Author Archives: Linda

Clean up Your Room Day
National Train Day
Confederate Memorial Day, a state holiday in both North and South Carolina, honoring the memory of the Confederate soldiers and civilians lost during the Civil War.  North and South Carolina, mark the anniversaries of the death of Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (a general in the Confederate army) in 1863 and the capture of Jefferson Davis in 1865.

On May 10, 1503, Christopher Columbus visited the Cayman Islands and named them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.

Jacques Cartier visited Newfoundland in 1534.

The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Tea Act, on May 10, 1773. It is designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette became King and Queen of France on May 10, 1774. They were executed in 1793.

In 1775, representatives from the Thirteen Colonies began the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Fort Ticonderoga Day, observed at Ticonderoga, New York, marking the capture of the fort by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in 1775

May 10, 1797, the First Navy ship, the “USS United States,” is launched

First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declared war on the United States of America on May 10, 1801.

The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point) with the golden spike in 1869.

Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for President of the United States in 1872.

In 1893 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.

J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 10, 1940, and remains so until his death in 1972.

May 10, 1940 – Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on the same day that Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Bill Haley & His Comets release “Rock Around the Clock” in 1954. It is the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

National Tourism Day
Spring Day, a holiday in Scotland to honor the season
National Roast Leg of Lamb Day

May 7 should be honored as a day of remarkable achievements in poetry and music. It is the birthday of Robert Browning, Johannes Brahms, Peter Tchaikovsky, and the premier of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the release of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” by Glenn Miller.

On May 7, 1429, Joan of Arc ended the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and leading the final charge. The victory marked a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War.

The city of New Orleans was founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville in 1718.

Birthday of Robert Browning (May 7, 1812) , English poet, husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. His poems include “Home Thoughts From Abroad” (O to be in England now that April’s there…), “My Last Dutchess”, and “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”.

World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria on May 7, 1824. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer’s supervision. Best known is Movement 4, commonly called “Ode to Joy”. You Tube has many videos of this song including some flash mob scenes. Here’s one orchestral version:

Birthday of Johannes Brahms (May 7,1833), German composer.

Birthday of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840), Russian composer.

George Eastman patents “Kodak box camera” in 1888.

1904 – “Flexible Flyer” trademark registered.

May 7, 1914 – US Congress established Mother’s Day.

1915 – World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.

Glenn Miller recorded “Chattanooga Choo Choo” for RCA on May 7, 1941.

The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, was first published on May 7, 1952 by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.

Michigan ratified a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution, making the 27th Amendment law. It was submitted to the states for ratification in September 1789 and became part of the United States Constitution in May 1992, a record setting period of 202 years, 7 months and 12 days. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.

Amendment XXVII

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched on its first mission on on this day in 1992.

Beverage Day
National Tourist Appreciation Day
National Crepe Suzette Day

No Diet Day

1536 – King Henry VIII of England ordered English-language Bibles be placed in every church.

1682 – Louis XIV of France moved his court to the Palace of Versailles.

Birthday of Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856), Austrian physician, founder of psychoanalysis.

Birthday of Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary (May 6, 1856), American Arctic explorer, first to reach the North Pole in 1909.

On May 6, 1861, Richmond, Virginia was declared the new capital of the Confederate States of America.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

1910 – George V became King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII. George was a grandson of Queen Victoria and a grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II.

From On this day.com Nine Kings in One Room: (Click on picture for larger view)

Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarves, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and King of Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

Edward VII died on 6 May 1910 after a short reign of nine years. His funeral was notable for the enormous assemblage of foreign royalty. In a mere four years, the picture would be antiquated for another reason: it would be the last great gathering of royals before the outbreak of World War I, where many of the nations represented would be at war with each other.

New Deal: Executive Order 7034 created the Works Progress Administration on May 6, 1935.

Hindenburg disaster: On May 6, 1937, the German Zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people were killed. Interesting reading at The Hindenburg Disaster: 9 Surprising Facts written by Christopher Klein (published May 4, 2012 at History.com)

1941 – At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performed his first USO show.

1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.

1954 – Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

National Enchilada Day – Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Oyster Day

May 5, 1494 – Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Jamaica and claimed it for Spain.

Birthday of Karl Marx (1818) , German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary, author of “Das Kapital” and The Communist Manifesto, available at next door estore.com

Emperor Napoleon I died in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean on May 5, 1821.

Cinco de Mayo, a holiday in Mexico celebrating the defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

May 5, 1877, during the Indian Wars, Sitting Bull led his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance on May 5, 1891, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds on May 5, 1904, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball. Born Denton True Young, Cy Young’s nickname came from the fences that he had destroyed using his fastball. The fences looked like a cyclone had hit them. Reporters later shortened the name to “Cy”, which became the nickname Young used for the rest of his life

Scopes Trial: the serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes, a Tennessee teacher, for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act in 1925.

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became first American in space (aboard Freedom 7).

On May 5, 1973, Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing record. He went on to win the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, the first U.S. Triple Crown winner in 25 years. He set records in all three events.

May 4 is :

Bird Day According to the U.S. Library of Congress, the very first Bird Day was on May 4, 1894.
National Candied Orange Peel Day
Unofficial Star Wars Day…May the Force be with you.
International Firefighters’ Day
Feast day of Saint Florian, patron saint of firemen.

1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island). According to tradition, he purchased the island of Manhattan from Native Americans on May 24, 1626 for goods valued at 60 Dutch guilders, which in the 19th century was estimated to be the equivalent of US $24 (or $680 today). His surname, Minuit, means “midnight” in French.

Rhode Island Declaration of Independence Day,  proclaimed by the colony in 1776, two months before the Continental Congress made its declaration.

Emperor Napoleon I of France arrived at Portoferraio on the island of Elba on May 4, 1814 to begin his exile.

May 4, 1904 The United States began construction on the Panama Canal .
The construction of the Panama Canal is where the expression “Another Day, Another Dollar” comes from, as the workers were rumored to be paid a dollar a day for their labor. The construction of the canal was completed in 1914, 401 years after Panama was first crossed by Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The United States spent almost $500,000,000 (roughly equivalent to $9,169,650,000 now) to finish the project. This was by far the largest American engineering project to date. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University on May 4, 1970, after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opened fire, killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the United States’ invasion of Cambodia.

May 4, 1979 – Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

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.