May 26

1927

Henry Ford and his son Edsel drove the 15 millionth Model T Ford out of their factory, marking the famous automobile’s official last day of production. Introduced in 1908, the relatively affordable and efficient Model T was responsible for accelerating the automobile’s introduction into American society. Largely due to the Model T’s incredible popularity, the U.S. government made construction of new roads one of its top priorities by 1920. By 1926, however, the Model T had become outdated. Henry Ford delivered a eulogy for his most memorable creation: “It had stamina and power. It was the car that ran before there were good roads to run on. It broke down the barriers of distance in rural sections, brought people of these sections closer together and placed education within the reach of everyone.”

  

1940

The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk, France began in hopes of removing the soldiers before German occupation. Determined to prevent the evacuation, the Luftwaffe, German air force, initiated a bombing campaign in Dunkirk and the surrounding area with no regard for civilian life. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt made known the dire straits of Belgian and French civilians suffering the fallout of the British-German battle to reach the northern coast of France and appealed for support from the Red Cross. While the evacuation was successful and heroic, the cost to civilians was great, as thousands of refugees fled for their lives to evade the fallout of the battle

1960

During a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge charged that the Soviet Union had engaged in espionage activities at the U.S. embassy in Moscow for years. On May 1, a highly sophisticated U.S. spy plane, the U-2, was shot down over the Soviet Union. Although U.S. officials at first denied the existence of any such spy planes, the Soviets gleefully produced both the wreckage of the plane and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Embarrassed U.S. officials, including President Eisenhower, were forced to publicly admit that the US was indeed spying on the Soviet Union with the high altitude planes. However, the US government consistently declared that it was doing nothing that the Soviets themselves were not doing.

May 27

1937

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opened to the public after five years of construction. On opening day–“Pedestrian Day”–some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, on May 28, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic. At 4,200 feet, it was the longest bridge in the world until the completion of New York City’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964. Today, the Golden Gate Bridge remains one of the world’s most recognizable architectural structures.

1943

A B-24 carrying U.S. airman and former Olympic runner Louis Zamperini crashed into the Pacific Ocean. After surviving the crash, Zamperini floated on a raft in shark-infested waters for more than a month before being picked up by the Japanese and spending the next two years in a series of brutal prison camps. The defiant American managed to survive and was released after the war ended in 1945. Back home in California, Zamperini drank heavily and was haunted by his experiences in captivity. Then, after being inspired by evangelist Billy Graham to convert to Christianity in 1949, Zamperini went on to become an inspirational speaker, forgive his captors and publish an autobiography, Devil at my Heels. A wider audience learned about his life with the publication of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

1973

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon met in Moscow to sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. At the time, these agreements were the most far-reaching attempts to control nuclear weapons ever. Nixon and Brezhnev seemed unlikely candidates for the American and Soviet statesmen as both were considered hard-line Cold War warriors. However, the Soviet Union was engaged in an increasingly hostile war of words with communist China. The US was looking for help in extricating itself from the unpopular and costly war in Vietnam and divert attention away from the Nixon Administration's domestic failures. SALT I is considered the crowning achievement of the Nixon-Kissinger strategy of détente.

May 28

1935

John Steinbeck published his first successful novel, Tortilla Flat. A native Californian, Steinbeck studied writing intermittently at Stanford between 1920 and 1925, but never graduated. He moved to New York and worked as a manual laborer and journalist while writing his first two novels, which were not successful. Tortilla Flat describes the antics of several drifters who share a house in California. The novel’s endearing comic tone captured the public’s imagination, and the novel became a financial success. Steinbeck released his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath, just three years later and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He would go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1962 before passing away in 1968.

1983

Irene Cara’s “Flashdance (What a Feeling)”, from the Flashdance movie soundtrack, became the #1 song in the US. Flashdance was the first collaboration between producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and it made extensive use of what would become a signature element of their films: montage sequences set to the tune of original soundtrack music and cut in the style of the then-infant medium of music videos. The formula would be successfully repeated with the Simpson-Bruckheimer classic Top Gun (1986). What Top Gun did for fighter jets, beach volleyball and Kenny Loggins, Flashdance did for blast furnaces, barefoot lobster dinners and Irene Cara.

2006

San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds hit a 90-mph fastball from the Colorado Rockies' Byung-Hyun Kim over the center-field fence for his 715th career home run to pass Babe Ruth for the second-most home runs in MLB history. "I knew it was definitely gone," Bonds says afterward. "There was no doubt.” On August 7, 2007, Bonds—who was dogged by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use—hit his 756th home run, passing Hank Aaron and becoming MLB's greatest home run hitter. Bonds finished his career with 762 home runs. Bonds, who retired after the 2007 season, has denied knowingly taking steroids and other banned substances.

 

May 29

1848

Wisconsin entered the Union as the 30th state. In 1634, French explorer Jean Nicolet landed at Green Bay, becoming the first European to visit the lake-heavy northern region that would later become Wisconsin. In the first decades of the 19th century, settlers began arriving via the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to exploit Wisconsin’s agricultural potential. By 1840, population in Wisconsin had risen above 130,000, but the people voted against statehood four times, fearing the higher taxes that would come with a stronger central government. Finally, Wisconsin citizens, envious of the prosperity that federal programs brought to neighboring Midwestern states, voted to approve statehood. Wisconsin entered the Union the next May.

1932

After WWI, many veterans returned home from war with little support from the government except for bond certificates set to expire in 1945. The Great Depression prompted many vets to wish that maturation date came sooner, so an initial contingent of some 1,000 veterans called the Bonus Expeditionary Force arrived in Washington seeking to cash out their certificates. In the ensuing weeks, more veterans made their way to the capital, eventually swelling to nearly 20,000 strong. On July 28, President Herbert Hoover ordered the army, under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to evict them. MacArthur asserted that the protests were a Communist plot against the U.S. government. Two men were killed as tear gas and bayonets assailed the protesters.

  

2003

Bob Hope celebrated his 100th birthday and some 35 U.S. states declared it to be Bob Hope Day. In a public ceremony held in Hollywood, city officials renamed the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue–famous for its historic buildings and as a central point on the Hollywood Walk of Fame–Bob Hope Square. Several 1940s-era U.S. planes flew overhead as part of an air show honoring Hope’s longtime role as an entertainer of U.S. armed forces all over the world. Hope, who was then suffering from failing eyesight and hearing, was too ill to attend the public ceremonies. Dubbed “Mr. Entertainment” and the “King of Comedy,” Hope died on July 27, 2003, less than two months after his 100th birthday celebration.

May 30

   

1911

Ray Harroun drove his single-seater Marmon Wasp to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500, now one of the world’s most famous motor racing competitions. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built on 328 acres of farmland northwest of downtown Indianapolis after being proposed by auto dealer Carl Fisher. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other in order to showcase their full power and entice spectators to check out the new models themselves. In 1911, Fisher and his partners decided to focus on one long grueling 500-mile race per year in order to attract more publicity. Harroun took home the $14,250 purse, clocking an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes.

1922

President William Howard Taft dedicated the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall. At the time, Taft was serving as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress authorized construction of a monument to US President Abraham Lincoln on the Capitol grounds in 1867 (two years after his assassination), but it took until 1911 for funding to be approved; construction was then slowed due to World War I. Inside the Parthenon inspired monument is a 19-foot-high white marble statue of a seated Lincoln. An inscription above it reads, "In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever."

1971

The U.S. unmanned space probe Mariner 9 was launched on a mission to gather scientific information on Mars, the fourth planet from the sun. The 1,116-pound spacecraft entered the planet’s orbit on November 13, 1971, and circled Mars twice each day for almost a year, photographing the surface and analyzing the atmosphere with infrared and ultraviolet instruments. It gathered data on the atmospheric composition, density, pressure, and temperature of Mars, and also information about the surface composition, temperature, and topography of the planet. Mariner 9 sent back more than 7,000 pictures of the “Red Planet” and also sent back the first close-up images of the Martian moon. Its transmission ended on October 27, 1972.

May 31

1889

The South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania collapsed, causing the Johnstown Flood and killing more than 2,000 people. The dam was once the largest earth dam in the US and created the largest man-made lake of the time, Lake Conemaugh. It was part of an extensive canal system that fell into disuse and neglect as railroads replaced the canal as a means of transporting goods. Once the dam collapsed, All of the water from Lake Conemaugh rushed forward at 40 miles per hour, sweeping away everything in its path. One of the American Red Cross’s first major relief efforts took place in the aftermath of the Johnstown flood. Clara Barton arrived five days later to lead the relief. It took five years to rebuild Johnstown, which again endured deadly floods in 1936 and 1977.

1930

Best known to his many fans as San Francisco Police Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan, actor and Oscar-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California. After four years in the Army Special Services, Eastwood went to Hollywood, where he got his start in a string of B-movies. In 1992, he hit the jackpot when he starred in, directed and produced the darkly unconventional Western Unforgiven. The film won four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Film Editing, Best Director and Best Picture, both for Eastwood. Eastwood’s second set of statuettes for Best Director and Best Picture came for Million Dollar Baby in 2005.

2005

W. Mark Felt’s family ended 30 years of speculation, identifying Felt, the former FBI assistant director, as “Deep Throat,” the secret source who helped unravel the Watergate scandal. Felt's admission, made in an article in Vanity Fair magazine, took legendary reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who had promised to keep their source’s identity a secret until his death, by surprise. Tapes show that President Nixon himself had speculated that Felt was the secret informant as early as 1973.

June 1

1980

CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network and the brainchild of Robert “Ted” Turner, made its debut. The network signed on from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 90 million American households and over 370 million households and hotel rooms internationally.

1990

At a superpowers summit meeting in Washington, D.C., U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a historic agreement to end production of chemical weapons and begin the destruction of both nations’ sizable reserves of them. According to the agreement, on-site inspectors from both countries would observe the destruction process. The treaty was part of an effort to discourage smaller nations from stockpiling and using the lethal weapons. The United States and Russia began destroying their chemical weapons arsenals in the early 1990s. In 1993, the U.S., Russia, and 150 other nations signed a comprehensive treaty banning chemical weapons. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in 1997.

2008

A massive morning fire at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park and studio backlot in Universal City, California destroyed a trove of irreplaceable recordings by some of the greatest American musical artists, thousands of archived digital and video film copies and King Kong Encounter, one of the park’s most popular attractions. An investigation revealed the fire began when a worker used a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles. The worker left before checking if all spots had cooled. In 2019, the New York Times said anywhere from 120,000 to 175,000 master recordings—including those by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong Chuck Berry. Aretha Franklin, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and more—were destroyed in the fire.