May 10th
Today in America's Present Past
1676 | Bacon's Rebellion begins.
1730 | Founder George Ross was born.
1775 | War of Independence: Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
1775 | The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It also appointed George Washington as the Supreme Commander of the military.
1797 | The first US Navy ship, the "United States," is launched.
1801 | First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
1807 | French military officer who added to the American Revolution, Comte de Rochambeau, died.
1818 | Paul Revere died.
1838 | Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth was born.
1849 | Astor Place riots commence in New York City, New York.
1865 | Civil War: Confederate Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops at Irwinville, Georgia.
1869 | The Golden Spike was driven, completing the first Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, and connecting the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific.
1872 | Civil Rights: Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for US presidency by the Equal Rights Party at Apollo Hall, New York.
1877 | POTUS: President Hayes installed the first White House telephone in the telegraph room.
1899 | Actor Fred Astaire was born.
1911 | Navy Chaplain Alexander Goode was born.
1914 | Entrepreneur Augustine Sackett died.
1919 | Civil Rights: “Red Summer race riots” in Charleston, South Carolina, and Sylvester, Georgia.
1927 | Ernest Hemingway weds Pauline Pfeiffer.
1940 | Psychologist Wayne Dyer was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1977 | Actress Joan Crawford died.
1990 | Novelist Walker Percy died.
1994 | Serial killer John Wayne Gacy died.
1999 | Author Shel Silverstein died.