文章基本信息

标题：American Chronicles
作者：Alexander, Gary L
期刊名称：Human Events
印刷版ISSN：0018-7194
出版年度：1998
卷号：May 8, 1998
出版社：Eagle Publishing

American Chronicles

Alexander, Gary L

150 YEARS AGO, MAY 29, 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state, after rejecting statehood four times during the 1840s. The 1848 presidential nominating conventions took place one week earlier. On May 22-26, the Democrats nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan, and William O. Butler of Kentucky. On June 7-9, the Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, and Millard Fillmore of New York. (The Whigs won.) In New York, six newspapers combined to form the Associated Press.

125 YEARS AGO, MAY 1, 1873, the first penny postcards in the United States were issued. Memorial Day was instituted the last weekend of May, for the first time, in New York State.

100 YEARS AGO, AT 5:40A.M., MAY 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey told his captain, Charles Gridley, "You may fire when ready, Gridley." In the ensuing Battle of Manila Bay, the six-ship U.S. Asian fleet, under Dewey, easily beat a larger but badly outgunned Spanish fleet, clearing the way for U.S. occupation of Manila, in the two-- front Spanish-American War. On May 25, the first troop expedition set sail to Manila, from San Francisco, with 2,500 men.

75 YEARS AGO, MAY 4,1923, New York State repealed the state Prohibition enforcement act, saying that the federal government would have to enforce its own Prohibition laws; that the state was no longer in that business. Gov. Al Smith signed the bill, heralding the beginning of the end of Prohibition.

50 YEARS AGO, MAY 14, 1948, the republic of Israel was born out of a narrow slice of Palestine, and war immediately broke out with the surrounding Arab states. Soon, the United States formally recognized this new nation.

25 YEARS AGO, MAY 3,1973, Chicago's Sears Tower peaked at 1,454 feet, the world's tallest building, beating New York's World Trade tower by 104 feet. On May 17, 1973, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Watergate hearings) was launched, headed by North Carolina Democratic Sen. Sam J. Ervin. On May 25, Archibald Cox, a professor at Harvard Law School, was sworn in as special Watergate prosecutor.