On this day in history, May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson
(above) issued a proclamation for Americans to show a public expression of reverence to mothers through the celebration of
Mother’s Day.

"Proclamation 1268 – Mother’s Day" stated, in part, "Whereas,
by a Joint Resolution approved May 8, 1914, designating the
second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day, and for other purposes,
the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation
calling upon the government officials to display the United
States flag on all government buildings," according to The
American Presidency Project of the University of California
Santa Barbara.

The proclamation continued, "And the people of the United
States [can] display the flag at their homes or other suitable
places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression
of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis
(September 30, 1832 – May 9, 1905)

The first unofficial Mother’s Day observances
were organized by West Virginia resident Anna
Jarvis and held in Grafton, West Virginia, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1908,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

On this day in history, May 8, 1945, President Harry Truman
announced to the American people that Nazi Germany’s
forces had surrendered in World War II — and that "the
flags of freedom fly all over Europe."

The day has been known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E
Day, with celebrations erupting all around the globe to
mark the end of World War II in Europe.

The war had been raging for nearly five years when U.S.
and Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy,
France, on June 6, 1944, as defense.gov notes.

1938

On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. 
was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space
capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel
into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes
and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,
was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA).

The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a
sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper
Inverness Courier relates an account of a local couple who
claim to have seen “an enormous animal rolling and plunging
on the surface.” The story of the “monster” (a moniker chosen
by the Courier editor) becomes a media phenomenon, with
London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and
a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of
the beast.