On May 4, 1804, an expedition of 45 men led by U.S. Army Captain William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson, departs St. Louis to explore territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase the year before. The two and a half year mission would bring back a wealth of information about what is now the American Northwest.
On May 14, 1796, Edward Jenner, an English country doctor from Gloucestershire, scratches fluid drawn from a cowpox blister (cowbox is blisters raised on a cow's udder) into the skin of an 8-year old boy. While still a medical student, Jenner noticed that milkmaids who had contracted a disease called cowpox, which caused blistering on cow’s udders, did not catch smallpox. On July 1, Jenner inoculates the boy again, this time with smallpox matter, and no disease developed. Jenner has developed the first successful vaccine for smallpox, which has killed millions over the centuries. Jenner's discovery leads to vaccines against numerous deadly diseases over the next 200 years. By 1970, smallpox is declared eliminated worldwide.
On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. Ben-Gurion is Israel’s first premier.
On May 14, 1973,
Skylab, America’s first space station, is successfully launched into an orbit around the earth. Built from the recovered third stage of one of the Saturn V moon rockets,
Skylab would be manned for 700 hours off and on over the next year, her crews (3 different crews of 3 occupied her) bringing back valuable data about the effects of living in space long-term. Five years after the final mission,
Skylab's orbit deteriorated and burned up in the atmosphere, scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and the Australian Outback.
On May 14, 1998, the final episode of
Seinfeld airs on NBC. The program, starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld as himself, is described throughout its 9-year run as "a show about nothing." Its also one of the highest rated on TV, though the 75 minute finale, in which the main characters are arrested, convicted and jailed for violating a small Massachusetts town's "Good Samaritan" law, received mixed reviews from fans and critics alike.
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