May 11
1910: An act of U.S. Congress established Glacier National Park in Montana.
1924: Mercedes-Benz was formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in Beverly Hills, Calif.
1987: The first heart-lung transplant took place, in Baltimore, Md. The surgery was performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
1997: Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeated Russian Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch in New York City, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
May 12
1935: Alcoholics Anonymous was founded when Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith met for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Siberling.
1941: Inventor and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world’s first working, programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
1978: The Commerce Department announced that hurricanes would no longer be given only female names.
1990: NBC’s Saturday Night Live was broadcast with a seven-second delay for the second (and so far last) time because producers wanted to bleep out anticipated profanity by guest host Andrew Dice Clay.
May 13
1787: Eleven ships full of convicts left Portsmouth, England, to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1880: In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performed the first test of his electric railway.
1888: Brazil abolished slavery.
2004: The final episode of “Frasier” on NBC is watched by 33 million people.
2014: Unidentified shipwreck is discovered off the northern coast of Haiti by marine archaeologist Barry Clifford.
2019: American diver Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds a plastic bag.
2019: New study on the moon shows it is still shrinking with recent moonquakes as it cools, published in journal “Nature Geoscience”.
May 14
1607: Jamestown, Virginia, was settled as an English colony.
1787: Delegates convened a constitutional convention in Philadelphia to write a new constitution for the United States. George Washington presided.
1804: The Lewis and Clark Expedition departed from Camp Dubois, near present day Wood River, Ill., and began its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1897: “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Phillip Sousa, was first performed in public near Willow Grove Park, Philadelphia. (Congress declared it the official National March of the United States of America in 1987.)
May 15
1718: The world’s first machine gun was patented by James Puckle, a London lawyer.
1812: First lady Dolley Madison received her last shipment of fashion apparel from Paris before the War of 1812 began.
1905: Las Vegas, Nev., was founded when 110 acres in what later would become downtown were auctioned off.
1940: The first McDonalds restaurant, owned by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald, opened at 1398 N. E St., San Bernardino, Calif.
2002: “Bowling for Columbine”, a documentary directed by Michael Moore has its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
2010: Jessica Watson at age 16 becomes the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world.
May 16
1843: The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out from Elm Grove, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail with 1,000 pioneers.
1866: Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaced it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
1929: The first Academy Awards were awarded, in Hollywood, Calif.
1960: Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
1988: A report by U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
2019: New DNA research showing bedbugs are older than humans – 115 million years old and outlived dinosaurs, published in “Current Biology”.
2019: Last episode of TV sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” starring Jim Parson, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco after 12 seasons.
May 17
1792: The New York Stock Exchange was formed.
1875: Aristides won the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
1902: Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovered the Antikythera mechanism, the remains of what was a complex mechanical analog computer designed to calculate astronomical positions, built in by Archimedes in the first century B.C.
1992: Musician, orchestra leader, television impresario and businessman Lawrence Welk died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 89. His net worth when he died was $250 million.
2018: Gina Haspel confirmed as the first female director of the CIA by the US Senate.
2019: Tyler, the Creator releases his fifth studio album “Igor” which becomes his first number-one album in the United States.
May 11
NATIONAL TWILIGHT ZONE DAY
Widely considered one of the greatest television shows of all time, “The Twilight Zone” has a 60 year history.
May 12
NATIONAL NUTTY FUDGE DAY
Every piece of fudge tastes a little bit better with a small sprinkling of nuts on top, doesn’t it?
May 13
NATIONAL FRUIT COCKTAIL DAY
A Spring and Summer food favorite!
May 14
NATIONAL MINIATURE GOLF DAY
Did you know that miniature golf was initially invented to allow women to play golf?
May 15
INTERNATIONAL FAMILY DAY
This day is to honor the importance of families, both traditional and non-traditional.
May 16
NATIONAL PIERCING DAY
This day is a fun observance that focuses on the art of piercings and its intriguing history.
May 17
NATIONAL IDAHO DAY
This day celebrates the joyful day in 1863 when Idaho was recognized as the 43rd state by the union.