Today in History

1802
Washington, DC was incorporated as a city
1915
Canadian WW1 soldier, physican,poet, JOhn McCrae writes poem' In Flanders Fields'
1937
author, Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for novel 'Gone With The Wind' ,movie version came out in 1939 starring Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh ,set during the Civil War
1945
WWII German prison ship,'Cap Arcona' is sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed, largest maritime loss of life
1960
musical' The Fantasticks' written by Harvey Schmidt &Tom Jones opens in NYC.It closed on Jan 13,2002 after 17,162 performances ,the world's longest running musical
1991
series finale of CBS drama' Dallas' after a 13 yr run 33.3 million viewers watched
2003
New Hampshire's famous' Old Man in the Mountain' collapses,experts said cause was centuries of freezing/thawing, granite rocks gave way
 

May 3rd Birthdays:
1903
Bing Crosby- singer/actor 7 'Road' pictures with Bob Hope&Dorothy Lamour, Going My Way, hit singles 'White Christmas,' Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy duet with David Bowie
1932
Robert Osborne- U.S. film historian, 1st TV host on Turner Classic Movies
1951
Christopher Cross Grammy winning singer/ songwriter' Sailing, Think of Laura, Arthur's Theme
Deaths:
1991
Jerzy Kosinski- author' Being There, The Painted Bird 57
2007
Wally Schirra, Jr NASA astronaut on board Mercury 8, Gemini 6, Apollo 7 84
2021
Lloyd Price- r&b singer' Stagger Lee, Personality 88
 
On This Day In History, May 4th

1994 Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord to ensure Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho
Together with Shimon Peres, the two leaders received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. A year later, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

1959 The Grammy is presented for the first time
It is one of the most prestigious awards in the music industry. Winners of the first edition included Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Mancini, and Frank Sinatra.

1953 Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize
The American author was awarded the prestigious accolade for his novel The Old Man and the Sea. The story about a fisherman and his battle with a large marlin also earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1904 The United States takes over the construction of the Panama Canal
French engineers had begun digging a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 1881, but they had to abandon the project after about 22,000 lives had been lost to accidents and disease.

1675 King Charles II of England commissions the Royal Observatory in Greenwich
The observatory was built on the prime meridian. The mean solar time at this location is the basis for Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
 

Births On This Day, May 4th 🎂

1989 Rory McIlroy
Irish golfer

1929 Audrey Hepburn
Belgian/English actress, singer

1928 Hosni Mubarak
Egyptian air marshal, politician, 4th President of Egypt

1916 Jane Jacobs
American/Canadian journalist, author, activist

1825 Thomas Henry Huxley
English biologist

Deaths On This Day, May 4th 🪦

2014 Elena Baltacha
Ukrainian/Scottish tennis player

1980 Josip Broz Tito
Yugoslav marshal, politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia

1924 E. Nesbit
English author

1903 Gotse Delchev
Bulgarian activist

1799 Tipu Sultan
Indian army officer, king
 
On This Day In History, May 5th

1980 The British Special Air Service (SAS) terminate the Iranian Embassy siege in London
Six gunmen had held 26 people hostage for six days, demanding the release of Iranian Arab prisoners. Two of the hostages were killed.

1955 West Germany regains full sovereignty after World War II
The Federal Republic of Germany had been established in 1949. Its provisional capital was Bonn. After the 1990 reunification of East and West Germany, Berlin was declared the country's capital.

1949 The Council of Europe is founded
The organization was the first to work for European integration. It has 47 member countries and is a completely separate entity from the European Union (EU).

1934 The first Three Stooges film is released
The comedy trio soon became famous, especially in the U.S., for their short films featuring slapstick humor.

1904 Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in modern major league baseball
A game is considered perfect when none of the opposing players reach first base. Young's team, the Boston Americans, won 3-0 over the Philadelphia Athletics.
 


Births On This Day, May 5th 🎂

1988 Adele
English singer-songwriter, musician

1943 Michael Palin
English actor, screenwriter

1830 John Batterson Stetson
American businessman founded the John B. Stetson Company

1818 Karl Marx
German philosopher

1813 Søren Kierkegaard
Danish philosopher, author

Deaths On This Day, May 5th 🪦

2013 Greg Quill
Australian/Canadian singer-songwriter, journalist

2000 Gino Bartali
Italian cyclist

1995 Mikhail Botvinnik
Russian chess player

1977 Ludwig Erhard
German politician, 2nd Chancellor of West Germany

1821 Napoleon
Corsican/French military officer, political leader
 
1809
Mary Kies becomes the 1st woman to receive U.S.. patent for weaving straw
1847
American Medical Assn{AMA} is organized in Philadelphia,PA
1921
Chanel No 5 perfume is released by French fashion designer, Coco Chanel
1947
author Robt Penn Warren receives Pulitzer prize for his book' All The Kings' Men,story of rise/ fall of a Southern politican movie version in '1949 stars Broderick Crawford{won Best actor Oscar} Joanne Dru, John Ireland
1962
movie soundtrack album of 'West Side Story' hits # 1 on music charts, stays there for 54 weeks
1973
99th Kentucky Derby,jockey Ron Turcotte riding horse Secretariat wins in the fastest time ever at Kentucky Derby, 1 min 59.4
2012
Japan shuts down its nuclear power reactors leaving the country without nuclear power,1st time since 1970
 
May 5th BIrthdays:
1914
Tyrone Power- actor The Mark of Zorro, Nightmare Alley
1926
Ann B. Davis- actress ,best known TV roles' Schultzy'in Bob Cummings Show'Alice in ABC sitcom; The Brady Bunch
1943
Michael Palin- British comedian/actor Monty Python, A Fish Called Wanda
1973
Tina Yothers- actress best known TV role' Jennifer' in NBC sitcom' Family Ties'
1988
Adele- British Grammy winning singer/ songwriter' Hello, Rolling in The Deep, Someone like You, won Oscar for co writing song"Skyfall' from James Bond movie of same name
Deaths:
1821
Napoleon Bonaparte French military leader 52
1922
Bret Harte- author' Outcasts of Poker Flat 65
2008
Irv Robbins- Candian entrepreneur ,co founder of Baskin -Robbins ice cream parlor chain 90
 
On This Day In History, May 6th

2004 The final episode of Friends is aired
The immensely popular sitcom about Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross had been produced since 1994. The final episode “The Last One” was watched by 52 million viewers.

1994 The Channel Tunnel linking the United Kingdom with France is opened
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand inaugurated the “Chunnel”. It measures just over 50 km (31 mi) and is the tunnel with the world's longest undersea portion.

1976 A massive earthquake hits northeast Italy
939 people died and 157,000 were left homeless in Italy's worst earthquake, which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale.

1954 Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes
The British athlete took 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds to cover 1609 meters. The current record by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj stands at 3:43.13 (as of February 2014).

1937 The Hindenburg zeppelin filled with hydrogen goes up in flames
The footage showing a colossal fireball engulfing the German airship during a landing attempt in Lakehurst, NJ, has become iconic for the end of the Zeppelin era. 35 lives were lost in the crash.
 
Births On This Day, May 6th 🎂

1961 George Clooney
American actor, director, producer, screenwriter

1953 Tony Blair
Scottish/English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1915 Orson Welles
American actor, director, producer, screenwriter

1856 Sigmund Freud
Austrian neurologist

1758 Maximilien de Robespierre
French lawyer, politician

Deaths On This Day, May 6th 🪦

1992 Marlene Dietrich
German/American actress, singer

1952 Maria Montessori
Italian physician, educator

1919 L. Frank Baum
American author

1862 Henry David Thoreau
American writer, philosopher

1859 Alexander von Humboldt
German geographer, explorer
 
On This Day In History, May 7th

2000 Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia
The former KGB officer enjoys high approval ratings in his country as living standards in Russia have improved drastically under his rule. Internationally, he has been criticized for his authoritarian style of government.

1946 Sony is founded
The company started as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. It is now one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products.

1945 Germany's Nazi regime surrendered unconditionally
The capitulation ended World War II, one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. According to estimates, between 40 and 71 million people died in the war and the Holocaust initiated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

1915 A German U-Boat sinks the RMS Lusitania
1198 lives were lost in the attack, making it the deadliest shipwreck during World War I. The fact that some of the dead were U.S. citizens influenced the country's decision to enter the war in 1917.

1895 Alexander Popov demonstrates the world's first radio receiver
The Russian physicist had initially built the device as a lightning detector. He achieved the first radio transmission between two buildings the following year.
 

Births On This Day, May 7th 🎂

1892 Josip Broz Tito
Yugoslav marshal, politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia

1861 Rabindranath Tagore
Indian author, poet, and Nobel Prize laureate

1840 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Russian composer

1812 Robert Browning
English poet

1711 David Hume
Scottish economist, historian, philosopher

Deaths On This Day, May 7th 🪦

2011 Seve Ballesteros
Spanish golfer

1940 George Lansbury
English politician

1840 Caspar David Friedrich
German painter

1825 Antonio Salieri
Italian composer

973 Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
 
1718
city of New Orleans founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne Bienville
1867
Swedish chemist, Alfred Nobel recieves 1st of his 3 patents for dynamite in England
1941
big band leader, Glen Miller records ' Chattanooga, Choo Choo,1st record to be designated as 'gold'- sold 500,00 copies
1966
Mama's &Papa's single' Monday,Monday' hits #1 on the music charts, stays there for 3 weeks. Its the group's only #1 single
1998
Mercedes- Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion,forms DaimierChrysler which at the time was largest industiral merger
 
May 7th BIrthdays:
1922
Darren McGavin- actor 'The Night Stalker, A Christmas Story
1927
Ruth Prawer Jhabalva- screenwriter associated with Merchant/Ivory Productions The Remains of the Day,she won 2 Oscars for Room with a View, Howard's End
1950
Tim Russert- U.S. TV journalist, moderator of NBC's 'Meet The Press' from 1992-2008
Deaths
1951
Warner Baxter- actor In Old Arizona, Cicsco Kid 62
1998
Eddie Rabbit- singer/ songwriter' Kentucky Rain, I Love a Rainy Night 56{lung cancer}
2011
Seve Ballesteros- Spanish pro golfer,won Masters '80,'83, British Open,'79,'84,'88 54{brain cancer}
 
On This Day in History, May 8th

1984 Moscow announces that the USSR will not take part in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles
Several other countries, such as Cuba, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Vietnam joined the boycott. 4 years earlier, the United States had not sent any athletes to the Summer Olympics in Moscow.

1978 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climb Mount Everest without an oxygen supply
Prior to the Italian and Austrian mountaineers' ascent, it was thought to be impossible to conquer the world's highest mountain without supplemental oxygen.

1970 The Beatles release the album Let It Be
The recording was the last studio album ever released by the legendary English rock band.

1927 The White Bird and its crew mysteriously disappear
French aviators, Charles Nungesser, and François Coli had taken off from Paris in their Levasseur PL.8 biplane in an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight. Their disappearance remains a mystery. Charles Lindbergh succeeded two weeks later.
 
Births On This Day, May 8th 🎂

1970 Naomi Klein
Canadian author, activist

1945 Keith Jarrett
American pianist, composer

1926 David Attenborough
English television host

1911 Robert Johnson
American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1884 Harry S. Truman
American colonel, politician, 33rd President of the United States

Deaths On This Day, May 8th 🪦

1990 Luigi Nono
Italian composer

1988 Robert A. Heinlein
American writer

1903 Paul Gauguin
French painter

1891 Helena Blavatsky
Russian scholar, theosophist

1873 John Stuart Mill
English economist, civil servant, philosopher
 
1877
The 1st Westminster Dog Show was held in NYC at Gilmore Garden,a forerunner to Madison Sq.Garden where the show is usually held{ during Covid it wasn't} 1,201 dogs were entered
1886
Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta,Ga sold 1st Coca-Cola which contained cocaine
1912
Paramount Pictures,film/TV distribution studio was founded
1933
spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi begins 21 day fast protesting against British oppression in India
1976
the 1st steel roller coaster with a vertical flip opens at 6 Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif
2014
world's oldest marnier's navigation tool c 1498 from Portugese shipwreck of Spanish explorer,Vasco da Gama was found near Al Hallanyah Island, Oman
 
May 8th Birthdays:
1828
Henri Dunant, Swiss humantarian, founder of Red Cross
1920
Sloan Wilson- author The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer PLace, both were made into movies :Suit in '56, Place in'59
1926
David Attenborough- British naturalist, TV host of BBC's Life, &Our PLanet, younger brother of actor/director Richard Attenborough
1957
Bill Cower- NFL Hall of Fame Football Coach with Pittsburgh Steelers
1975
Jodhi May- British actress 'A World Apart, The Other Boleyn Girl
Deaths:
1903
Paul Gaughin- French painter 54
1967
La Verne Andrews- pop/jazz swing singer with The Andrew Sisters,' Boogie Woogie Boy, Rum& Coca-Cola 55{cancer}
1994
George Peppard- actor Breakfast at Tiffanys, Blue Max, best known TV role' Hannibal Smith' on NBC adventure show' The A - Team 65
2014
Roger Easton- U. S. scientist/inventor/designer of GPS 93
 
8th May


1450 Jack Cade's rebellion occurred 'On This Day' when Kentishmen, led by Jack Cade, revolted against King Henry VI with his 'Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent' manifesto. His army of as many as 5,000 marched on London, causing the King to flee to Warwickshire. After taking and looting London, the rebels were defeated in a battle at London Bridge and scattered. They were promised pardons and reforms, but many of the rebels were instead declared traitors, and Cade was killed in a small skirmish on 12th July 1450.

1559 The Act of Supremacy was passed by which the new Queen Elizabeth I became "Supreme Governor" of the Church of England and a Common Prayer book was introduced.

1701 English pirate Captain Kidd went on trial at the Old Bailey in London. After being found guilty of piracy he was hanged on 23rd May, 1701.

1945 VE Day in Europe. After five years, eight months, and five days of massive devastation, the end of the European phase of World War II was celebrated. Victory in Europe was commemorated with celebrations all around the world in recognition of the unconditional surrender of all German forces, which was signed in Reims, France, the previous day.

1961 Former British diplomat George Blake, was jailed for 42 years after being found guilty of spying for Russia. In 1966 he successfully escaped from London's Wormwood Scrubs.
 
On This Day In History, May 9th

2012 The brand-new Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crashes
The regional jet was the first airliner produced in Russia since the end of the USSR in 1991. The doomed flight was a demonstration tour carrying potential customers. All 45 people on board perished in the crash, which was caused by pilot error.

1997 Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war
Peterson, a Vietnam veteran, devoted himself to promoting reconciliation between the two countries. About 2.5 million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, were killed during the war.

1979 Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed
An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.

1969 Carlos Lamarca begins his fight against Brazil's military dictatorship
Lamarca was a member of the communist organization Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR) and is well known for his urban guerilla actions. Brazilian forces killed him in 1971.

1960 The first birth control pill is approved
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would add birth control as a new indication for the drug “Enovid”.
 

Births On This Day, May 9th 🎂

1949 Billy Joel
American singer-songwriter, pianist

1934 Alan Bennett
English actor, screenwriter, author

1921 Sophie Scholl
German student, activist

1837 Adam Opel
German engineer founded the Opel Company

1800 John Brown
American activist

Deaths On This Day, May 9th 🪦

2012 Vidal Sassoon
English/American hairdresser

1986 Tenzing Norgay
Nepalese mountaineer

1976 Ulrike Meinhof
German journalist, activist

1805 Friedrich Schiller
German poet, playwright, historian

1707 Dieterich Buxtehude
German/Danish organist, composer
 
9th May

1671 The theft of the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London by Colonel Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman. Blood was caught and arrested as he tried to leave the Tower by the Iron Gate. Despite being caught red-handed, he was pardoned by King Charles II.

1887 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opened in London. His cowboy themed shows also toured Europe as well as the United States.Cody was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman and was one of the most colourful figures of the American Old West.

1896 The first 'Horseless Carriage' Show opened at the Imperial Institute in London, when ten engine-powered models went on show to the public.

1941 World War II: The German submarine U-110 was captured by the Royal Navy. On board was the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later used to break coded German messages.

1945 World War II: The Channel Islands were liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.
 

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