From Our This Day In History Section
This Day In History page is Updated Each Day
Month In History May 1st to 31st
1 May 1982 World’s Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee
2 May 1952 The worlds first commercial Jet Airliner a De Havilland Comet from London for Johannesburg
3 May 1979 Margaret Thatcher Becomes British Prime Minister
4 May 1970 National Guards fired on protesters at Kent State University and 4 were killed and a further 10 were injured.
5 May 1925 John Thomas Scopes a teacher from Dayton, Tennessee is arrested for violating Tennessee's Butler Act
6 May 1937 The German airship Hindenburg the largest dirigible ever built burst into flames
7 May 1945 Germany signs unconditional surrender at Rheims in France bringing to an end six years of war in Europe.
8 May 1988 Murder Via Cyanide in Excedrin Capsules
9 May 1960 The Food and Drug Administration approved the first pill for contraceptive use in Birth Control
10 May 1994 South Africa's newly elected parliament chose an Unopposed Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president.
11 May 1934 A huge dust storm is spotted moving from the Midwest. The dust storm was 1,500 miles long, 900 miles across and two miles high
12 May 1954 Bill Haley and the Comets, record "Rock Around the Clock"
13 May 1937 King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
14 May 1985 Philadelphia Police Department drop a bomb containing C-4 and Tovex from a helicopter onto MOVE's residence part of a row of tenements on Osage Avenue
15 May 1948 The independent state of Israel is proclaimed as British rule in Palestine came to an end.
16 May 1929 The First ever Academy Awards of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards were handed out at a banquet held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
17 May 1954 The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education , ruling that racial segregation in public educational facilities is unconstitutional.
18 May 1980 Mount St. Helens located in the Cascade Range erupted and blasted 1,300 ft off it's top that sent hot mud, gas and ashes running down it's slopes
19 May 1962 Marilyn Monroe performed a rendition of "Happy Birthday" for President John F. Kennedy for his forty-fifth birthday during a fund-raiser at New York's Madison Square Garden.
20 May 1927 Charles Lindbergh who many called the "flying fool" sets off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, NY, flying the "Spirit of St. Louis" on an epic flight from New York to Paris. He completed the 33-hour, 30-minute flight and landed at Le Bourget Airport, Paris on the evening of 21 May.
21 May 2010 Scientists in the United States successfully created artificial life by creating the first live cell to be controlled by synthetic DNA.
22 May 1989 Students occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing
23 May 1934 Bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow gunned down with over 100 rounds of ammunition by police in Black Lake, Louisiana.
24 May 1976 Air France from Paris and British Airways from London simultaneously began Concorde service to Dulles Airport, Washington cutting the travel time from 7 hours to 3 1/2 hours.
25 May 1961 President Kennedy has asked Congress for $531 million to help the US put a man on the moon before the end of the decade . On July 21st 1969 , Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon.
26 May 1940 The Dunkirk evacuation begins "Operation Dynamo" was launched for the evacuation of British, French and Belgian soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France
27 May 1937 Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California is opened to pedestrian traffic and more than 200,000 pedestrians walked across on opening day.
28 May 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire
29 May 1953 Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal become the first explorers to reach the top of Mount Everest
30 May 1937 The Memorial Day Massacre takes place when Ten union demonstrators are killed and 84 are wounded when police opened fire in front of the South Chicago Republic Steel plant.
31 May 1977 The almost 800 miles long Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline is completed
January
January
1937 Federal Old Age Pensions started,
1942 United Nations established,
1929 Influenza Epidemic death toll over 200,000,
1914 Henry Ford introduces $5.00 per day wages,
2007 Apple introduces the Apple iPhone,
1952 "Today" Program Begins on NBC,
1966 Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister of India,
1920 Prohibition takes effect,
2008 Black Monday in worldwide stock markets,
1935 First Canned Beer Sold,
1926 John Logie Baird first public demonstration of a television system, 1951 Nevada Nuclear Test begin In Nevada
1986 The space shuttle Challenger explodes,
1969 The Beatles make their last public performance
February
February
1925 Sears Roebuck opens its first store,
1949 First 45 RPM vinyl record released,
1959 Barbie Doll invented by Ruth Handler,
2004 Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg,
1910 Boy Scouts of America incorporated,
1952 Queen Elizabeth II becomes Queen,
1990 Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years,
1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre,
1879 1st Woolworth 5 Cents store opened,
1991 Gulf War Ends
March
March
1936 Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) is completed,
1965 "The Sound of Music" starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer has its world premiere in New York,
1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States,
1876 Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention the telephone,
1974 Work on the 800 mile long Alaska Oil pipeline begins,
1931 Nevada Legalizes Gambling,
1995 Sarin gas terrorist attack on the Japanese Subway, 1981 Prince Charles and Diana Wedding,
1963 The Beatles' first album "Please Please Me" is released in England,
1973 Pink Floyd release the album "Dark Side of the Moon,"
1980 Mount St. Helen's Erupts 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps
April
April
2005 Pope John Paul II Dies,
2010 Apple Releases iPad,
1968 Martin Luther King Jr. murdered,
1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders,
1954 Bill Haley and the Comets record "Rock Around the Clock,"
1999 Columbine High School Shooting,
2010 Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico,
1989 Student Protest Tiananmen Square,
1985 The Coca-Cola Company announced New Coke,
1956 Elvis Presley has his first number one hit with "Heartbreak Hotel,"
1994 Nelson Mandela voted as President of South Africa
May
May
1931 The Empire State Building in New York officially opens,
1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes British Prime Minister,
1937 The German airship Hindenburg (the largest dirigible ever built) burst into flames,
1945 VE Day/Victory In Europe Declared,
1948 The independent state of Israel is proclaimed as British rule in Palestine came to an end,
1954 The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education,
1977 First of the Star Wars films opens,
1911 The first ever running of the Indianapolis 500
June
June
1938 Superman appears for the first time in D.C. Comics,
1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released by the Beatles,
1989 Tiananmen Square Protests end when Chinese troops kill hundreds,
1944 World War II Operation Overlord/D-Day,
1994 O.J. Simpson police car chase following the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson,
1982 The Falkland Islands War ends,
1975 The summer blockbuster movie "Jaws" is released,
1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the GI Bill,
1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway has its official opening,
1997 First Harry Potter book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" released in the UK
July
July
1776 United States Declaration of Independence signed,
1996 The first cloning of an animal Dolly the Sheep,
1985 The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is sunk,
2008 Oil hits an all time high of $147 a barrel,
1954 "Operation Wetback" is launched by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service,
1923 Insulin introduced,
1969 Apollo 11 astronauts make history when the first man lands on the moon,
1956 Suez Crisis begins 1971 Voting Age in the United States is lowered to 18
August
August
1990 Iraq Invades Kuwait,
1914 Germany and France declare war,
1989 The US Savings and Loan Crisis,
1974 Richard Nixon announces his resignation,
1945 Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki,
1945 Truman announces Japanese surrender,
1981 IBM releases its first Personal Computer,
1914 Panama Canal opens,
1969 Woodstock Music Festival,
1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia,
2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans
September
September
1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany,
1956 Elvis Presley appears on Ed Sullivan's show,
2001 9/11 Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon,
1975 Inflation hits 26% in the UK,
1960 Chubby Checker has a number 1 record with The Twist,
1937 J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" published,
1908 First factory-built Ford Model T completed,
1981 Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first female U.S. Supreme Court justice in history
October
October
1927 Work begins on Mount Rushmore,
1947 US minimum wage of 40 cents per hour,
1973 Sydney Opera House opens,
1966 Aberfan Disaster,
1929 Wall Street crash (Black Monday)
November
November
1938 Seabiscuit race against War Admiral at Pimlico,
1969 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) established,
1979 U.S. embassy in Tehran 90 hostages taken,
1960 Senator John F. Kennedy wins the election for the president of the United States,
1989 Berlin Wall comes down allowing East and West Berlin to visit,
1926 U.S. Route 66 established,
1990 Sir Tim Berners-Lee formal proposal for the World Wide Web
December
December
1990 Channel Tunnel links UK to Europe,
1984 Bhopal Chemical Accident,
1954 First Burger King is opened in Miami, 1941 US enters World War II,
1939 Gone With The Wind premieres,
1983 Harrods Department Store bombing,
1997 The film "Titanic" opened in American theaters,
2004 A tsunami caused by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean leaves 216,000 dead in 13 countries