May 3 is World Press Freedom Day
Hug your Cat Day
National Raspberry Popover Day and National Raspberry Tart Day
National Chocolate Custard Day
National Day of Prayer
Lumpy Rug Day – “While some people think the day is all about carpet, its original tongue-in-cheek intent is more global than homey. Its purpose, according to “Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events,” is to tease “bigots …for shoving unwelcome facts under the rug.” After stowing too many cans of worms under the rug, the description of the holiday says, “defenders of the status quo obtain a new rug high enough to cover the unwanted facts.”…from ehow.com.
Birthday of Niccoló Machiavelli (May 3, 1469), Italian statesman and author of “The Prince”
1915 – The poem In Flanders Fields is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on May 3, 1915.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
In part because of the poem’s popularity, the poppy was adopted as the Flower of Remembrance for the war dead of Britain, France, the United States, Canada and other Commonwealth countries.
The 108-story Sears Tower (now named the Willis Tower) in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building in 1973.