History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 26th. As Americans prepare to vote in this year’s presidential election, we look back to one of the most divisive presidents in American history--on this day in 1868, President Andrew Johnson was acquitted by the U.S. Senate after a two-month impeachment trial by just one vote. Johnson was the first U.S. president to be impeached, in the midst of a long and heated fight with Congress over Reconstruction policies.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 25th. Today is Memorial Day—a day set aside to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day always falls on the last Monday of May, creating a three-day weekend that is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 24th. It might be the ultimate chick flick: Thelma and Louise, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, was released on this day in 1991. Directed by Ridley Scott, Thelma and Louise turned the road movie genre on its head, starring two female protagonists on the run from the men in their lives and the law.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 23rd. Aside from the Library of Congress, New York City is home to the largest public library system in the United States. When its original building was dedicated on this day in 1911, the New York Public Library made quite a splash: it was the largest marble structure ever constructed in the U.S., occupying a two-block section of Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 22nd. It seems like a rare occasion these days when politicians from opposing sides see eye to eye, but today’s war of words is nothing like the very real blood that was shed in the Senate chamber on this day in 1856. Amid rising tensions over the expansion of slavery, southern Congressman Preston Brooks savagely beat abolitionist senator Charles Sumner with his cane.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 21st. It’s a day for flight firsts: on this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight. On the same day five years later, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to achieve the same feat. Sadly, two years later Earhart’s plane disappeared in the South Pacific while she was attempting to fly around the world.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 20th. As people prepare to pull out their jeans again after weeks of lounging at home in yoga pants and pajamas, we look back to this day in 1873, when Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a patent on work pants reinforced with metal rivets--known today as jeans.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 19th. Just weeks after Harry and Meghan officially transitioned out of their senior positions in the royal family, we look back to a markedly less peaceful royal transition: the beheading of King Henry VII’s second wife Anne Boleyn on this day in 1536. After Henry’s first wife couldn’t produce a healthy male heir, his affections turned to Boleyn, one of the queen’s ladies in waiting.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 18th. Amid reports of new research indicating that extreme rainfall may trigger volcanic eruptions, we look back 40 years to this day in 1980, when Washington’s Mount St. Helens famously erupted.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 17th. Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide for nearly five years, but that wasn’t yet the case back on this day in 2004, when the first legal same-sex marriage in the United States was performed in Massachusetts. Over the course of the day, a total of 78 same-sex couples tied the knot across the state, and hundreds more applied for marriage licenses.