Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
May 5, 1961 - Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute, sub-orbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
May 7, 1915 - On its return trip from New York to Liverpool, England, the British ocean liner, "Lusitania", was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland. The "Lusitania" was carrying a cargo of ammunition from the U.S. to Great Britain. This was Germany's reason for the attack even though the ship was carrying over 2,000 civilian men, women and children. 1,198 lives were lost.
May 7, 1945 - Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II.
May 10 1986 - Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran became the first black pilot to fly with the celebrated, Blue Angels precision, aerial demonstration team.
May 14, 1607 - Three very small ships, "Susan Constant", "Godspeed" and "Discovery" sailed across the ocean blue from Plymouth, England to a place the ship's crew and passengers called Jamestown, on this day. If you have ever been to today's Jamestown and had the chance to climb aboard the restored ships, you would wonder how anyone could have survived that historic trip in such tiny, cramped quarters.
May 18, 1798 - The first Secretary of the U.S. Navy was appointed. He was Benjamin Stoddert.
May 18, 1914 - The "Mariner" was the first steamboat with cargo to pass through the Panama Canal.
May 20, 1927 - 'Lucky' Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in New York aboard the small airplane "Spirit of St. Louis", en route to Paris, France. Thirty-three and one-half hours later, Charles A. Lindbergh arrived at his destination -- and flew into history.
May 20 1939 - The "Yankee Clipper" took off from Port Washington, NY, bound for Europe. The plane, the flagship of Pan American Airways, established the first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean.
May 21, 1927 - Charles A. Lindbergh arrived to a hero's welcome in Paris, in his spindly monoplane, "The Spirit of St. Louis". (The famous plane is now displayed in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.) Lindbergh's flight marked the first time that a person had flown across the Atlantic Ocean. The event got more press coverage than any other single even in history to that time. In American newspapers alone, it was estimated that some 27,000 columns of words were used to describe Lindbergh's epic journey. A depiction of that famous flight was portrayed by one of America's great motion picture actors, Jimmy Stewart, in the film, "The Spirit of St. Louis". Upon his return to American soil, Lucky Lindy was given another hero's welcome.
May 22, 1819 - The steamship "Savannah" was the first to cross the Atlantic. It sailed from Savannah, Georgia to Liverpool, England. This day is now celebrated in the United States as National Maritime Day.
May 27, 1936 - The maiden voyage of the ship, "RMS Queen Mary" began. The huge vessel set sail from Southampton, England headed for the New York Harbor in the U.S.
May 30, 1868 - Memorial Day was observed for the first time in the United States -- at the request of General John A. Logan, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was first called Decoration Day because the General had seen women decorating graves of Civil War heroes.
