On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. It was a program designed to grant public land to farmers at a small cost. The act allowed any man who was the head of household and at least twenty-one years old to have 160 acres of land, as long as the man settled on the land for five years and paid a small fee.
On May 22, 1455, the War of the Roses began. It was a thirty-year war in England between the Yorkists and Lancastrian forces about the power to rule England. It did not affect the common people very much, but it did thin the numbers of the nobility because so many of them died in battle.
On May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened. It took fourteen years to complete construction of the bridge, and twenty-seven people died while building it. For the first time in history, New York and Brooklyn were connected. The bridge stretched 1,595 over the East River and changed the course of New York City history.
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
On May 22, 1455, the War of the Roses began. It was a thirty-year war in England between the Yorkists and Lancastrian forces about the power to rule England. It did not affect the common people very much, but it did thin the numbers of the nobility because so many of them died in battle.
On May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened. It took fourteen years to complete construction of the bridge, and twenty-seven people died while building it. For the first time in history, New York and Brooklyn were connected. The bridge stretched 1,595 over the East River and changed the course of New York City history.