May 24......

May 24 is the 144th (145th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 221 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Growth "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." — Edward Abbey

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Racism "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" — George Wallace, inaugural address as governor of Alabama

Thought for the day: "When all else fails, read the directions."

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 1086 - Abbott Dauferio/Desiderius becomes Pope Victor III

● 1153 - Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

● 1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.

● 1276 - Magnus Ladulås crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.

● 1300 - King Philip IV occupies Flanders, Earl Gwijde captured

● 1337 - French King Philip VI announces confiscation of Gascony from England; beginning of the Hundred Years War.

● 1370 - Hanzesteden signs peace treaty with Danish king Waldemar IV

● 1487 - Imposter Lambert Simnel is crowned as "King Edward VI" at Dublin.

● 1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus published proof of a sun-centered solar system.

● 1595 - Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.

● 1607 - Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers found the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia.

● 1610 - Sir Thomas Gates institutes "laws divine moral and marshal," a harsh civil code for Jamestown.

● 1621 - Protestant Union formally dissolved.

● 1624 - After years of unprofitable operation Virginia’s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.

● 1626 - Peter Minuit buys Manhattan from Indians (that live in the Bronx) for trinkets, valued at $24

● 1653 - German Parliament selects Ferdinand II king of Austria

● 1658 - Battle of Dunes (Spanish-French War) fought

● 1660 - English king Charles II visits Netherlands

● 1667 - French troops attack into Southern Netherlands

● 1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded).

● 1697 - English king Willem III travels through northern Europe

● 1726 - People's revolt due to increase in gin/brandy tax

● 1738 - English founder of Methodism John Wesley underwent his famous religious conversion at Aldersgate Chapel in London. Later, in his journal, Wesley reflected under this date: 'I felt my heart strangely warmed....'

● 1752 - According to a note inscribed in his Bible, Robert Robinson, 16, was "born again" ("renatus") under the preaching of English revivalist George Whitefield. Robinson later authored the hymn, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

● 1764 - Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation" and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.

● 1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins. They believed that a French invasion of Ireland was imminent.

● 1809 - Dartmoor Prison opens to house French prisoners of war

● 1815 - George Evans discovers Lachlan River, Australia

● 1816 - Emamual Leutze was born in Germany. He was most famous for his paintings "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and "Columbus Before the Queen".

● 1818 - General Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola FL

● 1819 - Queen Victoria, Britain's longest-reigning monarch, was born.

● 1822 - Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito with the of Bolívar.

● 1824 - Pope Leo XII proclaims a universal jubilee

● 1829 - Pope Pius VIII issues his program for the pontificate

● 1830 - 1st passenger rail service in US (Baltimore & Elliots Mill, Maryland)

● 1832 - The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.

● 1844 - Samuel F. B. Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Supreme Court room in Washington, D.C. to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland.

● 1846 - Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey.

● 1854 - Anthony Burns, slave, arrested by US Deputy marshals in Boston

● 1856 - Powatomie Massacre. Abolitionist John Brown, whose "truth goes marching on," led six men, four of them his sons, in the brutal murder and mutilation of five pro-slavery Kansans. {As with most religious zealots, he believed he was doing God's work.}

● 1861 - Major General Benjamin Butler declares slaves "contraband of war."

● 1861 - American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.

● 1862 - Westminster Bridge across Thames opens

● 1863 - Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a U.S. Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.

● 1866 - Berkeley CA named (for George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne)

● 1870 - Memoria of Jackson Kemper, 1st Missionary Bishop in US

● 1879 - American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison dies.

● 1881 - Turkey cedes Thessaly and Arta back to Greece.

● 1881 - Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sinks near London Ontario, 200 die

● 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction by President Arthur & Governor Cleveland.

● 1884 - Anti-Monopoly party and Greenback Party forms People's Party in the U.S.

● 1887 - Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar grants East African Association at East African harbors

● 1890 - Caprivi succeeds Bismarck as chancellor of Germany

● 1892 - Birth of Earl B. Marlatt, American religious educator and hymnologist. In 1926 Marlatt penned the hymn, "`Are Ye Able?' Said the Master," to be sung in a consecration service at Boston University's School of Religion.

● 1893 - The Niagara Falls Park and River Railway opens in Ontario.

● 1895 - Henry Irving becomes the first personage from the theatre to be knighted.

● 1899 - The first public parking garage in the United States is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.

● 1900 - Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.

● 1902 - Empire Day 1st celebrated in Britain

● 1906 - British suffragist Dora Montefiore protests lack of women's vote by refusing to pay taxes and barricading her house against bailiffs.

● 1908 - Belgium Catholic socialist/liberal parliamentary election

● 1909 - Bristol University granted Royal Charter

● 1911 - The New York Public Library opened.

● 1913 - The U.S. Department of Labor entered into its first strike mediation. The dispute was between the Railroad Clerks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

● 1915 - World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.

● 1915 - Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations {.. and illegal wire tapping becomes hobby of politicians everywhere}

● 1916 - Conscription begins in Britain

● 1916 - French driven out of Fort Douaumont after 500 killed or injured

● 1916 - Last British-Indian contract workers arrive in Suriname

● 1916 - US pilot William Thaw shoots down a German Fokker

● 1917 - Mass demonstration against impending draft calls, Montreal, Quebec.

● 1921 - 1st parliament for Northern Ireland elected

● 1921 - British Legion is formed

● 1921 - Beginning of trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, anarchist labor organizers, in Massachusetts. Their execution was the culmination of a five-year government campaign to crush political dissidents (particularly socialist and anarchist workers) in the U.S.

● 1922 - Record temperature in Netherlands for May (35.6ºC)

● 1922 - Russian-Italian trade agreement signed

● 1928 - Umberto Nobile flies airship over North Pole again

● 1930 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

● 1930 - Pioneer linguist Frank C. Laubach, while serving as a Congregational missionary, wrote in a letter: 'As one makes new discoveries about his friends by being with them, so one discovers the "individuality" of God if one entertains him continuously.'

● 1931 - B&O Railroad began service with the first passenger train to have air conditioning throughout. The run was between New York City and Washington, DC.

● 1934 - Colombia & Peru sign accord about harbor city Leticia

● 1936 - Dutch bishops forbid membership in Nazi party

● 1940 - Dutch army demobilizes

● 1940 - Dutch Queen Wilhelmina speaks on BBC radio

● 1940 - German tanks reach Atrecht France

● 1940 - Hitler affirms General von Rundstedt's "Stopbevel"

● 1940 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

● 1941 - Birth of songwriter and anti-war folk singer Robert Zimmerman. {Bob Dylan to the unenlightened.}

● 1941 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing 1,416, all but three crewmen on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.

● 1943 - March against anti-Semitism leads to stop in Jewish deportations, Bulgaria.

● 1943 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp.

● 1943 - Admiral Dönitz stops U-boat in Atlantic Ocean

● 1943 - U-441 shoots Sunderland seaplane down over Gulf of Biskaje

● 1944 - Enver Hoxha becomes head of Albania anti fascists

● 1944 - Icelandic voters severe all ties with Denmark

● 1949 - The Soviet Union ends the 11-month Berlin Blockade.

● 1950 - Harlem Globetrotter basketball star "Sweetwater" (Nat) Clifton's contract purchased by the New York Knicks; becomes the first black player in the NBA.

● 1950 - In Boston, during its annual gathering, the Northern Baptist Convention formally changed its name to the American Baptist Convention. Twenty-two years later, in 1972, the denomination changed its name once more, and became the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.

● 1951 - Racial segregation in Washington DC restaurants ruled illegal

● 1951 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)

● 1953 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Doctor Mellifluus

● 1954 - The first moving sidewalk in a railroad station was opened in Jersey City, NJ. {Now standard in most airports as there is few railroad stations of any import.}

● 1954 - 1st rocket attains 150 mile (241 km) altitude, White Sands NM

● 1954 - Dr Peter Murray Marshall becomes 1st black to head an AMA unit

● 1954 - German airline Lufthansa forms

● 1954 - IBM announces vacuum tube "electronic" brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour {Provided that none of the tubes brunt out.}

● 1956 - Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna.

● 1957 - Anti American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan

● 1957 - Heavy earthquake strikes Colombia

● 1958 - President Batista opens offensive against Fidel Castro's rebellion

● 1958 - United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

● 1959 - First house with built-in bomb shelter, Pleasant Hills, Penn.

● 1959 - Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in England

● 1960 - 1 millionth Dutch telephone installed

● 1961 - Explorer (12) fails to reach Earth orbit

● 1961 - American civil rights movement: Twenty-seven Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.

● 1961 - Cyprus enters the Council of Europe.

● 1962 - American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

● 1963 - 1st Lockheed A-12 to crash, CIA pilot Ken Collins ejects safely

● 1964 - Panic in Lima Peru soccer stadium, kills 300

● 1965 - Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional

● 1968 - De Gaulle: 'Back me or sack me'; The President of France, Charles de Gaulle, issues an ultimatum to striking students and workers. {Below looks like the choice was sack him.}

● 1968 - President De Gaulle proposes referendum & students set fire to Paris bourse

● 1968 - Four protesters, including Phil Berrigan and Tom Lewis, sentenced to six years each in prison for pouring blood on draft cards. Baltimore, Maryland.

● 1968 - Pinnacle of French general strike; perhaps 10 million were involved. City of Nantes and surrounding area is completely controlled by workers for a week, with farmers setting up roadblocks to the area in solidarity.

● 1968 - Inspired by French student unrest that was resulting in a general nationwide strike, university occupations and confrontations with authorities occur in Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Chile.

● 1968 - FLQ separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.

● 1970 - The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the USSR

● 1971 - A commuter bus plunges into Panamá Canal, killing 38 of 43 aboard

● 1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1973 - Beginning of eleven-day strike at state prison in Lucasville, Ohio.

● 1973 - Earl Jellicoe resigns as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the Lords.

● 1975 - Journalists leave fallen Saigon; A group of 80 reporters and cameramen - including nine Britons - are allowed to fly out of Saigon.

● 1975 - Dutch Government of De Uyl decides to obtain an F-16

● 1975 - Soyuz 18B carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 4

● 1976 - 1st commercial SST flight to North America (Concorde to Washington DC)

● 1977 - USSR President Podgorny resigns

● 1978 - Dutch Investment bill (WIR) law goes into effect

● 1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1980 - Hundreds arrested in occupation of Seabrook (NH) nuclear power plant construction site.

● 1980 - The International Court of Justice calls for the release of United States embassy hostages in Tehran. The hostages would not be freed until the following January. {This is of course because of behind the scenes deals made by Reagan and his crew of crooks.}

● 1981 - First International Women's Day for Disarmament.

● 1981 - Hostage situation ends at Central Bank in Barcelona Spain

● 1983 - Fred Sinowatz succeeds Bruno Kreisky as chancellor of Austria

● 1983 - U.S. Supreme Court rules the IRS can deny tax exemptions to private schools that practice racial discrimination.

● 1984 - New Zealand - Largest national gathering of women in anti-nuclear demonstration, Auckland.

● 1985 - Cyclone hits Bangladesh; about 10,000 die

● 1985 - Ferry flight, Enterprise (OV-101) from Vandenberg Air Force Base to Edwards Air Force Base CA

● 1986 - Margaret Thatcher becomes 1st British PM to visit Israel

● 1988 - Section 28 is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.

● 1989 - Yorkshire Ripper's wife wins damages; A jury at the High Court in London awards £600,000 damages to Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, against the satirical magazine Private Eye.

● 1989 - French war criminal Paul Touvier arrested in monastery in Nice

● 1990 - Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney are seriously injured when a car bomb explodes under Bari's seat as they drive through Oakland. The FBI and Oakland Police immediately arrest the two and charge them with bombing themselves; the charges are later dropped, and the perpetrator is never found.

● 1991 - EPLF guerillas take over the capital, freeing Eritrea after a long and bloody war of secession against Ethiopia.

● 1991 - Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

● 1992 - Dove for bombing victims erected as an alternative to a statue of a mass bomber, Strand, London.

● 1992 - The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.

● 1993 - Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo and six other people were killed at the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport in a shootout that involved drug gangs.

● 1993 - Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia after 30-year civil war

● 1993 - Kurd rebellion kills 33 soldiers & 5 citizens in Turkey

● 1994 - The four men convicted of bombing the New York's World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

● 1995 - Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died at age 79.

● 1997 - STS 84 (Atlantis 19), lands

● 1997 - Telstar-5 Proton Launch, Successful

● 1999 - 39 miners were killed in an underground gas explosion in the Ukraine.

● 1999 - Venezuela entered the Antarctic Treaty System.

● 2000 - Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

● 2000 - Five people were killed and two others wounded when two gunmen entered a Wendy's restaurant in Flushing, Queens, New York. The gunmen tied up the victims in the basement and then shot them.

● 2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved permanent normal trade relations with China. China was not happy about some of the human rights conditions that had been attached by the U.S. lawmakers.

● 2000 - A Democratic Party event for Al Gore in Washington brought in $26.5 million. The amount set a new record, which had just been set the previous month by Republicans for Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

● 2001 - Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont abandoned the Republican Party and declared himself an independent.

● 2001 - Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

● 2001 - The Versailles wedding hall collapse in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster.

● 2002 - Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

BIRTHS

● 15 BC - Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commander (d. 19)

● 1494 - Pontormo, Italian painter (d. 1557)

● 1522 - John Jewel, English bishop (d. 1571)

● 1544 - William Gilbert, English natural philosopher (d. 1603)

● 1616 - John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, (d. 1682)

● 1671 - Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1737)

● 1686 - Gabriel Fahrenheit, German physicist and engineer (d. 1736)

● 1689 - Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician (d. 1769)

● 1743 - Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionary (d. 1793)

● 1794 - William Whewell, English scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (d. 1866)

● 1810 - Charles Clark, Governor of Mississippi (d. 1877)

● 1810 - Abraham Geiger, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1874)

● 1816 - Emanuel Leutze, German-born painter (d. 1868)

● 1819 - Victoria, English queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and empress of India (1876-1901); Longest ruling monarch in English history. (d. 1901)

● 1830 - Alexei Savrasov, Russian painter (d. 1897)

● 1836 - Joseph Rowntree, British social reformer (d. 1925)

● 1854 - John Riley Banister, American law officer and cowboy (d. 1918)

● 1855 - Arthur Wing Pinero, English playwright (d. 1934)

● 1863 - George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (d. 1938)

● 1868 - Charles E. Taylor, First aircraft maintenance professional (d. 1956)

● 1870 - Benjamin Cardozo, American Supreme Court justice (1932-38) (d. 1938)

● 1870 - Jan Christian Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa(1919-24) (d. 1950)

● 1878 - Harry Emerson Fosdick, American Protestant minister, teacher and author (d. 1969)

● 1878 - Lillian Moller Gilbreth, American engineer (d. 1972)

● 1879 - H. B. Reese, American inventor of Reese's and founder(d. 1956)

● 1886 - Paul Paray, French conductor and composer (d. 1979)

● 1891 - William F. Albright, American archeologist and Biblical scholar (d. 1971)

● 1898 - Helen Brooke Taussig, American physician; founded pediatric cardiology (d. 1986)

● 1899 - Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)

● 1899 - Henri Michaux, French poet (d. 1984)

● 1900 - Lionel Conacher, Canadian athlete and politician (d. 1954)

● 1900 - Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor and screenwriter (d. 1984)

● 1901 - José Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1968)

● 1905 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)

● 1908 - Sam Giancana, American gangster; led Chicago crime syndicate in 1950's and 1960's (d. 1975)

● 1909 - Wilbur Mills, American politician (d. 1992)

● 1914 - Lilli Palmer, German-born actress (d. 1986)

● 1916 - Roden Cutler, Australian diplomat and war hero (d. 2002)

● 1923 - Siobhán McKenna, Irish actress (d. 1986)

● 1925 - Mai Zetterling, Swedish-born entertainer (d. 1994)

● 1926 - Stanley Baxter, Scottish actor

● 1928 - William Trevor, Irish writer

● 1930 - Hans-Martin Linde, German conductor

● 1934 - Jane Byrne, Mayor of Chicago

● 1934 - Barry Rose, English choir-trainer and organist

● 1935 - Joan Micklin Silver, American director

● 1936 - Harold Budd, American musician

● 1938 - Tommy Chong, Canadian-born actor and comedian (Cheech and Chong)

● 1940 - Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)

● 1941 - Bob Dylan, American singer and songwriter

● 1943 - Gary Burghoff, American actor

● 1944 - Patti LaBelle, American singer

● 1945 - Priscilla Presley, American actress

● 1946 - Irena Kirszenstein-Szewinska, Russian-born Polish athlete

● 1947 - Mike Reid, Country singer, songwriter

● 1949 - Jim Broadbent, English actor

● 1953 - Alfred Molina, London-born Spanish-Italian actor.

● 1955 - Rosanne Cash, American singer

● 1956 - Michael Jackson, Northern Irish clergyman

● 1959 - Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish professional goaltender (d. 1985)

● 1960 - Kristin Scott Thomas, English actress

● 1962 - Gene Anthony Ray, American actor (d. 2003)

● 1962 - Mo Willems, American author and screenwriter

● 1963 - Joe Dumars, American basketball player

● 1963 - Vivian Trimble, Rock musician (Luscious Jackson)

● 1963 - Ivan Capelli, Italian racing driver

● 1963 - Kathy Leander, Swiss singer

● 1963 - Rich Rodriguez, American football coach

● 1964 - Adrian Moorhouse, British swimmer

● 1964 - Pat Verbeek, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1965 - John C. Reilly, American actor

● 1965 - Shinichiro Watanabe, Japanese anime director

● 1966 - Éric Cantona, French footballer

● 1966 - Ricky Craven, American Nascar driver

● 1967 - Eric Close, Actor ("Without a Trace")

● 1967 - Heavy D, American rapper and actor

● 1967 - Carlos Hernández, baseball player

● 1969 - Rich Robinson, American musician (Black Crowes)

● 1970 - Tommy Page, American singer

● 1971 - Kris Draper, Canadian ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings)

● 1972 - Greg Berlanti, American television writer and producer

● 1973 - Bartolo Colón, Dominican Major League Baseball player

● 1973 - Dermot O'Leary, English television presenter

● 1973 - Ruslana, Ukrainian singer

● 1973 - Ramón Ortiz, baseball player

● 1974 - Will Sasso, MADtv actor and comedian

● 1975 - Marc Gagnon, Canadian short track speed skater

● 1975 - Yannis Goumas, Greek footballer

● 1976 - Alessandro Cortini, Italian musician

● 1976 - Catherine Cox, Australian netballer

● 1978 - Bryan Greenberg, American actor

● 1978 - Brian Ching, American soccer player

● 1979 - Tracy McGrady, American basketball player

● 1979 - Frank Mir, Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

● 1980 - Billy L. Sullivan, Actor

● 1980 - Cecilia Cheung, Hong Kong actress and singer

● 1982 - Issah Ahmed, Ghana football player

● 1983 - Big Tyme, Actor, rapper

● 1984 - Brodney Pool, American football player

● 1984 - Sarah Hagan, American actress

● 1987 - Dominika Kasprzycka, Polish singer

● 1988 - Billy Gilman, American singer

● 1989 - Tara Correa-McMullen, American actress (d. 2005)

● 1990 - Luke Temple, American concert pianist

● 1995 - Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein

DEATHS

● 1153 - King David I of Scotland (b. 1084)

● 1351 - Abu al-Hasan 'Ali, Sultan of Morocco

● 1425 - Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, Scottish politician (b. 1362)

● 1456 - Ambroise de Loré, French military commander (b. 1396)

● 1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer (b. 1473)

● 1612 - Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (b. 1563)

● 1627 - Luis de Góngora, Spanish poet (b. 1561)

● 1725 - Jonathan Wild, English criminal (b. 1683)

● 1734 - Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)

● 1749 - Graf Valentin Potocki, Polish nobleman (burned at the stake)

● 1792 - George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, British naval officer (b. 1718)

● 1806 - John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, British field marshal (b. 1723)

● 1843 - Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician (b. 1765)

● 1861 - Elmer E. Ellsworth, North American Colonel, known as the first conspicuous casualty of the American Civil War. (b. 1837)

● 1879 - William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist, writer, and publisher (b. 1805)

● 1881 - Samuel Palmer, English artist (b. 1805)

● 1883 - Abdel Kadir, Algerian leader (b. 1808)

● 1919 - Amado Nervo, Mexican poet (b. 1870)

● 1945 - Robert Ritter von Greim, German field marshal (b. 1892)

● 1947 - C. F. Ramuz, Swiss writer (b. 1878)

● 1948 - Jacques Feyder, Belgian director and screenwriter (b. 1885)

● 1949 - Aleksey Shchusev, Russian architect (b. 1873)

● 1950 - Archibald Wavell, British general (b. 1883)

● 1959 - John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)

● 1963 - Elmore James, American musician (b. 1918)

● 1969 - Willy Ley, German-born rocket scientist (b. 1906)

● 1974 - Duke Ellington, American composer and musician (b. 1899)

● 1984 - Vincent J. McMahon, American pro wrestling promoter (b. 1914)

● 1991 - Gene Clark, American singer and songwriter (The Byrds) (b. 1944)

● 1991 - Miriam di San Servolo, Italian actress (b. 1912)

● 1995 - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)

● 1997 - Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (b. 1923)

● 2000 - Kurt Schork, American reporter and war correspondent (b. 1947)

● 2002 - Wallace Markfield, American writer (b. 1926)

● 2003 - Rachel Kempson, English actress (b. 1910)

● 2004 - Henry Ries, American photographer (b. 1917)

● 2004 - Milton Shulman, Canadian author and drama critic (b. 1913)

● 2005 - Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist and resistance fighter (b. 1913)

● 2005 - Vivian Liberto, first wife of Johnny Cash (b. 1934)

● 2006 - Michał Życzkowski, Polish technician (b. 1930)

● 2006 - Henry Bumstead, American art director (b. 1915)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● Blessed Virgin Mary – Mother of Jesus, Help of the Christians
● St. Afra
● St. Amaël
● St. David I
● Sts. Donatian & Rogatian
● St. Gerard de Lunel
● St. Jessica
● St. Joanna
● St. John del Prado
● St. Manaen
● St. Meletius
● St. Nicetas of Pereaslav
● St. Patrick
● St. Robustian
● St. Sarah is celebrated in Camargue, France by the Roma people (or Gypsies).
● St. Suzanna
● St. Vincent of Porto
● St. Zoellus

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for May 11 (Civil Date: May 24)
● Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Methodius and Cyril, first teachers of the Slavs.
● Hieromartyr Mocius (Mucius), presbyter of Amphipolis in Macedonia
● Commemoration of the Founding of Constantinople.
● St. Nicodemus, Archbishop of Serbia.
● St. Sophronius, recluse of the Kiev Caves.
● St. Joseph, Metropolitan of Astrakhan.
● New-Martyrs Diosorus and Argyrus.
● St. Bessarion, Archbishop of Larissa.
● Martyr Acacius of Lower Moesia.

● Lutheran:
● Copernicus, teacher
● Euler, teacher

● Anglican:
● Jackson Kemper, 1st missionary bishop in US

● Russia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia: Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day

● Aldersgate Day (Methodism).

● China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea: Buddha's Birthday

● Bermuda: Bermuda Day.

● Eritrea: National Day.

● Bahamas, Belize, Gibraltar, Lesotho, Turk & Caicos : Commonwealth Day

● Bulgaria : Education Day/Enlightenment & Culture Day

● Ecuador : Battle of Pichincha (1822)

● France : La Fete des Saintes Maries

● England : Victoria Day/Empire Day (1819)

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Canada : Victoria Day (1819) - ( Monday ) In Quebec, it is known as National Patriotes Day (Journée nationale des patriotes). The holiday is often referred to as "May Two-Four," -- a "two-four" being slang for a case of beer with 24 bottles or cans.


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004

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