This Day In History

On May 23, 1918, Katherine Stinson became the first woman hired by the post office to deliver airmail in the US. She had several other notable firsts and records in her short flying career.

Artist Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born on May 22, 1844, in Allegheny City (present-day Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania. She was called one of the three great ladies of Impressionism, and is credited with helping popularize the art style among American art collectors.

General John Leonard “Birdie” Hines was born on May 21, 1868, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. During World War I, Hines successively commanded a regiment, brigade, division, and corps in combat. He was the first person to do that since the Civil War.

On May 20, 1932, Amelia Earhart completed the first solo flight across the Atlantic by a female, five years to day after Charles Lindbergh first made the same trip.

On May 10, 1888, Max Steiner was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, into a family already tied to music and theater. He later helped shape the sound of Hollywood with scores for King Kong, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and hundreds of other films.

On April 27, 1945, a boy named Frederick August Kittel Jr. was born in a two-room apartment in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. No one in that neighborhood could have guessed he would one day have a Broadway theater named after him. He would grow up to become August Wilson, one of the most celebrated playwrights in American history.

On April 1, 1883, Lon Chaney was born Leonidas Frank Chaney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, beginning a life that would reshape character acting in early film. Known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” he built a career on transformation, using makeup, body language, and physical endurance to create some of the silent era’s most memorable roles.

On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley stepped away from the spotlight and into a US Army uniform. At the peak of his fame, the nation’s biggest rock and roll star chose to serve like any other draftee.

On May 24, 1940, Igor Sikorsky successfully flew the first single-rotor helicopter. Sikorsky developed the world’s first mass-produced helicopter and one of the first American helicopters used in World War II.

On May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. It was the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, measuring 5,989 feet.

On May 24, 1919, the US issued stamps for use in Shanghai, China. The stamps were produced in limited quantities and only remained in use for a few years.

On May 24, 1861, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, a close friend of President Abraham Lincoln, became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War. “Remember Ellsworth” soon became a popular rallying cry for the Union.