On May 21, 1927, a slight, soft-spoken American pilot named Charles Lindbergh descended out of the darkening sky over Paris and became, almost instantly, one of the most famous men in the world. His landing at Le Bourget Field completed the first solo nonstop…
Read More
On May 21, 1856, the town of Lawrence, Kansas—a fledgling stronghold of free-state resistance on the contested frontier—was looted and burned by a posse of some 800 proslavery partisans under the authority of a federal marshal. Though often recast in summary as a mere…
Read More
On May 20, 325, the First Council of Nicaea formally opened, marking one of the most consequential gatherings in the history of Christianity. Convened by the Roman emperor Constantine, the council brought together bishops from across the empire to settle a theological dispute that…
Read More
On May 19, 1962, President John F. Kennedy arrived at Madison Square Garden for what was officially billed as a birthday celebration. Kennedy would not turn 45 until May 29, but the Democratic Party turned the occasion into something larger than a private tribute.…
Read More
May 19, 1780 started like any other day. The sun rose, farmers went to work, shopkeepers opened their stores, and people moved about their morning routines. But by late morning, across much of New England and parts of eastern Canada, something strange began to…
Read More
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
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, 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
