Brilliant Naval Victory on the Mississippi River, Near Fort Wright, May 10, 1862.

By the Union Flotilla of 6 Gunboats commanded by Com. C. H. Davis; and the Rebel fleet of 3 Iron-clads, under Hollins.
The action lasted one hour..
Two of the Rebel gunboats were blown up, and one sunk, when the remainder retired precipitately under the guns of the fort.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US

On May 10, 1893, Engine 999, a steam locomotive pulling the Empire State Express, set a world land speed record by reaching 112.5 miles per hour. Operated by the New York Central Railroad, the train ran between Syracuse and Buffalo, New York. At the time, this achievement made Engine 999 the fastest land vehicle in the world, a record it held for nearly a decade.

Image from LOC, no known restrictions 

On May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen led his Green Mountain Boys in a swift capture of Fort Ticonderoga. A British officer demanded to know by what authority the fort had been entered and Allen replied “In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”

Image from NYPL Digital Library
via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US

Joining of the Central Pacific Jupiter and the Union Pacific No. 119 at Promontory, Utah

– May 10, 1869

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A Currier & Ives print titled The Death of “Stonewall” Jackson on May 10, 1863 in Virginia 

Image via Library of Congress, no known restrictions 

“On the Yacht Namouna, Venice”

– 1890

A scene of the lavish lifestyle of American James Gordon Bennett Jr. (publisher of the New York Herald.) The Namouna was Bennett’s yacht and he is shown (seated) dressed in his white suit while relaxing with distinguished guests.

James Gordon Bennett Jr. was born on May 10, 1841 in New York City.

Painting by Julius LeBlanc Stewart via Wikimedia public domain

The first official observances of Mother’s Day were held on May 10, 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Image from NMGiovannucci CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The USS United States, the first of the original six authorized U.S. Navy frigates, was launched on May 10, 1797.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain 

A photo of J. Edgar Hoover at desk, holding a pen, taken about 100 years ago which was the same year he became Director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) on May 10, 1924.
 
He remained in the position when the BOI became the FBI in 1935 and served as the Director of the FBI until 1972.

Image via LOC, no known restrictions 

On today’s date May 10, 1899, Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska.

Photo: Fred (left) and his sister Adele Astaire shown in a publicity photograph for “A Rainy Saturday” in 1906 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On May 10, 1851, when John Wilkes Booth turned 13, his father, Junius Brutus Booth, and mother, Mary Ann Holmes, were officially wed in Baltimore, Maryland. This legal union came shortly after Junius’ estranged wife, Adelaide Delannoy Booth, was granted a divorce on the grounds of adultery, formally ending their long-separated marriage.

Image of John Wilkes Booth via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Peyton Randolph, the first President of First Continental Congress, began his brief 14 day term as Third President of Continental Congress when Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775.

Image of Peyton Randolph via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Lobby card showing American actress Mae Murray with Monte Blue in the silent film Peacock Alley in 1922

Mae Murray, who appeared in over 40 films between 1916-1931, was born on May 10, 1885 in New York City.

Image: Tiffany Productions / Metro Pictures Corporation via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

…Jefferson Davis, President of The Confederate States of America, captured…

“Two miles northeast of Irwinsville, Ga., at early 
dawn on May 10th, Davis and his party were surprised by a troop of United States cavalry under the command of Colonel Benjamin D. Pritchard. Aroused by the mistaken firing of two parties of Union forces, the President was apprised of his danger. He dressed hurriedly and in the dark. *Mrs. Davis aided him and undoubtedly caused him to put on one of her garments and, at the last moment, threw a shawl about his shoulders in the hope that the disguise might enable him to escape the vigilance of his pursuers.* (*Debated*)
What woman would not have done so, and what husband thus pressed and under the full conviction that capture meant death would have refused a wife’s tearful entreaties? And the ruse came near being successful. Davis had gone some distance from the tent and from the centre of the scene when in the gray dawn he was detected and captured. He was humiliated and ashamed of his garb as any other man would have been. For a moment he thought of fighting his way through the enemy’s cordon or of giving up his life in the effort. Drawing a bowie-knife and moving toward his captors, he was nevertheless brought to give up his desperate resolve when a dozen revolvers sprang from the belts of Pritchard’s men. A moment later he contemplated a sudden attack on a horseman standing near him. His aim was, thanks to the cavalry training of his young manhood, to throw his captor from the saddle quickly, mount the steed himself, and hasten away to the southward as fast as horse flesh could take him. Mrs. Davis, however, seized him fast around the arms and rendered the feat impossible. He was now conducted to Macon and there turned over to General James H. Wilson, the highest United States officer in this region. The career of President Davis was at an end. Henceforth history knows him only as a helpless prisoner or private country gentleman.”

Excerpt from: Jefferson Davis by William Edward Dodd, published in 1907 
https://archive.org/details/doddsjefferson00doddrich/page/372
Source says not in copyright 

Before being pardoned, Davis would spend 2 years as a prisoner of The Federal Government

Image: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, disguised as a woman and captured by Union soldiers, Georgia, 1865.” New York Public Library Digital Collections.
No known restrictions

Richard Kline, Joyce DeWitt, John Ritter, Don Knotts and Priscilla Barnes at the Three’s Company 150th Episode Party in May 1983

The 150th episode of Three’s Company “Borrowing Trouble” aired on May 10, 1983 

Image via Alamy

Hand-on-the-ear announcer, Gary Owens, of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, was born on May 10, 1934 in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Later in his life he wrote a book titled “How to Make a Million Dollars With Your Voice (Or Lose Your Tonsils Trying)” and was married to his wife Arleta for nearly six decades. 

Image via Alamy

The Society of American Magicians was founded on May 10, 1902.

 Image of “Houdini’s Vanishing Elephant” that appeared in the Society of American Magicians Monthly in 1918 via NYPL Digital Collections, no known restrictions