May 16th
Today in America's Present Past
1771 | War of Independence: A pre-American Revolutionary War battle against the royal government was fought in present-day North Carolina between local militia and a group of rebels called “The Regulators.”
1777 | Founder Button Gwinnett was wounded in a duel with political rival Lachlan McIntosh.
1801 | Politician William Seward was born.
1804 | Educator Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was born.
1817 | Steamboat service begins on the Mississippi River.
1832 | Entrepreneur Philip Danforth Armour was born.
1860 | POTUS: The newly minted Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for President.
1861 | Civil War: Kentucky proclaims neutrality in the war.
1861 | Serial killer H.H. Holmes was born.
1863 | Civil War: Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi.
1866 | Congress: The five-cent nickel is authorized.
1868 | Democratic President Andrew Johnson was acquitted in a Senate Impeachment Trial by one vote.
1876 | Pharmacist Charles E. Hires presents "Hires Root Beer” to the public.
1891 | Entrepreneur George A. Hormel & Co establishes Geo. A.Hormel & Co (now Hormel Foods).
1905 | Actor Henry Fonda was born.
1918 | POTUS: Democrat President Wilson signs the Sedition Act.
1919 | Entertainer Liberace was born.
1934 | The Minneapolis, Minnesota Teamsters’ Strike starts.
1938 | Engineer Joseph Strauss died.
1941 | Spy Aldrich Ames was born.
1955 | Author James Agee died.
1956 | Entrepreneur H. B. Reese died.
1957 | Lawman Eliot Ness died.
1966 | Entertainer Janet Jackson was born.
1967 | A Long, hot summer of riots continues in Houston, Texas.
1969 | Journalist Tucker Carlson was born.
1973 | Actress Tori Spelling was born.
1984 | Comedian Andy Kaufman died.
1986 | Actress Megan Fox was born.
1990 | Cold War: Eugene Stoner and Mikhail Kalashnikov meet in Washington, D.C.
1990 | Puppeteer Jim Henson died.
1990 | Entertainer Sammy Davis., Jr. died.
2019 | Architect I.M. Pei died.