On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson (above) issued a
presidential proclamation that officially established the first
national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers.

The idea for a “Mother’s Day” is credited by some to Julia Ward
Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both
suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace.

In his first Mother’s Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the
holiday offered a chance to “[publicly express] our love and
reverence for the mothers of our country.”

J. C. Leyendecker painted ‘Pot of Hyacinths’ to be used
on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post’s May 30, 1914
issue.

President Trump (above) said he is directing the Bureau of
Prisons, Department of Justice, the FBI and Department
of Homeland Security to reopen a "substantially enlarged
and rebuilt" Alcatraz, "to house America’s most ruthless
and violent offenders."

The island was developed in the mid-19th century with
facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a
military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into
a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.

Alcatraz ultimately closed in 1963 after its island operations
proved far more costly than mainland-based prisons.

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, was killed by U.S.
forces during a raid on his compound hideout in Pakistan.

The notorious, 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist
network of Islamic extremists, had been the target of a nearly
decade-long international manhunt.

The raid began around 1 a.m. local time (4 p.m. EST on May 1,
2011 in the United States), when 23 U.S. Navy SEALs in two
Black Hawk helicopters descended on the compound in
Abbottabad, a tourist and military center north of Pakistan’s
capital, Islamabad. One of the helicopters crash-landed into
the compound but no one aboard was hurt.

During the raid, which lasted approximately 40 minutes, five
people, including bin Laden and one of his adult sons, were
killed by U.S. gunfire. No Americans were injured in the assault.

A vendor walks past a sand sculpture of al-Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden created by Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik on a beach in Puri in the eastern Indian state of
Orissa on May 2, 2011. (Reuters)

On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn in as the first
American president and delivered the first inaugural speech at
Federal Hall in New York City. Elements of the ceremony set
tradition; presidential inaugurations have deviated little in the
two centuries since Washington’s inauguration.

Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885)

Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War leader and 18th president of the
United States, was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant,
Ohio.

The son of a tanner, Grant showed little enthusiasm for joining
his father’s business, so the elder Grant enrolled his son at
West Point in 1839.

Though Grant later admitted he had no interest in the military
apart from honing his equestrian skills, he graduated in 1843
and went on to serve in the Mexican-American War, though
he opposed it on moral grounds. He then left his beloved wife
and children again to fulfill a tour of duty in California and
Oregon.