MAY 3RD

1715: A total solar eclipse occurs in northern Europe and Asia. Edmond Halley; who also discovered the comet that bears his name, accurately predicted the eclipse to within four minutes. The eclipse passed directly over London, which experienced three and a half minutes of totality.

1848: The Benty Grange helmet is discovered in England. The Anglo-Saxon helmet was found in an earthen mound that was being excavated by Thomas Bateman, an amateur archaeologist. The helmet has an iron boar with bronze and garnet eyes on the crest, similar to those described in the poem Beowulf.

1937: Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize. Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind told the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the scion of a Southern plantation owner who was reduced to poverty following the Civil War. The novel was adapted into a film in 1939 starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The film won eight Academy Awards, a record at the time.

1952: Two Americans land a plane at the North Pole. Pilots Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. benedict flew to the North Pole with Albert P. Crary, a polar geophysicist. The three men were the first Americans to set foot on the North Pole. Crary later became the first person to walk on both the North and South Poles when he visited Antarctica in 1962.

MAY 4TH

1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins. The Pacific naval battle between elements of the Allied and Japanese navies was the first in history to see aircraft carriers fighting one another. Neither sides’ ships ever came into view of or fired upon each other, which was also a first. The Japanese succeeded in sinking more Allied ships, but the Allies stopped the Japanese advance.

1959: The first Grammy Awards are held. The awards for musical accomplishments were presented at two events held simultaneously in Los Angeles and New York. Henry Mancini won Album of the Year, Ella Fitzgerald won Best Female Focal Performance, and Perry Como won Best Male Vocal Performance.

MAY 5TH

1809: Mary Kies is the first woman to receive a U.S. Patent.

Kies developed a new method of weaving straw, silk, and thread together to make inexpensive work bonnets. The invention improved the local cottage economy of hat making in New England. In 2006, the National Inventors Hall of Fame inducted her for her contributions.

1868: The first Memorial Day is declared. General John A. Logan, the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Civil War Veterans, issued a proclamation declaring May 5 to be “Decoration Day.” The holiday spread through the Northern states and was adopted as a national holiday in 1968.

1904: Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in modern baseball. The righthanded pitcher faced 27 batters over nine innings, and not a single batter made it on base. Young’s team, the Boston Americans, defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0. Major League Baseball’s annual pitching award is named for Cy Young.

1945: A Japanese balloon bomb explodes in Oregon. The balloons had been released from the Japanese home islands several months before, and were carried across the Pacific by prevailing winds. The bomb that landed in Oregon killed a pregnant woman and five children, and was the only fatal attack on U.S. soil during the war.