Category Archives: Today

May 31 is National Macaroon Day
Save Your Hearing Day
World No Tobacco Day

1279 BC – Ramses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) became Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

In 1578, Martin Frobisher sailed from Harwich in England to what is now called “Frobisher Bay”, a relatively large inlet of the Labrador Sea in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the southeastern corner of Baffin Island. Eventually Frobisher carried 200 tons of iron pyrite (fool’s gold) back to England on his second voyage and 1350 tons on his third. It was used to pave the streets in London.

1621 – Sir Francis Bacon was thrown into Tower of London for one night.

US colony Massachusetts Bay annexed Maine colony in 1634. Maine was a part of Massachusetts until 1820. One of the reasons that Maine was admitted as a state was because of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This agreement said that there should be an equal number of slave states and free states. When Missouri was admitted as a slave state, Maine was admitted as a free state to keep the balance even.

The Province of Pennsylvania banned all theater productions in 1759.

Birthday of Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819), American poet, famous for Leaves of Grass.

Madison Square Garden opened in New York on May 31, 1879. It was named after 4th President, James Madison.

Dr John Harvey Kellogg patented “flaked cereal” in 1884.

The RMS Titanic was launched in Belfast on May 31, 1911.

Otto Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel May 31, 1962. He was one of the organizers of the Holocaust. He facilitated and managed the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in Eastern Europe.

May 31, 1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was completed.

May 28 is Amnesty International Day
National Brisket Day

May 28 is also the feast day of Saint Bernard of Menthon, patron saint of all mountain climbers and skiers. He founded a hospice that has served travelers in the Alps for nearly a millennium. The St. Bernard dog is so named in his memory.

George I, King of England (born May 28, 1660; died June 11, 1727), could neither speak nor write the English language. This German prince from Hanover and heir to the throne succeeded Queen Anne when he was fifty-four years old. He had no desire and made no attempt to learn the language of the country he ruled for thirteen years.

—From Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing Company, 1981

French and Indian War, May 28, 1754: in the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia, under the 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, defeated a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets were born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne on May 28, 1934; they were the first quintuplets to survive infancy. The five girls (Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie) were removed from their home and made wards of the government. They spent their youth being tourist attractions. There were Dionne dolls and paperdolls, and movies. They were returned to their parents in 1943. Annette and Cecile are still living. Emilie died in 1954, Marie in 1970, and Yvonne in 2001.

1937 – Volkswagen (VW), the German automobile manufacturer was founded.

The Palestine Liberation Organization was formed in 1964.

May 27 is Memorial Day in 2024.
1958 – Memorial Day: the remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

Sun Screen Day

National Grape Popsicle Day

1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg. In 1914 the name was changed to Petrograd; in 1924 to Leningrad; and in 1991 back to Saint Petersburg.

Birthday of Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819), American author of the lyrics of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic“.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

27-Birthday of Isadora Duncan (May 27, 1878), American dancer.

27 Birthday of Amelia Jenks Bloomer (May 27, 1818), social reformer who fought for temperance and women’s rights but is remembered for her advocacy of “sensible” dress which she demonstrated by the wearing of full trousers that came to be known as “bloomers”.

Birthday of Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907), American biologist whose book “Silent Spring” published in 1962 aroused worldwide concern for the dangers of environmental pollution.

In 1907, Bubonic plague broke out in San Francisco, California. It was imported from a ship traveling from Hong Kong in 1899 and began in the Chinatown area of the city. It was thought to have been brought under control until the earthquake of 1906 brought about a second epidemic throughout the city. The plague was finally stopped when the city collected and killed its rat and ground squirrel populations.

May 27, 1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.

The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public on May 27, 1930.

In 1933, the Walt Disney Company released the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”

On May 27, 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to people crossing it on foot, opening to vehicle traffic the next day.

Montreal Expos – Major League Baseball’s National League awards Montreal the first franchise in Canada and the first franchise outside the United States on May 27, 1968. After the 2004 season, Major League Baseball moved the Expos to Washington, D.C. and renamed them the Nationals. In 1994, a players’ strike wiped out the last eight weeks of the season and all post-season. Montreal was in first place by six games in the National League East division when play was stopped. No official titles were awarded in 1994.

May 24 is: National Escargot Day
National Patriots Day (Quebec)

May 24, 1689, English Parliament guaranteed freedom of religion for Protestants

John Wesley was converted on May 24, 1738, in a meeting room on Aldersgate Street, London. This essentially launched the Methodist movement. The day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.

1775 John Hancock was unanimously elected President of the Second Continental Congress, replacing Peyton Randolph. The Second Congress convened on May 10, 1775 with representatives from 12 of the colonies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord,

1818 General Andrew Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida

1844 – Samuel Morse sent the message “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line.

Birthday of Lillian M Gilbreth (May 24, 1878), engineer and pioneer in time-motion studies. Part of the American literary scene with the publication of Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., her son.

1830 – Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale was published. The rhyme is also famous for being the very first thing recorded by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph in 1877.

Mary had a little lamb,
its fleece was white as snow,
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go;

He followed her to school one day–
That was against the rule,
It made the children laugh and play,
to see a lamb at school.

The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic May 24, 1883 by President Arthur and NY governor Cleveland. Construction began in 1869. The bridge connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River.

1918 Cleveland Indians Stan Coveleski sets club record for most innings pitched (19) as the Indians beat the Yankees 3-2.
The star of the Indians pitching staff, he won over 20 games each year from the epidemic-shortened 1918 season through 1921, leading the AL in shutouts twice and in strikeouts and earned run average (ERA) once each during his nine years with the club. The star of the 1920 World Series, he led the Indians to their first championship with three complete-game victories, including a 3–0 shutout in the Game 7 finale.

(On May 1, 1920 the Brooklyn Robins went to play the Boston Braves at Boston, in front of a crowd of 2,000 spectators. Leon Cadore was the starting pitcher for the Robins and Joe Oeschger pitched for the Braves. The game was held scoreless until the fifth inning, when Ernie Krueger scored on Ivy Olson RBI single. The game was tied in the sixth when Walton Cruise tripled, then scored on Tony Boeckel single. The game was ruled as a tie after 26 innings because of darkness. Oescheger only gave up 9 hits the entire game, while Cadore allowed 15. If they had played one more inning the pitchers would have played the equivalent of three games.) See comment by Christie Stone below.

1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field. 632 individual lamps in eight metal stanchions were erected. In the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a button that lit up Crosley Field, where a crowd of 20,422 fans, sizable for a last-place team in the middle of the Great Depression, came out to watch the game.