To illustrate the depth one can access in our collections, we have compiled relevant archival imagery to frame a diverse cultural, political and chronological retrospective of noteworthy anniversaries. Be sure to bookmark this section as the calendar is a work in progress and will continue to expand.
| May | Year | Anniversary | Event |
| 1 | 1672 | 336th | Joseph Addison, writer and journalist, born in England. |
| 1 | 1967 | 41st | Elvis Presley marries 21-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, in Las Vegas |
| 2 | 1862 | 146th | Confederates evacuate Yorktown during the Peninsular campaign |
| 2 | 1957 | 51st | Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the witchhunt against Communists, dies |
| 2 | 1972 | 36th | J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director, dies. |
| 3 | 1802 | 206th | Washington DC incorporated as a city. |
| 3 | 1937 | 71st | Margaret Mitchell receives a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone with the Wind" |
| 3 | 1947 | 61st | Japan's new constitution strips Hirohito of all but symbolic power |
| 4 | 1872 | 136th | A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General, anti-Communist, born |
| 4 | 1977 | 31st | Journalist David Frost interviews Richard Nixon about corruption in his administration |
| 5 | 1847 | 161st | The American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia |
| 5 | 1862 | 146th | Union troops force a Confederate retreat at the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia |
| 5 | 1877 | 131st | Sitting Bull leads his people into Canada, fleeing the U.S. Army |
| 6 | 1862 | 146th | Henry David Thoreau, U.S. poet and philosopher, dies. |
| 6 | 1862 | 146th | The Confederates withdraw from Williamsburg and Union troops occupy the town |
| 6 | 1882 | 126th | Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese immigrants from the US |
| 6 | 1957 | 51st | Senator John F. Kennedy wins a Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Profiles in Courage" |
| 7 | 1812 | 196th | Robert Browning, British poet, born. |
| 7 | 1862 | 146th | Confederate forces attack at Eltham's Landing during the Peninsular Campaign |
| 8 | 1972 | 36th | Nixon's mining of North Vietnam's harbors, Operation Pocket Money, begins |
| 9 | 1502 | 506th | Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his final trip to the New World |
| 9 | 1887 | 121st | Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London for Queen Victoria |
| 9 | 1977 | 31st | President Carter tackles Social Security |
| 10 | 1832 | 176th | William Grace, businessman, New York City mayor, and "Pirate of Peru," born in Ireland |
| 10 | 1837 | 171st | The devastating Panic of 1837 wipes out U.S. banks, small businesses, and farmers |
| 10 | 1862 | 146th | Union victory at the Battle of Plum Run Bend, near Ft. Pillow |
| 10 | 1872 | 136th | Victoria Woodhull is first woman nominated for U.S. president, with Frederick Douglass as VP |
| 10 | 1877 | 131st | President Rutherford Hayes installs the first telephone in White House |
| 11 | 1852 | 156th | Charles Warren Fairbanks, Teddy Roosevelt's vice-president, born |
| 12 | 1902 | 106th | John Mitchell calls for a mineworkers strike by the United Mine Workers |
| 12 | 2002 | 6th | Jimmy Carter is the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Castro's 1959 revolution |
| 13 | 1607 | 401st | Jamestown, an English colony, is founded in Virginia |
| 13 | 1737 | 271st | William Petty-FitzMaurice, first marquess of Landsdowne and prime minister of England, born. |
| 13 | 1792 | 216th | Pope Pius IX born. |
| 13 | 1842 | 166th | Arthur S. Sullivan, British composer of fourteen Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, born. |
| 14 | 1787 | 221st | U.S. Constitutional Convention delegates begin to assemble in Philadelphia |
| 14 | 1842 | 166th | Alfred, Lord Tennyson, publishes his popular "Poems" |
| 14 | 1897 | 111st | Guglielmo Marconi sends the first wireless telegraph |
| 14 | 1942 | 66th | U.S. Women's Auxiliary Army Corps established |
| 15 | 1602 | 406th | British navigator Bartholomew Gosnold lays claim to Cape Cod |
| 15 | 1862 | 146th | U.S. Department of Agriculture created by Congress and Pres. Lincoln |
| 15 | 1882 | 126th | Pres. Arthur forms a commission to investigate protectionist tariffs |
| 16 | 1897 | 111st | The Vitagraph company shoots its first fiction film, "The Burglar on the Roof" |
| 16 | 1972 | 36th | U.S. bombing of North Vietnam destroys main fuel line |
| 17 | 1792 | 216th | New York Stock Exchange founded by brokers meeting under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street |
| 17 | 1827 | 181st | Future president Andrew Johnson (age 18) marries Eliza McCardle (age 16) |
| 18 | 1917 | 91st | Congress passes the Selective Service Act, drafting soldiers to fight in World War I |
| 19 | 1897 | 111st | Oscar Wilde released after two years of jail for "homosexual practices" |
| 20 | 1862 | 146th | The Homestead Act passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln |
| 20 | 1927 | 81st | The "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's plane, takes off for Paris |
| 21 | 1832 | 176th | The first Democratic National Convention held at the Athenaeum in Baltimore |
| 21 | 1927 | 81st | The "Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's plane, lands in Paris |
| 22 | 1802 | 206th | Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, First Lady, dies |
| 22 | 1947 | 61st | Truman Doctrine is enacted, appropriating aid for Greece and Turkey |
| 23 | 1937 | 71st | The fabulously wealthy John D. Rockefeller dies |
| 25 | 1787 | 221st | Constitutional Convention called to order in Philadelphia |
| 25 | 1862 | 146th | Stonewall Jackson defeats Nathaniel Banks at the First Battle of Winchester |
| 25 | 1927 | 81st | Ford Motor Company announces the end of the Model T, replaced by the Model A |
| 26 | 1837 | 171st | Washington Roebling, who succeeded his father as chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, born |
| 26 | 1937 | 71st | Violence breaks out at Ford Motors |
| 27 | 1647 | 361st | First execution of a U.S. woman as a witch, Achsah Young, in Massachusetts |
| 27 | 1837 | 171st | James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, U.S. frontier marshal, born |
| 27 | 1937 | 71st | Golden Gate Bridge opens |
| 28 | 1807 | 201st | Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist and biologist, born |
| 28 | 1892 | 116th | Sierra Club founded by John Muir |
| 28 | 1957 | 51st | Baseball owners vote to allow the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to California |
| 29 | 1877 | 131st | John Lothrop Motley, U.S. historian and diplomat, is born |
| 29 | 1917 | 91st | John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president, is born |
| 29 | 1932 | 76th | The Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington DC |
| 30 | 1862 | 146th | Confederate Gen. Beauregard abandons Corinth, but tricks Halleck into thinking he's still there |
| 30 | 1922 | 86th | Former Pres. William Taft dedicates the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC |
| 31 | 1862 | 146th | McClellan drives back Confederate Gen. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), VA |