This Day…

1824 – Jessie Ann Benton Frémont, American author and activist, outspoken opponent of slavery, known for her writings about her husband, John C. Frémont, and their lives in the western US (d. 1902)

1861 – Victoria Earle Matthews, American author, essayist, journalist, settlement worker and activist; founder of the White Rose Mission, a settlement house for young black women (d. 1907)

1930 – Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia when she lands in Darwin, Northern Territory.

1934 – The American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.

1930 – Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright and director, best known work is the play A Raisin in the Sun, first black woman to have one of her plays performed on Broadway (d. 1965)

May 10, 1872 – Victoria Woodhull is nominated as the first woman candidate for U.S. president for the Equal Rights Party

1875 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter, first woman granted a U.S. pilot’s license, first woman to fly across the English Channel (d. 1912)

1869 – The Golden Spike is driven at Promontory Point, Utah signifying the completion of the transcontinental railroad even though there are no bridges spanning the Missouri River.

1885 – During an attempted arrest bootlegger Ned Christie killed U. S. Marshal Dan Maples near Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

1851 – San Francisco’s fifth fire since the discovery of gold destroys 70 percent of the city.