History Today

Hello, and welcome to this day in history. Here’s what happened on May 6th. Where were you 16 years ago tonight? If you’re a fan of the TV sitcom Friends, then you might have been one of the 51.1 million people who tuned in to watch the season finale on this day in 2004. The long-running comedy series spanned 10 years and 236 episodes while sparking hairstyle trends and turning its six main characters into household names.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 5th. Today is Cinco De Mayo, when Mexico commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over a powerful force of French invaders on this day in 1862. The retreat of French troops at the Battle of Puebla represented a great moral victory for Mexico, symbolizing the country’s ability to defend itself against a powerful foreign nation.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 4th. Today would have been the 91st birthday of Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston--the much-loved actress you probably know as Audrey Hepburn. A native of Belgium, Hepburn was the daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, and was “discovered” in 1951 by the French writer Colette.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 3rd. It was a case that shocked the world: On this day in 2007, 3-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing from a Portuguese resort where her family was vacationing. That night, the little girl’s parents left a sleeping Madeleine and her siblings in the family’s ground floor apartment, while they had dinner nearby with friends.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on May 2nd. Although in recent weeks fears of terrorism have taken a backseat to concerns over the Covid-19 panic, terrorism was still very much on the minds of Americans on this day in 2011, when the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan. Bin Laden had been the target of a nearly decade long international manhunt.

Although the Empire State Building’s famed observation deck is currently closed while New York fights through the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains an indelible symbol of the city that never sleeps. And it all started on this day in 1931, when the Empire State Building was officially dedicated by then-President Herbert Hoover. At the time of its completion, it was the world’s tallest skyscraper at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on April 30th. Although gay characters are fairly common in TV shows and movies today, that wasn’t the case back on this day in 1997, when the character played by comedian Ellen DeGeneres on the TV sitcom “Ellen” famously announced that she was gay. Ellen became the first gay leading character on primetime TV. A week prior, DeGeneres herself had also publicly come out, via a cover story in Time magazine.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on April 29th. About 16 million Americans served in World War II, but only 4 million or so were still alive on this day in 2004, when the National World War II Memorial opened in Washington, D.C. The memorial gave long overdue recognition to what has become known as the “greatest generation,” including the 400,000 Americans who died in the war. Surprising fact? The U.S.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on April 28th. It’s the most famous mutiny in history--on this day in 1789, 25 petty officers and sailors aboard the HMS Bounty staged a coup against the ship’s overbearing captain William Bligh. The mutineers set Bligh and 18 of his loyalists adrift in a small boat south of Tahiti.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on April 27th. If you’re still not sure what you want to be when you grow up, you’re in good company, and that includes President Ulysses S. Grant, who was born on this day in 1822. Grant worked as a soldier, a farmer, a land speculator and a tanner before returning to the Army and eventually assuming command of the Northern Army during the Civil War.