This Week in History: May 10–16, 2020
History is littered with awesome, wild and crazy things that happened each day of the year, so let’s look back and remember them! Here are 7 amazing things that happened the week of May 10th, along with plenty of honorable mentions.
May 10, 1497: Amerigo Vespucci embarks on his first voyage to the New World
If Amerigo Vespucci decided to not take to the seas on this fateful day in 1497, there is a possibility we would be called the United States of Christiana. God Bless the USC! Doesn’t quite ring the same, does it?
The Age of Exploration launched by Christopher Columbus in 1492 inspired wanderlust travelers from all across Europe to sail the high seas in search of fame and fortune. Most never achieved a lasting legacy like Columbus, but a lucky few stumbled upon good fortune. Enter Vespucci.
Although disputed by some historians for its authenticity, a letter written by Vespucci in 1497 details a voyage that would have taken him to the modern day Bahamas and Central America. This marked the first of at least three trips to the New World in which he would find several new previously undiscovered islands, rivers and land masses in South and Central America. His first voyage on May 10, 1497 acted as a precursor for his most famous voyage in 1501, when he came to the realization that it was not Asia he was discovering, but a New World entirely (cue Aladdin theme song.)
Later cartographers named the newly discovered territory “America” after Vespucci to honor his accomplishments and discoveries, although attributing North America to him may have been a stretch considering he never went north of Puerto Rico. But what’s history without some exaggeration?
Honorable Mentions:
1294: Temür Khan ascends to the Yuan Dynasty
1924: J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the FBI
1940: Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of England
May 11, 1189: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I embarks on the Third Crusade, and hits rough waters
Who doesn’t love a good religious crusade!
Apparently that’s what Frederick I was thinking as he mustered his force of at least 15,000 men to storm the Holy Land in May of 1189, planning on joining Richard I of England and Philip II of France along the way. In the quest to retake Jerusalem from its Islamic rulers, Frederick’s men went all the way to Anatolia (modern day Turkey) before tragedy struck the German contingent.
Facing a hot and grueling march across Asia Minor, Frederick, by that time at least 70, boldly attempted to swim across the Calycadmus River (most likely a tributary of the modern Büyük Menderes River) instead of marching through the heat any longer, despite repeated warnings about the river’s swift current. The Emperor subsequently drowned in a whirlpool.
The sudden death of their commander led most of Frederick’s men to return home, putting a swift end to the German portion of the Third Crusade. Richard I and Philip II would carry on and win back substantial territory in Frederick’s stead, but still failed to take back the ultimate goal of Jerusalem.
Moral of the story? Enduring a hot march is better than drowning in a river.
Honorable Mentions:
1812: British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the House of Commons
1924: Robert Frost is awarded his first of four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry for his volume, New Hampshire
1960: Former Nazi and Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann is captured by Israeli forces in Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 12, 1967: Jimi Hendrix’s debut album, “Are You Experienced,” is released
Perhaps the single most influential debut album to ever be released, Jimi Hendrix announced himself, and his guitar, to the world in 1967 with his hit debut record Are You Experienced.
Blending several musical styles ranging from R&B and Jazz to Heavy Rock and Psychedelia, Hendrix created a sonic masterpiece unlike anything heard before. His masterful combination of top notch songwriting and elite guitar skills propelled him, and his debut album, to rapid popularity.
Almost immediately a world-wide hit, Are You Experienced stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for 106 weeks, and sold more than 5 million copies. Rolling Stone listed the album at #15 in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, four of its singles (Purple Haze, Foxy Lady, Hey Joe and The Wind Cries Mary) were included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and it is one of the select few records that have been included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, meant to preserve “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” records.
Are You Experienced, and Jimi Hendrix, have been cited by numerous artists including Slash of Guns and Roses, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Robert Smith of The Cure and Eric Clapton as being a major influence on their music and style.
50 years after Hendrix’s untimely death in 1970 of an overdose, his enormous legacy endures.
Honorable Mention:
1215: British Barons force King John to sign the Magna Carta, codifying laws to protect citizens from the King
1910: The Second NAACP meeting occurs in NYC
1932: The body of Charles Lindbergh’s kidnapped son is found in Hopewell, New Jersey
May 13, 1787: Arthur Phillips sets out to colonize Australia with 11 ships…of criminals
Australia leading up to 1787 was a continent still primarily ruled by the Aboriginals; Australia’s native population. That was, of course, until Britain decided to make it the largest jail on planet earth.
Australia had been previously claimed for Britain by Lt. James Cook in 1770, but Arthur Phillips and his “first fleet,” the name given to the first 11 ships that landed in January of 1788 in Port Jackson, became the first contingent of Europeans to officially settle Australia.
It wasn’t long, however, until Europeans discovered that Australia had more to offer than a penitentiary. Gold rushes and entrepreneurial opportunities on the continent soon flooded Australia with thousands of outsiders searching riches and a fresh start in a new land. Unfortunately, that opportunity often came at the expense of the native population already living there; half of the native population in the Sydney basin died either through conquest or disease.
But, the collecting the gold and riches did its intended purpose; in 1901, the separate colonies of Australia united to form a parliament and a new country. Britain, learning from their experience in the American Revolution, allowed them to leave peacefully, and modern Australia was born.
Honorable Mention:
1568: Mary Queen of Scots is defeated at the Battle of Langside
1767: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first opera, “Apollo et Hyacinthus,” premiers in Salzburg
1958: The motorcade carrying Vice President Richard Nixon is attacked in Caracas, Venezuela; several staffers are injured but Nixon escapes unharmed
May 14, 1787: Delegates meet in Philadelphia, and the United States Constitution is born
The Revolutionary War may have been won by 1781, but make no mistake; we had no idea what we were doing for the first 6 years of government.
The loosely put together Articles of Confederation, America’s first attempt at democratic government, severely limited what the federal government could do, so much so that a national military was illegal, and the government had no rights to tax. Put simply; too much government control in the form of a King is dangerous, but forming a nation with a policy of “do whatever you want, we have no authority” isn’t a smart approach either.
After nearly collapsing following several riots and nationwide unrest, delegates from each state finally agreed to meet in 1787 to revamp the government. The new constitution gave vast new powers to the federal government, established three separate branches of government to handle those powers and check the other branches (executive, judicial, legislative), and provided a true head of the new country with the establishment of the President.
George Washington was chosen as the first President, and the nation as we know it today was born.
Honorable mentions:
1804: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition through the Louisiana Purchase is commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson
1944: A group lead by General Erwin Rommel attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler
1967: N.Y. Yankee Mickey Mantle hits his 500th career home run off Baltimore’s Stu Miller
May 15, 1536: Anne Boleyn is accused of adultery and incest, and pays the ultimate price
Being a Queen is hard. Being the second Queen to a King after the first was kicked to the curb? That’s harder. Having the public resent you just for replacing the first? Nearly impossible.
Now throw in the fact that the only thing King Henry VIII wanted in a wife was to provide a son as his heir to the throne or annulment would be in line, and you can imagine the daily stress Queen Anne Boleyn must have felt each day of her life as a royal.
As Queen, Boleyn was actually good; she focused a lot of her efforts on bettering the lives of England’s poorest residents, albeit to little recognition from the resentful public. Ultimately, it would be the public’s favoring of the first Queen, Catherine of Aragon, and her inability to produce a son for Henry that would doom her.
After giving birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, and two more stillborn children, Henry decided enough was enough and plotted to be rid of Anne. Arrested on baseless and false charges of adultery (even though Henry was a notoriously promiscuous King), witchcraft, incest with her royal brother George and conspiracy to assassinate Henry, Anne was detained, tried in a show trial, and beheaded as a result of her “crimes.”
Anne would be just the second of six wives to Henry VIII, who all together produced just one male heir, Edward, to Henry’s throne. Ironically, it would be Anne’s daughter Queen Elizabeth, not King Edward, who would be renowned as one of the strongest and best rulers in England’s history.
Who said history doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Honorable Mentions:
1869: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National Woman Suffrage Association, advocating for women’s right to vote
1936: Amy Johnson flies from South Africa to England in a record 4 days and 16 hours
1957: Evangelist Billy Graham begins his “crusade” across America in Madison Square Garden, New York to a crowd of 18,000
May 16, 1860: Abraham Lincoln improbably wins the Republican Party’s nomination for President
Contrary to what many might believe, Lincoln’s election as President was not as certain as it may seem today. In fact, even being nominated for the position by his own party was considered a surprise.
The favored candidate was William H. Seward, a veteran politician and an early member of the newly formed Republican Party. Seward was staunchly anti-slavery, and was known for possessing rather radical beliefs on the subject for the time period. So radical, in fact, that concern then began to spread about his viability in key moderate swing states. Enter Lincoln.
Despite his modern fame for ending slavery in the United States, Lincoln’s platform while running for President was decidedly moderate. He promised that if elected, he would not force abolition on the south, instead supporting a policy of containment that would prevent the institution from spreading to new territories or states. It wasn’t enough to convince southerners, however, and upon his 1860 victory in the national election South Carolina became the first domino to fall.
Lincoln would go on to earn his reputation as one of the greatest leaders in American history by aptly guiding the country through one of the bloodiest wars in modern history. And it all started in a rickety convention hall in Chicago.
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