May 1

1. Back n da Dayz May 1

2. In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Annie Allen, a collection of poems that follows an African American’s freedom from slavery.

3. Back n da Dayz May 2

4. During this week in 1957, Irish American John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachu-setts was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Pro-files in Courage, a book dealing with the

5. Back n da Dayz May 3

6. African American agricultural scientist George Washington Carver, through the experiements with various plants, espec-ially the peanut, re-vitalized the future

7. of Southern agricul-ture.

8. Back n da Dayz May 5

9. In Mexico and the Southwest United States, millions of people celebrate Cin-co de Mayo. The celebration commem-orates the victory of the Mexican army

10. over the French in Pueblo, Mexico, in 1862.

11. Back n da Dayz May 7

12. Hernando De Soto and a company of Spanish explorers sailed into the Mississippi River in 1541 near what is today Memphis, Tennessee.

13. Back n da Dayz May 30

14. In 1845, news of the death of Cherokee leader Sequoyah was publish in “The Cherokee Phoenix,” using the Cherokee alphabet which Sequoyah had created.

15. Back n da Dayz May 9

16. The musical, “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” which celebrated the music of Fats Waller, opened on Broadway in 1978. Written and directed by Richard Maltby, Jr., it won the Tony Award for best musical of 1978.

17. Back n da Dayz May 10

18. In 1781, Bernado de Galvez, Spanish governor of Louisiana, led an attack from Pensacola Bay that resulted in the British giving up the region.

19. Back n da Dayz May 13

20. When millionaire John D. Rockefeller donated $100 million to the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913, it was believed to be the largest single act of philanthropy in history.

21. Back n da Dayz May 14

22. In 1893, the US Supreme Court declared the Geary Exclusion Act, an anti-Chinese immigration law, unconstitutional.

23. Back n da Dayz May 15

24. Charles, and John. In 1919, the Ringling Brothers bought and merged with Barnum and Bailey Circus. With the purchase, the circus officially

25. became Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus.

26. Back n da Dayz May 16

27. Junko Tabei, a 35-year-old woman from Japan , became the first woman to reach the 29,028 foot summit of Mount Everest on this day in 1975.

28. Back n da Dayz May 17

29. The Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark “Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas” case in 1954. In its unanimous ruling, the court declared that segregated education was illegal. School systems were instructed to move with “all deliberate speed” to integrate the schools.

30. Back n da Dayz May 18

31. The “Alien Land Act” passed in the California Legislature and became law in 1913. The law affected not only Japanese but also Koreans living in the United States. According to the law, a person ineligible for U.S. citizenship was forbidden to purchase land that was to be used for agricultural purposes.

32. Back n da Dayz May 20

33. When Charles Lind-berg landed on a Paris airfield, he achieved international fame as the first person to fly solo across the Atlan-tic Ocean. His spe-cially built plane, “The

34. Spirit of St. Louis,” carried Lindberg 3600 miles in 33 ½ hours. A hero’s welcome greeted him when he returned to the U.S.

35. Back n da Dayz May 20

36. The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo was ratified by the Mexican Congress in 1848. The treaty permitted the US to acquire the land that today makes up about

37. half of Colorado,along with the states of Arizona, California, Utah, and New Mexico. The treaty also established a clear border for the south of Texas.

38. Back n da Dayz May 24

39. Samuel Morse transmitted the first telegraph. Morse was very interested in the possibilities of the telegraph instrument and invented an alphabet or code for use in transmitting messages via the telegraph machine commonly known since then as the Morse Code. A member of the American Hall of Fame, a statue of Morse stands in Central Park, New York City.

40. Back n da Dayz May 25

41. On this day in 1925, the Supreme Court ruled against Toyota Hidemitsu, declaring that, although he served in the military of the United States, he was not eligible to become a US citizen. The court based its ruling on the fact that Hidemitsu was neither White nor Black.

42. Back n da Dayz May 26

43. President Coolidge signed the Immigration Bill into law on this day in 1924. Upon the signing of the bill, Japanese immigrants became aliens ineligible for U.S. citizenship. Chinese Immigrants had been excluded from citizenship under earlier legislation.