May throughout history has proved to be a popular month for explorers, historic flights, and volatile volcanoes. It also saw the first package tour conducted and the first flight attendant take her post. Read on for other fascinating facts:

In 1497, Italian-born John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, to follow Columbus’ route to what he thought was Asia. The expedition reached land on June 24, probably at Cape Breton, and cruised along the south coast of Newfoundland. Cabot returned the following year to explore from Greenland to the Delaware River.

In 1504, Michelangelo’s statue of David was erected in Florence.

In 1506, explorer Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Valladolid, in northwest Spain. He was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, the son of a wool merchant and weaver. He had just completed his book of biblical commentary, “The Prophecies,” when he died.

In 1578, Martin Frobisher set sail from England, looking for a Northwest Passage to the Orient. He instead found the Hudson Strait. It was the explorer’s third and last voyage to Canada.

In 1603, Samuel de Champlain first landed in Canada, at Tadoussac, Que.

In 1626, Dutch colonist Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from local natives for cloth, beads and brass buttons said to be worth $24.

In 1688, the first stone was laid for Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Place Royal, Que. It is Canada’s oldest surviving church.

In 1808, Canadian explorer Simon Fraser began a trip down the British Columbia river that would bear his name.

In 1819, the first steam-propelled vessel to attempt a transatlantic crossing left Savannah, Ga. “The Savannah” arrived in Liverpool on June 20.

In 1832, the Rideau Canal was officially opened in Ottawa, linking the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario.

In 1859, the “Big Ben” clock at the Houses of Parliament in London began ticking.

In 1861, the first package vacation for a popular market was arranged by Thomas Cook. The Whitsuntide Working Men’s Excursion left London that day for a six-day trip to Paris.

In 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was run at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The winner was “Aristides.”

In 1881, the first sod was turned for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a company line.

In 1881, the excursion steamboat “Victoria” sank on the Thames River near London, Ont., with the loss of 181 lives.

In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened in New York. It was the world’s first steel-wire suspension bridge.

In 1876, a British polar expedition turned back on Ellesmere Island, about 650 km short of the North Pole, but the farthest northern point reached to that time.

In 1889, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was opened to the public.

In 1906, Orville and Wilbur Wright received a patent for the airplane.

In 1911, the Indianapolis 500 car race was inaugurated. The average speed of the first winner, Ray Harroun, was 119 km/h.

In 1912, Charles Saunders made Canada’s first parachute jump in Vancouver.

In 1918, the first US airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. On some of the stamps, the airplane was printed upside-down, making them collector’s items.

In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington DC in a ceremony attended by US President Warren G. Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, NY, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.

In 1930, Amy Johnson landed her “Gypsy Moth” plane at Darwin in northern Australia, the first woman to fly solo from England.

In 1930, registered nurse Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard an Oakland-to-Chicago flight operated by Boeing Air Transport (a forerunner of United Airlines).

In 1931, the $40-million Empire State Building was completed in New York. It held the title of the world’s tallest building for two decades.

In 1932, US aviator Amelia Earhart set off on her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, travelling from Newfoundland to Ireland.

In 1939, regular trans-Atlantic mail service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the “Yankee Clipper,” took off from Port Washington, NY, bound for Marseille, France.

In 1946, a plane crashed into the 58th floor of the Empire State Building in New York.

In 1976, the British and French Concordes made their first commercial flights from London and Paris, respectively, to Washington’s Dulles International Airport in just under four hours.

In 1977, the original “Orient Express” luxury train began its final Paris-to-Istanbul trip after 94 years of service.

In 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state erupted. The blast left 57 people dead, took 400 metres off the top of the mountain and blew an ash cloud around the world. Nearly 600 km of forest was blown over – or killed and left standing.

In 1992, the Montreal-based charter airline Nationair declared bankruptcy.

In 1994, Queen Elizabeth and French President Francois Mitterrand attended ceremonies in Calais, France, dedicating the tunnel under the English Channel linking Britain and France. The $20 billion “Chunnel” was hailed as a triumph for European unity. Regular passenger service began six months later.

In 2003, two-and-a-half decades of supersonic travel between New York and Paris came to an end as the last commercial flight of the Air France Concorde touched down in Paris. British Airways, the only other airline that flew the Concorde, retired its fleet at the end of October 2003.

In 2005, discount airline Jetsgo announced formal bankruptcy, setting the stage for the sale of the carrier’s remaining aircraft to help pay creditors an estimated $108 million.

In 2010, the space shuttle “Atlantis” blasted off for the 32nd and final time. Its first flight was in 1985.

In 2011, for a second consecutive year, an Icelandic volcano erupted and sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam some 20 km into the air. Over the next few days, hundreds of flights were cancelled across Europe, but it was not as disruptive as 2010, when 10 million passengers were stranded.

In 2012, private company SpaceX made history with the docking of its unmanned Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, marking the first time a business enterprise delivered a supply ship to the space station.

In 2017, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which wowed crowds for 146 years with its “Greatest Show on Earth,” performed its last show, at the Nassau County Coliseum in Uniondale, NY.

In 2020, the Quebec government pledged to loan up to US$200 million to support Cirque du Soleil, the live entertainment giant whose operations were devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced Cirque to cancel all 44 shows and lay off about 4,700 employees, the vast majority of its workforce.