May 20, 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act opening millions of acres of government-owned land in the West to “homesteaders” who could acquire up to 160 acres by living on the land and cultivating it for five years, paying just $1.25 per acre.

Challenging the South’s failure to enforce the Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregation of public buses was unconstitutional, foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement began the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Riders rode interstate buses across the South and drew national attention to their cause because of the violence that often erupted against them. You can visit the cities where the Freedom Riders stopped on their journey and discover the impact of the rides on the Civil Rights Movement and the country.          

Resource: civilrightstrail.com … Stanley Nelson … internet … pinterest

 

On May 20, 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.

In San Francisco, Strauss established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and worked as the West Coast representative of his family’s firm. His new business imported clothing, fabric and other dry goods to sell in the small stores opening all over California and other Western states to supply the rapidly expanding communities of gold miners and other settlers. By 1866, Strauss had moved his company to expanded headquarters and was a well-known businessman and supporter of the Jewish community in San Francisco.

Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, was one of Levi Strauss’ regular customers. In 1872, he wrote a letter to Strauss about his method of making work pants with metal rivets on the stress points—at the corners of the pockets and the base of the button fly—to make them stronger. As Davis didn’t have the money for the necessary paperwork, he suggested that Strauss provide the funds and that the two men get the patent together. Strauss agreed enthusiastically, and the patent for “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings”–the innovation that would produce blue jeans as we know them–was granted to both men on May 20, 1873.

Source: history.com

0325 – The Ecumenical council was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea, Asia Minor.

1303 – A peace treaty was signed between England and France over the town of Gascony.

1347 – Cola di Rienzo took the title of tribune in Rome.

1506 – In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.

1520 – Hernando Cortez defeated Spanish troops that had been sent to punish him in Mexico.

1690 – England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.

1674 – John Sobieski became Poland’s first King.

1774 – Britain’s Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior

1775 – North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence. This is the date that is on the George state flag even though the date of this event has been questioned.

1784 – The Peace of Versailles ended a war between France, England, and Holland.

1830 – The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde.

1861 – North Carolina became the eleventh state to secede from the Union.

1861 – During the American Civil War, the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, AL, to Richmond, VA.

1873 – Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.

1875 – The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.

1899 – Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour.

1902 – The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ended.

1902 – Cuba gained its independence from Spain.

1916 – Norman Rockwell’s first cover on “The Saturday Evening Post” appeared.

1926 – The U.S. Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. The act gave the Department of Commerce the right to license pilots and planes.

1927 – Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the “Spirit of St. Louis.” The trip took 33 1/2 hours.

1930 – The first airplane was catapulted from a dirigible.

1932 – Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.

1933 – “Charlie Chan” was heard for the final time on the NBC Blue radio network, after only six months on the air.

1939 – The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The event was a bicycle race.

1939 – The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the “Yankee Clipper” from Port Washington, New York.

1941 – Germany invaded Crete by air.

1942 – Japan completed the conquest of Burma.

1961 – A white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL. The event prompted the federal government to send U.S. marshals.

1969 – U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.

1970 – 100,000 people marched in New York supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.

1978 – Mavis Hutchinson, at age 53, became the first woman to run across America. It took Hutchinson 69 days to run the 3,000 miles.

1980 – The submarine Nautilus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

1985 – The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1300 mark for the first time. The Dow closed at 1304.88.

1985 – The FBI arrested U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer John Walker. Walker had begun spying for the Soviet Union in 1968.

1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.

1996 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.

1999 – At Heritage High School in Conyers, GA, a 15-year-old student shot and injured six students. He then surrendered to an assistant principal at the school.

2010 – Scientists announced that they had created a functional synthetic genome.

2010 – Five paintings worth 100 million Euro were stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.