Americanism

May 2022

by Stephen Gates

Welcome to the merry, merry month of MAY.  May 1st is observed as “May Day,” a holiday and Spring festival.   

On May 1st in 1960, an American U-2 spy plane flying at 60,000 feet was shot down over Sverdlovsk in central Russia on the eve of a summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.   

May 2nd, 2011 was the day U.S. Special Operation Forces killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  Three cheers for U.S. Special Operation Forces!!! 

May 5, 1961 was the date Alan Shepard became the first American in space on Freedom 7. 

May 6, 1937 was the date of the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey. 

May 7, 1992, the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, prohibiting Congress from giving itself pay raises. 

May 10, 1869 was the day the newly constructed tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways were first linked at Promontory Point, Utah.  Railroad Chief Leland Stanford drove the “gold spike.” 

May 13, 1846 was the day the United States declared war on Mexico.  The result was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the annexation of land that became parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and Colorado. 

On May 14, 1804 Lewis and Clark departed St. Louis on their expedition to explore the Northwest. 

May 17, 1792 was the date the New York Stock Exchange was established under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. On May 20, 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. 

May 21, 1881 was the date the American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton. 

May 30, 1922 was the date the Lincoln Memorial, designed by architect Henry Bacon was dedicated. 

May birthdays of note include:  WW II General Mark Clark in 1896 on the 1st. Pioneering American journalist Nellie Bly in 1867 on the 5th.  Explorer Robert E. Peary, who led expeditions to the North Pole was born on May 6, 1856.  May 8, 1994 brought us President Harry S. Truman.  Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925.  May 23, 1810 was the birthday of Journalist Margaret Fuller, the first American woman to serve as a foreign correspondent.  American author and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson was born May 25, 1803.  Actor and Singer Al Jolson was born May 26, 1886.  Legendary Wild West figure Wild Bill Hickok was born on the 27th in 1837.  Jim Thorpe, all-around athlete was born May 28, 1888.  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born May 29th, 1917.  This was also the birthday of American revolutionary leader Patrick Henry in 1736, best remembered for his speech declaring “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”  Rounding out the list of birthdays is American poet Walt Whitman, born May 31, 1819.  His “Leaves of Grass” is still an American Classic. 

Until next time, MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!