This Day in History: May 28

Here’s a brief look back in time for this day, May 28.

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act is signed into law by 7th U.S. President Andrew Jackson. This formally legalized the forced relocation of Native Americans from their tribal lands as the federal government expands into the southern and western portions of the growing United States. While the Act only enshrined the peaceful negotiation of transferring land – like many treaties signed before – it too, was violated by the U.S. government. This set the stage for the Trail of Tears, a mass forced migration of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw peoples. It resulted in over 4,000 deaths.

In 1937, international vehicle conglomerate Volkswagen is founded in Nazi Germany. It was initially organized through the Nazi Party’s “Strength through Joy” program, which subsidized leisure activities for the German working class. Its mission would shift as the war pressed on, with the majority of its cars being manufactured for war by concentration camp prisoners. Despite its controversial beginnings, it has since become a symbol of German engineering as the decades pass.