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This Day In History

Activism

1914 President Woodrow Wilson signs a Proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother's Day in the United States, led the movement in honor of her own mother, who had frequently expressed a desire for the establishment of such a holiday. As the years passed, Jarvis grew disenchanted with the growing commercialization of the observation (she herself did not profit from the day) and even attempted to have Mother's Day rescinded.

Arts

2010 88-year-old actress Betty White, known for her roles on “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” becomes the oldest person to host the long-running, late-night TV sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). White’s hosting gig came about, in part, after hundreds of thousands of her fans signed onto a Facebook campaign rallying for it.

Aviation and Aeronautics

1934 Aviator Jean Batten departed from England, bound for Australia. She would set the women's solo record, flying 16,900 kilometres in 14 days 22 hours 30 minutes, breaking Amy Johnson's record by more than four days.

Crime

1988 Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. She was the first person to be found guilty of violating the Federal Anti-Tampering Act after putting cyanide in Excedrin capsules in an effort to kill her husband.