Picture History : Anniversaries

Anniversaries

To illustrate the depth one can access in our collections, we have compiled relevant archival imagery to frame a diverse cultural, political and chronological retrospective of noteworthy anniversaries. Be sure to bookmark this section as the calendar is a work in progress and will continue to expand.

May	Year	Anniversary	Event
1	1672	341st	Joseph Addison, writer and journalist, born in England.
1	1967	46th	Elvis Presley marries 21-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, in Las Vegas
2	1862	151st	Confederates evacuate Yorktown during the Peninsular campaign
2	1957	56th	Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the witchhunt against Communists, dies
2	1972	41st	J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director, dies.
3	1802	211st	Washington DC incorporated as a city.
3	1937	76th	Margaret Mitchell receives a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone with the Wind"
3	1947	66th	Japan's new constitution strips Hirohito of all but symbolic power
4	1872	141st	A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General, anti-Communist, born
4	1977	36th	Journalist David Frost interviews Richard Nixon about corruption in his administration
5	1847	166th	The American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia
5	1862	151st	Union troops force a Confederate retreat at the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia
5	1877	136th	Sitting Bull leads his people into Canada, fleeing the U.S. Army
6	1862	151st	Henry David Thoreau, U.S. poet and philosopher, dies.
6	1862	151st	The Confederates withdraw from Williamsburg and Union troops occupy the town
6	1882	131st	Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese immigrants from the US
6	1957	56th	Senator John F. Kennedy wins a Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Profiles in Courage"
7	1812	201st	Robert Browning, British poet, born.
7	1862	151st	Confederate forces attack at Eltham's Landing during the Peninsular Campaign
8	1972	41st	Nixon's mining of North Vietnam's harbors, Operation Pocket Money, begins
9	1502	511st	Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his final trip to the New World
9	1887	126th	Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London for Queen Victoria
9	1977	36th	President Carter tackles Social Security
10	1832	181st	William Grace, businessman, New York City mayor, and "Pirate of Peru," born in Ireland
10	1837	176th	The devastating Panic of 1837 wipes out U.S. banks, small businesses, and farmers
10	1862	151st	Union victory at the Battle of Plum Run Bend, near Ft. Pillow
10	1872	141st	Victoria Woodhull is first woman nominated for U.S. president, with Frederick Douglass as VP
10	1877	136th	President Rutherford Hayes installs the first telephone in White House
11	1852	161st	Charles Warren Fairbanks, Teddy Roosevelt's vice-president, born
12	1902	111st	John Mitchell calls for a mineworkers strike by the United Mine Workers
12	2002	11st	Jimmy Carter is the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Castro's 1959 revolution
13	1607	406th	Jamestown, an English colony, is founded in Virginia
13	1737	276th	William Petty-FitzMaurice, first marquess of Landsdowne and prime minister of England, born.
13	1792	221st	Pope Pius IX born.
13	1842	171st	Arthur S. Sullivan, British composer of fourteen Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, born.
14	1787	226th	U.S. Constitutional Convention delegates begin to assemble in Philadelphia
14	1842	171st	Alfred, Lord Tennyson, publishes his popular "Poems"
14	1897	116th	Guglielmo Marconi sends the first wireless telegraph
14	1942	71st	U.S. Women's Auxiliary Army Corps established
15	1602	411st	British navigator Bartholomew Gosnold lays claim to Cape Cod
15	1862	151st	U.S. Department of Agriculture created by Congress and Pres. Lincoln
15	1882	131st	Pres. Arthur forms a commission to investigate protectionist tariffs
16	1897	116th	The Vitagraph company shoots its first fiction film, "The Burglar on the Roof"
16	1972	41st	U.S. bombing of North Vietnam destroys main fuel line
17	1792	221st	New York Stock Exchange founded by brokers meeting under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street
17	1827	186th	Future president Andrew Johnson (age 18) marries Eliza McCardle (age 16)
18	1917	96th	Congress passes the Selective Service Act, drafting soldiers to fight in World War I
19	1897	116th	Oscar Wilde released after two years of jail for "homosexual practices"
20	1862	151st	The Homestead Act passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln
20	1927	86th	The "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's plane, takes off for Paris
21	1832	181st	The first Democratic National Convention held at the Athenaeum in Baltimore
21	1927	86th	The "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's plane, lands in Paris
22	1802	211st	Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, First Lady, dies
22	1947	66th	Truman Doctrine is enacted, appropriating aid for Greece and Turkey
23	1937	76th	The fabulously wealthy John D. Rockefeller dies
25	1787	226th	Constitutional Convention called to order in Philadelphia
25	1862	151st	Stonewall Jackson defeats Nathaniel Banks at the First Battle of Winchester
25	1927	86th	Ford Motor Company announces the end of the Model T, replaced by the Model A
26	1837	176th	Washington Roebling, who succeeded his father as chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, born
26	1937	76th	Violence breaks out at Ford Motors
27	1647	366th	First execution of a U.S. woman as a witch, Achsah Young, in Massachusetts
27	1837	176th	James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, U.S. frontier marshal, born
27	1937	76th	Golden Gate Bridge opens
28	1807	206th	Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist and biologist, born
28	1892	121st	Sierra Club founded by John Muir
28	1957	56th	Baseball owners vote to allow the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to California
29	1877	136th	John Lothrop Motley, U.S. historian and diplomat, is born
29	1917	96th	John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president, is born
29	1932	81st	The Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington DC
30	1862	151st	Confederate Gen. Beauregard abandons Corinth, but tricks Halleck into thinking he's still there
30	1922	91st	Former Pres. William Taft dedicates the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
31	1862	151st	McClellan drives back Confederate Gen. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), VA