May 1909
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The following events occurred in May 1909:


May 1, 1909 (Saturday)

* Walter Reed Medical Center opened for treatment of Washington, D.C., residents and veterans. *Tens of thousands of California residents turned out at San Francisco to greet the visiting Japanese ships IJN ''Aso'' and ''Soya'', which had been captured from Russia during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.


May 2, 1909 (Sunday)

*
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
began work on the "Ashcroft-Lyon" manuscript, never published, three weeks after firing his secretary,
Isabel Lyon Isabel Van Kleek Lyon (December 15, 1863 – December 4, 1958) was Mark Twain's secretary for most of his final years. While in this position, she gained significant influence over Twain's personal and business affairs. Twain fired her in 1909 f ...
, who had married Ralph Ashcroft. * Manuel Amador Guerrero, the first
President of Panama This article lists the heads of state of Panama since the short-lived first independence from the Republic of New Granada in 1840 and the final separation from Colombia in 1903. Free State of the Isthmus (1840–1841) Republic of Panama (19 ...
and founder of the nation, died a few months after the expiration of his term of office.
Fort Amador Fort Amador ( es, Fuerte Amador) and Fort Grant were former United States Army bases built to protect the Pacific (southern) end of the Panama Canal at Panama Bay. Amador was the primary on-land site, lying below the Bridge of the Americas. Grant ...
, which defends the Pacific side of the canal along with
Fort Grant Fort Amador ( es, Fuerte Amador) and Fort Grant were former United States Army bases built to protect the Pacific (southern) end of the Panama Canal at Panama Bay. Amador was the primary on-land site, lying below the Bridge of the Americas. Gra ...
, was named in his honor.


May 3, 1909 (Monday)

*
Jesús Malverde Jesús Malverde ( "bad-green Jesus"; born Jesús Juarez Matzo Campos, 15 January 1870– 3 May 1909), commonly referred to as the "generous bandit", "angel of the poor",Park, Jungwon University of Pittsburgh or the "narco-saint", is a folklore h ...
, "El Rey de Sinaloa", was killed in Mexico and made his way into local folklore. *Ensign Chester Nimitz began a career in submarine warfare, taking command of the USS ''Plunger''. *The Preakness Stakes, second jewel of the Triple Crown of American horseracing, returned to Maryland and the Pimlico racetrack, after having been run since 1890 in New York.


May 4, 1909 (Tuesday)

*Tony Malfeti's body was found; he had been kidnapped on March 14. *In New Knoxville, Ohio, 29-year-old butcher Martin Engel, the grandfather of future
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...
, died of tuberculosis. His wife and his nearly two-year-old daughter, Viola Louise Engel, Neil Armstrong's future mother, were at his bedside. *In Las Cruces, New Mexico, Wayne Brazel was acquitted of the February 29, 1908, murder of Pat Garrett. The trial had begun on April 19, and the jury took 15 minutes to reach the verdict that Brazel, who fired his shot while Garrett was urinating, had acted in self-defense.


May 5, 1909 (Wednesday)

*A change in the electoral law of the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
free state of Saxony took effect, providing for four different classes of voters. All taxpaying men, 25 or older, had one vote, and men with higher incomes had two, three or four votes. Men received an additional vote upon turning 50. * Jackson County, Colorado, was created from the western section of
Larimer County Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of Denver. ...
.


May 6, 1909 (Thursday)

*The U.S. Senate ratified a treaty that had been signed in December 1904, between the United States and Russia, providing legal recognition by each nation of the corporations of the other. Prior to the signing of the agreement, American business corporations had had no legal standing in the Russian Empire. *Born:
Loyd Sigmon Loyd C. Sigmon (May 6, 1909 – June 2, 2004) was born in Stigler, Oklahoma to a cattle-ranching family. He soon became interested in radio, earning his amateur ("ham") radio license at age 14. His broadcasting career began in 1932 at the Boston ...
, inventor of the "
Sig Alert Sig alert, Sig-alert or Sigalert in California, as well as other parts of the United States, means an incident that significantly disrupts road traffic. The term was originally the name of a pioneering system of automated radio broadcasts regarding ...
", in Stigler, Oklahoma (d. 2004)


May 7, 1909 (Friday)

*The Pontifical Biblical Institute was founded in Rome by Pope Pius X. * Albert Einstein was invited by the University of Zurich to accept the newly created chair in Theoretical Physics. He accepted, giving up his job at the patent office in Bern. *Born:
Edwin H. Land Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an Russian-American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a ...
, American inventor of Polaroid instant camera, in
Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...
; (d. 1991) *Died: Alexis Toth, 56, leader of the Russian Orthodox in the United States


May 8, 1909 (Saturday)

*
Herbert Lang Herbert Lang (March 24, 1879 – May 29, 1957) was a German zoologist. Lang was born in Oehringen, Württemberg, Germany. His childhood interest in nature led to a job as a taxidermist and later work at the natural history museum at the Univers ...
and
James P. Chapin James Paul Chapin (July 9, 1889 – April 5, 1964) was an American ornithologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Chapin is one of the highest-regarded ornithologists of the twentieth century. He was joint leader ...
set off on the ship SS ''Zeeland'' on the first project to catalog the plant and animal species of Central Africa. The Congo Expedition of the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
would yield thousands of specimens. *The town of
Concrete, Washington Concrete is a town in north-central Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon- Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and had a population of 705 at the 2010 census. Early history The town of Concret ...
, was incorporated as a merger of the communities of Baker (which had the Superior Portland Cement Company) and Cement City (which Washington Portland Cement Company). The town was featured in the 1993
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
and Leonardo DiCaprio film '' This Boy's Life''. *The Bhawal case began when the Bhawal Sanyasi, kumar (prince) of the Bhawal Estate in Bengal, reportedly died at about at the "Step aside" building in Darjeeling, where he had traveled for medical treatment. A body was cremated, and the controversy over whether the prince had actually died began. Ultimately, there would be three long court cases and, ultimately the Privy Council in London upheld the theory that the kumar Ramendranath Roy had not actually died, but had been in a coma and had ultimately been revived.


May 9, 1909 (Sunday)

*Japanese
sugar plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
workers in Hawaii walked out on strike, after five months of trying to get wages comparable to those paid to Portuguese and Puerto Rican laborers for the same work. By June, 7000 had walked off the job. After five months, the plantation owners relented and brought the Asian workers' pay up to par.


May 10, 1909 (Monday)

*The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) was founded by fifteen physicians who gathered at the New Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., to identify and honor outstanding physicians engaged in biomedical research. *Born: Maybelle Carter, American country musician, in Scott County, Virginia (d. 1978) *Died: Futabatei Shimei, 45, Japanese novelist (''
The Drifting Cloud is an 1887 Japanese novel by Shimei Futabatei. Published in three parts (with the last one in serialised form) between June 1887 and August 1889, it is usually being referred to as the first modern Japanese novel. Plot ;Part One The reader is ...
'')


May 11, 1909 (Tuesday)

*U.S. Design Patent No. 39,984 was awarded to Harrison D. McFaddin for the "
banker's lamp The banker's lamp is a style of electric desk or table lamp often characterized by a brass stand, green glass lamp shade, and pull-chain switch. Such a lamp was first patented in the United States under the Emeralite brand name. These types of ...
"


May 12, 1909 (Wednesday)

* Leopold Stokowski made his debut as a conductor, for the Colonne Orchestra in Paris. *In South Bethlehem, New York, at least twenty employees of the Callanan Road Improvement Company (including the company's vice-president) were killed by the premature explosion of of dynamite as they were preparing to shoot inside a quarry.


May 13, 1909 (Thursday)

*The first Giro d'Italia, Italy's premiere bicycle race, began at 2:53 in the morning in Milan with 127 starters. On May 30, Luigi Ganna was the first of the 49 remaining riders to return to Milan for the win. *The British platinum producer
Lonmin Lonmin plc, formerly Lonrho plc, was a British producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its registered office was in London, and its operational headquarters ...
was incorporated as the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Co., Ltd.


May 14, 1909 (Friday)

*The "
Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States fr ...
" railroad (C M & S) became the sixth transcontinental railroad in the United States, with the completion of $60,000,000 five-year Pacific Extension project to take the line to Seattle. With the driving of the final spike near Garrison, Montana, the official name of the Milwaukee Road became the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.


May 15, 1909 (Saturday)

*Saint Paulinus of Nola (354–431 AD) returned to his home in Nola, in Southern Italy, after nearly a millennium. His body had been at the Tiber Island in Rome since the 11th century. Paulinus was reinterred at the cathedral that had been dedicated there a week earlier. *Born:
James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films inc ...
, English-born film actor, in Huddersfield (d. 1984)


May 16, 1909 (Sunday)

*Harper B. Lee, the first
gringo ''Gringo'' (, , ) (masculine) (or ''gringa'' (feminine)) is a term in Spanish and Portuguese for a foreigner, usually an English-speaking Anglo-American. There are differences in meaning depending on region and country. In Latin America, it is ge ...
(American-born) bullfighter, made his first appearance in Mexico City's Plaza el Toreo. *A hailstorm in
Uvalde County, Texas Uvalde County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 24,564. Its county seat is Uvalde, Texas, Uvalde. The county was created in 1850 and or ...
, caused major damage, but not as seriously as reported in some papers. The hailstones, some weighing as much as , were heavy enough to kill several cows. A San Antonio paper reported that "Damage in the amount of at least $10,000 was done in Uvalde and five or six head of stock were killed," and added "The report that several Mexicans had been killed by hail stones is not correct." Dispatches from Galveston greatly exaggerated the damage in the rest of the nation. '' The New York Times'' reported that the hailstones "are said to have measured nearly a foot and a half in circumference and ranged in weight from seven to ten pounds", and that "eight lives are reported lost, while the number of live stock killed is reported anywhere from 500 to 2,000 dead ... loss to crops and farm property will aggregate between $200,000 and $300,000. The hailstones piled up in some places four feet high." The ''
New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...
'' said that the hailstones killed rancher James Carpenter "and seven Mexican hired men".


May 17, 1909 (Monday)

*
First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
Nellie Taft Helen Louise Taft (née Herron; June 2, 1861 – May 22, 1943), known as Nellie, was the wife of President William Howard Taft and the first lady of the United States from 1909 to 1913. Born to a politically well-connected Ohio family, Nel ...
, wife of U.S. President William Taft, suffered a stroke while at the White House, impairing her speech abilities. She recovered after one year. *The United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of '' Welch v. Swasey'', 214 U.S. 191 (1909), that it upheld the right of governments to set limits on the height of buildings. *Born:
Julius Sumner Miller Julius Sumner Miller (May 17, 1909 – April 14, 1987) was an American physicist and television personality. He is best known for his work on children's television programs in North America and Australia. Off-screen Julius Sumner Miller was bor ...
, pioneer of the television science program, in
Billerica, Massachusetts Billerica (, ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 42,119 according to the 2020 census. It takes its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. History In the early 1630s, a Praying Indian ...
(d. 1987)


May 18, 1909 (Tuesday)

*In Germany, patent No. 226,239 was awarded to Heinrich Hoerlein of the
Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...
company for a
sulfanilamide Sulfanilamide (also spelled sulphanilamide) is a sulfonamide antibacterial drug. Chemically, it is an organic compound consisting of an aniline derivatized with a sulfonamide group. Powdered sulfanilamide was used by the Allies in World War II ...
, the first synthesized
sulfonamide In organic chemistry, the sulfonamide functional group (also spelled sulphonamide) is an organosulfur group with the structure . It consists of a sulfonyl group () connected to an amine group (). Relatively speaking this group is unreactive. ...
. It was not until 1935 that the antibiotic properties of sulfonamides were realized, and the first
sulfa drug Sulfonamide is a functional group (a part of a molecule) that is the basis of several groups of drugs, which are called sulphonamides, sulfa drugs or sulpha drugs. The original antibacterial sulfonamides are synthetic (nonantibiotic) antimi ...
s created. * Menelik II,
Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia ( gez, ንጉሠ ነገሥት, nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse ( am, ዐፄ, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century ...
, resolved the question of who would succeed him, selecting his 14-year-old grandson
Lij Iyasu ''Lij'' Iyasu ( gez, ልጅ ኢያሱ; 4 February 1895 – 25 November 1935) was the designated Emperor of Ethiopia from 1913 to 1916. His baptismal name was Kifle Yaqob (ክፍለ ያዕቆብ ''kəflä y’aqob''). Ethiopian emperors tradition ...
as the heir apparent. Iyasu V reigned from 1913 to 1916, but was deposed in favor of Menelik's daughter
Zauditu , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Zewditu ( gez, ዘውዲቱ, born Askala Maryam; 29 April 1876 – 2 April 1930) was Emperor of Ethiopia, Empress of E ...
. *Born: Fred Perry, English tennis player (No. 1 ranked 1934–38), in
Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...
(d. 1995) *Died: Isaac Albéniz, 48, Spanish composer


May 19, 1909 (Wednesday)

*With 55 dancers, including Vaslav Nijinsky, the
Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...
opened a new era in ballet dancing, bringing the Russian ballet to the Western world. Produced by Sergei Diaghilev, the tour opened at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. * A. Lawrence Lowell succeeded Charles William Eliot as
President of Harvard University The president of Harvard University is the chief academic administration, administrator of Harvard University and the ''Ex officio member, ex officio'' president of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard Corporation. Each is appoi ...
. In his 24 years, Lowell reformed the degree requirements to introduce the concept of selecting an academic major as a primary field of study, saying "The best type of liberal education in our complex modern world aims at producing men who know a little of everything and something well." *Born: Sir Nicholas Winton, British who rescued more than 600 Czechoslovakian children in World War II (age 102 in 2011)


May 20, 1909 (Thursday)

*Saint
Clement Hofbauer Clement Mary Hofbauer (german: Klemens Maria Hofbauer) (26 December 1751 – 15 March 1820) was a Moravian hermit and later a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Redemptorist Religious congregation, congregation. He established ...
(1751–1820), a prominent leader of the
Redemption movement The redemption movement is a debt-resistance movement and fraud scheme which is primarily active in the United States and Canada. Participants allege that a secret fund is created for every citizen at birth, and that a procedure exists to "redee ...
, was canonized. He is now considered the Patron Saint of Vienna *Born: Sir
Matt Busby Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager, who managed Manchester United F.C., Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 197 ...
, Scottish football manager (Manchester United), in
Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...
(d. 1994)


May 21, 1909 (Friday)

*
St. Cloud, Florida St. Cloud is a city in northern Osceola County, Florida, United States. It is on the southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga in Central Florida, about southeast of Orlando. The population was 35,183 in the 2010 census, and 54,579 in the 2019 cen ...
, created as a community for retired Union veterans of the American Civil War, received its first resident, Albert Hantsch of Chicago. By 2009, the population of St. Cloud passed 25,000. *Born: Guy de Rothschild, French billionaire and banker, in Paris (d. 2007)


May 22, 1909 (Saturday)

*Nearly 700,000 acres (roughly 1,100 square miles or 2,800 square kilometers) of federally owned land in Washington, Montana and Idaho were opened for settlement by executive order of U.S. President William Howard Taft.


May 23, 1909 (Sunday)

*The Daily Bioscope theatre opened, introducing the British public to newsreels, the first showing of filmed news stories. *The equestrian statue of Tsar Alexander III astride a horse, sculpted by
Paolo Troubetzkoy Prince Paolo Petrovich Troubetzkoy (also known as Pavel or Paul; russian: Павел Петрович Трубецкой, translit=Pavel Petrovich Trubetskoy; Intra, Italy, 15 February 1866 — Pallanza, 12 February 1938) was an artist and a sc ...
, was unveiled in St. Petersburg at
Znamenskaya Square Vosstaniya Square (russian: Пло́щадь Восста́ния, lit. ''Uprising Square'') is a major square in the Central Business District of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The square lies at the crossing of Nevsky Prospekt, Ligovsky Prospekt, ...
. After St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in 1924, the unpopular memorial was moved in 1937 to the backyard of the city museum. In 1994, with the city again called St. Petersburg, the statue was again moved, and placed in front of one of the Marble Palace.


May 24, 1909 (Monday)

*
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
became the first European nation to set aside land for
national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
s. The first nine established under jurisdiction of the Naturvårdsverket were
Abisko Abisko (; se, Ábeskovvu) is a village in Sápmi (Lapland (Sweden), Lapland), in northern Sweden, roughly 250 km within the Arctic Circle, and near Abisko National Park, located 4 km west of the village. It had 85 inhabitants as of 20 ...
, Ängsö, Garphyttan, Gotska Sandön, Hamra, Pieljekaise,
Sarek Sarek is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He is a Vulcan astrophysicist, the Vulcan ambassador to the United Federation of Planets, and father of Spock. The character was originally played by Mark Lenard in the epi ...
,
Stora Sjöfallet Stora Enso Oyj (from sv, Stora and fi, Enso ) is a manufacturer of pulp, paper and other forest products, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The majority of sales takes place in Europe, but there are also significant operations in Asia and S ...
, and Sonfjället. May 24 is now annually commemorated as the European Day of Parks. *Born: Wilbur Mills, controversial Arkansas Congressman 1939–1977, in Kensett, Arkansas (d. 1992)


May 25, 1909 (Tuesday)

*The Indian Councils Act of 1909 (9 Edw. VII, c.4) was given royal assent after passing the British parliament. For the first time, the legislative councils for the various provinces of British India would include members elected by the Indians themselves. Formerly, all members had been appointed by the Crown. Additional seats on the provincial executive councils were created, opening the way for more Indian officeholders. The Reforms of 1909 were the first step toward self-government in India. *Died: Israel Greene, 85, who had led the United States Marines in the capture of abolitionist
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, on October 18, 1859, died at his farm near Mitchell, South Dakota.


May 26, 1909 (Wednesday)

*In The Derby at
Epsom Downs Racecourse Epsom Downs is a Grade 1 racecourse on the hills associated with Epsom in Surrey, England which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. The "Downs" referred to in the name are part of the North Downs. The course, which has a crowd capacity of 13 ...
in Britain,
Minoru Minoru is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *Minoru Arakawa (荒川 實, born 1946), Japanese former president of Nintendo of America *Minoru Chiaki (千秋 実, 1917–1999), Japanese actor *Minoru Fujita ( ...
, the horse owned by King Edward VII won after the betting favorite, American-bred Sir Martin, threw his jockey. *Born: Adolfo López Mateos, President of Mexico 1958–1964, in Atizapán de Zaragoza (now called
Ciudad López Mateos Ciudad López Mateos (most commonly called "Atizapán") is a city in State of Mexico, Mexico, and the municipal seat of the municipality called Atizapán de Zaragoza. The city was previously named San Francisco Atizapán, but the official name wa ...
; (d. 1969)


May 27, 1909 (Thursday)

*A meteor crashed through the roof of a house in Shepard, Texas. *The Indian Institute of Science was founded as research university in the city of Bangalore in what is now the state of Karnataka, more than four years after the death of its chief benefactor, factory owner Jamsetji Tata. *Born: Rachel Carson, American environmentalist whose work led to the banning of DDT, in Springdale, PA (d. 1964); and W.W. Hansen, physicist and pioneer in microwave electronics, in Fresno (d. 1949)


May 28, 1909 (Friday)

*The
1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad ( sv, Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, be ...
were awarded by the IOC by acclamation to
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, at a meeting in Berlin.


May 29, 1909 (Saturday)

*
Augusto B. Leguía Augusto Bernardino Leguía y Salcedo (February 19, 1863 – February 6, 1932) was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru from 1908 to 1912 and from 1919 to 1930, the latter term known as ''El Oncenio de Leguía'' (Leguía's E ...
, the President of Peru, was briefly taken hostage during an attempted coup, but rescued by loyal troops. The uprising had begun four days earlier when an anti-Chinese rally of the Workers' Party degenerated into a riot in Lima. As a concession to the rioters, President Leguia halted Chinese immigration to Peru, admitting only those immigrants who had at least 500 pounds sterling in resources. *The first sale of an airplane to a non-military buyer took place when the G.H. Curtiss Manufacturing Co. delivered its Curtiss No. 1, nicknamed the
Golden Flyer The Curtiss No. 1 also known as the Curtiss Gold Bug or Curtiss Golden Flyer was a 1900s American early experimental aircraft, the first independent aircraft designed and built by Glenn Curtiss. Development After his success with designing air ...
, to the New York Aeronautical Society to complete a $5,000 purchase.


May 30, 1909 (Sunday)

*For the first time, an airship remained aloft for more than 24 hours. Zeppelin II, with ten on board, flew from Friedrichshafen to Bitterfeld. *
Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...
delivered what is now called by his followers as the "
Uttarpara Uttarpara or Uttarpara Kotrung is a city and a municipality of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Uttarpara is located at , within 10 k ...
Speech", in the West Bengal city of that name. *Born:
Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...
, American musician and 1940s pop star known as "The King of Swing", in Chicago (d. 1986)


May 31, 1909 (Monday)

*The
National Negro Conference The National Negro Committee (formed: New York City, May 31 and June 1, 1909 - ceased: New York City, May 12, 1910) was created in response to the Springfield race riot of 1908 against the black community in Springfield, Illinois. Prominent bla ...
, chaired by Charles Edward Russell and attended by 300 people, convened in New York City at the United Charities building, then moved for an afternoon session to Cooper Union with 1,500 attending. From the meeting emerged the
National Negro Committee The National Negro Committee (formed: New York City, May 31 and June 1, 1909 - ceased: New York City, May 12, 1910) was created in response to the Springfield race riot of 1908 against the black community in Springfield, Illinois, Springfield, Il ...
, which would be renamed the following year as the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
. As one historian would later note, "The events at the conference set the tone for future race relations within the AACPmovement for decades to come."Christopher Robert Reed, ''The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910–1966'' (Indiana University Press, 1997), pp17–18


References

{{Events by month links
1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Januar ...
*1909-05 *1909-05