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	337th	Joseph Addison, writer and journalist, born in England.
1	1967	42nd	Elvis Presley marries 21-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, in Las Vegas
2	1862	147th	Confederates evacuate Yorktown during the Peninsular campaign
2	1957	52nd	Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the witchhunt against Communists, dies
2	1972	37th	J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director, dies.
3	1802	207th	Washington DC incorporated as a city.
3	1937	72nd	Margaret Mitchell receives a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone with the Wind"
3	1947	62nd	Japan's new constitution strips Hirohito of all but symbolic power
4	1872	137th	A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General, anti-Communist, born
4	1977	32nd	Journalist David Frost interviews Richard Nixon about corruption in his administration
5	1847	162nd	The American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia
5	1862	147th	Union troops force a Confederate retreat at the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia
5	1877	132nd	Sitting Bull leads his people into Canada, fleeing the U.S. Army
6	1862	147th	Henry David Thoreau, U.S. poet and philosopher, dies.
6	1862	147th	The Confederates withdraw from Williamsburg and Union troops occupy the town
6	1882	127th	Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese immigrants from the US
6	1957	52nd	Senator John F. Kennedy wins a Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Profiles in Courage"
7	1812	197th	Robert Browning, British poet, born.
7	1862	147th	Confederate forces attack at Eltham's Landing during the Peninsular Campaign
8	1972	37th	Nixon's mining of North Vietnam's harbors, Operation Pocket Money, begins
9	1502	507th	Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his final trip to the New World
9	1887	122nd	Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London for Queen Victoria
9	1977	32nd	President Carter tackles Social Security
10	1832	177th	William Grace, businessman, New York City mayor, and "Pirate of Peru," born in Ireland
10	1837	172nd	The devastating Panic of 1837 wipes out U.S. banks, small businesses, and farmers
10	1862	147th	Union victory at the Battle of Plum Run Bend, near Ft. Pillow
10	1872	137th	Victoria Woodhull is first woman nominated for U.S. president, with Frederick Douglass as VP
10	1877	132nd	President Rutherford Hayes installs the first telephone in White House
11	1852	157th	Charles Warren Fairbanks, Teddy Roosevelt's vice-president, born
12	1902	107th	John Mitchell calls for a mineworkers strike by the United Mine Workers
12	2002	7th	Jimmy Carter is the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Castro's 1959 revolution
13	1607	402nd	Jamestown, an English colony, is founded in Virginia
13	1737	272nd	William Petty-FitzMaurice, first marquess of Landsdowne and prime minister of England, born.
13	1792	217th	Pope Pius IX born.
13	1842	167th	Arthur S. Sullivan, British composer of fourteen Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, born.
14	1787	222nd	U.S. Constitutional Convention delegates begin to assemble in Philadelphia
14	1842	167th	Alfred, Lord Tennyson, publishes his popular "Poems"
14	1897	112nd	Guglielmo Marconi sends the first wireless telegraph
14	1942	67th	U.S. Women's Auxiliary Army Corps established
15	1602	407th	British navigator Bartholomew Gosnold lays claim to Cape Cod
15	1862	147th	U.S. Department of Agriculture created by Congress and Pres. Lincoln
15	1882	127th	Pres. Arthur forms a commission to investigate protectionist tariffs
16	1897	112nd	The Vitagraph company shoots its first fiction film, "The Burglar on the Roof"
16	1972	37th	U.S. bombing of North Vietnam destroys main fuel line
17	1792	217th	New York Stock Exchange founded by brokers meeting under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street
17	1827	182nd	Future president Andrew Johnson (age 18) marries Eliza McCardle (age 16)
18	1917	92nd	Congress passes the Selective Service Act, drafting soldiers to fight in World War I
19	1897	112nd	Oscar Wilde released after two years of jail for "homosexual practices"
20	1862	147th	The Homestead Act passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln
20	1927	82nd	The "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's plane, takes off for Paris
21	1832	177th	The first Democratic National Convention held at the Athenaeum in Baltimore
21	1927	82nd	The "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's plane, lands in Paris
22	1802	207th	Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, First Lady, dies
22	1947	62nd	Truman Doctrine is enacted, appropriating aid for Greece and Turkey
23	1937	72nd	The fabulously wealthy John D. Rockefeller dies
25	1787	222nd	Constitutional Convention called to order in Philadelphia
25	1862	147th	Stonewall Jackson defeats Nathaniel Banks at the First Battle of Winchester
25	1927	82nd	Ford Motor Company announces the end of the Model T, replaced by the Model A
26	1837	172nd	Washington Roebling, who succeeded his father as chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, born
26	1937	72nd	Violence breaks out at Ford Motors
27	1647	362nd	First execution of a U.S. woman as a witch, Achsah Young, in Massachusetts
27	1837	172nd	James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, U.S. frontier marshal, born
27	1937	72nd	Golden Gate Bridge opens
28	1807	202nd	Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist and biologist, born
28	1892	117th	Sierra Club founded by John Muir
28	1957	52nd	Baseball owners vote to allow the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to California
29	1877	132nd	John Lothrop Motley, U.S. historian and diplomat, is born
29	1917	92nd	John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president, is born
29	1932	77th	The Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington DC
30	1862	147th	Confederate Gen. Beauregard abandons Corinth, but tricks Halleck into thinking he's still there
30	1922	87th	Former Pres. William Taft dedicates the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
31	1862	147th	McClellan drives back Confederate Gen. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), VA