Johns Hopkins was born to a Quaker family on May 19, 1795, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Continue reading.

On May 19, 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant attempted to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Continue reading.

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A bit of May 19th history…

1536 - Ann Boleyn, 2nd wife to King Henry VIII, is beheaded on charges of adultery, incest, and treason

1883 - William “Buffalo Bill” Cody opens Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in Omaha, Nebraska (pictured)

1900 - World’s longest railroad tunnel (Simplon) linking Italy and Switzerland opens

1919 - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk lands at Samsun on the Black Sea coast, beginning Turkish War of Independence

2011 - Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, project to search for dark matter, is installed on the International Space Station 

Educator and political leader Mary McLeod Bethune died at the age of eighty on May 18, 1955, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Continue reading.

On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson ruled separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads. Continue reading.

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A bit of May 18th history…

1652 - Rhode Island enacts 1st law declaring slavery illegal

1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate

1830 - Edwin Buddig of England signs agreement for the manufacture of his invention - the lawn mower (pictured)

1897 - Bram Stoker’s Dracula is published

1917 - US Congress passes Selective Service Act, authorizing the federal government to raise a national army for entry into WW1 through compulsory enlistment

1980 - Mount St Helens erupts in Washington state, causing largest landslide in history 

Popular rider Oliver Lewis rode H. P. McGrath’s thoroughbred Aristides to victory in the first Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875, at the Louisville Jockey Club. Continue reading.

May 17 is Norwegian Constitution Day, a commemoration of the adoption of Norway’s constitution in 1814. Many Norwegian-American communities celebrate the holiday in the United States. Continue reading.

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A bit of May 17th history…

1733 - Great Britain passes Molasses Act on colonies

1803 - Reaping Machine patented

1861 - 1st color photographs shown (of a tartan ribbon) in London

1902 - Discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism - ans ancient mechanical analog computer (2nd picture)

1993 - Intel’s Pentium processor is unveiled

2004 - Massachusetts becomes 1st state to legalize same sex marriage (pictured top)

2009 - Minecraft is 1st released to public while in development

On May 16, 1868, the U.S. Senate voted 35 to 19, one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict President Andrew Johnson of "high crimes and misdemeanors," as he was charged under the eleventh article of impeachment. Continue reading.

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, the educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States, was born on May 16, 1804, in Billerica, Massachusetts. Continue reading.

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A bit of May 16th history…

1866 - Charles Hires invents Root Beer (pictured)

1918 - Sedition Act of 1918 passed by US Congress, making criticism of government an imprisonable offense

1929 - 1st Academy Awards

1966 - “May 16 Notification” released - Mao’s official justification for the Cultural Revolution

2013 - Human stem cells are successfully cloned 

Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. Continue reading.

On May 15, 1856, residents of San Francisco organized a Committee of Vigilance to combat crime in their rapidly growing town. Continue reading.

On May 15, 1916, as many as 250,000 people filled the streets, sidewalks, and rooftops of New York City for the funeral procession of beloved Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem.  Continue reading.

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A bit of May 15th history…

1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal Bull “ex stirpanda”, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the medieval inquisition (pictured)

1672 - 1st copyright law enacted by Massachusetts

1817 - 1st private mental hospital opens in US - Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason

1869 - National Women Suffrage Association forms in NY, founded by Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1897 - The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is founded in Berlin - 1st ever LGBT rights organization

1911 - Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil (Sherman Antitrust Act)

1928 - Mickey Mouse makes 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”