Fun On this date in history...

May 1:

524 – King Sigismund of Burgundy is executed at Orléans after an 8-year reign and is succeeded by his brother Godomar.
880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.
1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
1707 – The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1776 – Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
1785 – Kamehameha I, the king of Hawaiʻi, defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
1786 – Opening night of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna, Austria.
1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
1851 – Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London.
1862 – American Civil War: The Union Army completes the Capture of New Orleans.
1869 – The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.
1884 – Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States.
1886 – Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day culminating in the Haymarket Affair.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Battle of Manila Bay – the United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.
1900 – The Scofield mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
1931 – The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
1940 – The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
1945 – World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag was raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.
1945 – World War II: Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Führerbunker. Their children are murdered by Magda by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths.
1948 – The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as leader.
1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
1960 – Cold War: U-2 incident – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
1970 – Protests erupt in Seattle, Washington, following the announcement by U.S. President Richard Nixon that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.
1971 – Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.
1978 – Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
1982 – Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War.
1987 – Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1989 – Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
1991 – Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics steals his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category. However, his accomplishment is overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers, when he pitches his seventh career no-hitter, breaking his own record.
1999 – Body of British climber George Mallory found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.
2003 – 2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".
2009 – Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.
2011 – Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
2011 – Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks is killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, bin Laden was actually killed on May

Births:

1218 – Rudolph I of Germany, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
1585 – Sophia Olelkovich Radziwill, Belarusian saint
1738 – King Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii
1769 – Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Anglo-Irish statesman
1850 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Queen Victoria
1852 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman
1857 – Theo Van Gogh, Dutch art dealer and brother of Vincent Van Gogh
1907 – Kate Smith, American singer
1916 – Glenn Ford, Canadian actor
1918 – Jack Paar, American comedian, author, and television host
1946 – Joanna Lumley, English actress
1961 – Clint Malarchuk, Canadian ice hockey player (he's the guy who almost died when he had his jugular slashed open with another player's skate during a game)
1964 – Lady Sarah Chatto, English daughter of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
1972 – Julie Benz, American actress
1973 – Curtis Martin, American football player
1981 – Wes Welker, American football player
1984 – Patrick Eaves, American ice hockey player

Deaths:

408 – Arcadius, Roman emperor
1277 – Stephen Uroš I of Serbia
1539 – Isabella of Portugal
1555 – Pope Marcellus II
1572 – Pope Pius V
1731 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer
1873 – David Livingstone, Scottish missionary ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume?")
1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer
1920 – Princess Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden (daughter of Prince Arthur, mentioned above)
1945 – Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi politician (as mentioned above)
1945 – Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph Goebbels (as mentioned above)
1965 – Spike Jones, American bandleader and musician
1968 – Harold Nicolson, English diplomat, author, and politician
1968 – Jack Adams, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
1998 – Eldridge Cleaver, American writer and activist
2008 – Philipp von Boeselager, German Wehrmacht officer, member of the 20 July Plot

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 2, 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

 

May 2:

1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
1559 – John Knox returns from exile to Scotland to become the leader of the nascent Scottish Reformation.
1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
1611 – The King James Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.
1863 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.
1885 – Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium.
1918 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.
1932 – Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
1945 – World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building.
1945 – World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.
1946 – The "Battle of Alcatraz" takes place; two guards and three inmates are killed.
1955 – Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
1999 – Panamanian election, 1999: Mireya Moscoso becomes the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
2011 – An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick from the bacteria outbreak.

Births:

1360 – Yongle Emperor, of China
1729 – Catherine the Great, Russian empress
1885 – Hedda Hopper, American actress and columnist
1892 – Manfred von Richthofen, aka "The Red Baron", German pilot
1896 – Helen of Greece and Denmark, Queen Mother of Romania
1903 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author
1946 – Lesley Gore, American singer
1955 – Donatella Versace, Italian fashion designer
1959 – Russ Grimm, American football player
1972 – Dwayne Johnson, aka "The Rock", American wrestler and actor
1980 – Troy Murphy, American basketball player
1980 – Brad Richards, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, American baseball player

Deaths:

373 – Athanasius of Alexandria
756 – Emperor Shōmu of Japan
907 – Boris I of Bulgaria
1519 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian inventor and painter
1880 – Eberhard Anheuser, German soap and candle maker, founder of the Anheuser-Busch Company
1957 – Joseph McCarthy, American politician
1964 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-English politician (first woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons)
1972 – J. Edgar Hoover, American 1st director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
2010 – Lynn Redgrave, English actress
2011 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabian terrorist, founder and leader of al-Qaeda (as mentioned above)
2012 – Junior Seau, American football player

 

I was only half - listening to ESPN today and was wondering why a chunk of it was devoted to Seau. Damn, I can't believe it's been a year since he passed already.

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 3, 1971, anti-war protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe began four days of demonstrations in Washington, aimed at shutting down the nation's capital.

 

May 3:

1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.
1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
1915 – The poem In Flanders Fields is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.
1916 – The leaders of the Easter Rising are executed in Dublin.
1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
1921 – West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.
1928 – Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
1936 – Joe DiMaggio, familiarly referred to as "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper" makes his major league debut for the New York Yankees.
1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
1948 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
1951 – The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.
1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.
1957 – Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.
1960 – The Off-Broadway musical comedy, The Fantasticks, opens in New York City's Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
1960 – The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
1979 – After the general election, Margaret Thatcher forms her first government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

Births:

1415 – Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, mother of Edward IV and Richard III of England
1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and author
1632 – Catherine de Saint-Augustin, Canadian saint, founder of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec
1870 – Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, daughter of Queen Victoria
1898 – Golda Meir, Israeli teacher and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (first woman PM in Israel)
1903 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor
1906 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American radio personality, daughter of Franklin D. Roosevelt
1919 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, musician, and activist
1921 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer
1934 – Frankie Valli, American singer
1935 – Ron Popeil, American inventor and spokesman, founded the Ronco company
1964 – Ron Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Christina Hendricks, American actress
1977 – Ryan Dempster, American baseball player

Deaths:

1152 – Matilda of Boulogne
1270 – Béla IV of Hungary
1481 – Mehmed II, Ottoman sultan
1758 – Pope Benedict XIV
1916 – Tom Clarke, Irish Nationalist, Leader and Organiser of the Easter Rising
1916 – Thomas MacDonagh, Irish Nationalist and Leader of the Easter Rising
1916 – Patrick Pearse, Irish Nationalist and Leader of the Easter Rising
1989 – Christine Jorgensen, American transsexual
2006 – Earl Woods, American army officer, athlete, and writer, father of Tiger Woods

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on antiwar protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

 

May the Fourth be with you Juliet.

 

May the Fourth be with you as well.

 

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

 

May 4:

1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
1471 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
1814 – Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1886 – Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
1904 – Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England.
1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
1932 – In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.
1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash at the Superga hill at the edge of Turin, Italy.
1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
1959 – The 1st Grammy Awards are held.
1961 – American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: the Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the United States' invasion of Cambodia.
1972 – The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1989 – Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

Births:

1008 – Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Persian Sufi
1654 – Kangxi Emperor of China
1655 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian musical instrument maker, inventor of the piano
1820 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, American first lady, second wife of John Tyler
1852 – Alice Liddell, English schoolgirl model for Alice in Wonderland
1923 – Stanley Biber, American physician, pioneer of transgender surgery
1929 – Audrey Hepburn, Anglo-Dutch actress
1930 – Katherine Jackson, American mother of the Jackson musical family
1940 – Robin Cook, American novelist
1941 – George Will, American writer
1951 – Jackie Jackson, American singer-songwriter, musician, and dancer (The Jackson 5)
1954 – Pia Zadora, American actress
1959 – Randy Travis, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1970 – Will Arnett, American actor
1974 – Miguel Cairo, Venezuelan baseball player
1975 – Laci Peterson, American murder victim
1976 – Jason Michaels, American baseball player
1978 – Erin Andrews, American sportscaster and journalist
1979 – Lance Bass, American singer, dancer, actor, producer, and author
1983 – Derek Roy, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Kevin Slowey, American baseball player
1986 – George Hill, American basketball player
1989 – James van Riemsdyk, American ice hockey player
2009 – Prince Henrik of Denmark

Deaths:

1436 – Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, Swedish statesman
1471 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (as mentioned above)
1519 – Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino
1916 - Edward Daly, Irish nationalist and Member of the Easter Rising
1916 - Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish nationalist and Leader of the Easter Rising
1916 - Willie Pearse, Irish nationalist and Member of the Easter Rising
1970 – Allison Krause, American student, victim of the Kent State shootings
1970 – Jeffrey Miller, American student, victim of the Kent State shootings
1970 – Sandra Scheuer, American student victim of the Kent State shootings
1970 – William Knox Schroeder, American student victim of the Kent State shootings
1975 – Moe Howard, American actor and comedian
1980 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, 1st President of Yugoslavia
1995 – Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
2001 – Bonnie Lee Bakley, American murder victim, wife of Robert Blake
2009 – Dom DeLuise, American actor and comedian
2012 – Adam Yauch, aka MCA, American rapper, songwriter, musician, and director (Beastie Boys)

 

+1

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

 

May 5: (better late than never!)

1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.
1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
1494 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.
1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
1809 – The Swiss canton of Aargau denies citizenship to Jews.
1821 – Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
1835 – In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen.1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from Genoa, leading the expedition of the Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and giving birth to the Kingdom of Italy.
1862 – Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.
1865 – In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.
1866 – Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.
1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
1904 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.
1920 – Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.
1925 – Scopes Trial: serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
1950 – Bhumibol Adulyadej crowns himself King Rama IX of Thailand.
1955 – West Germany gains full sovereignty.
1973 – Secretariat (horse) wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing record.
1981 – Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.
1987 – Iran-Contra affair: start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America.
1994 – American teenager Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that many in the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime. However, significant numbers of Americans were also in favor of it.

Births:

867 – Emperor Uda of Japan
1747 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, brother of Marie Antoinette
1813 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
1818 – Karl Marx, German philosopher
1826 – Empress Eugénie de Montijo, Spanish wife of Napoleon III
1830 – John Batterson Stetson, American hat manufacturer, invented the cowboy hat and founded the John B. Stetson Company
1864 – Nellie Bly, American journalist and author
1914 – Tyrone Power, American actor
1942 – Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Michael Palin, English writer, actor, and comedian
1944 – John Rhys-Davies, English-Welsh actor
1945 – Kurt Loder, American journalist, critic, author, and columnist
1971 – Mike Redmond, American baseball player
1973 – Tina Yothers, American actress
1976 – Sage Stallone, American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
1981 – Chris Duncan, American baseball player
1981 – Danielle Fishel, American actress

Deaths:

200 – Sun Ce, Chinese warlord of the Han Dynasty
311 – Galerius, Roman emperor
1194 – Casimir II the Just
1426 – Ephraim of Nea Makri, Greek Orthodox saint
1821 – Napoleon, French military and political leader (as mentioned above)
1916 – John MacBride, Irish Nationalist and member of the Easter Rising
1971 – Violet Jessop, Argentinean ocean liner stewardess and nurse (She survived the sinking of both the Titanic and her sister ship, the Britannic in 1915. Britannic was used as a hospital ship during WWI.)
1981 – Bobby Sands, Irish activist (as mentioned above)
1983 – Horst Schumann, German Nazi physician
2007 – Theodore Maiman, American physicist, created the first working laser
2008 – Irv Robbins, Canadian-American businessman, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins

Hope everyone had a good Cinco de Mayo!

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled German dirigible Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 36 of the 97 people on board.

 

May 6:

1536 – King Henry VIII orders English language Bibles be placed in every church.
1542 – Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
1659 – English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.
1682 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.
1844 – The Glaciarium, the world's first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.
1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
1861 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is declared the new capital of the Confederate States of America.
1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.
1882 – The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
1910 – George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1940 – John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1941 – At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1960 – More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
1966 – Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
1976 – An earthquake strikes the Friuli region of northeastern Italy, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.
1981 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
1983 – The Hitler diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.
1984 – 103 Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul
1989 – Cedar Point opens Magnum XL-200, the first roller coaster to break the 200 ft height barrier, therefore spawning what is known as the "coaster wars".
1994 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
1994 – Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, alleging that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
2002 – Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated by an animal rights activist.

Births:

1405 – Skanderbeg, Albanian lord
1501 – Pope Marcellus II
1574 – Pope Innocent X
1758 – Maximilien Robespierre, French lawyer and politician
1856 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist
1880 – William J. Simmons, American Ku Klux Klan leader
1882 – William, German Crown Prince
1915 – Orson Welles, American director and actor
1924 – Patricia Kennedy Lawford, American socialite
1931 – Willie Mays, American baseball player
1945 – Bob Seger, American singer-songwriter and musician
1953 – Tony Blair, English politician, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1955 – Tom Bergeron, American television host
1960 – Roma Downey, Irish actress
1961 – George Clooney, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1972 – Martin Brodeur, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Mark Eaton, American ice hockey player (GO PENS!!!)
1978 – John Abraham, American football player
1982 – Jason Witten, American football player
1983 – Gabourey Sidibe, American actress
1984 – Anton Babchuk, Ukrainian ice hockey player
1985 – Chris Paul, American basketball player
1986 – Goran Dragić, Slovenian basketball player

Deaths:

1502 – James Tyrrell, English knight, alleged murderer of Edward V of England and the Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
1862 – Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher
1910 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom (as mentioned above)
1919 – L. Frank Baum, American writer
1987 – William Casey, American CIA director
1992 – Marlene Dietrich, German actress
1995 – Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo e Bragança, Portuguese claimant to the throne of Portugal
2002 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (as mentioned above)
2003 – Art Houtteman, American baseball player
2006 – Lillian Asplund, American Titanic survivor
2010 – Robin Roberts, American baseball player

 

May 7: (whoa, busy day!)

351 – The Jewish revolt against Gallus breaks out. After his arrival at Antioch, the Jews begin a rebellion in Palestine.
558 – In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.
1274 – In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
1429 – Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning, wounded, to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
1664 – Louis XIV of France inaugurates the Palace of Versailles.
1718 – The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.
1794 – French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.
1832 – The independence of Greece is recognized by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King.
1840 – The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.
1847 – The American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1895 – In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector — a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio 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
1920 – Kiev Offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
1920 – Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
1937 – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
1940 – The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.
1945 – World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.
1948 – The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.
1952 – The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.
1954 – Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Vietnamese victory (the battle began on March 13).
1960 – Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
1964 – Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F-27 airliner, crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
1994 – Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after having been stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.
1999 – Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
2000 – Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia.
2004 – American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.
2007 – Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.

Births:

1605 – Patriarch Nikon, 7th patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
1711 – David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian
1812 – Robert Browning, English poet
1826 – Varina Davis, American author, First Lady of the Confederate States of America
1833 – Johannes Brahms, German composer
1840 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer
1892 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, 1st President of Yugoslavia
1901 – Gary Cooper, American actor
1919 – Eva Perón, Argentine actress and First Lady, wife of Juan Perón
1923 – Anne Baxter, American actress
1929 – Dick Williams, American baseball player, manager, and coach
1933 – Johnny Unitas, American football player
1948 – Susan Atkins, American serial killer, member of the Manson Family (she was the one who actually killed Sharon Tate, I believe)
1950 – Tim Russert, American journalist
1954 – Amy Heckerling, American director
1968 – Traci Lords, American actress
1974 – Breckin Meyer, American actor
1976 – Michael P. Murphy, U.S. Navy SEAL, first Medal of Honor recipient in the Afghanistan War
1978 – Shawn Marion, American basketball player
1984 – James Loney, American baseball player
1984 – Alex Smith, American football player

Deaths: (Lusitania victims listed at the end)

973 – Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
1682 – Feodor III of Russia
1718 – Mary of Modena, wife of James II of England
1825 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer
1937 – Ernst A. Lehmann, German zeppelin captain, senior officer on board the Hindenburg
2000 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor

1915 - some of the victims of the RMS Lusitania sinking:
- Mary Crowther Ryerson of Toronto, wife of George Sterling Ryerson, founder of the Canadian Red Cross.
- Charles Klein, playwright
- Justus Miles Forman, American writer
- Charles Frohman, American theatre impresario
- Elbert Hubbard, American philosopher, writer and Roycroft founder
- Alice Moore Hubbard, author and woman's rights activist, wife of Elbert Hubbard.
- Anna and Gwendolyn Allan, teenaged daughters of H. Montagu Allan.
- Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, American millionaire, member of the Vanderbilt family, (last seen fastening a life vest onto a woman holding a baby)


(BTW, am I the only one who finds the Lusitania sinking more fascinating than the Titanic?)

 

ON THIS DAY

On May 8, 1973, militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered

 

They weren't killed?

 

No.

 

That's not really "historic", then.