Discover the global events and personal stories of May

Abraham Lincoln’s Quote About His Mother: “All That I am or Hope Ever to be I Get From My Mother”

“All that I am or hope ever to be,” Abraham Lincoln famously said, “I get from my mother – God bless her.”

1858 Senate Report Regarding the “Outrages at Jaffa” – The Rape and Murder of the Dickson Family Colony

Chaim Weizmann Writes to Orde Wingate’s Widow About Wingate’s Death and Memorial

Truman, About to Implement the Truman Doctrine in Greece, Calls Greek-American Politicians “Connivers”

Reagan Stirringly Defends His Decision Not to Stop a Cop-Killer’s Execution

Frank Lloyd Wright, Infuriated by His “Obituaries,” Declares a Comeback

Theodor Herzl Sets Out to Establish the First Zionist Congress and Vows “the Jews Will Get Palestine!”

The 50th Anniversary of the Shootings at Kent State

Five Weeks After Having Been Shot and Almost Killed, Ronald Reagan is Pleased with Recovery

Rare Letter to Bereaved: President Nixon’s Response to the Kent State Shooting

David Ben Gurion on Anwar Sadat’s Wanting Peace in 1971: He Isn’t Convinced

Lincoln is “Not in a Sentimental Mood” Having Heard Reports of the Bloody Battle of the Wilderness

James K. Polk Gives Orders for a Fireproof Celebration for the Battle of Cerro Gordo in Washington

President John Tyler Says the Presidency is a Prison

President Fillmore Arranges to Attend Opening of the Railroad Line from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes

“Doomed to the Gallows” By Public Opinion, James Buchanan Says History Will Vindicate Him

Victory in Europe Day

Nazi Germany surrenders.
“The other day I visited a German internment camp. I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world!” – General Eisenhower.

Polk, Exhausted, Says He’s Feeling Better Now That He’s Out of Office, Then Dies a Month Later

Harry Truman Declares “in Spite of Palestine,” he had a “Grand Birthday”

An Early, and Uncommon, Warren G. Harding White House Card Signed, “Good Wishes!”

An Invitation to hear the Israel Declaration of Independence, May 14 1948

While “Driving Out” Indians From Little Bighorn, Custer Envisions the Mining Fortunes to be Made There

Truman Recognizes Israel: The Anniversary of Israel’s Founding

5 days before recognizing Israel, Truman writes to Clark Clifford, mentioning the pressure of Palestine.

The Anniversary of the Founding of the State of Israel

Palestine, says President Truman in February 1948, is a “matter of considerable disturbance” to be determined by the U.N.

Benjamin Harrison Names Solomon Hirsch Minister to Turkey, the Third Jew to Hold That Diplomatic Rank

Jack London, Hit Hard By the San Francisco Earthquake, Concentrates on Building His Yacht, “The Snark”

Contemporary Copy of Chase’s Letter to Abraham Lincoln in Support of General Hunter’s Emancipation Order

Abraham Lincoln Appoints Henry Ernest Goodman as Surgeon of Civil War Union Volunteer Army

John F. Kennedy: National Security and Future of the Space Program Depend on Ending Labor Strife Delays

Truman on the Recognition of the Jewish State and the “very dark” situation in Palestine

Millard Fillmore Asks Lincoln for a Favor; On the Back of the Letter, Lincoln Takes Steps to Oblige Him

Chaim N. Bialik on the Jewish Persecutions in the Diaspora and the Determination to Make a Home in Zion

Franklin Pierce Describes Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Last Night Alive on Their Trip to New England

Rare, Seemingly Singular Evidence, That John F. Kennedy Knew How to Fly: His 1944 Flight Logbook

The Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Franklin Pierce on the death of his dearest friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Theodore Roosevelt Inscribes Photo of His 1905 Inaugural Address With His Keystone “Square Deal” Credo

Abraham Lincoln’s Prayer To “The Almighty” For Himself And The Nation – A Singular Letter

“Occident” Subscriber Begs Rabbi Leeser to Write Abraham Lincoln and Convince Him to Stop the Civil War

Simon Wolf’s Original Contract For the Book “The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen”

The Beginning of the Peace Corps: President Kennedy Welcomes the First Volunteers

President Benjamin Harrison Appoints a Commissioner for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

Grover Cleveland, the Only President to Be Married in the White House, Writes His Bride About Wedding

James A. Garfield’s Appointment of the Anti-Semitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem

Confined for Two Years to the White House, President James K. Polk Tries to Plan an Out of Town Visit

President Benjamin Harrison Discusses a Letter Written by his Grandfather, William Henry Harrison

President Fillmore Makes an Appointment to See Governor Gibbs

General Eisenhower Approves a Soldier’s Request to Shoot Captured Reich Marshal Goering -“The Fat ____”

Lincoln Declares He is Not a “Man of Great Learning, or a Very Extraordinary One in Any Respect”

Lincoln was fifty-one years old, and in his own eyes, a common man, running for president against those infinitely more likely, and better favored, than himself. Lincoln’s identification of himself as unexceptional in any way reflected his intrinsic egalitarianism .

Lincoln Names Himself “The Humblest of All Whose Names Were Before the Convention” to Defeated Rival Cassius Clay

The Eyewitness Account of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination by the Physician Who Treated Him at the Scene

Grover Cleveland, First President to Marry in the White House, Handwrites an Invitation to His Wedding

Presidents’ Day: Newly Retired George Washington’s Daily Routine

Writing just two months after handing the presidency off to John Adams, Washington was a changed man. Having returned to Mount Vernon, and at last under the shadow of his own vine and fig-tree, he was, in fact, exuberant, wry – and surprisingly, funny.

Dark Horse Candidate James K. Polk Receives the Democratic Nomination

Polk, surprised to be nominated, says that the presidency is too important an office to be sought or declined.

President Grant Stays an Execution of African-American Who Murdered a Jewish Peddler

The John F. Kennedy Centenary

Kennedy’s Most Famous Words: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”

George Washington Describes His Daily Routine At Mount Vernon After 8 Years Of Neglect During His Presidency

Governor Hayes, Five Years Away From the Presidency, Tells His Jewish Confidant that He is Quitting Public Life Forever

Lincoln’s Jewish Friend from Springfield, Julius Hammerslough, Appeals to Rabbi Leeser to Help Fundraise for a Lincoln Memorial

George Washington Argues for a “Professional Man” to Supply Technical Guidance on Canal Infrastructure