1942 – Tammy Wynette (singer –  “Stand By Your Man”)  /  1943 – Michael Palin (Monty Python member)  /  1988 – Adele (singer – biggest hit =  “Rolling in the Deep”)  /  1989 – Chris Brown (singer – biggest hit =  “Run It”) 

–  1778 –  Washington appoints Baron Von Steuben Inspector General

–  1864 –  Battle of the Wilderness

–  1877 –  Sitting Bull leads his people into Canada

–  1920 –  Sacco and Vanzetti are arrested

–  1925 –  John Scopes arrested for teaching evolution

–  1945 –  Coco Chanel releases the first modern perfume – Chanel No. 5

–  1947 –  Robert Penn Warren wins Pulitzer for All the King’s Men

–  1961 –  Alan Shepard becomes America’s first astronaut with a 15 minute suborbital flight

–  1962 –  “West Side Story” album goes #1 and stays for 54 weeks

–  1975 –  Michael Shaara wins Pulitzer for Killer Angels

Quote:   God helps those that help themselves.  –  Ben Franklin

May 6

–  birthdays:  1856 –  Robert Peary (discoverer of the North Pole)  /  1856 –  Sigmund Freud  /  1895 –  Rudolf Valentino (silent movie star)  /  1915 – Orson Welles (director –  “Citizen Kane”)  /  1931 –  Willie Mays (Hall of Fame baseball player)  /  1945 –  Bob Seger (rock star –  biggest hit =  “Shakedown”)  /  1961 – George Clooney  /  1990 – Jose Altuve  (baseball player) 

–  1837 –  John Deere creates the first steel plough

–  1915 –  Babe Ruth hits his first home run

–  1937 –  the Hindenburg disaster

–  1940 –  John Steinbeck wins Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath

–  1941 –  Bob Hope performs his first USO show

–  1954 –  Brit Roger Bannister runs the first 4 minute mile

–  1957 –  JFK wins the Pulitzer for Profiles in Courage

–  1963 –  Barbara Tuchman wins the Pulitzer for The Guns of August

–  2004 –  last episode of “Friends”

Quote:   Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—  /  I took the one less traveled by,  /  And that has made all the difference.  –  Robert Frost

May 7

–  birthdays:  1901 –  Gary Cooper (actor – “Sgt. York”)  /  1909 – Edwin Land (inventor of instant photography and co-founder of Polaroid)  /  1922 – Darren McGavin (actor – “The Night Stalker”)  /  1933 –  Johnny Unitas (Hall of Fame quarterback) 

–  1915 –  sinking of the Lusitania

–  1928 –  Thornton Wilder wins Pulitzer for The Bridge at San Luis Rey

–  1945 – John Hersey wins Pulitzer for  A Bell for Adano

–  1966 –  the Mamas and the Papas become the first male/female vocal group to reach #1 with “Monday, Monday”

–  1973 –  Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein win the Pulitzer Prize for their Watergate coverage

Quote:   I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  This is why right, temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. –  Martin Luther King, Jr.

May 8

–  birthdays:  1753 – Phyllis Wheatley (slave poet)  /  1884 – Harry Truman (33^rd President 1945 -53)  /  1926 – Don Rickles  /  1940 – Peter Benchley (author –  Jaws) 

–  1541 –  De Soto discovers the Mississippi River

–  1846 –  first battle of the Mexican War at Palo Alto

–  1886 – John Pemberton sells his first Coca-Cola at his  pharmacy

–  1942 –  aircraft carrier Lexington sunk in the Battle of Coral Sea

–  1945 –  Victory in Europe Day

–  1973 –  Native Americans holding Wounded Knee surrender after 10 weeks

–  1979 –  The Cure release their debut album “Boys Don’t Cry”

Quote:   The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.  –  Bertrand Russell

May 9

–  birthdays:  1800 –  John Brown (abolitionist)  /  1882 –  Henry Kaiser (shipbuilder – Liberty Ships in WWII)  /  1918 –  Mike Wallace (TV journalist)  /  1946 – Candice Bergen (actress – “Murphy Brown”)  /  1949 –  Billy Joel (singer –  biggest hit = “It’s Still Rock and Roll Tonight”) 

–  1502 –  Columbus leaves Spain on his fourth and last voyage

–  1754 –  first American political cartoon published in the Pennsylvania Gazette –  it has a snake representing the colonies cut up with the caption “Join or Die”

–  1914 –  Pres. Wilson proclaims Mother’s Day

–  1960 –  the Food and Drug Administration approves the first birth control pill –  Enovid-10

Quote:   A day without laughter is a day wasted.  Charlie Chaplin

May 10

–  birthdays:  1838 –  John Wilkes Booth  /  1899 –  Fred Astaire (tap dancer / movie star)  /  1955 –  Chris Berman (ESPN sportscaster)  /  1960 –  Bono (singer for U-2 – biggest hit =  “With or Without You”) 

–  1752 –  Franklin’s kite experiment

–  1775 –  Washington appointed commander in chief of the Continental Army

–  1775 –  Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga

–  1863 –  Stonewall Jackson dies from complications from his friendly fire wound in the Battle of Chancellorsville

–  1869 –  the golden spike completes the first transcontinental railroad

–  1872 –  Victoria Woodhull becomes first woman nominated for President (Equal Rights Party)

–  1924 –  J. Edgar Hoover appointed head of the FBI

–  1940 –  Churchill replaces Chamberlain as Prime Minister

–  1954 –  Bill Haley and the Comets release “Rock Around the Clock” which becomes the first rock n’ roll #1 hit

Quote:   You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.  Mae West

May 11

–  birthdays:  1885 – King Oliver (jazz musician)  /  1888 – Irving Berlin (composer/songwriter –  “God Bless America”)  /  1906 – Jacqueline Cochran  (aviatrix;  first woman to break the sound barrier)  /  1912 –  Phil Silver (actor – “Sgt. Bilko”)  /  1933 –  Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam)  /  1935 – Doug McClure (actor – “The Virginian”)  /  1989 – Cam Newton  (quarterback)

–  1858 –  Minnesota becomes the 32^nd state

–  1864 –  J.E.B. Stuart is mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern

–  1943 –  U.S. forces land on Attu island in Alaska to liberate it from Japanese occupation

–  1960 –  Israeli agents capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires

–  1969 –  Monty Python forms

–  1981 –  Bob Marley dies of cancer

Quote:   Man is the only animal that blushes.  Or needs to.  –  Mark Twain

May 12

–  birthdays:  1907 –  Katharine Hepburn (actress –  winner of four Oscars)  /  1918 – Julius Rosenberg  /  1925 –  Yogi Berra (Hall of Fame baseball player)  /  1928 –  Burt Bacharach  (composer)  /  1937 –  George Carlin (stand-up comic)  /  1956 – Homer Simpson  /  1968 –  Tony Hawk (skateboarder)  /  1981 –  Rami Malek (actor – “Bohemian Rhapsody”)

–  1864 –  Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

–  1932 –  body of Lindbergh baby found

–  1967 –  Jimi Hendrix releases “Are You Experienced?” album

–  1994 –  “Pulp Fiction” is released

Quote:   If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read “President Can’t Swim”.  –  Lyndon Johnson

May 13

–  birthdays:  1914 –  Joe Louis (heavyweight boxing champ 1937-49)  /  1937 –  Roger Zelazny (sci-fi author – Chronicles of Amber)  /  1939 –  Harvey Keitel  (actor – “Reservoir Dogs”)  /  1941 –  Richie Valens (early rock n’ roller –  “La Bamba”)  /  1950 –  Stevie Wonder (singer – biggest hit =  “I Just Called to Say I Love You”)  /  1961 –  Dennis Rodman (basketball player)  /  1964 – Stephen Colbert  /  1986 –  Lena Dunham  (comedienne)  /  1986 – Robert Pattison (Twilight series)

–  1864 –  first burial at Arlington National Cemetery (a Confederate prisoner)

–  1888 –  DeWitt Hooper first recites “Casey at Bat”

–  1913 –  women’s suffrage march in Washington is attacked by men in the crowd

–  1916 –  the Lafayette Escadrille sees combat for the first time

–  1934 –  giant dust storm sweeps the plains

–  1938 –  Louis Armstrong records “When the Saints Go Marching In”

–  1958 –  Vice President Nixon’s limousine is attacked by a crowd in Caracas, Venezuela

–  1965 –  Rolling Stones record “Satisfaction”

–  1981 –  Pope John Paul II is shot

Quote:   No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.  –  Abe Lincoln

May 14

–  birthdays:  1944 –  George Lucas (director –  “Star Wars”, “Indiana Jones”)  /  1984 –  Mark Zuckerburg (co-founder of Facebook)  /  David Byrne (of the Talking Heads –  biggest hit = “Burning Down the House”)

–  1804 –  Lewis and Clark leave from St. Louis

–  1853 –  Gail Borden patents his process for condensed milk

–  1878 –  Vaseline is patented

–  1897 –  John Philip Sousa’s band plays “Stars and Stripes Forever” for first time in public

–  1961 –  Freedom Riders bus bombed and burned in Birmingham

–  1973 –  Skylab is launched – first space station

–  1998 –  “Seinfeld” finale

Quote:   A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.  –  Dwight Eisenhower

May 15

–  birthdays:  1937 – Madeleine Albright (first female Secretary of State  1997 -2001)  /  1953 –  George Brett (Hall of Fame third baseman)  /  1956 – Dan Patrick (sportscaster)  /  1969 –  Emmitt Smith (Hall of Fame running back)  /  1975 –  Ray Lewis (Hall of Fame football linebacker)

–  1756 –  England declares war on France to start the French and Indian War

–  1864 –  cadets (some as young as 15) from Virginia Military Institute participate in the Battle of New Market (nine are killed) 

–  1869 –  Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association

–  1911 –  the Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil Company as a monopoly

–  1916 –  Wilson sends Marines to Santo Domingo to maintain order (until 1924)

–  1940 –  Richard and Maurice McDonald open up their burger joint

–  1941 –  Joe Dimaggio starts his 56 game hitting streak

–  1942 –  gas rationing begins

–  1972 –  Alabama Governor and presidential candidate George Wallace is paralyzed by an assassin

–  1981 –  “Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” airs

–  1988 –  Soviet troops begin pulling out of Afghanistan

Quote:   The U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it.  You have to catch up with it yourself.  –  Ben Franklin

May 16

–  birthdays:  1801 –  William Seward (Lincoln’s Secretary of State and purchaser of Alaska)  /  1804 –  Elizabeth Peabody (established the first kindergarten in the U.S. in 1860)  / 1905 – Henry Fonda (actor –  “Mister Roberts”)  /  1912-  Studs Terkel (author –  “Hard Times”)  /  1919 –  Liberace  /  1953 –  Pierce Brosnan  (actor –  James Bond)  /  1955 – Debra Winger (actress – “Officer and a Gentleman”)  /  1966 – Janet Jackson (singer –  biggest hit =  “Together Again”)  /  1986 –  Megan Fox  (actress – Transformers) 

–  1817 –  Mississippi steamboat traffic begins

–  1860 –  Republican Party selects Lincoln as its second presidential candidate

–  1868 –  Pres. Andrew Johnson avoids being removed from office by one vote

–  1869 –  Cincinnati Red Stockings play the first professional baseball game

–  1943 –  Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends as the German army regains control of the area

–  1966 –  the Beach Boys release “Pet Sounds”

–  1985 –  Michael Jordan named Rookie of the Year

–  1986 –  “Top Gun” premieres

Quote:   Let me assert my belief that the only thing that we have to fear is fear itself –  nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror that paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.  –  FDR

May 17

–  birthdays:  1868 – Horace Dodge (co-founder of Dodge Brothers Company)  /  1903 –  Cool Papa Bell (legendary Negro league baseball player)  /  1936 –  Dennis Hopper (actor –  “Easy Rider”)  / 1956 –  Bob Saget (actor – “Full House”)  /  1956 –  Sugar Ray Leonard (boxer)  /  1965 – Trent Rezner (Nine Inch Nails – biggest hit =  “The Day the World Went Away”) 

–  1875 –  first Kentucky Derby won by Aristides (14 of 15 jockeys are African-Americans)

–  1883 –  Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show opens in Omaha

–  1900 – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz published by L. Frank Baum

–  1943 –  “the Dambusters” raid

–  1943 –  B-17 Memphis Belle flies its 25^th mission

–  1954 –  Brown v. Board of Education decision

–  1987 –  37 sailors are killed when Iraqi warplanes accidentally bomb the USS Stark

Quote:   Science says the first word on everything and the last word on nothing.  – Victor Hugo

May 18

–  birthdays:  1897 –  Frank Capra (director –  “It’s a Wonderful Life”)  /  1912 –  Perry Como (singer)  /  1920 –  Pope John Paul II  /  1946 –  Reggie Jackson (Hall of Fame baseball player)  /  1970 –  Tina Fey (comedian –  “30 Rock”) 

–  1631 –  John Winthrop elected first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony

–  1860 –  Republican Convention nominates Lincoln

–  1863 –  siege of Vicksburg begins

–  1896 –  Plessy v. Ferguson decision

–  1897 –  Henry Dow founds Dow Chemical

–  1933 –  FDR signs the Tennessee Valley Act

–  1953 –  Jacqueline Cochran becomes first woman to break the sound barrier

–  1980 –  Mount St. Helens erupts killing 57 people

Quote:   You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.  –  Dr. Seuss

May 19

–  birthdays:  1890 – Ho Chi Minh  /  1897 –  Frank Luke (“The Arizona Balloon Buster”; WWI ace)  /  1925 – Malcolm X  /  Pete Townsend (guitarist –  The Who – biggest hit:  “I Can See for Miles”)  /  1946 – Andre the Giant  (wrestler)  /  1951 – Joey Ramone (singer for the Ramones – biggest hit:  “Rockaway Beach”) 

–  1928 –  frog jumps 3 feet 4 inches to win the first Calavaras County frog-jumping contest

–  1992 –  27^th Amendment ratified – prohibits Congress from raising its own salaries

Quote:   We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.  –  Helen Keller

May 20

–  birthdays:  1768 –  Dolley Madison (wife of Pres. Madison)  /  1908 –  Jimmy Stewart (actor –  “It’s a Wonderful Life”)  /  1946 – Cher (biggest hit –  “Believe”)

–  1506 –  Columbus dies still not believing he discovered a new world

–  1861 –  North Carolina becomes the last state to secede

–  1861 –  Confederate capital moved from Mobile, Ala. to Richmond, Va.

–  1862 –  Homestead Act becomes law

–  1873 –  Levi Strauss gets patent for his blue jeans

–  1927 –  Lindbergh takes off on his flight across the Atlantic

–  1932 –  Amelia Earhart takes off to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic nonstop, solo

–  1961 –  Freedom Riders attacked by a white mob in Montgomery, Ala.

–  1969 –  Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam

–  1978 –  Mavis Hutchinson (53 years old) becomes first woman to run across America (3,000 miles in 69 days)

–  1996 –  Supreme Court strikes down part of a Colorado law that allowed discrimination against gays

–  2015 –  David Letterman hosts his last show

Quote:   Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.  –  FDR

May 21

–  birthdays:  1952 –  Mr. T  /  1971 –  the Notorious B.I.G. (rapper – biggest hit –  “Mo Money Mo Problems”)  /  1977 – Ricky Williams (football player) 

–  1832 –  first Democratic Party convention

–  1863 –  siege of Port Hudson begins

–  1881 – Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross

–  1908 –  first horror movie premieres –  “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”

–  1924 –  Leopold and Loeb kidnap and kill Bobby Franks in an attempt to commit the “perfect crime”

–  1927 –  “Spirit of St. Louis” lands in Paris

–  1932 –  Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland becoming the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo, nonstop

–  1945 –  Heinrich Himmler captured

–  1954 –  amendment giving 18 year-olds the right to vote is defeated

–  2017 –  last performance of Barnum and Bailey Circus

Quote:   Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.  –  Churchill

May 22

–  birthdays:  1844 – Mary Cassatt (impressionist painter)  /  1859 –  Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes series) 

–  1803 –  first public library (Connecticut)

–  1849 –  Lincoln receives the only patent by a President for a device to raise steamboats over shoals

–  1856 –  Southern congressman Preston Brooks savagely beats Northern Senator Charles Sumner with a cane on the floor of the Senate in a debate over the expansion of slavery;  Brooks becomes a hero in the South and receives many replacement canes

–  1906 –  the Wright Brothers receive a patent for their “flying machine”

–  1972 –  Nixon begins visit to Moscow

–  1992 –  Johnny Carson ends his run on the “Tonight Show”

Quote:  We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.  –  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

May 23

–  birthdays:  1824 –  Ambrose Burnside (Civil War general)  /  1908 –  John Bardeen  (co-inventor of the transitor)  /  1958 – Drew Carey (comedian – “The Drew Carey Show”)  /  1974 –  Jewel Kilcher  (singer –  biggest hit = “Foolish Games”)  /  1974 – Ken Jennings (“Jeopardy” champ) 

–  1785  –  Ben Franklin announces the invention of bi-focals

–  1867 –  Jesse James and gang rob bank in Missouri, killing two

–  1900 –  William Carney becomes the first African-American to earn the Medal of Honor (for actions at Fort Wagner in the Civil War)

–  1901 –  Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo is captured

–  1934 –  Bonnie and Clyde are killed in an ambush

Quote:   Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth.  –  Chuck Norris

May 24

–  birthdays:  1941 –  Bob Dylan (biggest hit =  “Like a Rolling Stone”)  /  1943 – Gary Burghoff (Radar on “MASH”)  /  1965 – John C. Reilly (actor –  “Walk Hard”)

–  1775 –  John Hancock is elected unanimously president of the Continental Congress

–  1830 –  “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale is published

–  1844 –  Samuel Morse sends the first telegraph message –  “What hath God wrought?”

–  1856 –  John Brown and others kill five pro-slavery settlers in the Pottawatomie Massacre

–  1883 –  Brooklyn Bridge opens after 14 years and 27 deaths

–  1943 –  Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz

–  1969 –  The Archies release “Sugar, Sugar” (Billboard Song of the Year)

–  2018 –  Pres. Trump posthumously pardons Jack Johnson for his racially motivated conviction

Quote:   If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z.  X is work.  Y is play.  Z is keep your mouth shut.  –  Albert Einstein

May 25

–  birthdays:  1803 –  Ralph Waldo Emerson (essayist)  /  1889 –  Igor Sikorski (inventor of the helicopter)  /  1896 –  Gene Tunney (heavyweight boxing champ 1926-30)  /  1927 –  Robert Ludlum (author –  the Bourne series)  /  1944 – Frank Oz (puppeteer for the Muppets)  /  1963 – Mike Myers (comedian –  Austin Powers)  

–  1787 –  the Constitutional Convention opens

–  1861 –  Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during the Civil War

–  1927 –  the last Model T Ford rolls off the assembly line

–  1935 –  Jesse Owens breaks four world records in 45 minutes at a college track meet

–  1961 –  Kennedy promises to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade

–  1977 –  “Star Wars” premieres

–  1979 –  “Alien” is released

–  2011 –  last “Oprah Winfrey Show”

Quote:   My brain is the key that sets me free.  Houdini

May 26

–  birthdays:   1877 –  Isadora Duncan (dancer)  /  1886 – Al Jolson (silent movie star)  /  1895 –  Dorothea Lange  (photographer)  /  1907 –  John Wayne  /  1923 –  James Arness  (actor – “Gunsmoke”)  /  1926 –  Miles Davis (jazz musician)  /  1939 – Brent Musburger (sportscaster)  /  1948 –  Stevie Nicks (of Fleetwood Mac – biggest hit =  “Stop Dragging My Heart Around”)  /  1949 – Hank Williams, Jr. (country music – biggest hit =  “I’m For Love”)  /  1951 –  Sally Ride (first American woman in space)  /  1964 – Lenny Kravitz (biggest hit = “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over”)  /  1966 – Helena Bonham Carter (actress –  “Harry Potter”)  /  1975 –  Lauryn Hill (biggest hit =  “Doo Wop”)

–  1637 – a combined Puritan/Monhegan Indian force massacre 500 Pequot Indians 

–  1805 –  Lewis and Clark first see the Rockies

–  1868 –  Pres. Andrew Johnson avoids removal from office by one vote

–  1940 –  first helicopter flight by Igor Sikorsky

–  1945 –  fire bombing raid on Tokyo

–  1972 –  Nixon and Brezhnev sign the SALT Treaty

–  1975 –  Glen Campbell releases “Rhinestone Cowboy”

Quote:   A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.  –  Gloria Steinem

May 27

–  birthdays:   Cornelius Vanderbilt (robber baron)  /  1819 – Julia Ward Howe (“Battle Hymn of the Republic”)  /  1837 –  Wild Bill Hickok  /  1907 –  Rachel Carson (environmentalist;  author of Silent Spring)  /  1911 – Hubert Humphrey (Vice President 1965-69)  /  1912 –  Sam Snead (golfer)  /  1923 –  Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State 1973-77;  Nobel Peace Prize winner)  /  1934 –  Harlan Ellison (sci-fi author)  /  1975 –  Andre 3000 (singer for OutKaast – biggest hit =  “Ms. Jackson”) 

–  1935 –  Supreme Court declares the National Recovery Act unconstitutional

–  1937 –  Golden Gate Bridge opens

–  1942 –  Dorie Miller awarded the Navy Cross for actions at Pearl Harbor

–  1958  –  Ernest Green becomes first of the Little Rock Nine to graduate

–  1995 –  Christopher Reeve (“Superman”) is paralyzed from neck down after fall from a horse

Quote:   Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.  –  Erica Jong

May 28

–  birthdays:   1818 –  P.G.T. Beauregard (Confederate general at Fort Sumter)  /  1887 – Jim Thorpe  /  1938 –  Jerry West (NBA Hall of Famer;  image on the logo)  /  1944 –  Gladys Knight (biggest hit =  “Midnight Train to Georgia”)  /  1944 –  Rudy Giuliani  /  1945 –  John Fogerty (singer for Creedence Clearwater Revival –  biggest hit =  “Proud Mary”) 

–  1830  –  Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which leads to the “Trail of Tears”

–  1889 –  the Michelin brothers found the Michelin Tyre Company

–  1892 –  John Muir and other conservationists found the Sierra Club

–  1902 –  Owen Wister publishes The Virginian

–  1937  –  the Golden Gate Bridge opens to cars

–  1951 –  Willie Mays hits his first home run (after going 0 for 12)

–  1959 –  American monkeys Able and Baker are launched into space

–  1972 –  “the Plumbers” break into the Watergate building the first time

–  2016 –  gorilla Harambe shot after dragging three year-old that fell in his enclosure at zoo

Quote:   Laughter is wine for the soul.  –  Sean O’Casey

May 29

–  birthdays:   1736 – Patrick Henry  /  1903 – Bob Hope  /  1917 –  John F. Kennedy  /  1939 –  Al Unser (4 time Indy 500 winner)  /  1953 –  Danny Elfman (music composer –  The Simpson’s Theme)  /  1961 –  Melissa Etheridge  (biggest hit =  “I’m the Only One”) 

–  1765 –  Patrick Henry says “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Patrick Henry

–  1790 –  Rhode Island becomes the last of the original 13 Colonies to ratify the Constitution

–  1848  –  Wisconsin becomes the 30^th state

–  1864 –  Battle of Cold Harbor

–  1886 –  John Pemberton begins advertising Coca-Cola

–  1932 –  the Bonus Army begins to assemble in Washington

–  1942 –  Bing Crosby records the top selling single of all time –  “White Christmas”

–  1943 –  Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter” appears on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post

–  1977 –  Janet Guthrie become first woman to race in the Indy 500

Quote:   No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.  –  Eleanor Roosevelt

May 30

–  birthdays:   1903 –  Countee Cullen (Harlem Renaissance author –  “Black Christ and Other Poems”)  /  1908 –  Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tunes characters)  /  1909 –  Benny Goodman (the King of Swing)  /  1943 –  Gale Sayers (football Hall of Famer)  /  1971 – Idina Menzel (biggest hit =  “Let it Go”)  /  1974 –  Cee Lo Green  (biggest hit =  “F*** You (Forget You))

–  1783 –  Benjamin Towne publishes the first daily newspaper the Pennsylvania Post

–  1806 –  Andrew Jackson kills John Dickinson in a duel

–  1854 –  Kansas-Nebraska Act

–  1896 –  first car accident as Henry Wells hits a bicyclist in NYC

–  1911 –  first Indy 500 – winner averages 75 mph

–  1922 –  Lincoln Memorial dedicated by Chief Justice William Taft  

Quote:   Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.  –  George Bernard Shaw

May 31

–  birthdays:   1819 –  Walt Whitman  /  1898 –  Norman Vincent Peale (clergyman who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking)  /  1930 –  Clint Eastwood  /  1941 –  Johnny Paycheck (biggest hit=  “Take This Job and Shove It”)  /  1943 – Joe Namath (Hall of Fame quarterback)  /  1965 –  Brooke Shields (actress – “Pretty Baby”)  /  1976 –  Colin Ferrell (actor –  “In Bruges”) 

–  1885  –  Dr. John Kellogg patents “flaked cereal”

–  1889 –  the Johnstown Flood kills 2,209 people

–  1916 –  Battle of Jutland

–  1958 –  Dick Dale invents “surf music” with the song Let’s Go Trippin’”

–  1962 –  Adolf Eichmann is hanged for war crimes in Israel

–  1976 –  The Who set the record for the loudest concert ever – 120 decibels at 50 meters

–  1990 –  “Seinfeld” premieres

Quote:   Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.  –  James Dewar