Category: Today

After two months of vigorous revolutionary acts — from “social democratic” reforms to public executions — the Paris Commune fell on May 28, 1871.

The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously declared key portions of the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional, in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (295 U.S. 495), on May 27, 1935.

And President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was not pleased in the slightest.

Capitalism’s 26th of May milestones:

• On May 26, 1896, Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• The last Model T rolled off of Ford Motor Company’s assembly line on May 26th of 1927, after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
• The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on the 26th of May, 1967.

On May 25, 1878, Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened at the Opera Comique in London.

Image is a detail from an 1879 theater poster.

In America and in most of the world, Gilbert and Sullivan’s works are considered operettas, but in Britain they are usually referred to as “Savoy operas” or “comic operas.” Another term is “light opera.”

On the 25th of May in 1895, playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde was convicted of “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons” and sentenced to serve two years in prison — becoming history’s most famous prosecutions for homosexual activity. It is perhaps worth noting that had Wilde not himself sued the Marquess of Queensberry, John Sholto Douglas, for criminal libel, and had not the Marquess demonstrated the truth of his offensive-to-Wilde statement, the prosecution would never have even commenced, and he would never have been sent to Reading Gaol.

The statement in question was Douglas’s note on a calling card: “For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite [sic].”

Five years after Wilde’s death in 1900, his Salomé was adapted as an opera, music composed by Richard Strauss. It was most definitely not any form of light opera.

In 1895 on May 25, the Republic of Formosa was formed, with Tang Jingsong as its president. It lasted less than half a year, dissolving upon conquest by Japan.

On May 24, 1689, the English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration, protecting dissenting Protestants.

Pointedly, Roman Catholics were excluded from this official tolerance.

On May 23, 1813, South American independence leader Simón Bolívar entered Mérida, where he was proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”), leading the invasion of Venezuela.

Other May 23 events include:

1788: South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1900: Sergeant William Harvey Carney became the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in a Civil War battle fought 37 years prior, in 1863.

1958: Birthday of American comedian and game show host Drew Carey.

On May 22, 1807, a grand jury indicted former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

At issue in the trial was Burr’s dealings in Louisiana, including leasing 40,000 acres and forming “an army.” President Thomas Jefferson issued an order for Burr’s arrest, and, after a chase, Burr was captured and charged with treason, though the case was always shaky. His defense lawyers included Edmund Randolph, John Wickham, Luther Martin, and Benjamin Gaines Botts. Jefferson’s distant cousin, Chief Justice John Marshall — who hated Jefferson — presided over the trial, which began on August 3. Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution requires that treason either be admitted in open court or proven by an overt act witnessed by two people. No witnesses came forward; Burr was acquitted on the first of September. He was then immediately tried on a misdemeanor charge and was again acquitted.

Other May 22 events include:

• 1848: Slavery was abolished in Martinique.
• 1856: South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks savagely beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner in the halls of Congress as tensions rise over the expansion of slavery. Sumner did not return to the Senate for the three years of his recovery period.
• 1995: In U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Arkansas’s congressional term limits law, 5-4, overturning the congressional term limits then the law in 23 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

On May 21, 1851, the Colombian Congress passed a law to free the country’s slaves as of January 1, 1852, compensating slave masters with bonds. The decree itself was insufficient to abolish the practice, however, with masters refusing, in many locales, to let the slaves go in a peaceful way. This led to the Civil War of 1851, which began with an insurrection in Cauca and Pasto headed by Manuel Ibáñez and Julio Arboleda — with the support of the Ecuadorian government. In Antioquia the rebellion broke out led by Eusebio Berrero. The war would end in four months with a liberal victory and the final liberation of the slaves.

On May 20, A.D. 325, the First Council of Nicaea commenced, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.