Today
1788
Today in History
Sacagawea is born
Sacagawea was born on May 16, 1788. Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone or Hidatsa woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea's presence on the Lewis and Clark Expedition aided diplomacy and signaled peaceful intent to many of the communities the party encountered.
View the related personDaily moments from the American past
Browse the archive by month to see the people, decisions, and documents tied to each date.
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May
31 entries
May 1, 1751
Judith Sargent Murray is born
Judith Sargent Murray was born on May 1, 1751. Judith Sargent Stevens Murray was an early American advocate for women's rights, an essay writer, playwright, poet, and letter writer. Murray's essay "On the Equality of the Sexes" argued that women possessed the same intellectual capacity as men and deserved serious education.
View the related personMay 2, 1814
Nicholas Gilman dies
Nicholas Gilman died on May 2, 1814. Nicholas Gilman Jr. As one of New Hampshire's delegates at Philadelphia, Nicholas helped move New Hampshire into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personMay 3, 1816
James McHenry dies
James McHenry died on May 3, 1816. James McHenry was an Scots-Irish American military surgeon, statesman, and a Founding Father of the United States. As one of Maryland's delegates at Philadelphia, James helped move Maryland into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personMay 4, 1776
Rhode Island renounces allegiance to George III
On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to renounce allegiance to King George III by official legislative act. Colonial leaders moved months before the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The vote showed that the break with Britain was already becoming a legal and constitutional reality in America.
May 5, 1891
Carnegie Hall opens
On May 5, 1891, Carnegie Hall opened in New York City with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in attendance. The new hall quickly became one of the premier stages for American music and public culture. Its opening reflected the growing civic ambition and cultural confidence of the late nineteenth-century United States.
May 6, 1862
Henry David Thoreau dies
Henry David Thoreau died on May 6, 1862. Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" became a foundational statement of principled resistance to unjust law.
View the related personMay 7, 1744
Melancton Smith is born
Melancton Smith was born on May 7, 1744. Melancton Smith was a merchant, lawyer and a New York delegate to the Continental Congress. Smith became one of the most formidable Anti-Federalist voices in New York's ratifying convention.
View the related personMay 8, 1884
Harry S. Truman is born
Harry Truman was born on May 8, 1884. Truman announced the Truman Doctrine, backed the Marshall Plan, and ordered the desegregation of the armed forces.
View the related personMay 9, 1791
Francis Hopkinson dies
Francis Hopkinson died on May 9, 1791. Francis Hopkinson was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, author, and composer. As one of New Jersey's delegates, Francis helped tie New Jersey to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personMay 10, 1775
Second Continental Congress convenes
On May 10, 1775, delegates met in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress as fighting had already begun in Massachusetts. The body soon assumed the powers of a national government for war, diplomacy, and finance. It became the political center of the Revolution and eventually issued the Declaration of Independence.
View the related eventMay 11, 1814
Robert Treat Paine dies
Robert Treat Paine died on May 11, 1814. Robert Treat Paine was a lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence as a representative of the colonial era Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of the original Thirteen Colonies. As one of Massachusetts's delegates, Robert helped tie Massachusetts to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personMay 12, 1780
Charleston surrenders to British forces
On May 12, 1780, American troops surrendered Charleston, South Carolina, to Sir Henry Clinton. The loss gave Britain one of its largest victories of the Revolutionary War and encouraged its southern strategy. It also forced the patriot cause to rebuild under new leadership in the South.
May 13, 1846
Congress recognizes a state of war with Mexico
On May 13, 1846, Congress declared that a state of war existed with Mexico. President James K. Polk had already moved troops into contested territory, and fighting had begun along the Rio Grande. The war brought vast territorial gains to the United States and reopened the sectional struggle over slavery's expansion.
May 14, 1607
Jamestown is founded
On May 14, 1607, English settlers established Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony nearly failed, but it endured long enough to anchor English expansion on the continent. Jamestown opened the long colonial story that eventually produced the American republic.
View the related eventMay 15, 1937
Madeleine Albright is born
Madeleine Albright was born on May 15, 1937. Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright was a Czech-born American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001. Albright became the first woman to serve as secretary of state and helped lead American policy during NATO's intervention in Kosovo.
View the related personMay 16, 1788
Sacagawea is born
Sacagawea was born on May 16, 1788. Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone or Hidatsa woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea's presence on the Lewis and Clark Expedition aided diplomacy and signaled peaceful intent to many of the communities the party encountered.
View the related personMay 17, 1829
John Jay dies
John Jay died on May 17, 1829. John Jay was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. As one of their colony's delegates at Philadelphia, John Jay helped move their colony into the ratification struggle that created the new federal government in 1787 and 1788.
View the related personMay 18, 1955
Mary McLeod Bethune dies
Mary McLeod Bethune died on May 18, 1955, after decades of leadership in Black education and national reform politics. She founded the school that became Bethune-Cookman College and later organized the National Council of Negro Women. Those institutions helped build lasting networks for Black education, civic leadership, and federal advocacy in the twentieth century.
View the related personMay 19, 1777
Button Gwinnett dies
Button Gwinnett died on May 19, 1777. Button Gwinnett was a British-born American Founding Father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. As one of Georgia's delegates, Button helped tie Georgia to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
View the related personMay 20, 1768
Dolley Madison is born
Dolley Madison was born on May 20, 1768. Dolley Todd Madison was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Dolley Madison helped define the public role of the first lady through her management of White House society and political hospitality.
View the related personMay 21, 1881
American Red Cross is founded
On May 21, 1881, Clara Barton and her associates founded the American Red Cross. The organization adapted an international humanitarian model to American disaster relief and wartime aid. Its creation expanded the role of organized voluntary action in the country's civic life.
May 22, 1856
Charles Sumner is caned on the Senate floor
On May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks brutally attacked Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber. The assault followed Sumner's antislavery speech denouncing the Slave Power and shocked the nation. It became a vivid sign that constitutional politics over slavery were breaking down into violence.
May 23, 1783
James Otis dies
James Otis died on May 23, 1783, after helping frame some of the earliest colonial arguments against British imperial authority. His attack on writs of assistance in 1761 made him a leading critic of arbitrary searches and taxation without representation. Those arguments helped define the constitutional language of resistance that fed directly into the Revolutionary crisis.
View the related personMay 24, 1959
John Foster Dulles dies
John Foster Dulles died on May 24, 1959. John Foster Dulles was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as United States secretary of state under President Dwight D. Dulles helped shape the alliance system of the Cold War through NATO strategy, SEATO, and the policy of containment.
View the related personMay 25, 1803
Ralph Waldo Emerson is born
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. Essays such as "Self-Reliance" made him the most widely read voice of Transcendentalism in the United States. In the 1850s he also spoke publicly against slavery, linking moral philosophy to the sectional crisis that preceded the Civil War.
View the related personMay 26, 1951
Sally Ride is born
Sally Ride was born on May 26, 1951. Sally Kristen Ride was an American astronaut and physicist. Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983 and permanently altered the public image of who could represent the United States in science and exploration.
View the related personMay 27, 1907
Rachel Carson is born
Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907. Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book Silent Spring (1962) are credited with advancing marine conservation and the global environmental movement. Carson's Silent Spring exposed the ecological cost of widespread pesticide use and became a founding text of the modern environmental movement.
View the related personMay 28, 1944
Rudy Giuliani is born
Rudy Giuliani was born on May 28, 1944. Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician and disbarred lawyer who served as the 108th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. Giuliani's response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 made him one of the most visible municipal leaders in the country.
May 29, 1787
Virginia Plan is introduced
On May 29, 1787, Edmund Randolph presented the Virginia Plan at the Constitutional Convention. Drafted largely by James Madison, it called for a stronger national government with separate branches and representation tied to population. The proposal set the basic terms of the constitutional debate that summer.
View the related eventMay 30, 1854
Kansas-Nebraska Act is signed
On May 30, 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The law repealed the Missouri Compromise line and opened the territories to popular sovereignty on slavery. It destabilized the sectional balance, sparked violence in Kansas, and helped produce the Republican Party.
May 31, 1910
Elizabeth Blackwell dies
On May 31, 1910, Elizabeth Blackwell died. Blackwell had become the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States and later helped create institutions for women's medical training. Her career changed the professional boundaries of medicine and education on both sides of the Atlantic.
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