This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

Apologies, but, this is bucket night, and I got things to do, and bartenders to flirt with.

[xoxoxoBruce]

No problem Bro, maybe you can get a ride home.

1987
Bobby Allison crashes at Talladega Superspeedway, leading NASCAR to develop restrictor plates for the Daytona, and Talledega races the next year.

Back when it opened in I think '69, the cars were running over 200 mph and the drivers getting wicked headaches. They brought in a team from NASA at the cape and discovered the track surface was causing vibrations over 200mph that were killing brain cells wholesale. They had to repaved the whole fucking track before the first race. I swear it's true or my name isn't Ralph.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Apologies, but, this is bucket night, and I got things to do, and bartenders to flirt with.

I'm glad you have your priorities straight.

[Gravdigr]

...for all the good it done me.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not all massages have a happy ending but they all feel good, and a change of scenery.

[Gravdigr]

Today is May 4.

May the Fourth be with you.

Today is Anti-Bullying Day, as well as Bird Day, International Firefighters' Day, and World Give Day.


Events

1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

1859 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge,



linking Devon and Cornwall in England.

1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.

1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.

1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone



begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.

1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary;



5 people are killed in the riot.

1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.

1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.

1970 - ♪ ♫Four dead in O-HI-O♪ ♫

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.

1988 – The PEPCON disaster



rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.

1989 - Stevie Ray Vaughan set out on what would be his last ever tour at the Orpheum Theater, Vancouver, British Columbia.

2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7 mi wide EF5 tornado.



It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.



1796 – Horace Mann, 1916 – Richard Proenneke (Alone In The Wilderness), 1919 – Dory Funk, 1928 – Thomas Kinsella, 1928 – Hosni Mubarak, 1929 – Audrey Hepburn, 1937 – Dick Dale, 1940 – Robin Cook, 1941 – George Will, 1942 – Nick Ashford♪ ♫(Ashford & Simpson), 1951 – Jackie Jackson, 1959 – Randy Travis, 1959 – Bob Tway, 1979 – Lance Bass



1975 – Moe Howard, 1984 – Diana Dors, 1987 – Paul Butterfield, 2009 – Dom DeLuise, 2012 – Adam Yauch ('MCA' from The Beastie Boys)

[xoxoxoBruce]

1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.

Damn shame when the government locks up patriotic citizens who feed the poor, employ dozens, support police and public servants... every week, keep the city afloat, and love their mother.

[Gravdigr]

He did a lot of work with unwed mothers, too.

Y'know, just helping them get a start.

[Gravdigr]

Today is May 5.

Today marks the approximate mid-point of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

Today is Cinco de Mayo.


Events

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.

1821 – Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

1877 – American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull



leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

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.

1945 – World War II: Six people are killed when a Japanese fire balloon explodes near Bly, Oregon. They are the only Americans killed in the continental US during the war.

1963 - On a recommendation by George Harrison Dick Rowe Head of A&R at Decca records, (and the man who turned down The Beatles) went to see The Rolling Stones



play at the Crawdaddy Club, London. The band were signed to the label within a week.

1968 - Aw shit, man, Buffalo Springfield broke up.

1973 – Secretariat



wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, an as-yet unbeaten record.



1813 – Søren Kierkegaard, 1818 – Karl Marx, 1830 – John Batterson Stetson (hat dude), 1864 – Nellie Bly, 1898 – Blind Willie McTell, 1914 – Tyrone Power, 1926 – Ann B. Davis, 1934 – Ace Cannon, 1940 – Lance Henriksen, 1942 – Tammy Wynette, 1944 – John Rhys-Davies, 1944 – Roger Rees, 1945 – Kurt Loder, 1948 – Bill Ward(Black Sabbath), 1955 – Jon Butcher(Jon Butcher Axis), 1959 – Brian Williams, 1983 – Henry Cavill, 1988 – Adele



1821 – Napoleon, 1902 – Bret Harte, 2001 – Clifton Hillegass (created CliffsNotes), 2008 – Irv Robbins (Baskin-Robbins), 2013 – Robert Ressler (coined the term "serial killer")

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today is Cinco de Mayo.

The Mexican St Patrick's day, when Americans get stupid drunk to celebrate then berate Mexicans tomorrow for the hangover.

[Gravdigr]

Today is May 6.

International No Diet Day is observed today.


Events

1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.

1877 – Chief Crazy Horse



of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.

1882 – Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

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

1915 – Babe Ruth



then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run.

1935 – New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration.

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.

1941 – The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.

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

1954 – Roger Bannister



becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

1965 - In their Clearwater, Florida hotel room, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards worked out the opening guitar riff of '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' following Richard's purchase of a Gibson fuzz-box earlier that day.

1983 – The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by experts.

1994 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

1998 – Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.

2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.

2002 - 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen was voted the UK's favourite single of all time in a poll by the Guinness Hit Singles book. 'Imagine' by John Lennon was voted in at No.2 and 'Hey Jude', The Beatles No.3, 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA was fourth and Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' was in fifth place.

2002 - American songwriter and producer Otis Blackwell died from a heart attack. He wrote the classic songs ‘All Shook Up’, ‘Return To Sender’, ‘Don't Be Cruel’, ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ and ‘Fever.’ Over the years, Blackwell's songs have sold more than 185 million copies.

2013 – Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio.



1758 – Maximilien Robespierre, 1856 – Sigmund Freud, 1856 – Robert Peary, 1895 – Rudolph Valentino, 1903 – Toots Shor, 1913 – Stewart Granger, 1915 – Orson Welles, 1929 – Rosemary Cramp (invented cramps), 1931 – Willie Mays, 1937 – Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, 1945 – Bob Seger, 1950 – Robbie McIntosh, 1953 – Tony Blair, 1955 – Tom Bergeron, 1960 – Roma Downey, 1961 – George Clooney, 1983 – Gabourey Sidibe



1862 – Henry David Thoreau, 1882 – Lord Frederick Cavendish, 1902 – Bret Harte, 1919 – L. Frank Baum, 1952 – Maria Montessori, 1983 – Kai Winding, 1987 – William J. Casey, 1991 – Wilfrid Hyde-White (My Fair Lady), 1992 – Marlene Dietrich, 2004 – Barney Kessel(member of The Wrecking Crew), 2016 – Reg Grundy (created Wheel Of Fortune)

[xoxoxoBruce]

International No Diet Day is observed today.

I never heard of that...
but that didn't stop me from celebrating it to the fullest.

[Gravdigr]

Today is May 8.

Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered this day in 1945, and it is celebrated as VE Day.

Today is also Ima Get Drunk As Fuck Day, and is celebrated everywhere within a five foot circle of me.


Events

1429 – Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War.

1541 – Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.

1794 – Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.

1861 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.

1877 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.

1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton (PBUH) first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.

1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

1912 – Paramount Pictures



is founded.

1919 – Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.

1973 – A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.

1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

1984 – The Thames Barrier is officially opened.

1988 – A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".



1847 – Oscar Hammerstein I, 1884 – Harry S. Truman (33rd POTUS), 1895 – Fulton J. Sheen, 1911 – Robert Johnson



1919 – Lex Barker, 1920 – Saul Bass, 1926 – David Attenborough, 1926 – Don Rickles, 1928 – Ted Sorensen, 1940 – Peter Benchley (author Jaws), 1940 – Ricky Nelson, 1940 – Toni Tennille (Capt. & Tenille), 1941 – James Traficant, 1943 – Danny Whitten (Crazy Horse), 1944 – Gary Glitter (kiddie fiddler), 1944 – Bill Legend (T. Rex), 1950 – Robert Mugge, 1951 – Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind, & Fire), 1951 – Chris Frantz (Talking Heads), 1953 – Billy Burnette (Fleetwood Mac), 1953 – Alex Van Halen, 1954 – David Keith, 1955 – Stephen Furst ('Flounder' in Animal House), 1956 – Jeff Wincott, 1958 – Lovie Smith, 1959 – Ronnie Lott, 1961 – Bill de Blasio, 1964 – Melissa Gilbert, 1973 – Marcus Brigstocke, 1975 – Enrique Iglesias



1794 – Antoine Lavoisier, 1819 – Kamehameha I , 1880 – Gustave Flaubert, 1903 – Paul Gauguin, 1947 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, 1982 – Neil Bogart (founded Casablanca Records, signed Donna Summer, The Village People, T. Rex, Parliament, Harry Chapin, Joan Jett, et al), 1982 – Gilles Villeneuve, 1985 – Dolph Sweet, 1988 – Robert A. Heinlein, 1994 – George Peppard (Breakfast At Tiffany's, Banacek, The A-Team), 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, 1999 – Dana Plato (Diff'rent Strokes), 2008 – Eddy Arnold, 2013 – Jeanne Cooper (played 'Katherine Chancellor' for forty years on The Young and The Restless), 2016 – William Schallert (that guy who was in that thing)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today is also Ima Get Drunk As Fuck Day, and is celebrated everywhere within a five foot circle of me.

Do you recycle the jars?

[Gravdigr]

I keep 'em. So, yeah I guess I do. Well, Momdigr does, she uses them when she cans stuff.