As part of the Carmine Guica Young Historians (CGYH) program, the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) provides teachers, students, families and the community with information on town, state and national history for the month ahead. This post is also available at the CHS blog.
GENERAL INFORMATION
• If you have questions, want to arrange for a program or need more information, call 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com
• To learn more about the various programs that CHS offers for students and community, as well as opportunities close to Cavendish, go to the Resource Page.
• The CHS Cares Closet, located next to the steps of the Museum is free, open 24/7, and offers a wide array of things to do, read etc. for both children and adults.
UPCOMING TRIPS/EVENTS: If you would like your home learner to participate in these programs, please contact the respective teachers for their grades.
• April 26 (Wednesday): 6th grade trip to Sturbridge Village.
• May 3 (Wednesday): 6th grade Cemetery cleaning/laying of flags on veterans graves
• June 1 (Thursday): 3 & 5th grade trip to Shaker Village in Enfiield , NH
• June 6 (Tuesday): 6th grade Preserve & Serve Neighbor spring cleaning
• July 29 (Saturday): Annual Town Wide Tag Sale from 9-2. If a class wants to do a fundraiser, this is a good day to do it. Email or call numbers above for more information.
Arbor Day (April 28th): Vermont celebrates this date the first Friday in May. That will be May 5th this year. Learn more about how VT celebrates and how you can participate.
Green Up Day: Celebrated throughout Vermont on May 6 (Saturday), you can pick up bags from the Town Office now and start Greening up. You can deposit trash, recyclables etc. at the Cavendish Transfer Station for free. Together we can keep Cavendish clean!
Memorial Day: A day to remember those who have died in service to their country. Called Decoration Day, it was celebrated and continues to be celebrated on May 31 in Cavendish. However, it was changed to the last Monday in May, and is often thought of as the first weekend of summer. Prior to Covid, CTES and the town have held a Memorial Day celebration, with speeches at the school, followed by a parade ending at Proctorsville or Cavendish High Street Cemetery. History of Memorial Day.
HISTORICAL DATES FOR MAY
May 5: Cinco de Mayo, which means 5th of May, has now become a time to celebrate Mexican heritage. It is a national holiday in remembrance of the Battle of Puebla in 1862, in which Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza, outnumbered three to one, defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.
May 10: 1869 - The newly constructed tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways were first linked at Promontory Point, Utah. A golden spike was driven by Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific
May 14 1607 - The first permanent English settlement in America was established at Jamestown, Virginia, by a group of royally chartered Virginia Company settlers from Plymouth, England. Historic Jamestown https://historicjamestowne.org/
• 1804 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed St. Louis on their expedition to explore the Northwest.
• 1796 - Smallpox vaccine was developed by Dr. Edward Jenner, a physician in rural England. He coined the term vaccination for the new procedure of injecting a milder form of the disease into healthy persons resulting in immunity. Within 18 months, 12,000 persons in England had been vaccinated and the number of smallpox deaths dropped by two-thirds. The origin of Vaccines
May 20 1927 - Charles Lindbergh, a 25-year-old aviator, took off at 7:52 a.m. from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, in the Spirit of St. Louis attempting to win a $25,000 prize for the first solo nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. Thirty-three hours later, after a 3,600 mile journey, he landed at Le Bourget, Paris, earning the nickname "Lucky Lindy" and becoming an instant worldwide hero. From New York to Paris 1927.
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She departed Newfoundland, Canada, at 7 p.m. and landed near Londonderry, Ireland, completing a 2,026-mile flight in about 13 hours. Five years later, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, she disappeared while trying to fly her twin-engine plane around the equator. National Air and Space Museum website for Earhart.
May 21, 1881 - The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton.
May 24, 1844 - Telegraph inventor Samuel Morse sent the first official telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?" from the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
May 25, 1787 - The Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with delegates from seven states forming a quorum.
May 25, 1994 - After 20 years in exile, Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland from Cavendish, VT. He had been expelled from Soviet Russia in 1974 after his three-volume work exposing the Soviet prison camp system, The Gulag Archipelago, was published in the West. Solzhenitsyn Bids Farewell to Cavendish
Solzhenitsyn’s Return to Russia
