May 22 ...

In 337 AD Roman Emperor Constantine the Great died. In 1856 South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas. In 1859 author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1885 French poet, dramatist, and novelist Victor Hugo died. In 1908 the Wright Brothers patented their flying machine in the US. In 1939 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed the Pact of Steel, a political and military alliance between Germany and Italy intended to last 10 years. In 1969 the lunar module of Apollo 10 flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing. In 1972 President Nixon became the first US president to visit Russia. In 1979 Pierre Trudeau's 11 years as Canadian prime minister ended with the Liberal Party's defeat in a general election by Progressive Conservative Party led by Joe Clark. In 1992 Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for the last time. In 2001 the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan announced a law requiring Hindus to wear identity labels to distinguish them from Muslims. The measure also required Hindu women to be veiled for the first time.

May 21 ...

In 1542 explorer Hernando de Soto died along the Mississippi River while searching for gold. In 1688 poet Alexander Pope was born in London. In 1892 the opera Pagliacci, by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, was first performed in Milan, Italy. In 1904 jazz great Fats Waller was born in New York City. In 1924 in a case that drew international headlines, Bobby Franks, 14, was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two University of Chicago students. In 1927 aviator Charles Lindbergh reached Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across Atlantic Ocean. In 1941 the SS Robin Moor went down in the South Atlantic, becoming the first American ship to be sunk by a German U-boat during WWII. In 1944 Allied forces broke through the Hitler Line in Italy. In 1945 Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married. In 1968 nuclear-powered US submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from; its remains were later found on the ocean bed 644km southwest of the Azores. In 1969 Sirhan B Sirhan was sentenced to death for the assassination of US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968; the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1982 British troops attacked the Argentine-held Falkland Islands, with the British military saying it had established a beachhead at Port San Carlos; also, the HMS Ardent was sunk with the loss of 22 lives. In 1989 students occupying Tiananmen Square in China rejected a government ultimatum to leave the square, as several million people marched in cities throughout the world to show support for the pro-democracy demonstrators; also on this day, Egypt resumed its Arab League membership after a 10-year break. In 1991 Rajiv Gandhi, candidate for prime minister of India, was assassinated in a bomb attack in the state of Madras. In 1997 Ukraine and Poland signed a reconciliation agreement to formally end conflict and put centuries of bloodshed behind them.

May 20 ...

In 1259 King Henry III of England gave Normandy to France. In 1303 the Treaty of Paris restored Gascony to the British in the Hundred Years War. In 1506 Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain. In 1536 King Henry VIII of England married Jane Seymour. In 1774 Britain passed the Quebec Act, extending its boundaries northward to Hudson's Bay and as far south as the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at Cairo, IL. In 1799 novelist Honore de Balzac was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France. In 1806 philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill was born in London, England. In 1861 North Carolina became the last state to secede from Union. In 1874 Levi Strauss first marketed blue jeans with copper rivets. In 1908 actor Jimmy Stewart was born in Indiana, PA. In 1916 Norman Rockwell's first cover appeared on The Saturday Evening Post. In 1927 pilot Charles A. Lindbergh began his solo flight across Atlantic Ocean; also on this day, the Treaty of Jeddah was signed between Britain and King Ibn Saud, recognizing the independence of Saudi Arabia. In 1932 pilot Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. In 1939 regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, NY, bound for Europe. In 1940 German troops reached the coast of France, cutting the Allied forces in two; also on this day, Igor Sikorsky patented the first helicopter. In 1956 the first hydrogen bomb dropped from the air was exploded by the US over the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In 1961 a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL, prompting the federal government to send in US Marshals to restore order. In 1980 Quebec held its first referendum on independence from Canada, with 60 per cent voting against separation. In 1989 martial law was imposed in Beijing after student-led protests drew millions of people onto the streets. In 1996 Iraq and the UN signed an agreement known as the Oil-for-Food Program to let the country sell oil to buy food and medicine for its suffering people.

May 19 ...

In 1536 Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery. In 1568 after being defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth. In 1643 delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation. In 1935 T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in Dorset, England, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash. In 1943 in an address to the US Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the war against Japan. In 1958 the United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command. In 1962 during a Democratic fundraiser at New York's Madison Square Garden, actress Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of Happy Birthday for guest-of-honor President Kennedy. In 1964 the State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had been found in the US embassy in Moscow. In 1967 the Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space. In 1994 former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64.

May 18 ...

In 1048 Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyam was born. In 1642 the city of Montreal was founded. In 1804 the French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor. In 1896 the Supreme Court endorsed "separate but equal" racial segregation with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned almost 58 years later to the day by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In 1897 director Frank Capra was born in Bisacquino, Sicily. In 1920 Pope John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland. In 1933 the Tennessee Valley Authority was created. In 1944 Allied forces finally occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month battle that claimed some 20,000 lives. In 1969 astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford, and John W. Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10. In 1980 the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.

340 years ago on this date in 1673, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River.

Also on this date, 40 years ago in 1973, the Senate opened its hearings into the Watergate scandal.

May 17 ...

In 1444 Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy. In 1630 Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi, inventor of the concave reflecting telescope, first saw the belts on Jupiter's surface. In 1673 Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River. In 1749 Edward Jenner, the first physician to introduce the smallpox vaccine, was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. In 1792 the New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street. In 1875 the first Kentucky Derby was held; the winner was Aristides. In 1938 Congress passed the Vinson Naval Act, providing for a two-ocean navy. In 1939 Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns. In 1940 the Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II. In 1946 President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen. In 1948 the Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel. In 1954 the US Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision which found that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional. In 1973 the Senate opened its hearings into the Watergate scandal. In 2000 two former Ku Klux Klansmen were arrested on murder charges in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, AL, that killed four young black girls. (Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.)

May 16 ...

In 1770 Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. In 1868 the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson when it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against Johnson. In 1905 actor Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, NE. In 1920 Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome. In 1955 American author and critic James Agee died in New York City at age 45. In 1960 a Big Four summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the US in the wake of the U2 incident. In 1963 after 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, in what was to be the last flight in the Mercury program. In 1969 Venera 5, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus. In 1985 actress Margaret Hamilton died in Salisbury, CT, at age 82. Hamilton was best known for her roles of Almira Gulch and The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. In 2001 former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was indicted on charges of spying for Moscow. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.) In 2005 Newsweek magazine retracted its Quran abuse story that sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan that left about 15 people dead and scores injured.

May 15 ...

In 1602 Cape Cod, MA, was discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold. In 1856 L. Frank Baum, author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was born in Chittenango, NY. In 1886 poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, MA. In 1911 the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Co., ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1918 US airmail began service between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. In 1941 Joe DiMaggio began his record Major League baseball 56-game hitting streak, going 1 for 4 against Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith. In 1942 gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles. In 1948 Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon only hours after declaring its independence. In 1951 AT&T became the first corporation to have one million stockholders. In 1958 Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union. In 1963 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program. In 1970 Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were killed when police opened fire during student protests. In 1972 George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer and left paralyzed while campaigning in Laurel, MD, for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1988 Soviet forces began their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years. In 1997 the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir space station.

May 14 ...

In 1643 Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. In 1796 English physician Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to an 8-year-old boy. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory left St. Louis. In 1904 the first Olympic Games to be held in the US opened in St. Louis, as part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In 1906 German revolutionary, American politician and reformer, Civil War Union Army general, and journalist Carl Schurz died in New York City at age 77. In 1948 the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv. In 1955 representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, formed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. (The Pact was dissolved in July 1991.) In 1967 New York Yankee great Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run. In 1970 actress Billie Burke died in Los Angeles, CA, at age 84. She was best known for her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, in the Wizard of Oz. In 1973 the US launched Skylab 1, its first manned space station. In 1975 US forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia, but some 40 US servicemen were killed in the military operation. In 1980 President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services. In 1998 Frank Sinatra died at age 82; also on this day, the final episode of the TV series Seinfeld aired after nine years on NBC.

May 13 ...

In 1607 the English colony at Jamestown, VA, was settled. In 1842 composer Arthur Sullivan, half of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan duo, was born in London, England. In 1846 the United States declared that a state of war already existed against Mexico. In 1884 farmer, inventor, and businessman Cyrus McCormick died in Chicago. In 1914 the longest-reigning world heavyweight champion in history, Joe Louis, was born in LaFayette, AL. In 1917 three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. In 1940 in his first speech as prime minister, Winston Churchill told the British House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." In 1958 Vice President Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-US demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.

As mentioned below, 10 years ago on this date in 2003, fifty-four Texas Democratic Party lawmakers went into hiding in order to prevent a quorum from convening in the Texas House for a debate, and therefore a vote, on a congressional redistricting plan presented by Republicans. Later that same year 11 Texas Dems fled the state in order to prevent a quorum in the state senate on the same matter.

Since then, Democrats in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana have fled their respective states in order to prevent quorums, and therefore votes, in their state legislatures on various other issues.

10 years ago on this date in 2003, fifty-four Texas Democratic Party lawmakers went into hiding in order to prevent a quorum from convening in the Texas House for a debate, and therefore a vote, on a congressional redistricting plan presented by Republicans.

May 12 ...

In 1780 Charleston, SC, fell to British forces. In 1907 actress Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, CT. In 1932 the body of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded area of Hopewell, NJ. In 1937 Britain's King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey. In 1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrendered to the Allies. In 1949 the Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade. In 1965 West Germany and Israel exchanged letters establishing diplomatic relations. In 1970 the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun as a Supreme Court justice; also on this day, Chicago Cub great Ernie Banks hit his 500th home run at Wrigley Field, becoming the ninth Major League baseball player to do so. In 1975 the White House announced the new Cambodian government had seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. In 2003 fifty-four Texas Democratic Party lawmakers went into hiding in order to prevent a quorum from convening in the Texas House for a debate, and therefore a vote, on a congressional redistricting plan presented by Republicans.

May 11 ...

In 1647 Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor. In 1858 Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union. In 1888 Irving Berlin was born in Tyumen, Russia. In 1904 surrealist artist Salvador Dali was born in Figueras, Spain. In 1910 Glacier National Park in Montana was established. In 1942 William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, was published. In 1943 US forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later. In 1944 Allied forces launched a major offensive against German lines in Italy. In 1946 the first CARE packages arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France. In 1949 Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member. In 1960 Mossad agents captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires. In 1973 charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the "Pentagon Papers" case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct. In 2001 Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, died in Santa Barbara, CA, at age 49.