Tidbits of History, May 6

Beverage Day
National Tourist Appreciation Day
National Crepe Suzette Day

No Diet Day

Henry VIII1536 – King Henry VIII of England ordered English-language Bibles be placed in every church.

Louis XIV1682 – Louis XIV of France moved his court to the Palace of Versailles.

Sigmund FreudBirthday 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.

Eiffel Tower opens May 6, 18891889 – 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 Funeral King Edward VIIOn 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, May 6, 1937 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.

Tidbits of History, May 5

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.

Karl MarxBirthday 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.

Carnegie Hall opened May 5, 1891The 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).

Secretariat wins Kentucky Derby, May 5, 1973 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.

Tidbits of History, May 4

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 DayMay 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.

ElbaEmperor 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.

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

Tidbits of History, May 3

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.

MachiavelliBirthday 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.

America’s first passenger flight (NY to Atlantic City) on May 3, 1919.

On May 3, 1957, Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agreed to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California. The name “Dodgers” is derived from the skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the city’s trolly street cars (per Wikipedia). The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rivals, the New York Giants, also in the National League, relocated to San Francisco in northern California as the San Francisco Giants.

Sears Tower_Willis Tower on May 3, 1973The 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.

The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as “spam”) was sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States in 1978.

In Alabama on May 3, 1987, driver Bobby Allison was involved in an accident at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama that saw his car cut down a tire, turn sideways and go airborne into the protective catch fence that separated the speedway from the grandstands. The impact, at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h), tore out over 100 yards of fencing. Parts and pieces of the car went flying into the grandstand injuring several spectators. This was the same race where Bill Elliott had set the all-time qualifying record (on April 30) at 212.8 mph (341 km/h). The incident would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season at the two longest (2.5 mile) tracks:  Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.