On May 4, 1942, the World War II Battle of the Coral Sea began. It became the first naval battle fought mainly by aircraft carriers, with opposing fleets striking each other by air while their ships never came into direct sight.
On May 3, 1861, General-in-Chief Winfield Scott presented a strategy to defeat the Confederacy with limited bloodshed. Later nicknamed the “Anaconda Plan,” it aimed to squeeze the South through blockade and control of its rivers rather than by one dramatic battle.
On May 2, 1952, the world’s first commercial jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet 1, began its maiden airline service from London to Johannesburg. The flight opened a new chapter in passenger travel, showing that jet power could move paying customers faster and higher than piston-engine airliners. Commercial aviation entered the jet age.
On May 1, 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago, Illinois. For six months, it transformed the city into a global showcase of architecture, invention, culture, and ambition, drawing millions of visitors to one of the largest fairs ever held.
On April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as America’s first president. The ceremony in New York City marked the formal beginning of the new federal government created by the Constitution and placed the Revolutionary War hero at the head of a nation still finding its footing.
On April 29, 1947, the United States issued its first aerogram, then called an air letter sheet. It was a simple folded sheet of paper, but it offered Americans a cheaper and faster way to send personal messages overseas in the growing age of air travel.
On April 24, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was inaugurated as Pope Benedict XVI, becoming the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church before a crowd of more than 300,000 in St. Peter’s Square. The 78-year-old German theologian — once nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” for his doctrinal rigor — surprised the world eight years later by becoming the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.
On April 22, 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened in Washington, DC — a building so deliberately unsettling in its design that its…
On April 17, 1897, playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the next several decades, he would become one of America’s most respected writers, known for works that explored everyday life with unusual clarity and structure.
On May 4, 2005, the USPS issued the first set of stamps in the American Scientists Series.
On May 4, 1974, Expo ’74 opened in Spokane, Washington. “Celebrating Tomorrow’s Fresh New Environment,” it was the first world’s fair to focus on environmental themes.
Eugenie “Genie” Clark was born on May 4, 1922, in New York, New York. Nicknamed “The Shark Lady,” she was a world-renowned marine biologist best known for her work with sharks and trailblazing in the field of scuba diving for marine research.
Frederic Edwin Church was born on May 4, 1826, in Hartford, Connecticut. Known for his large, dramatic landscapes, he is one of the most traveled, best known, and most successful of the Hudson River School artists.
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