Taken on May 11, 1945, this photo shows the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill burning after being hit by two Japanese kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Okinawa.

On May 10, 1869, in a ceremony at Promontory, Utah, the last rails were laid and the last spike driven, completing the first transcontinental railroad through the United States.

On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day "as a public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

On May 8, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced "Victory-in-Europe" day, following the surrender of Germany on May 7. Coincidentally, May 8 was also Truman’s 61st birthday.

The unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich was signed in the early morning hours of Monday, May 7, 1945 at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) at Reims in northeastern France. Present were representatives of the four Allied Powers—France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States—and the three Germany officers delegated by German President Karl Doenitz—Gen. Alfred Jodl, who had alone been authorized to sign the surrender document; Maj. Wilhelm Oxenius, an aide to Jodl; and Adm. Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, one of the German chief negotiators. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, SHAEF chief of staff, led the Allied delegation as the representative of General Eisenhower, who had refused to meet with the Germans until the surrender had been accomplished.

Approved May 6, 1882, The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. It provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.

Taken May 5, 1955, this photograph shows the effects of a nuclear detonation on a traditional wood frame house. This test was conducted as part of "Operation Cue," a civil defense exercise designed to study the effects and impact of nuclear weapons in a variety of areas, including residential structures.