May 5 · This Day in America
The Soviets got there first — Gagarin orbited the Earth three weeks ago, and the whole country feels it. So at 9:34 a.m. on May 5, 1961, an estimated 45 million Americans watch a small Redstone rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral with Alan Shepard strapped into a capsule he named Freedom 7, barely big enough to wear. The flight lasts fifteen minutes. He never circles the planet; he arcs 116 miles up, sees the curve of the world go blue and dark, splashes down in the Atlantic. Fifteen minutes. It was enough. Three weeks later, on the strength of this single brief hop, President Kennedy stood before Congress and committed the nation to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out. America had not won the race. But it had just decided, in front of everyone, exactly how far it intended to go.
Source: www.nasa.gov
Also on this day · 1862
At Puebla, an outnumbered Mexican army under General Ignacio Zaragoza — born in Texas when it was still Mexico — turns back a far larger French force. The win didn't end the war, but it slowed a European power on America's southern flank during the Civil War. Today Cinco de Mayo is most widely celebrated not in Mexico but in the United States, a date the two countries share.
Source: blogs.loc.gov
“What a beautiful view.”Alan Shepard, aboard Freedom 7, 1961