On this date...

Andrew Jackson

In 1806, Andrew Jackson, who later served as president of the United States (1829–37), fatally shot Charles Dickinson in a duel; during his life Jackson was involved in numerous duels—some accounts estimate 100—and many of them were in defense of his wife, Rachel.

In 1854, The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, providing for the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska under the principle of popular sovereignty, which gave people in those areas the right to decide whether slavery would be permitted in their territory.

In 1868, By proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, the first major Memorial Day observance is held to honor those who died “in defense of their country during the late rebellion.”

In 1899, The amateur bandit Pearl Hart and her boyfriend hold up an Arizona stagecoach on May 30, 1899. Click here for more information.

In 1911, The first Indianapolis 500 automobile race was run in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it was won by Ray Harroun in about 6 hours 42 minutes.

In 1922, The Lincoln Memorial—honoring Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and “the virtues of tolerance, honesty, and constancy in the human spirit”—was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

In 1922, Warren G. Harding becomes the first president to be heard on the radio.

In 1935, Babe Ruth played in his last major league baseball game for the Boston Braves, leaving after the first inning of the first game of a double-header against the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 1937, ten people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.

In 1942, Japanese American Fred Korematsu is arrested for resisting internment.

In 1971, The U.S. unmanned space probe Mariner 9 is launched on a mission to gather scientific information on Mars, the fourth planet from the sun.

In 2024, Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment in 2016 to the adult-film star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump in 2006.