1. The first gas-powered automobile race in the United States was held on May 29, 1895, in Chicago. The race was organized by the Chicago Times-Herald newspaper and covered a distance of 54 miles.

2. May 29, 1919, marked the first transatlantic flight in which a U.S. Navy seaplane flew from Newfoundland to Lisbon, Portugal. The flight covered a distance of 3,100 miles and took over 22 hours to complete.

3. On May 29, 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The memorial was designed by Illinois-born architect Henry Bacon and features a statue of Abraham Lincoln by sculptor Daniel Chester French.

4. May 29, 1953, was the date that the first ascent of Mount Everest was accomplished by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Although this historic event took place in the Himalayas, many Illinois climbers have since gone on to scale the world's highest peak.

5. In 2015, May 29 marked the end of a 140-day budget impasse in Illinois that had caused major financial problems for the state. Governor Bruce Rauner signed a budget deal that finally resolved the deadlock, but not before the state had incurred billions of dollars in unpaid bills and interest payments.