On May 18, 1896, the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous decisions in American constitutional history. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court ruled that racial segregation did not violate the Constitution so long as the facilities provided to Black…
On May 18, 1896, the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous decisions in American constitutional history. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court ruled that racial segregation did not violate the Constitution so long as the facilities provided to Black…
Read More
On May 18, 1933, as the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression continued to erode confidence in the American system, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Tennessee Valley Authority Act—a legislative cornerstone of the New Deal and a radical assertion of federal…
Read More
The Republican National Convention of 1860, held from May 16 to May 18 in the bustling city of Chicago, changed the course of American history and led the nation down the road to the Civil War. This convention, taking place in the specially constructed…
Read More
On May 17, 1900, L. Frank Baum gave the first copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, marking the quiet beginning of one of the most enduring works in American children’s literature. The book, first published in…
Read More
On May 17, 1875, “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.” took America by storm at a racetrack at Churchill Downs. The Kentucky Derby was born. Founded by Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., the grandson of the famous explorer William Clark, the race was inspired by his…
Read More
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued its most far-reaching pronouncement on the nature of constitutional equality since Reconstruction—a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which categorically repudiated the legal fiction of “separate but equal” and declared…
Read More
On May 16, 1866, the United States Congress authorized a new five-cent coin made primarily of nickel, giving rise to one of the most familiar pieces of American currency. The coin was small, practical, and durable, but its creation reflected something larger than a…
Read More
Sir Thomas More’s resignation as Lord Chancellor on May 16, 1532, did not provoke a riot in the streets or a dramatic rupture in the Tudor court—but it marked, with grave finality, the moment when one of England’s most brilliant minds stepped away from…
Read More
The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, the first such trial in American history, was a highly contentious and politically charged event that culminated in his acquittal on May 16, 1868. Johnson, who ascended to the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, quickly found himself…
Read More
On May 15, 1911, the United States Supreme Court delivered one of the most consequential antitrust decisions in American history, ruling in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States that John D. Rockefeller’s oil empire had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and…
Read More
