1594 – John Haynes (d. 1653/4), the first Governor of the Connecticut Colony, was born in Essex, England.  Haynes was influential in the drafting of laws and legal frameworks in both Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies. He was on the committee that drafted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which has been called one of the first written constitutions. He also invested most of his fortune in Connecticut, "to the ruine of his famylye in Englande."
    1718 – Mission San Antonio De Valero was founded by Franciscans in the state of Coahuila and Texas in New Spain.  Later known as The Alamo, it and four later ones became the community that was San Antonio.  
    1764 – Architect Benjamin Latrobe (d. 1820), the designer of the US Capitol building, was born in Leeds, England.
    1795 – Kamehameha I, King of Hawai’i, defeated Kalanikupule and established the Kingdom of Hawai’i with the unification of the independent islands of Hawai’i, O’ahu, Maui, Moloka’i and Lana’i under one government.  The kingdom won recognition from major European powers. The US became its chief trading partner and the kingdom was watched jealously lest Britain, Japan, or another power threaten to seize control.
    1830 - Birthday of Mary Harris Jones (d. 1930) at Cork, Ireland.  Better known as “Mother Jones,” the American labor leader, after the death of her husband and four children (during the Memphis yellow fever epidemic of 1867) and loss of her belongings in the Chicago Fire in 1871, Jones devoted her energies and her life to organizing and advancing the cause of labor. It seemed she was present wherever there were labor troubles. She gave her last speech on her 100th birthday. In 1923, at the age of ninety-three, she was still working among striking coal miners in West Virginia. A passionate organizer, she counted among her more spectacular achievements the leading of a march of miners’ wives who routed strikebreakers with brooms and mops in the Pennsylvania coalfields in 1902, and the leading of a march of striking child textile workers from Kensington, Pennsylvania, to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island home in 1903 to dramatize the case for abolition of child labor. In 1905, she helped found the Industrial Workers of the World.  
http://www.johnshepler.com/articles/mojo.html 
http://www.mojones.com/info/maryharris.html 
    1841 – The first emigrant wagon train left Independence, Missouri, for California.
    1850 - The "Panama" sailed from San Francisco with $1,500,156 in gold dust destined for the East.
    1850 – The first Mayor of San Francisco was John Geary.  Originally known as Yerba Buena, the city name was changed to San Francisco in 1847.
    1852 - Birthday of Martha Jane Canary (d. 1903) in Princeton, MO.  U.S. frontierswoman and stagecoach driver known as Calamity Jane.  She joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and has been romanticized in movies, fiction stories, and legends. She was reportedly rough mannered (with most people of the place and era) and, as was also common in those days for women without the protection of one man, was a prostitute of sorts. She frequented bars, was rumored (mostly disproved) to have driven stagecoaches, but she was a crack shot. It is believed that she began roaming the mining areas after she was orphaned at 15. She toured with several Wild West shows including Buffalo Bill's. She often dressed in men's clothing (also not a particularly unusual thing in the pioneer west for active and poor women). According to some legends (told mostly by herself), she scouted for the army including Col. George Custer. She went to the Black Hills of South Dakota with a geological expedition and stayed in Deadwood after the gold strike there. There she became a companion to Wild Bill Hickock although a rumored marriage probably never took place. The name "Calamity" has been variously explained as being derived from her care of patients during a smallpox epidemic or warnings to men who felt a single woman alone was a plaything to be used as they would. She eventually moved to El Paso and married (maybe). She had a habit of referring to her male companions as husbands. She exhibited herself in some shows following depictions of her as a romantic character in the dime novels of the day. Living in abject poverty for many years, she eventually traveled back to South Dakota where she died in 1903 and was buried next to Wild Bill Hickock.
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/cana-mar.htm 
http://www.cowgirls.com/dream/cowgals/calamity.htm 
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_calamity_jane.htm 
http://www.watermargin.com/graves/wildbill.html 
    1855 - When nationally known public speaker and feminist Lucy Stone married Henry Blackwell, a marriage contract written by the bride and groom was read at the wedding that disavowed the gross inequity married women suffered under American law, and the word “obey” was omitted from their marriage vows. A year after the ceremony, the bride further shocked society by taking back her maiden name, which she kept for the rest of her life.
http://ads.addynamix.com/creative/2-2127570-1i? 
http://www.lucystoneleague.org/ 
    1855 - Birthday of Cecilia Beaux (d. 1942) in Philadelphia.  As an artist, she is generally recognized as the leading U.S. portrait painter of her day. Her first paintings, those of her family, won prizes in the U.S. and Paris. She was elected to the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts (Paris) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1933). Her paintings are in major museums throughout the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An injury cut short her career. One historian wrote:  “In 1895 she became the first woman instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and in 1896, on the strength of her showing at the Paris Salon, she was elected to membership in the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.” Cecilia Beaux moved to New York City in 1900. Later major works included commissioned portraits of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and her daughter Ethel, Mary Adelaide Nutting (for the Johns Hopkins Hospital), Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, Richard Watson Gilder, and, for the National Art Committee's project on World War I leaders, Adm. Lord David Beatty, Georges Clemenceau, and Cardinal Mercier. "Her paintings were placed in such major collections as the National Collection of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Luxembourg Museum of Paris, and the Uffizi Gallery of Florence. Her work, while it suggested at times the influence of some of her French Impressionist teachers, and at other times was compared to that of John Singer Sargent, was not imitative of any master." Some of her work is also exhibited at the Women's Museum of Art in Washington, D.C.
http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/cecilia_beaux_1855.htm 
http://www.artrenewal.org/museum/b/Beaux_Cecilia/page1.html 
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=731567&c=&search=Beaux 
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/beaux_cecilia.html    
    1862 - Capt. David G. Farragut and Union forces took possession of New Orleans after running past Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River at night and then defeating a small Confederate flotilla. In its 19 months of service, the Hartford was hit 240 times by enemy fire. Farragut was promoted to Rear Admiral in July.
http://www.nps.gov/vick/visctr/sitebltn/farragut.htm 
http://www.us-civilwar.com/farragut.htm 
    1863 - At the battle of Chancellorsville, 50 miles southwest of Washington, DC., Gen. Robert E. Lee won his greatest victory over huge Union forces under Gen. Joseph Hooker. The battles lasted for four days. In the North, 17,275 were killed or wounded; in the South, 12,821. Here is a good piece of trivia, General Hooker allowed his troops to bring “ladies of the evening” into camp, and many also traveled with his troops. They were called “Hookers” and they are so known today.
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/va032.htm 
http://www.nps.gov/frsp/cville.htm 
http://www.bergen.org/civilwar/defense/chnclee.html 
http://www.war-art.com/chancellorsville.htm 
http://www.civilwarhome.com/chancell.htm 
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/gettysburg/intro/chance.htm 
http://www.collectorsnet.com/cwtimes/chancell.htm 
    1864 - Birthday of Anna M. Jarvis (d. 1948) in Webster, WV.  She is the founder of Mother's Day.  After many women had attempted to have a special day set aside to honor mothers after the U.S. Civil War, Jarvis was successful in having the second Sunday of May set aside to do so. By 1913, every state in the Union established the observance and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution of Congress to officially recognize the day.  She was unalterably opposed the commercialization of the observance, wanting to keep it a pure and simple remembrance. A number of other women, including Julia Ward Howe had suggested Mother's Day, but none were successful until Jarvis's campaign, which started in Philadelphia in May, 1908 with the pink carnation being worn if the mother was alive and white in memorial. The observance was originally to be a renunciation of war, militarism, and the patriarchy that cost women their husbands and sons in the Civil War. Jarvis spent most of her declining years in attempt to keep the holiday pure from the inroads of florists, jewelers, and the like who made it a marketing circus. Here is the original, pre-Hallmark, Mother's Day Proclamation, penned in Boston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvtaylor/founder.htm 
    1866 – Race riots began in Memphis.  In three days’ time, 46 African-Americans and two whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
    1867 – Howard University in Washington, DC was established.  Shortly after the end of the Civil War, members of The First Congregational Society of Washington considered establishing a theological seminary for the education of African-American clergymen. Within a few weeks, the project expanded to include a provision for establishing a university. Within two years, the University consisted of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Medicine. The new institution was named for General Oliver O. Howard, a Civil War hero, who was both the founder of the University and, at the time, Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Howard later served as President of the university from 1869–74.  Congress chartered Howard on March 2, 1867, and much of its early funding came from endowment, private benefaction, and tuition. An annual congressional appropriation administered by the Department of Education funds Howard University and Howard University Hospital.
    1873 - Birthday of William Morris, born Zelman Moses (d. 1932) in in Schwarzenau, Germany.  Founder of the William Morris Agency. http://www.wma.com/ 
    1873 - Congress enacted the one cent postal card. The first cards were made by the Morgan Envelope Company, Springfield, MA. Stamp collectors state the first cancellation was May 12, 1873.
    1874 - Birthday of Romaine Brooks (d. 1970) in Rome.  U.S. artist whose palette of primary black, grey and brown produced amazingly insightful portraits. The daughter of an unstable mother and brother who became dangerously paranoid, she was sent away to various schools. Following their deaths, she inherited a fortune. She married for form's sake but lived openly as a lesbian, maintaining an on\off liaison for 40-years with the wandering Natalie Clifford Barney, noted U.S. expatriate writer. She continued to paint until her late 80s. The largest collection of her works can be viewed at the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. http://www.satanic.org/~succubus/romaine.html 
http://www.uwrf.edu/history/prints/women/brooks.html 
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/brooks.html 
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa636.htm 
http://www.queerstudies.com/histories/b/brooks_romaine.htm 
http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/women2/images/brooks_big.jpg 
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Brooks/BrooksChron.html 
    1883 - "Buffalo Bill" Cody put on his first Wild West Show, an outdoor attraction that toured annually. The new show contained a lot of action including wild animals, trick performances, and theatrical reenactments. All sorts of characters from the frontier were incorporated into the show's program. Shooting exhibitions were also in the lineup with extensive shooting displays and trick shots. Rodeo events, involving rough and dangerous activities performed by cowboys with different animals, also featured. It was the first and prototypical Wild West show, lasting until 1915, and featured theatrical reenactments of battle scenes, characteristic western scenes, and hunts.
    1884 - Construction was begun on the Home Insurance Company building in Chicago, IL on what was to become the modern skyscraper. The 10-story building was completed in 1885. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, it had a steel frame which carried the weight of the building. The walls provided no support but hung like curtains on the metal frame. This method of construction revolutionized American architecture and allowed architects to build taller and taller buildings. This building was constructed of marble and flanked by four columns of polished granite supporting a marble balcony. Two additional stories were added to it later. The steel frame supported the entire weight of the walls, instead of the walls themselves carrying the weight of the building. 
http://www.skyscrapers.com/english/worldmap/building
/0.9/102645/index.html 
    1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first African-American to play in a professional baseball game in the United States.  One of the first black men to play in Major League Baseball, he was native of Mt. Pleasant, OH, a star athlete at Oberlin College and the University of Michigan.  Walker played for semi-professional and minor league baseball clubs before joining the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association, then a Major League, for the 1884 season. He then played in the minor leagues until 1889, when professional baseball prohibited blacks from playing, a practice that stood for nearly 60 years until the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson. After leaving baseball, Walker became a businessman and advocate of Black Nationalism.  On August 10, 1883, in an exhibition against the Chicago White Stockings, Chicago's manager, Cap Anson, refused to play if Walker was in the lineup. In response, Charlie Morton, who replaced William Voltz as Toledo's manager at mid-season, challenged Anson's ultimatum by not only warning him of the risk of forfeiting gate receipts, but also by starting Walker at right field.   Anson is alleged to have said “We’ll play this here game, but won’t play never no more with the nigger in.”  In 1884, the Chicago club made a successful threat months in advance of another exhibition game at Toledo, to have Walker sit out. In 1887, Anson made a successful threat by telegram before an exhibition game against the Newark Little Giants of the International League that it must not play its two black players, Walker and pitcher George Stovey.  The influence of players such as Anson and the general racism in society led to segregation efforts in professional baseball. On July 14, 1887, the minor International League voted to ban the signing of new contracts with black players. By a 6-to-4 vote, the league’s entirely white teams voted in favor and those with at least one black player voted in the negative. The Binghamton, N.Y., team, which had just released its two black players, voted with the majority. 
    1884 - Proclamation by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States. Labor movement publications called for an eight-hour day as early as 1836. Boston ship carpenters, although not unionized, achieved an eight-hour day in 1842.  In 1864, the eight-hour day quickly became a central demand of the Chicago labor movement. The Illinois legislature passed a law in early 1867 granting an eight-hour day but had so many loopholes that it was largely ineffective. A citywide strike that began on 1 May 1867 shut down the city's economy for a week before collapsing.  On 25 June 1868, Congress passed an eight-hour law for federal employees. On 19 May 1869, President Ulysses Grant issued a National Eight Hour Law Proclamation.  The eight-hour day might have been realized for many working people in the US in 1937, when what became the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8) was first proposed under the New Deal. As enacted, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented about twenty percent of the US labor force. In those industries, it set the maximum workweek at 40 hours, but provided that employees working beyond 40 hours a week would receive additional overtime bonus salaries. 
    1885 – The original Chicago Board of Trade building opened.
    1886 - Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers’ Day in many countries. 
    1889 – Bayer introduced aspirin in Germany in powder form.
    1891 – Cy Young pitched the first game in Cleveland’s new League Park, defeating the Cincinnati Redlegs, 12-3.
    1893 - The Columbian Exposition Opened at 12:08 PM at Chicago, IL, when President Grover Cleveland, in the presence of nearly a quarter of a million people, placed his finger on a golden key.   Amid the unfurling of thousands of flags, sounding of trumpets and booming of cannons, the key activated an electromagnetic valve, steam rushed into great cylinders and the immense pump began its enormous burden of pumping 15,000,000 gallons of water a day to supply the 685-acre fair and its visitors with an ample water supply.
http://columbus.gl.iit.edu/ 
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gc2224.html 
http://www.caldwellnj.com/grover.htm 
    1894 - The first significant American protest march arrived in Washington, D.C. Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey during the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in US history to that time. The protest related to the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893 and to lobby for the government to create jobs which would involve building roads and other public works improvements, with workers paid in paper currency which would expand the currency in circulation, consistent with populist ideology. 
    1896 – Gen. Mark Clark (d. 1984) was born in Sacketts Harbor, NY.  A general during World War II and the Korean War, he was the youngest lieutenant general (three-star general) in the U.S. Army.  During World War I, he was seriously wounded by shrapnel. After the war, Clark’s abilities were noticed by future U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. During World War II, he commanded the Allied Fifth Army and, later, the Fifteenth Army Group, in the Italian campaign. He is known for leading the Fifth Army in its capture of Rome in June, 1944.  General Eisenhower, a West Point classmate, considered him a brilliant staff officer and trainer.   Clark was awarded many medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army's second highest award.  In March 1945, Clark, at the age of 48, became the youngest American officer ever to be promoted to the rank of four star general.  A legacy of the "Clark task force" that he led in 1953–1955, which reviewed and made recommendations on all federal intelligence activities, is the term “Intelligence Community.” 
    1900 – The Schofield Mining Disaster in Utah killed over 200 men in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.    
    1906 - The Night and Day Bank opened in New York City. It was open 24 hours a day. Oakleigh Thorne was the first president. The idea was originated by Thomas Benedict Clarke. 
    1908 - Birthday of trombonist Henderson Chambers (d. 1967), Alexandria, LA 
    1909 - Birthday of Kate Smith, born Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (d. 1986) at Greenville, VA.  One of America's most popular singers and she never took a formal music lesson.  She recorded more songs than any other performer (more than 3,000), made more than 15,000 radio broadcasts and received more than 25 million fan letters. Nineteen of her records sold over a million copies and she sold more war bonds during World War II than anyone else. On Nov 11, 1938, she introduced a new song during her regular radio broadcast, written especially for her by Irving Berlin: "God Bless America." It soon became the unofficial national anthem, and, since 9/11, is sung at the 7th inning of Major League baseball games. Her rendition is sung at Yankee Stadium.  She began her radio career May 1, 1931, with "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain," a song identified with her throughout her career.  
http://www.katesmith.org/ 
    1909 - Birthday of drummer Jesse Price (d. 1974), Memphis, TN.
http://www.umkc.edu/orgs/kcjazz/jazzfolk/pricj_00.htm 
    1912 – The Beverly Hills Hotel opened.
    1915 - Birthday of Archie Williams (d. 1993) at Oakland, CA.  With Jesse Owens and others, he debunked Hitler's theory of the superiority of Aryan athletes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As a member of the US team, Williams won a gold medal by running the 400-meter in 46.5 seconds (0.4 second slower than his own record of earlier that year). Williams earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1939 but had to dig ditches for a time because they weren't hiring black engineers. He became an airplane pilot and for 22 years trained Tuskegee Institute pilots, including the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. When asked during a 1981 interview about his treatment by the Nazis during the 1936 Olympics, he replied, “Well, over there at least we didn't have to ride in the back of the bus.”
http://www.usatf.org/athletes/hof/williams.shtml 
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:2020/dynaweb/teiproj/oh/
blackalum/williams/@Generic__BookView 
    1915 – RMS Lusitania departed from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives. 
    1916 – Actor Glenn Ford was bornGwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford(d. 2006) in Quebec.  Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances. He was most prominent as one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Some of his most significant roles were in “Gilda” (1946) and “The Big Heat” (1953), both film noirs, and the high school angst film, “Blackboard Jungle” (1955). However, it was for comedies or westerns which he received acting laurels, including three Golden Globe Nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy movie, winning for “Pocketful of Miracles” (1961). He also played a supporting role as Clark Kent's adoptive father in “Superman” (1978).  Five of his films have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: “Gilda” (1946), “The Big Heat” (1953), “Blackboard Jungle” (1955), “3:10 to Yuma” (1957) and “Superman” (1978). 

    1918 - Jack Paar’s (d. 2004) Birthday, in Canton, OH.  Paar, an early TV star, immediately preceded Johnny Carson as the host of “The Tonight Show,” from 1957-62.  Paar succeeded the show’s first host, Steve Allen, and proceeded to introduce such stars as Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Carol Burnett and the Smothers Brothers.   
http://www.jackpaar.com/ 
(I remember many nights staying up with my father watching the Jack Paar Show. He and I were both night owls.)
http://talkshows.about.com/cs/jackpaar/
    1920 - The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves played the longest game in Major League Baseball history, but did not finish it. After 26 innings, the game was halted because of darkness with the score tied, 1-1. Each team used just one pitcher, Leon Cadore for the Dodgers and Jose Oescher for the Braves, who gave up 12 and 9 hits, respectively. Despite its 26 innings, the game took just 3 hours, 50 minutes as the game was not televised and there were no commercials!! The next day, the Dodgers lost to the Phillies in 13 innings. The day after that, the Braves returned to Boston and lost again in 19 innings. 
    1920 – Babe Ruth, in his first season in pinstripes, hit the first HR of his Yankee career at the Polo Grounds.  “The House That Ruth Built,” also known as Yankee Stadium, would not open until 1923.
    1924 - Big Mabelle was born Mabel Louise Smith (d. 1972) in Jackson, TN.  In 1955 she recorded the song "Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” produced by up-and-coming producer Quincy Jones, a full two years before Jerry Lee Lewis's version. Lewis has credited Smith's version as being the inspiration to make his version much louder, raunchy and raucous, with a driving beat and a spoken section with a come-on that was considered very risqué for the time.
http://www.p-dub.com/thang/maybelle.htmlBirthday 
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Big%20Maybelle.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000094N/
avsearch-df1-9-20/103-6620160-9563023 
    1924 – “Jeopardy’s” original host, Art Fleming (d. 1995), was born Arthur Fleming Fazzin in NYC.  He attended Colgate and Cornell Universities, starring on the football and water polo teams at both colleges. Fleming was a World War II veteran who served in the US Navy for three and a half years as the pilot of a patrol bomber over the Atlantic.  Following a brief career as a radio announcer and actor, Fleming was tabbed to host the new game show “Jeopardy” by its creator, Merv Griffin.  He held the position from 1964-75 and again from 1978-9, winning two Emmy Award nominations.  Studio 25 of the NBC Burbank Studios is named in his honor. 
    1925 – Pro Football Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik (d. 2015) was born in Bethlehem, PA.  Known as Concrete Charlie, Bednarik played his entire career as center and linebacker of the Philadelphia Eagles after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.  His reputation preceded him as a devastating tackler and he was the last two-way player in the NFL.  He led the Eagles to the NFL championship win a 17-13 win over the Green Bay Packers, the only playoff loss of Vince Lombardi’s career.  Bednarik saved the day by tackling Jim Taylor on the Eagles’ 8-yard line as time expired.  In 1960 against the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium, he delivered one of the most famous and violent tackles in NFL history, knocking Frank Gifford out of football for over 18 months with a concussion.  As his teammates looked on at his prone and unconscious body, several said later they thought Gifford was dead.
    1925 – One of the original Mercury Astronauts, Scott Carpenter (d. 2013), was born in Boulder, CO.  Carpenter was the second American, after John Glenn, to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space. 
    1926 – Satchel Paige made his pitching debut, in the Negro Southern League.
    1927 – The first cooked meals on a flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris. 
    1929 – Birthday of James Loden (d. 2016) who became known as Sonny James, Hackleburg, AL.  Best known for his 1957 hit, 'Young Love' and dubbed the ‘Southern Gentleman,’ James has had 72 country and pop chart hits from 1953 to 1983, including a five-year streak of 16 straight among his 23 No.1 hits.  James was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1961 and co-hosted the first Country Music Association Awards Show in 1967.  He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.  
    1929 – The first observance of Lei Day in Hawai’i occurred.  Hawai’i’s version of May Day, leis are made, worn, given, displayed and entered into contests.  A Lei Day Queen is crowned amid Hawaiian music, hula and flowers galore.
    1930 - Blues harmonica player Little Walter was born Marion Walter Jacobs (d. 1968) in Marksville, Louisiana. He was a pioneer in the use of a microphone to amplify the mouth harp, and his techniques were widely copied, particularly by white blues musicians in England. Little Walter died in 1968 after being stabbed in a street fight in Chicago.
http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harmlw.htm 
http://www.island.net/~blues/little_w.html 
http://www2.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/ad3341a.cgi/2739/RETURN-CODE 
    1930 - The planet Pluto was named
    1930 – Pro Football Hall of Famer (1972), Ollie Matson (d. 2013), was born in Trinity, TX.  After an All-American career at the University of San Francisco team that went undefeated in 1951, Matson played for the Chicago Cardinals who drafted him #3 in the first round.  Following the 1958 season, he was traded to the LA Rams for NINE players.  When Matson retired in 1966, his 12,799 career all-purpose yards were second only to Jim Brown. 
    1931 - The Empire State Building, 103 stories, more than 1,250 feet tall, was dedicated. The builder was Colonel William Aiken Starrett; the architect, William Frederick Lamb; the engineer, Homer Gage Balcom. In 1950, a 222-foot television sending-tower was constructed on the roof.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may01.html 
http://www.esbnyc.com/ 
    1931 - On her 22nd birthday, singer Kate Smith began her long-running radio program on CBS. Smith's program appeared opposite "Amos 'n' Andy" on NBC and was so successful that NBC switched its comedy program to another evening. 
    1933 - Birthday singer/song writer Titus Turner (d. 1984), Atlanta, GA
http://www.centrohd.com/biogra/t2/titus_turner_a_us.htm 
    1936 – Boulder Dam was completed.  On the border between Nevada and Arizona and impounding Lake Mead, it was constructed between 1931 and 1936. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was later controversially named after President Herbert Hoover.  Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium called Six Companies, Inc.  Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques were unproven. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned over the dam to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule.
    1936 – Alvin Karpis was arrested by the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover.
    1939 – Batman comic books hit the streets for the first time.  In this issue of “Detective Comics,” a new crime fighter, the Batman, debuted, created by Bob Kane.  
    1939 - Folk singer Judy Collins was born in Seattle, Washington. She gained widespread fame in 1961 with her debut album "Maid of Constant Sorrow." Collins is best known for her hits "Both Sides Now" - top ten in 1969 - and "Amazing Grace" from 1971. She also helped promote the careers of Randy Newman, and Canadians Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.
http://www.judycollins.com/ 
http://www.elektra.com/elektra/judycollins/index.jhtml;jsessionid
=L0EFAZRD3J5GQQAMEEQSFEY?_requestid=546276
http://www.richardhess.com/judy/ 
    1941 - Orson Welles’ film "Citizen Kane" premiered in New York.
    1941 – General Mills introduced Cheerios as CheeriOats, but the name was shortened to Cheerios in 1945.
    1942 - The US government seized the nation's jukebox factories and puts them to work making war materiel.
    1945 - A German newsreader officially announced that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany." The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.  Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Fuhrerbunker. Their children are also killed by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths by their mother. 
    1946 - Elliot Lawrence cuts first commercial session for Columbia.
(this is a great album: http://www.fantasyjazz.com/catalog/lawrence_e_cat.html )
http://www.52ndstreet.com/reviews/mainstream/
lawrenceplaysmulligan.mainstream.html 
    1946 - Emma Clarissa Clement, mother of Atlanta University President Rufus E. Clement, was named "American Mother of the Year" by the Golden Rule Foundation. She was the first African-American woman to receive the award.
    1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks become the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book, ”Annie Allen,” Harpers.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/GwendolynBrooks.html 
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/brooks.htm 
    1950 – Guam was organized as a US commonwealth.
    1951 – Mickey Mantle hit the first HR of his Major League career.  Batting leadoff and playing right field against the Chicago White Sox, Mantle drove a 450 foot blast off Randy Gumpert’s changeup to deep right center into the Yankees bullpen. 
    1951 – Minnie Minoso became the first black player on the Chicago White Sox.
    1953 - Tops Hits
“Pretend” - Nat King Cole
“Till I Waltz Again with You” - Teresa Brewer
“I Believe” - Frankie Laine
“Mexican Joe” - Jim Reeves 
    1955 - Leonard Chess signed a St. Louis guitarist named Chuck Berry to a recording contract after he came highly recommended by Muddy Waters.
    1955 - On tour with Hank Snow's All Star Jamboree, Elvis Presley played three shows at the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sun Records had just released Elvis' fourth single, ‘Baby, Let’s Play House.’ 
    1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk was made available to the public.    
    1957 - The Kingston Trio formed in Palo Alto, CA.  They started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. They rose to international popularity, fueled by unprecedented sales of long-playing albums (LPs), and helped to alter the direction of popular music in the U.S.  The Kingston Trio was one of the most prominent groups of the era's pop-folk boom that started in 1958 with the release of their first album and its hit recording of “Tom Dooley,” which sold over three million copies as a single.  In 1961, the Trio was described as "the most envied, the most imitated, and the most successful singing group, folk or otherwise, in all show business" and "the undisputed kings of the folk-singing rage by every yardstick."  Among their hits:  “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” “Scotch and Soda,” “MTA,” “Greenback Dollar,” “Raspberries, Strawberries,” “The Tijuana Jail,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “A Worried Man.”
    1960 - The U2 Incident:  On the eve of a summit meeting between US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a U-2 espionage plane flying at about 60,000 feet was shot down over Sverdlovsk, in central USSR. The pilot, CIA agent Francis Gary Powers, survived the crash, as did large parts of the aircraft, a suicide kit and sophisticated surveillance equipment. The sensational event, which US officials described as a weather reconnaissance flight gone astray, resulted in cancellation of the summit meeting. Powers was tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Moscow court. In 1962, he was returned to the US in exchange for an imprisoned Soviet spy. Powers died in a helicopter crash in 1977.
    1961 - So-called “militant students” joined James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to conduct “freedom rides” on public transportation from Washington, DC, across the deep South to New Orleans. The trips were intended to test Supreme Court decisions and Interstate Commerce Commission regulations prohibiting discrimination in interstate travel. In several places, riders were brutally beaten by local people and policemen. On May 14, members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked the Freedom Riders in Birmingham, AL, while local police watched. The rides were patterned after a similar challenge to segregation, the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, which tested the US Supreme Court's June 3, 1948 ban against segregation in interstate bus travel.
    1961 - The first skyjacking of a commercial American airplane took place during the flight of a National Airlines twin-engine Convair CV 440 from Miami, FL, to Key West, FL. The plane left Marathon, FL, at 3:23 pm with eight passengers. A passenger name d’Antillo Ortiz, using the name of El Pirata Cofresi, threatened the crew and passengers with a pistol and knife. The plane landed in Havana. The string of airplane highjackings that followed were dubbed “skyjackings” by the press and led to the U.S.'s first air piracy law, passed in September, 1961.  Concurrently, Cuban leader Fidel Castro proclaimed Cuba a socialist nation and abolished elections.
    1961 - Tops Hits
“Runaway” - Del Shannon
“Mother-In-Law” - Ernie K-Doe
“I've Told Every Little Star” - Linda Scott
“Don't Worry” - Marty Robbins 
    1962 - The Beatles started a month-long residency at The Star Club, Hamburg, Germany. American musicians including Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Bill Haley, Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Lee Lewis also all appeared here.
    1962 - The first Target discount store opened in Roseville, Minn.
    1963 - J. Walter Kennedy was named the second president of the NBA, succeeding Maurice Podoloff, who retired after the 1962-63 season.
    1963 - James W. Whittaker of Redmond, WA, the leading member of the first American Mount Everest Expedition, became the first American to ascend to the top, 10 years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the ascent of the 29,028-foot peak.
    1963 - Lesley Gore performed her first big hit, "It's My Party," on ABC-TV's “American Bandstand.” It hit number one on the pop and rhythm and blues charts in the United States.   It was the first hit single for producer Quincy Jones.
    1965 - After just two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, Herman's Hermits reach #1 with "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter." 
    1965 - The Supremes release "Back in My Arms Again," which will become their fifth consecutive US number one hit. 
    1966 - The Beatles played a 15-minute live set on stage for the last time in the UK when they appeared at the NME Poll Winners concert at Wembley Empire Pool. The Beatles set included five songs: 'I Feel Fine,' 'Nowhere Man,' 'Day Tripper,' 'If I Needed Someone' and 'I'm Down.' Also on the bill, The Spencer Davis Group, The Fortunes, Herman's Hermits, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard, The Rolling Stones, The Seekers, The Small Faces, Dusty Springfield, The Walker Brothers, The Who and The Yardbirds.
    1967 – Priscilla Beaulieu, born Brooklyn, NY, marries Elvis Presley at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The wedding cake alone cost $3,500.  Priscilla was the teenaged daughter of a US Army officer whom Elvis had met in Germany. She had lived at Presley's Graceland Mansion since 1961, ostensibly under the supervision of Presley's father and stepmother with her parents’ permission. On February 1st, 1968, their only child, Lisa Marie, was born. Four years later, the couple separated and, in 1973, Elvis filed for divorce.
http://www.swinginchicks.com/priscilla_presley.htm 
http://www.elvis.com/ 
    1967 - The F.B.I. arrested The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson on charges of avoiding the military draft and refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance. He was later released and joined the rest of the band in Ireland for a British tour.
    1967 – Country singer and actor Tim McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US. McGraw had 11 consecutive albums debut at No.1 on the Billboard albums charts, as well as twenty-one singles hitting No.1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. He has also won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and three People’s Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour is one of the highest-grossing tours in country music history, and one of the top 5 among all genres of music. He has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.  He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of former baseball player Tug McGraw.    
    1969 - Top Hits
“Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” - The 5th Dimension
“It's Your Thing” - The Isley Brothers
“Hair” - The Cowsills
“Galveston” - Glen Campbell
    1969 - Leonard Tose pays $16,155,000 to buy the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. It was the largest price paid to that date for a pro football franchise. It was over a decade [1981] before the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl which they lost to the Oakland Raiders, 27-10. In 1985, after a failed attempt to swap franchises with Ralph Wilson (whose Buffalo Bills were then under severe distress), Tose was forced to sell the Eagles for a reported $65 million to pay off his more than $25 million in gambling debts at Atlantic City casinos.
    1970 - Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin combined for the first time on Elton's first American album simply titled, "Elton John." The LP contained Elton's first hit, "Your Song," which made it to the top ten on in December.
http://www.eltonjohn.com/flash_index.asp
http://www.eltonography.com/ 
http://www.artistdesktopthemes.com/st/j/elton_john.dt.1.html 
    1970 - Protests erupted in Seattle, following the announcement by President Nixon that US forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.
    1971 - The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Amtrak, which combined the operations of 18 passenger railroads, went into service. Personal service, great food, full attention, and very comfortable rides were available to all who rode the national rails.  It provides medium and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous US and to nine Canadian cities.  Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces, operating more than 300 trains daily over 21,400 miles of track. Amtrak owns approximately 623 miles of this track and operates an additional 132 miles of track. Some track sections allow trains to run as fast as 150 mph.  In fiscal year 2018, Amtrak served 31.7 million passengers and had $3.4 billion in revenue, while employing more than 20,000 people. Nearly 87,000 passengers ride more than 300 Amtrak trains on a daily basis.[4] Nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas; 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles.
http://www.amtrak.com/ 
http://www.amtraktrains.com/ 
get an Amtrak ticket on line at: 
http://reservations.amtrak.com/JBookIt?function=handlers.amtrak.
AmtrakMainSimple&storefront=1003&saveSession=no 
    1971 - The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" is released. It would reach number one in the US and number two in the UK.
    1975 - Lila Cockrell defeated nine male opponents to become mayor of San Antonio, Texas, the nation's 10th largest city with a population of 750,000. According to “Women of Achievement and Her Story,“ she was empowered to run for the mayoralty post following Janet Gray Hayes's amazing victory in San Jose, California that in those pre-Silicon Valley days was far from the size of San Antonio.  Hayes’ victory convinced Cockrell that a woman could be elected to head a big city. (Janet Gray Hayes is a very good friend of mine, devoted to her physician husband, and in her day, quite a tennis player). Women had served as mayors of small towns since the late 19th century but none of a major metropolis. Mayor Cockrell was 53 years old when elected, married with two daughters. Her political life began with the League of Women Voters.
http://www.trilateraltechsummit.com/cockrellBio.htm
    1977 - Top Hits
“Southern Nights” - Glen Campbell 
“Hotel California” - Eagles 
“When I Need You” - Leo Sayer 
“She's Pulling Me Back Again” - Mickey Gilley 
    1981 - American Airlines began the first frequent flyer program on this date. Now most airlines offer a frequent flyer program but American is still the industry leader with 45 million members. Today 40 percent of all miles are earned on the ground with affiliated business that pay the airlines for the miles, such as hotels, car rental companies, credit card companies, phone companies and retailers.
    1981 - Tennis champion Billie Jean King acknowledged her lesbian relationship with Marilyn Barnett, becoming the first prominent sportswoman to come out.
    1981 – NJ Senator Harrison Williams was convicted on FBI Abscam charges.  The two-year FBI operation was coordinated with the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force that was originally investigating trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prestigious businessmen but was later converted to a public corruption investigation. The FBI, aided by the Justice Department and a convicted con-man, videotaped politicians accepting bribes from a fraudulent Arab company in return for various political favors.  More than 30 political figures were investigated and among those, a total of seven Congressmen — six members of the House plus Sen. Williams — were convicted. Additionally, one member of the NJ Senate, members of the Philadelphia City Council, the Mayor of Camden, NJ, and an inspector for the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service were convicted.   The Abscam operation is dramatized in the 2013 feature film “American Hustle.”
    1982 - "I Love Rock 'N’ Roll," by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, appeared at the top of the pop music charts for the seventh, and final, week. The rocker stayed on the charts for 16 weeks. Jett, from Philadelphia PA, played guitar and formed the all-female rock band, The Runaways, in the mid-'70s. The Blackhearts were founded in 1980. Jett starred in the film, "Light of Day," playing the role of leader of a rock band called The Barbusters. The movie also starred Michael J. Fox and Michael McKean. The title song, "Light of Day" was written by Jett and Bruce Springsteen. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts had nine hits on the charts into 1990, but "I Love Rock 'N’ Roll" was the group's only million-plus selling record.
http://www.joanjett.com/Lyrics/lyrics/ILRNR.htm 
    1984 - Fleetwood Mac drummer and founder Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy.
    1985 - Top Hits
“We are the World” - USA for Africa
“Crazy for You” - Madonna
“Rhythm of the Night” - DeBarge
“Girls Night Out” - The Judds
    1986 - Race car driver Bill Elliott set a stock car speed record with his Ford Thunderbird in Talladega, AL: 212.229 mph.
    1988 - Top Hits
Wishing Well - Terence Trent D Arby
Anything For You - Gloria Estefan
Angel - Aerosmith
Where Do Broken Hearts Go - Whitney Houston
Pink Cadillac - Natalie Cole
    1988 - Pink Floyd's, "Dark Side of the Moon" finally dropped off the US albums chart after a run of 725 weeks (almost 14 years). 
    1989 - Police were called to a jewelry store in Simi Valley, California after employees reported a suspicious person. He turned out to be Michael Jackson, who had donned a wig, fake moustache, false teeth and eyelashes to go shopping. Officers had him remove his disguise and show his identification.
    1989 - Thunderstorms produced heavy rain in the southeastern U.S. Rainfall totals of 1.84 inches at Charlotte and 2.86 inches at Atlanta were records for the date. Strong thunderstorm winds uprooted trees in Twiggs County, GA. 
    1989 – Walt Disney World opened outside Orlando, FL.
    1990 - Thunderstorms produced severe weather from northern Alabama to North Carolina. There were sixty-three reports of large hail or damaging winds, with hail four inches in diameter reported near Cartersville, GA. Ten cities in the southeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date as readings warmed into the 90s. Jacksonville, FL reported a record high of 96 degrees. Late night thunderstorms over central Texas produced up to ten inches of rain in southern Kimble County and northern Edwards County. 
    1991 - Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers pitched the seventh no-hitter of his career, extending his own Major League record. Ryan struck out 16 as the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-0.
    1991 - Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics stole third base, the 939th steal of his career, to set a new major league record, surpassing Lou Brock. The A's beat the New York Yankees, 7-4.
    1992 - On the third day of the Los Angeles riots, Rodney King appeared in public to appeal for calm, asking "Can we all get along?"  The LA Dodgers postponed 3 games due to the riots.  History DOES have a way of repeating!
    1993 - Top Hits 
“Freak M” - Silk 
“Informer” - Snow 
“Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thang” - Dr. Dre 
“I Have Nothing (From ‘The Bodyguard’)” - Whitney Houston 
    2002 - Tops Hits 
“Foolish” - Ashanti 
“What's Luv?” - Fat Joe Featuring Ashanti 
“U Don't Have To Call” - Usher 
“I Need A Girl (Part One)” - P. Diddy Featuring Usher & Loon 
“Ain't It Funny” - Jennifer Lopez Featuring Ja Rule
    2003 - President George W. Bush landed in a jet on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast and, in a speech to the nation, declared major combat in Iraq over.
    2006 - The Puerto Rican government closed the Department of Education and 42 other government agencies due to significant shortages in cash flow.
    2007 – A May Day melee occurred when the LA Police Department responded to a pro-immigration rally, stirring yet another controversy.
    2011 - President Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was killed by United States forces in Pakistan.
    2013 - The U.N. Human Rights Office determined it is a violation of international law to force-feed hunger strikers at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison. 
    2014 – Apple and Samsung achieved mixed victories in a patent suit settlement.  Samsung owes Apple about $120 million and Apple owes Samsung about $158,000 for infringing each other’s patents.

Stanley Cup Champions 
    1965 - Montreal Canadiens