(NASA) – America’s first space station, Skylab, launched into
Earth’s orbit on this day in history, May 14, 1973.
The unmanned space station blasted into space on a modified
Saturn V rocket at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
According to Space.com., this marked the last time the Saturn
V rocket was used in spaceflight.
Artist’s concept of Skylab space station cluster in Earth’s
orbit.
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849)
On May 13, 1846, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly votes in
favor of President James K. Polk’s request to declare war on
Mexico in a dispute over Texas.
Under the threat of war, the United States had refrained from
annexing Texas after the latter won independence from Mexico
in 1836.
But in 1844, President John Tyler restarted negotiations with
the Republic of Texas, culminating with a Treaty of Annexation.
The treaty was defeated by a wide margin in the Senate because
it would upset the slave state/free state balance between North
and South and risked war with Mexico, which had broken off
relations with the United States.
But shortly before leaving office and with the support of President
-elect Polk, Tyler managed to get the joint resolution passed on
March 1, 1845. Texas was admitted to the Union on December 29.
llustration: General Zachary Taylor rides his white horse at
the Battle of Palo Alto near present-day Brownsville, Texas,
8 May 1846.
The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby was found
on May 12, 1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped
from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.
Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years
earlier when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic,
and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh discovered a ransom note
in their 20-month-old child’s empty room on March 1.
The kidnapper had used a ladder (below) to climb up to the open
second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room.
In barely legible English, the ransom note (below) demanded
$50,000. The crime captured the attention of the entire nation.
Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
