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Today in History, May 10th

On May 10, 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory, Utah. Plus Churchill becomes prime minister and Mandela takes office.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 2 min read Sources checked

Published May 10, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

May 10 is best known for 1869, when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory, Utah, completing the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. The date also saw Winston Churchill become British prime minister in 1940 and Nelson Mandela inaugurated as South Africa’s president in 1994.

The big story: The transcontinental railroad is completed (1869)

Getting from one coast to the other used to mean months in a wagon train or weeks on a ship. Congress set out to fix that with the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, which handed two companies public land and government loans to build a line across the continent. The Union Pacific laid track west from Omaha, and the Central Pacific pushed east from Sacramento. Union Pacific crews were largely Irish-American Civil War veterans. The Central Pacific relied overwhelmingly on Chinese immigrants, who worked grueling 12-hour days for less pay than white workers. On May 10, 1869, the two lines met at Promontory, Utah, where the presidents of both railroads drove a ceremonial last spike. Nearly 2,000 miles of track had been finished ahead of schedule and under budget. A trip across the country now took days, and the West was suddenly much closer to everyone else.

More events on May 10

Year	What happened
1773	Britain’s Parliament passed the Tea Act to help the struggling East India Company.
1774	Louis XVI became king of France.
1775	The Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga, and the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
1857	The Indian Mutiny broke out at Meerut.
1863	Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died of pneumonia after being accidentally wounded by his own troops.
1865	Union forces captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia.
1871	The Treaty of Frankfurt ended the Franco-Prussian War.
1872	The Equal Rights Party nominated Victoria Woodhull for president, the first woman nominated for the office.
1924	J. Edgar Hoover became acting director of the Bureau of Investigation, which later became the FBI.
1940	Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister.
1994	Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first Black president.
2002	Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison for spying for Moscow.

Born on May 10

1899: Fred Astaire, American dancer and actor, born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska.
1958: Ellen Ochoa, astronaut and the first Hispanic woman in space, born in Los Angeles.
1960: Bono, Irish singer of U2, born Paul David Hewson in Dublin.