Moments in Time: Ebony and Ivory
The History Channel
On May 11, 1659, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law banning the celebration of Christmas, with a prohibition on “feasting and similar satanic practices” accompanied by a five-shilling penalty. Nearly 40 years earlier, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, in similar Scrooge-like spirit, had actually (and personally) confiscated toys.
On May 12, 1903, cameraman H.J. Miles filmed President Theodore Roosevelt as he rode in a parade in his honor. The resulting movie, later played on nickelodeons in arcades across the country, was unusual not just because Roosevelt was one of the first presidents to have an official activity recorded in that medium, but because his carriage was escorted by the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, an all-Black company.
On May 13, 1920, the Socialist Party nominated Eugene V. Debs as its candidate for president in the upcoming November election, notably undeterred by the fact that he happened to be serving a decade-long sentence at an Atlanta federal penitentiary.
On May 14, 1973, Skylab, America’s first space station, was successfully launched into orbit around the earth. Eleven days later, astronauts Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz rendezvoused with the station, repaired a jammed solar panel and conducted scientific experiments during their 28-day stay aboard it.
On May 15, 1982, the Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder duet “Ebony and Ivory” grabbed the coveted top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, holding it for seven weeks and eventually becoming the biggest hit record of McCartney’s post-Beatles career.
On May 16, 1985, three scientists from the British Antarctic Survey announced, in the scientific journal “Nature,” their detection of abnormally low levels of ozone over the South Pole. Within two years, 46 nations signed the Montreal Protocol, pledging to phase out substances known to cause ozone depletion.
On May 17, 2004, Marcia Kadish and Tanya McCloskey of Malden, Massachusetts, tied the knot at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts, becoming the first legally married same-sex partners in the United States. That same day, 77 similar couples wed across the state, while hundreds more applied for marriage licenses.
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