This Week in History

USPA NEWS - Joan of Arc is canonized a saint, Massachusetts becomes the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage, Grauman’s Chinese Theater opens in Hollywood, California, and Anne Boleyn, second wife of English King Henry VIII, is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason. This and so much more happened this week in history.

May 16 (1875) Earthquake in Venezuela and Colombia kills 16,000. (1903) First transcontinental motorcycle trip began in San Francisco by George A. Wyman. Arrives in New York on July 6th. (1920) Joan of Arc canonized a saint. (1944) The first of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz. (1951) The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (New York International Airport) and Heathrow Airport (London), operated by El Al Israel Airlines. (1965) The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand. (1969) US nuclear submarine Guitarro sinks off San Francisco. (1975) Junko Tabei from Japan becomes first woman to reach summit of Mt. Everest. (1991) Queen Elizabeth II becomes first British monarch to address US congress. (2019) It is reported that British people get drunk more than any other nation, 51 times a year according to the Global Drug survey, with English-speaking countries drinking the most.

May 17 (1792) Twenty four merchants form the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street. (1861) First color photograph of a tartan ribbon shown by Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell to the Royal Institution in London. (1897) The first successful submarine that can run submerged for any considerable distance and combines electric and gasoline engines is launched in the USA by its designer John Philip Holland. (1900) “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is first published by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow in Chicago. (1960) The first atomic reactor system is patented by J.W. Flora of Canoga Park, California. (1970) Anonymous buyer purchases one of the pairs of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” for $15,000 at MGM Studio auction and donates them to the Smithsonian Institute. (1975) NBC pays $5 million for rights to show “Gone With the Wind” one time. (2004) Massachusetts becomes the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage. (2007) Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953. (2018) Michigan State University will pay $500 million in claims to 300 survivors of sexual abuse involving Larry Nassar. It is the largest sexual abuse case in sports history.

May 18 (1860) US Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president. (1899) World Goodwill Day: Twenty six nations meet in the first Hague Peace Conference. (1927) Grauman’s Chinese Theater opens in Hollywood, California. (1952) Professor W.F. Libby says Stonehenge dates back to 1848 BC. (1969) Apollo 10 launches from Kennedy Space Center and later transmits the first color pictures of Earth from space. (1980) Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington state, causing the largest landslide in history, killing 57 people and costing $1 billion in damage. (1982) Unification Church founder Reverend Sun Myung Moon convicted of tax evasion. (1992) US Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs. (2001) 101-year-old Harold Stilson becomes oldest golfer to record a hole-in-one when he aces the 108-yard, par-3, 16th hole at Deerfield Country Club, Florida. (2014) Swiss voters reject a $25 per hour minimum wage.

May 19 (1182) The high alter of Paris cathedral Notre Dame is consecrated by Cardinal Henri de Chateau-Marcay and Maurice de Sully. (1536) Anne Boleyn, second wife of English King Henry VIII, is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason. (1857) Americans William Francis Channing and Moses G. Farmer patent the electric fire alarm. (1885) The first mass production of shoes, by Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts. (1959) The USS Triton, the first submarine with two nuclear reactors, is completed. (1964) US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in Moscow embassy. (1971) USSR launches Mars 2. It becomes the first spacecraft to crash land on Mars. (2015) UK inflation is recorded as a negative for the first time since 1960. (2018) American actress Meghan Markle marries Prince Harry at a ceremony in Windsor Castle, making her a member of the British royal family. (2020) Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 17% worldwide in April 2020 when world was in lockdown, in study published in “Nature Climate Change”.

May 20 (1873) Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans with copper rivets. (1891) History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women’s Club. (1916, 1917, 1918) Codell, Kansas hit by a tornado on the same day all three years. (1927) At 7:40 a.m., Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St. Louis, the first non-stop flight. (1932) Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland on her journey to become the first woman to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic. (1944) The US Communist Party dissolves. (1959) Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship. (1979) Elton John is the first western pop star to tour the USSR. (1990) Hubble Space Telescope sends its first photographs from space. (2015) Journal Nature publishes findings of the oldest human-made tools from Kenya’s Turkana basin – 3.3 million years, first found to pre-date the Homo genus.

May 21 (1881) American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton. (1908) First American horror movie, silent film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” premieres in Chicago. (1918) US House of Representatives passes amendment allowing women to vote. (1946) Physicist Louis Slotin is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while preparing a plutonium core experiment at the Los Alamos lab. He dies nine days later and the accident ends all hands-on nuclear assembly work at Los Alamos. (1969) Robert F. Kennedy’s murderer Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. (1970) National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State University. (1979) Dan White convicted of the voluntary manslaughter of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and openly gay councilor Harvey Milk. The conviction on a lesser charge outraged the gay community and led to the White Night riots. (1981) Reggae musician Bob Marley receives a Jamaican state funeral. (1996) The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas (seven monks of the Trappist order) are executed by the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria. (2004) Stanislav Petrov awarded World Citizen Award for averting a potential nuclear war in 1983 after correctly guessing Russian early warning system at fault.

May 22 (1799) Napoleon makes statement in support of re-establishing Jerusalem for Jews. (1843) First wagon train with 700-1000 migrants, departs Independence, Missouri for Oregon. (1906) Wright Brothers are granted a patent for their “flying machine,” having applied for one 3 years earlier (patent no. 821,393). (1933) First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster by Aldie and John Mackay. They saw “something resembling a whale”. (1973) President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up. (1977) Final European scheduled run of the Orient Express, after 94 years. (2002) American civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. (2004) The US town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. It also kills one local resident. (2015) Ireland becomes first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. (2019) Washington State becomes the first US state to legalize composting human bodies.

Thank you for reading my article. These are merely my thoughts and insights based on the facts. I use only verified sources. No fake news here. I write about a variety of subjects, mainly things I want to research and know more about. You can check out my website – Small Village Life at smallvillagelife.com, where I share useful articles and news.

Wendy writes for the United States Press Agency and is a former columnist with the Fulton County Expositor, Wauseon, Ohio.