May 12 in history — On This Day

A photograph taken after the 1871 fire can make Chicago look as though its future had been decided by a wall of flame. A view from around 1905 tells a different story: tall offices, busy transport routes and commercial streets crowded again.

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May

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AI History Recreations

Politics

American diplomat Thomas Wasson dies after a shooting in Jerusalem

War & Conflict

American troops take Hamburger Hill

Space

Discovery launches with the Hubble Space Telescope

Technology

Samuel Morse receives an electric telegraph patent

History

New York opens the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations

Barbie is introduced at a New York toy fair

Scientific American begins publication

Crime & Justice

Joetha Collier is murdered in Mississippi

John Tunstall is killed in New Mexico

Leno and Rosemary LaBianca are murdered in Los Angeles

Science

A criticality accident exposes Louis Slotin to radiation

Einstein Arrives in America as a Refugee

Chicago Pile-1 Achieves a Controlled Chain Reaction

Medicine & Health

The First American IVF Baby Is Born

The First Successful Human Kidney Transplant

Nature & Disasters

Market Street Before and After the 1906 Earthquake

The Iroquois Theatre Fire

The Endangered Species Act Is Signed

Exploration

The First Flight Around the World Returns to Seattle

Magellan's Expedition Enters the Pacific

Nellie Bly Begins Her Journey Around the World

Sport

Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0: The Game Behind the Impossible Score

Mike Tyson Becomes the Youngest Heavyweight Titleholder

Rutgers and Princeton Play the First Intercollegiate Football Game

Art & Literature

The Ninth Street Show opens in New York

Moose Murders opens and closes on Broadway

The New Yorker publishes its first issue

Music

Stravinsky’s Orpheus premieres in New York

Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial

The Kennedy Center opens with Bernstein’s Mass

Film & TV

Edison’s laboratory demonstrates a prototype Kinetoscope

Disney’s Three Little Pigs premieres

The Wizard of Oz has its Hollywood premiere

The Story Behind the Photo

Chicago After the Fire: From Burned Blocks to a New Skyline

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The Road to the Moon

Fires That Changed Cities

The Age of Invention

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My Birthday in History

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