1539 - Hernando DeSoto sailed from Cuba to Florida with 13 pigs to help sustain his 700 men on his gold-hunting expedition.  He trades with Indians, bringing pigs to America. 
    1664 – The first Baptist Church was organized, in Boston.
    1732 - Protecting the environment and particularly the fishing industry is not new. New York City enacted a law for “preserving fish in fresh water ponds...Fishing by hoop-net, draw-net, purse-net, catching-net, cod-net, bley-net or with any other engine machine, arts, or ways and means whatsoever, other by an by angling with angle-rod, hoot, and line, was subject to a fine of 20 shillings.”
    1754 - The first bloodshed in the French and Indian War occurred on an isolated mountainside a few miles east of Uniontown, PA. Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, at the head of several companies of Virginia militia, reached the Monongahela River and overtook a French reconnoitering party from Fort Duquesne (the site of present-day Pittsburgh). In a surprise attack, the Virginians killed 10 French soldiers from Fort Duquesne, including the French commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and took 21 prisoners. Only one of Washington's men was killed. The French and Indian War was the last and most important of a series of colonial conflicts between the British and the American colonists on one side, and the French and their broad network of Native American allies on the other. From this base, Washington ambushed an advance detachment of about 30 French, striking the first blow of the French and Indian War. For the victory, Washington was appointed a full colonel and reinforced with several hundred Virginia and North Carolina troops. On July 3, the French descended on Fort Necessity with their full force, and after an all-day fight, Washington surrendered to their superior numbers. The disarmed colonials were allowed to march back to Virginia, and Washington was hailed as a hero despite his surrender of the fort. The story of the campaign was written up in a London gazette, and Washington was quoted as saying, "I have heard the bullets whistle; and believe me, there is something charming in the sound." Reading this, King George II remarked, "He would not say so if he had been used to hear many." In October, 1754, Washington resigned his commission in protest of the British underpayment of colonial offices and policy of making them subordinate to all British officers, regardless of rank. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763, France lost all claims to the mainland of North America east of the Mississippi and gave up Louisiana, including New Orleans, to Spain. Fifteen years later, French bitterness over the loss of their North American empire contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution on the side of the Patriots, despite the fact that the Patriots were led by one of France's old enemies, George Washington.
    1774 - First Continental Congress convenes in Virginia.
    1807 - Birthday of Louis Agassiz (1807-73) at Motier, Switzerland. Professor of zoology and geology at Harvard, he was a major influence in spawning American interest in natural history and helped to establish the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. “The eye of the trilobite,” Aggassiz wrote in 1870, “tells us that the sun shone on the old beach where he lived; for there is nothing in nature without a purpose and when so complicated an organ was made to receive the light, there must have been light to enter it.”
    1814 - Birthday of Daniel Reaves Goodloe (1814-1902) in Louisburg, NC. Emancipist who wrote “A Crusading Abolitionist in Reconstruction North Carolina”.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/goodloe/title.html
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/goodloe/menu.html
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/g/Goodloe,Daniel_R.html
    1818 - Former president Thomas Jefferson set forth in a letter to a Jewish journalist his opinion of religious intolerance: “Your sect by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religions, as they do our civil rights, by putting all on equal footing. But more remains to be done.”
    1818 – Confederate General P.T. Beauregard (1818-93) was born in St. Bernard parish, LA.   A graduate of West Point, Beauregard served with distinction as an engineer in the Mexican-American War.  Following a brief appointment as superintendent at West Point in 1861, after the South seceded, he resigned from the US Army and became the first Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.  He commanded the defenses of Charleston at the start of the Civil War at Ft. Sumter on April 12, 1861. Three months later he won the First Battle of Bull Run.  It was largely on his advice that Confederate President Jefferson Davis was convinced to bring the Civil War to a close.     
    1830 - The Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson. It called for resettlement of all Indians east of the Mississippi River to lands west of it. The sum of $500,000 was appropriated by Congress to compensate Indians and pay the cost of resettlement.
    1831 - Birthday of Eliza Ann Gardner, underground railroad conductor, known as the “Julia Ward Howe of the Negro race.” 
http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs-b/wwm97253/@Generic__BookTextView/2438
    1851 - The Ohio Woman's Rights Convention met in Akron, an historic meeting of women calling for equal rights.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may28.html
    1855 - Abby Leach’s (1855-1918) birthday.  She was one of the first females to attend Harvard.  She was a teacher whose profound knowledge of Greek impressed Harvard professors enough to open their doors a crack in 1879 for women through what they called the Harvard Annex. It would become Radcliffe College.
http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/macurdyperformance.html
http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/life.html
http://www.radcliffe.edu/quarterly/199902/rad_har-5.html
    1858 - Lizzie Black Kander’s (1858-1940) birthday in Milwaukee, WI.  U.S. philanthropist. Thousands of immigrants and poor in the Milwaukee area received help because of this remarkable woman. Starting with organizations that distributed food and clothing to needy immigrants, she helped form and headed the city's first settlement house (1900-1918). As a 1901 fund-raiser, she supervised the printing of a cookbook. She expanded it and used the profits for charity. Still in print many years after Lizzie's death in 1940, “The Settlement Cook Book, Treasured Recipes of Seven Decades”, sold more than a million copies in 23 editions.
http://search.eb.com/women/articles/Kander_Lizzie_Black.html
http://www.jsonline.com/Entree/cooking/apr01/settle18041601.asp
http://www.uwm.edu/Library/arch/jews/image7.htm
    1863 - The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the most famous African- American regiment of the war, leaves Boston for combat in the South. For the first two years of the war, President Abraham Lincoln resisted the use of black troops despite the pleas of men such as Frederick Douglass, who argued that no one had more to fight for than African-Americans. Lincoln finally endorsed, albeit timidly, the introduction of blacks for service in the military in the Emancipation Proclamation. On May 22, 1863, the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops to recruit and assemble black regiments. Many blacks, often freed or escaped slaves, joined the military and found themselves usually under white leadership. Ninety percent of all officers in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) were white. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the idealistic scion of an abolitionist family, headed the 54th. Shaw was a veteran of the 2nd Massachusetts infantry and saw action in the 1862 Shenandoah Valley and Antietam campaigns. After being selected by Massachusetts Governor John Andrew to organize and lead the 54th, Shaw carefully selected the most physically fit soldiers and white officers with established antislavery views. The regiment included two of Frederick Douglass's sons and the grandson of Sojourner Truth.
On May 28, 1863, the new regiment marched onto a steamer and set sail for Port Royal, South Carolina. The unit saw action right away, taking part in a raid into Georgia and withstanding a Confederate attack near Charleston. On July 16, 1863, Shaw led a bold but doomed attack against Fort Wagner in which he and 20 of his men were killed. The story of Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts was immortalized in the critically acclaimed 1990 movie “Glory”, starring Mathew Broderick, Denzell Washington, and Morgan Freeman.
http://www.54thmass.org/
    1875 - Birthday of American composer Fred Jewell (1875-1936) in Worthington, IL. Over the next two decades, he rose through the ranks of the circus composers and bandmasters, becoming the Music Director of the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in 1908. His circus career ended in 1917, and he moved to Oskaloosa, IA to assume the conductorship of the Iowa Brigade Band. There he started his own publishing company, which moved with him back to Worthington in 1923. He served as the high school band director, conductor of the Murat Temple Shrine Band and the Sahara Grotto Band in Indianapolis, and he continued to compose music for bands. His most famous marches are “E Pluribus Unum” (1917), “Quality-plus” (1913), “Supreme Triumph” (1920) and “The Old Circus Band” (1923).
    1877 - A "terrific" two day long sandstorm (sand) blasted Yuma, AZ. (28th-29th)
    1879 - Illinois prohibited employment of women in coalmines in their state.  This was the first law enacted in the United States to protect women in employment.
    1880 - Savoy, Texas was hit by an F4 tornado. 14 people were killed and 60 were injured. It leveled the entire business and northeast residential sections. The tornado was described as "a funnel blazing with balls of fire".
    1887 - Birthday of James Francis “Jim” Thorpe (1888-1953) at Prague, OK. Olympic gold medal track athlete, baseball player and football player, the Greatest Athlete of the first half of the 20th Century.  A Native American of the Sac and Fox Nation, he won the pentathlon and the decathlon of the 1912 Olympic Games, but later lost his medals when Olympic officials declared a stint as a minor league baseball player besmirched his amateur Thorpe’s medals were returned to his family many years after his death when the earlier decision was reversed.
He later played professional baseball and football. From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first President of the American professional Football Association which would become the National Football League in 1922.  http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/history/ThorpeAthleteOfTheCentury.htm
http://www.alphacdc.com/necona/athlete_of_the_century.html
(lower half of: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may28.html )
    1892 - The Sierra Club was founded by famed naturalist John Muir. The Sierra Club promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy. It has been especially important in the founding of and protection of our national parks. www.sierraclub.org
    1898 - Birthday of great bandleader Andy Kirk (1898-1992) in Newport, KY.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/cloudsofjoy.html
    1900 - Birthday of trumpet player Tommy Ladnier (1900-39) in Mandeville, LA. 
http://www.redhotjazz.com/Ladnier.html
http://atj.8k.com/noartist/atjladnier.html
    1900 – A fire in the grandstand nearly destroyed the Cincinnati Redlegs’ ballpark.
    1908 – “Bond, James Bond”.  Author Ian Fleming (1908-1964) was born in Mayfair, London.  Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to a merchant bank and his father was a Member of Parliament from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.  While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units, 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. His wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail and depth of the James Bond novels.  Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, “Casino Royale”, in 1952. It was a success, with three print runs being commissioned to cope with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two short-story collections followed between 1953 and 1966.   The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's story “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang” and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
    1910 - Birthday of singer/pianist/song writer Aaron Thibodaux “T-Bone” Walker (1910-75), Linden, TX. http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=206
http://bluesnet.hub.org/artists/tbone.html
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/articles/late0202.htm
    1917 - General John Joseph Pershing lead members of the American Expeditionary Force to fight in Europe, America’s first entrant into this war. The group included 40 regular army officers, 17 reserve officers, 2 Marine Corps officers, 67 enlisted men, 36 field clerks, 20 civilians, 3 interpreters, and 3 news correspondents. They left New York City on the “Baltic” and arrived in Liverpool England, on June 8, and reached Paris on June 13. The United States had been in a state of war with Germany since April 6, 1917, when it became the 13th national to declare war against the Central Powers.1922 - Otto Krueger conducted the Detroit News Orchestra, the first known radio orchestra, which was heard on WWJ Radio in Detroit, MI. The "Detroit News" owned the radio station at the time. 
    1928 - Walter P. Chrysler merged his Chrysler Corporation with Dodge Brothers, Inc. The Dodge Motor Car Company had been purchased several years earlier, from the widows of the two founders, by Clarence Dillon's banking firm for $148 million. The merger of Chrysler and Dodge, the largest automobile industry merger in history at the time, placed the newly consolidated firm third in production and sales, just behind General Motors and Ford Motor Company. Their vehicles have always been popular with law enforcement, the Blues Brothers, and my son drives a Dodge truck, which he swears is the best made in the industry.
    1929 - Warner Brothers debuted the first all-color talking picture. The film debuted at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City. Ethel Waters, Joe E. Brown, Betty Compson and Arthur Lake starred in "On with the Show," based on a story by Humphrey Pearson.
    1931 - Birthday of guitarist Sonny Burgess, Newport, AR
http://www.deltaboogie.com/deltamusicians/burgess.htm
    1931 - WOR radio in New York City premiered "The Witch’s Tale". The program was broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System (of which WOR was the flagship station) where it aired until 1938. My late father, Lawrence Menkin, started out as a radio writer, and wrote many of these and soap operas. In the late 1940’s, he became general manager of WOR-TV, producing the first early television drama’s, such as “Harlem Detective,” “Hands of Murder,” and the first “Captain Video,” all shows he created, wrote, produced and directed.
    1934 - The Dionne quintuplets were born near Callender, Ontario to Oliva and Elzire Dionne. They were the first quintuplets to survive infancy. This increase in Canada’s population became known as Marie, Cecile, Yvonne, Emilie and Annette. All five survived into adulthood, Cecile, Annette, Yvonne, Emilie and Marie. Their father, Elzire, signed to have them exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair only hours after they were born without permission from their mother. The Ontario provincial government intervened on behest of the doctor who delivered them. The government took custody of the children in what has been described more as a political move than a humanitarian one, and yet, at the time, it was a popular decision because of the family's poverty and the father's willingness to exploit the children in unsafe ways. The doctor became a wealthy man acting as their caretaker as he, as the government's representative, housed them in a modern home (across the road from the Dionne home) and showed them to the public from the porch. He and the government used their names and celebrity status in various ways to make millions. Hardly anyone around these children acted in their interest.  It took until 1997 for the surviving sisters to win monetary awards from the Canadian government for its exploitation of them. Their mother was not allowed any more intimacy with them than a tourist and she had no legal rights to claim them under the church dominated laws of the time in that area.
http://www.city.north-bay.on.ca/quints/digitize/dionne.htm
    1935 - John Steinbeck’s “Tortilla Flat” is published. The novel's endearing comic tone captured the public's imagination, and the novel became a financial success. Steinbeck's next works,”In Dubious Battle” and “Of Mice and Men”, were both successful, and in 1938, his masterpiece “The Grapes of Wrath” was published. The novel, about the struggles of an Oklahoma family who lose their farm and become fruit pickers in California, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1939. Steinbeck's work after World War II, including “Cannery Row” and “The Pearl”, became more sentimental. He also wrote several successful films, including “Forgotten Village” (1941) and “Viva Zapata!” (1952). He became interested in marine biology and published a nonfiction book, “The Sea of Cortez”, in 1941. His travel memoir, Travels with Charlie, describes his trek across the U.S. in a camper. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962 and died in New York in 1968.
        1938 - Benny Goodman records “Big John Special.” Two points if you know who “Big John” was.  Other sites about the “King of Swing,” who also was a fine symphonic clarinetist.
http://www.nw-cybermall.com/JazzWorld/goodman.htm
    1938 - Birthday of former coach and basketball Hall of Fame guard Jerry Alan West, Cheylan, WV.  His silhouette is incorporated into the NBA logo. West’s NBA career was highly successful. He was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the All-Star MVP in 1972, the same year that he won the only title of his career. West holds the NBA record for the highest points per game average in a playoff series with 46.3. He was also a member of the first five NBA All-Defensive Teams (one second, followed by four firsts), which were introduced when he was 32 years old. Having played in nine NBA Finals, he is also the only player in NBA history to be named Finals MVP despite being on the losing team (1969). West was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980 and voted as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. After his playing career, West was head coach of the Lakers for three years, leading Los Angeles into the playoffs each year and earning a Western Conference Finals berth once. Working as a player-scout for three years, West was named GM of the Lakers prior to the 1982-83. Under his reign, Los Angeles won six championship rings. In 2002, West became general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies and helped the franchise win their first-ever playoff berths. For his contributions, West won the NBA Executive of the Year twice
    1939 - Helen Hadassah Levinthal (1910-89) became the first Jewish woman to receive a degree from a Jewish college of theology. She received a Master of Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Institute of Religion.
    1941 - Frank Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra in recording "This Love of Mine" for Victor Records. 
    1942 - The rest of the Japanese forces directed at Midway set out. Admiral Yamamato, commanding the operation overall, believes that, if the plan to invade the island succeeds, the American fleet can be forced into a decisive engagement and that their defeat will force a truce before American production can swamp the Japanese war effort.
    1944 - Birthday of Rudolph Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, born Brooklyn, NY. 
    1944 - Gladys Knight, singer, born Atlanta, GA. The first hit was in 1961 with "Every Beat of My Heart." Her group continued to record hits throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. Among their best-known songs are "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967), "Midnight Train to Georgia" (1973), and "Love Overboard" (1987).
    1944 - DAVILA, RUDOLPH B., Medal of Honor
Staff Sergeant Rudolph B. Davila distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action, on 28 May 1944, near Artena, Italy. During the offensive which broke through the German mountain strongholds surrounding the Anzio beachhead, Staff Sergeant Davila risked death to provide heavy weapons support for a beleaguered rifle company. Caught on an exposed hillside by heavy, grazing fire from a well-entrenched German force, his machine gunners were reluctant to risk putting their guns into action. Crawling fifty yards to the nearest machine gun, Staff Sergeant Davila set it up alone and opened fire on the enemy. In order to observe the effect of his fire, Sergeant Davila fired from the kneeling position, ignoring the enemy fire that struck the tripod and passed between his legs. Ordering a gunner to take over, he crawled forward to a vantage point and directed the firefight with hand and arm signals until both hostile machine guns were silenced. Bringing his three remaining machine guns into action, he drove the enemy to a reserve position two hundred yards to the rear. When he received a painful wound in the leg, he dashed to a burned tank and, despite the crash of bullets on the hull, engaged a second enemy force from the tank’s turret. Dismounting, he advanced 130 yards in short rushes, crawled 20 yards and charged into an enemy-held house to eliminate the defending force of five with a hand grenade and rifle fire. Climbing to the attic, he straddled a large shell hole in the wall and opened fire on the enemy. Although the walls of the house were crumbling, he continued to fire until he had destroyed two more machine guns. His intrepid actions brought desperately needed heavy weapons support to a hard-pressed rifle company and silenced four machine gunners, which forced the enemy to abandon their prepared positions. Staff Sergeant Davila's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
    1944 - Singer Billy Vera is born.
    1945 - Birthday of guitarist/song writer John Fogerty, Berkeley, CA 
Among the songs he writes are “Proud Mary”, ''Have You Seen the Rain'', “Center Field”, and “Bad Moon Rising.''
    1946 – Yankee Stadium held its first night game…Senators 2, Yanks, 1.
    1948 - Top Hits
“Nature Boy” - Nat King Cole
“Now is the Hour” - Bing Crosby
“Baby Face” - The Art Mooney Orchestra
“Texarkana Baby” - Eddy Arnold
    1951 - After failing to get a hit in his first three major league games, Willie Mays of the New York Giants broke his 0-for-12 skein by hitting a home run off Warren Spahn of the Boston Braves.
    1951 - U.N. Forces drove the communists back across the 38th parallel on most of the Korean battlefields.
    1951 - Eighth Army took Hwachon and Inje. 
    1952 - *KELLY, JOHN D., Medal of Honor 
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company C, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Korea, 28 May 1952. Entered service at: Homestead, Pa. Born: 8 July 1928, Youngstown, Ohio. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a radio operator of Company C, in action against enemy aggressor forces. With his platoon pinned down by a numerically superior enemy force employing intense mortar, artillery, small-arms and grenade fire, Pfc. Kelly requested permission to leave his radio in the care of another man and to participate in an assault on enemy key positions. Fearlessly charging forward in the face of a murderous hail of machine gun fire and hand grenades, he initiated a daring attack against a hostile strongpoint and personally neutralized the position, killing 2 of the enemy. Unyielding in the fact of heavy odds, he continued forward and single-handedly assaulted a machine gun bunker. Although painfully wounded, he bravely charged the bunker and destroyed it, killing 3 of the enemy. Courageously continuing his 1-man assault, he again stormed forward in a valiant attempt to wipe out a third bunker and boldly delivered pointblank fire into the aperture of the hostile emplacement. Mortally wounded by enemy fire while carrying out this heroic action, Pfc. Kelly, by his great personal valor and aggressive fighting spirit, inspired his comrades to sweep on, overrun and secure the objective. His extraordinary heroism in the face of almost certain death reflects the highest credit upon himself and enhances the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
    1952 - CHAMPAGNE, DAVID B., Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date. Korea, 28 May 1952. Entered service at: Wakefield R.I. Born: 11 November 1932, Waterville, Md. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a fire team leader of Company A, in action against enemy aggressor forces. Advancing with his platoon in the initial assault of the company against a strongly fortified and heavily defended hill position, Cpl. Champagne skillfully led his fire team through a veritable hail of intense enemy machine gun, small-arms, and grenade fire, overrunning trenches and a series of almost impregnable bunker positions before reaching the crest of the hill and placing his men in defensive positions. Suffering a painful leg wound while assisting in repelling the ensuing hostile counterattack, which was launched under cover of a murderous hail of mortar and artillery fire, he steadfastly refused evacuation and fearlessly continued to control his fire team When the enemy counterattack increased in intensity, and a hostile grenade landed in the midst of the fire team, Cpl. Champagne unhesitatingly seized the deadly missile and hurled it in the direction of the approaching enemy. As the grenade left his hand, it exploded blowing off his hand and throwing him out of the trench. Mortally wounded by enemy mortar fire while in this exposed position, Cpl. Champagne, by his valiant leadership, fortitude, and gallant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of almost certain death, undoubtedly saved the lives of several of his fellow marines. His heroic actions served to inspire all who observed him and reflect the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
    1953 - The first 3-D (three-dimensional) cartoon world premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood, California and downtown Paramount Theatre, LA. The production, a Walt Disney creation/RKO picture, was titled, "Melody". 
    1955 - Birthday of Ronald Lawrence “Ron” Wilson, hockey coach, born, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
    1955 - "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" is the most popular song in the United States. Billboard refers to the tune as "disc entity" and reports if the sales of the other versions were all added up, including the original done by Fess Parker, more than 18-million copies have been bought in six months.
    1956 - Top Hits
“Heartbreak Hotel/I Was the One” - Elvis Presley
“The Wayward Wind” - Gogi Grant
“The Happy Whistler” - Don Robertson
“Blue Suede Shoes” - Carl Perkins
    1956 – Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates set a Major League record when he hit a HR in his eighth consecutive game.
    1957 - National League club owners voted to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to sunny Southern California and said that the New York Giants baseball team could move with the Horace Stoneham family to Northern California. The teams went on to establish themselves in Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. 
    1957 - The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) was established. This is the organization that brings us the Grammy Awards for all forms of musical entertainment each year.
    1957 – One of the greatest World Series HRs in LA Dodgers history was hit by Kirk Gibson, born in Pontiac, MI.  In the opening game of the 1988 World Series against the heavily-favored Oakland A’s of Tony LaRussa, Mark McGwire, Dave Stewart and Jose Canseco, Gibson was sent up in the bottom of the 9th to pinch hit against A’s closer Dennis Eckersley, at the time, the premier closer in the Majors.  Having injured both legs during the NLCS, Gibson was not expected to play at all. With an awkward, almost casual swing, Gibson used pure upper-body strength to smack a 3–2 backdoor slider over the right-field fence. He hobbled around the bases and pumped his fist as his jubilant teammates stormed the field. The Dodgers won the game, 5–4, and would go on to win the World Series, four games to one.
        1958 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement, heavily reinforced by Frank Pais Militia, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero.
    1959 - Abel and Baker were two one pound monkeys, one a rhesus, the other a spider monkey that survived a 15-minute flight trip into space in separate containers in the nose cone of Jupiter rocket launched at Cape Canaveral, FL. The cone was shot 300 miles into space and was recovered about 90 minutes later off the island of Antiqua, about 1,500 miles away, by Navy frogmen from the tug Kiowa. A previous attempt made on December 13, 1958, has been unsuccessful.
        1960 - Elvis Presley visits Vegas, and his entourage is for the first time dubbed the "Memphis Mafia" in the local media, due to their penchant for wearing long coats and dark glasses.
    1963 - Medgar Evers gets agreement of negotiations in the All-American city of Jackson, Mississippi — which is then withdrawn.  Four students and a professor were harassed during a sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter. A few days earlier, the garage of his house was bombed and on June 12, a few hours after President John F. Kennedy had made an extraordinary broadcast to the nation on the subject of civil rights, Medgar Evers was shot and killed in an ambush in front of his home. Byron de La Beckwith, a white segregationist, was charged with the murder. He was set free in 1964 after two trials resulted in hung juries but was convicted in a third trial held in 1994.
    1964 - Top Hits
“My Guy” - Mary Wells
“Love Me Do” - The Beatles
“Chapel of Love” - The Dixie Cups
“My Heart Skips a Beat” - Buck Owens
    1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization was formed.
    1966 - Percy Sledge hit number one with his first -- and what turned out to be his biggest -- hit. "When a Man Loves a Woman" would stay at the top of the pop music charts for two weeks. It was the singer’s only hit to make the top ten and was a million seller. 
    1966 - Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" is released. It stays on the chart for four weeks and reaching as high as #88. The record's producer Phil Spector considers the song the high point of his legendary production career and is so embittered by it not doing well in America that he would go into seclusion for two years.
    1966 - The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" is released and enters the Hot 100, where it will stay for thirteen weeks, peaking at #13. It will later be covered by the Rolling Stones on their album "It's Only Rock n' Roll”, and will be a hit for them as well.
    1966 - Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass set an American record when they had four albums in the US Top Ten. The four were "What Now My Love", "South of the Border", "Going Places" and "Whipped Cream and Other Delights". After falling off the charts a couple of years later, Alpert would return with a solo hit called "Rise" in 1979 and again in 1987 with "Diamonds". 
    1967 - The Association makes their television debut, performing "Along Comes Mary" on CBS-TV's “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”.
    1968 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit:  “Mrs. Robinson”, Simon & Garfunkel.
    1968 - The American League announced that it would split into two divisions for the 1969 season. Teams in the AL East included the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators. The AL West was comprised of the California Angels, the Chicago White Sox, the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Pilots.  The San Diego Padres were granted a National league franchise.
    1969 - A People's Park Bail Ball benefit was held at Winterland in San Francisco. Aum, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elvin Bishop Group, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana all played @ Winterland.
    1972 - Top Hits
“Oh Girl” - Chi-Lites
“I’ll Take You There” - The Staple Singers
“Look What You Done for Me” - Al Green
“(Lost Her Love) On Our Last Date” - Conway Twitty
    1975 - The Doobie Brothers went gold with the album, "Stampede". The group, formed right here in San Jose, CA, recorded 16 charted hits. Two made it to number one, becoming million-selling, gold record winners: "Black Water" [March, 1975] and "What a Fool Believes" [April, 1979]. 
    1977 - In Southgate, KY, the Beverly Hills Supper Club was engulfed in fire, killing 165 people inside.
    1978 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit:  “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,'' Johnny Mathis/Deniece Williams.
        1980 - Top Hits
“Call Me” - Blondie
“Funkytown” - Lipps, Inc.
“Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” - Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes
“Starting Over Again” - Dolly Parton
    1982 - The legendary train, "Orient Express", made popular through Agatha Christie’s thrilling mystery novel, "Murder on the Orient Express", was reborn. The 26-hour train trip resumed across the European continent after a long respite. While I have never had the pleasure, I am told by people who rode it, it was a great trip. I know several chefs on the West Coast who said they learned to cook on this train, where food and wine was “the best”.
    1984 - President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.
    1985 - Gay Mullins, a retiree from Seattle, WA, founded Old Cola Drinkers of America. This was an effort to bring back the original Coca-Cola, instead of the New Coke that the Atlanta-based company had foisted on the American cola-drinking market. By July of 1985, with arms firmly twisted behind their backs, Coca-Cola Company executives relented, kept the new formula on the market, but returned with: Classic Coke. 
    1985 - "Vanity Fair" magazine, with a picture of President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy kissing on the cover, went on sale. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, their “love affair” was genuine, as expressed
in this book, “I Love You, Ronnie.”
http://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Ronnie-Letters-Ronald/dp/0375505547/190-4600090-8446337?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&ref_=pm_dp_ln_b_6&s=books
    1986 - Viewers of Dick Clark's "America Picks the #1 Songs" chose Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," "Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Lionel Richie's "All Night Long" as the greatest hits of the rock era.
    1987 - Thunderstorms produced torrential rains in Oklahoma and Northern Texas. Lake Altus, Oklahoma was deluged with 9 inches of rain. Up to 8 inches of rain drenched Northern Texas and baseball size hail was reported north of Seminole and at Knickerbocker. 10-13 inches of rain inundated central Oklahoma over the last 5 days of the month resulting in an estimated 65 million dollars damage. Flooding forced several thousand people to evacuate their homes, many by boat or by helicopter.
    1988 - Top Hits
“One More Try” - George Michael
“Shattered Dreams” - Johnny Hates Jazz
“Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)” - Samantha Fox
“Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” - Kathy Mattea
    1989 - Unseasonably hot weather continued in Florida. Five cities reported record high temperatures for the date. The record high of 98 degrees at Lakeland, FL, was their fifth in a row. Thunderstorms produced severe weather in Florida late in the day, with golf ball size hail reported at Kissimmee.
    1990 - Two to five inches of rain over southeastern Ohio on the 28th and 29th capped an exceptionally wet month of May, and triggered widespread flooding. Flooding which resulted claimed three lives, and caused millions of dollars damage. Numerous roads in southeast Ohio were flooded and impassable, and many other roads were blocked by landslides.
    1996 - In a 12-8 win at the Kingdome, Orioles' third baseman Cal Ripken has his first career three-homer game and collects a career-high eight RBIs.
    1996 - President Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, James and Susan McDougal, and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, were convicted of fraud. Tucker was charged with creating a sham bankruptcy to avoid paying taxes on profits from a sold cable TV company in which he was a partner. Tucker resigned after the verdict. He briefly reversed his decision, but finally stepped down in July. In 1998, Tucker pleaded guilty to a felony charge of fraud and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors of independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
    1998 - Elton John and Bernie Taupin's global hit "Candle in the Wind '97" is a double winner at the Ivor Novello Awards held at London's Grosvenor House Hotel. The song, commemorating the late Princess Diana, wins best-selling U.K. single and international hit of the year. Accepting the award, John calls his victory "bittersweet," noting, "I wish this record had never had to be made."
    1998 - First Hawaiian Inc. and BancWest Corp. joined forces to create a $14 billion banking major banking entity based in the western United States. The merger, which cost around $1 billion, gave First Hawaiian's stockholders a small majority stake in the new institution.
    2000 - The Angels, for the first time in franchise history, hit four home runs in one inning. Anaheim goes yard four times in the fifth inning with Darin Erstad, Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson supplying the fireworks in the 11-4 victory.
    2002 - The last steel girder was removed from the World Trade Center site. Cleanup duties officially ended with closing ceremonies at Ground Zero in Manhattan.
    2003 - When Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa and Gary Sheffield all go deep off Reds' Jeff Austin in the bottom of the first inning, the Braves become only the second team in big league history to begin a game with three consecutive home runs. 
    2005 - In the eighth inning of the Red Sox's 17-1 rout over the Yankees in New York, the largest margin of victory the team has ever enjoyed against their rivals, the stadium scoreboard goes blank for a few moments when the operator cannot keep up with the Boston barrage. The BoSox’s 27 hits, one shy of a Bronx Bomber record for hits allowed, are the most collected by the club since tying the team record of 28 in June of 2003, ironically in a game also started by Carl Pavano as the opposing pitcher, but in a Marlin uniform.
    2006 - At AT&T Park, Barry Bonds passes Babe Ruth the all-time home run list taking sole possession of second place as he hits the 715th homer of his 21-year big league career. The historic homer, which comes off a 90-mph fastball thrown by Byung-Hyum Kim of the Rockies, makes the Giants outfielder the most prolific left-handed slugger in baseball history.
    2014 - Music curator and headphone maker Beats Electronics was acquired by Apple, Inc. who will pay $3 billion for the music company, started by music producer Jimmy Iovine and rap artist Dr. Dre.