May 25......

May 25 is the 145th (146th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 220 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Guns "I am not anti-gun. I am pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives." — Molly Ivans

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Social and Economic Irresponsibility "It is true that if you are poor and can't afford a good lawyer, your odds of going to prison skyrocket. But you know what? Tough!" — Bill "looffah" O'Reilly

Thought for the day: "If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."

{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

● 585 BCE - 1st known prediction of a solar eclipse

● 350 BCE - After disguising herself as a man and studying with the famous physician Herophilos, Agnodice becomes the first woman professional gynecologist. But rival doctors denounce her as "one that does corrupt men's wives." Agnodice reveals her sex to clear herself of rape charges. Rushing to her defense, female patients declare that if Agnodice is executed for practicing medicine, "they will all die with her." Not only is Agnodice acquitted, but is allowed to continue her medical work and wear men's clothing. A change in Athenian law also allows women to study medicine.

● 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile captured Toledo, Spain, and brought the Moorish center of science into Christian hands.

● 1241 - 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main Germany

● 1420 - Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.

● 1521 - The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw for refusing to recant his teachings while at the Diet of Worms (held the previous month).

● 1632 - Albrecht von Wallenstein recaptures Prague on Saksen

● 1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth.

● 1660 - English King Charles II lands in Dover

● 1720 - "Le Grand St Antoine" reaches Marseille, plague kills 80,000

● 1721 - John Copson becomes America's 1st insurance agent

● 1774 - Black slaves in North America petition British government for freedom.

● 1776 - Continental Congress resolves "highly expedient to engage Indians in service of the United Colonies," and authorizes recruiting 2,000 paid auxiliaries. Program was a dismal failure, as virtually every tribe refused to fight for the colonists.

● 1784 - Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek

● 1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presides.

● 1793 - Stephen Theodore Badin, 25, was ordained in Baltimore, MD the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the newly independent United States of America. Badin afterward served as a frontier missionary, and played a key role in establishing Catholicism in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee during the early nineteenth century.

● 1803 - Birth of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dramatist/novelist, London. His novel "Paul Clifford" begins - "It was a dark & stormy night..."

● 1807 - Slave trade in the United States of America is abolished.

● 1810 - In the May Revolution, armed citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo. Argentina declares independence from Napoleonic Spain (National Day)

● 1812 - Earthquake destroys Caracas Venezuela

● 1824 - The American Sunday School Union was established in Philadelphia. It pledged itself: (1) to circulate appropriate literature in every part of the land; (2) to secure a unity of evangelistic effort; and (3) to plant a Sunday School wherever there was a population.

● 1825 - American Unitarian Association founded

● 1844 - The gasoline engine was patented by Stuart Perry.

● 1844 - The first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD, appeared in the Baltimore "Patriot."

● 1861 - John Merryman is arrested under suspension of writ of habeas corpus it later sparks a Supreme Court decision protecting the writ

● 1862 - Battle of Winchester VA

● 1864 - Battle of New Hope Church GA

● 1865 - In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes.

● 1870 - Irish Fenians raid Eccles Hill, Québec

● 1876 - The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland (org. 1743) united with the Free Church of Scotland (org. 1843) to form the new Free Church of Scotland. (In 1929 the Free Church merged with the Mother Church, afterward retaining the name Church of Scotland.)

● 1878 - Song-and-dance man Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was born in Richmond, Va.

● 1886 - Birth of Philip Murray, Blantyre, Scotland. The American USWA's founding President, and head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1940 until his death in 1952.

● 1887 - Gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire; 200 die

● 1892 - The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.

● 1895 - Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years hard labor for being a sodomite. (The criminalization of homosexuality.)

● 1898 - 1st US troop transport to Manila leaves San Fransisco

● 1901 - Argentina - On the initiative of the Italian Pietro Gori (1865-1911), Federacion Obrera Argentine (FOA) is founded. In 1902 the FOA became the anarchist FORA (Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina (FORA)), and counts 250,000 members, initiating several general strikes.

● 1911 - Revolution in México overthrows President José Porfirio Diaz

● 1914 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.

● 1915 - 2nd Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties

● 1923 - Britain recognizes Transjordan with Abdullah as its leader

● 1925 - Two company houses occupied by non-union coal miners blown up and destroyed by labor "racketeers" during a strike against the Glendale Gas and Coal Company in Wheeling, West Virginia.

● 1925 - Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

● 1926 - Simon Petliura (Petlyura), the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic, assassinated in Paris by Samuel Schwartzbard, a young Jewish anarchist poet and watchmaker, to avenge pogroms against Jews directed by Petliura, a rightwing nationalist, and the murder of Schwartzbafd's own family members. He was later acquitted by a sympathetic jury.

● 1926 - Miles Davis, the American trumpeter who had a strong influence on jazz music, was born.

● 1927 - Ford Motor Company announced that the Model A would replace the Model T.

● 1928 - Amelia Earhart (as a passenger) is 1st woman to fly Atlantic Ocean

● 1931 - Douglas Macintosh and Marie Averill Bland denied U.S. citizenship for refusing to bear arms on behalf of the state.

● 1936 - The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins.

● 1938 - Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Alicante, 313 deaths.

● 1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.

● 1940 - German troops conquer Boulogne

● 1941 - 5,000 drown in a storm at Ganges Delta region in India

● 1943 - Trident conference in Washington DC (operation plan '43 against Japan)

● 1943 - Riot at Mobile, Alabama shipyard over upgrading 12 black workers.

● 1944 - Partisan leader Tito escapes Germans surrounding Bosnia

● 1945 - Arthur C. Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit

● 1946 - Jordan gains independence from Britain (National Day)

● 1946 - The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their king.

● 1947 - Coal dust explosion rocks Centralia Coal Company's Mine #5 killing 111

● 1948 - Garry Davis, an ex-US GI, renounces US citizenship to become Citizen of the World. Davis continues to promote "world citizenship" for over 50 years; 400,000 have, at one time or another, joined the movement.

● 1949 - Chinese Red army occupies Shanghai

● 1950 - Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel opens in NYC

● 1952 - U.S. detonates first thermonuclear device, Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.

● 1953 - First atomic cannon electronically fired, Frenchman Flat, Nevada for the first and only nuclear artillery test.

● 1953 - 1st non-commercial educational television station-Houston TX

● 1955 - Series of 19 twisters destroy Udall KS & most of Blackwell OK

● 1955 - In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It was the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.

● 1956 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Haurietis aquas

● 1959 - Khrushchev visits Angola

● 1959 - Supreme Court rules that Louisiana prohibiting black-white boxing is unconstitutional

● 1961 - NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,770 meters

● 1961 - Apollo program: U.S. president John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade.

● 1962 - US performs nuclear test at Christmas Island (atmospheric)

● 1962 - US unions AFL-CIO starts campaign for 35-hour work week

● 1963 - African states unite against white rule; Leaders of 32 African nations set up an organisation that will give them a united voice for the first time in African history.

● 1964 - Supreme Court rules closing schools to avoid desegregation unconstitutional

● 1965 - India & Pakistan border fights

● 1965 - Roel van Duyn, Martijn Ananar & Rob Faado form counter culture movement Provo

● 1966 - Peru & Argentina soccer fans fight in Lima; 248 die

● 1966 - Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.

● 1966 - The first prominent DaZiBao during the Cultural Revolution in China was posted at Peking University.

● 1968 - The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, MO, was dedicated.

● 1969 - Sudanese government is overthrown in a military coup

● 1971 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1971 - Trial of Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins ends.

● 1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1973 - Argentine Peronist Hector Cámpora installed as president

● 1973 - US launches 1st Skylab; crew Kerwin, Conrad, Weitz

● 1977 - An opinion piece by Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs appeared in "The Washington Post." The article called for a national memorial to "remind an ungrateful nation of what it has done to its sons" that had served in the Vietnam War.

● 1977 - Dutch social democratic party wins parliamentary election

● 1977 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1979 - Price of milk shoots up; The price of milk is to go up by more than 10% to 15p a pint - three times the price it was five years ago.

● 1979 - Israel begins to return Sinai to Egypt

● 1979 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.

● 1979 - Florida executes John Spenkelink, the first non-voluntary execution in the United States in more than 10 years.

● 1981 - With three suction cups and a Spiderman cartoon costume, Dan Goodwin scales the world's tallest building--the Sears Tower--in Chicago. Climbed six hours, with police trying to stop his perilous climb. At the 50th floor, he assured them of his safety, crested in another hour, and was arrested for trespass.

● 1981 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

● 1982 - Dozens killed as Argentines hit British ships; Dozens of men are feared dead in the seas around the Falkland Islands after frigates are destroyed.

● 1982 - Iranian troops reconquer Khorramshar

● 1982 - STS-4 vehicle moves to launch pad

● 1983 - 1st National Missing Children's Day is proclaimed

● 1983 - Fire in Nassermeer Egypt kills 357

● 1983 - France performs nuclear test

● 1985 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 11,000 people.

● 1986 - Hands Across America, a benefit event, takes place - 7 million people hold hands from California to New York to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless. {As part of his tilting at windmills, A Proud Liberal was a participant.}

● 1986 - Ferry boat Shamia sinks on Maghna River Bangladesh, 600 killed

● 1986 - Virgilio Barco elected President of Colombia

● 1989 - Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union

● 1991 - Israel evacuates 14,000 Ethiopian Jews

● 1991 - Last Cuban troops leave Angola.

● 1992 - Five hundred march on Leavenworth (Kansas) federal prison to demand freedom for imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier.

● 1992 - Oscar Luigi Scalfaro elected President of Italy

● 1995 - The Bosnian Serb Army kills 72 youngsters in the Bosnian city of Tuzla.

● 1997 - Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, marking 41 years, 10 months in office. (Thurmond's record was surpassed in 2006 by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who won re-election to a ninth six-year term in November.)

● 1997 - Poland adopted a constitution that removed all traces of communism.

● 1997 - A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.

● 1998 - Bishop John Joseph shoots himself in Pakistani court as a protest against blasphemy laws.

● 1999 – The Cox report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China concluded that China had "stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons" and that China's penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories "spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today."

● 2000 - Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.

● 2001 - 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

● 2001 - 64-year-old Sherman Bull, of New Canaan, Connecticut, becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

● 2002 - China Airlines Flight 611: A Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people.

● 2002 - A train crash in Tenga, Mozambique kills 197 people.

● 2003 - Four Catholic Workers activists are arrested as the "Riverside Ploughshares" for pouring their blood and hammering on the USS Philippine's hatches for Tomahawk cruise missiles, during that ship's Memorial Day weekend visit to New York City for its annual "Fleet Week."

● 2003 - Néstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He is the first elected President since the economic crisis.

● 2004 - The Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese announced it would close 65 of 357 parishes because of financial problems caused in part by the clergy sex abuse scandal.

● 2006 - Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted in Houston of conspiracy and fraud for the company's downfall. (Lay died in July from heart disease and his convictions were vacated; Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison.) {I think Lay had enough cash and connections that he is living alive and well somewhere in the Middle East.}

BIRTHS

● 1048 - Emperor Shenzong of China (d. 1085)

● 1334 - Emperor Sukō (d. 1398)

● 1458 - Mahmud Begada, Sultan of Gujarat (d. 1511)

● 1606 - Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)

● 1661 - Claude Buffier, French philosopher and historian (d. 1737)

● 1713 - John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)

● 1725 - Samuel Ward, American politician (d. 1776)

● 1803 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)

● 1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)

● 1845 - Lip Pike, baseball player (d. 1883)

● 1852 - William Muldoon, wrestler (d. 1933)

● 1856 - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (d. 1942)

● 1860 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (d. 1944)

● 1865 - John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1955)

● 1865 - Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)

● 1877 - Billy Murray, American singer (d. 1954)

● 1878 - Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, African American entertainer (d. 1949)

● 1879 - Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born publisher (d. 1964)

● 1880 - Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist (d. 1967)

● 1882 - Marie Doro, American actress (d. 1956)

● 1886 - Philip Murray, U.S. (Scottish-born) labor leader (d. 1952)

● 1887 - Pio of Pietrelcina, Catholic saint (d. 1968)

● 1888 - Miles Malleson, English actor (d. 1969)

● 1889 - Igor Sikorsky, Russian inventor (d. 1972)

● 1897 - Gene Tunney, American heavyweight champion (d. 1978)

● 1898 - Bennett Cerf, American publisher, TV personality (d. 1971)

● 1900 - Alain Grandbois, French Canadian poet (d. 1975)

● 1903 - Binnie Barnes, British actress (d. 1998)

● 1907 - U Nu, Burmese politician (d. 1995)

● 1909 - Alfred Kubel, German politician (d. 1999)

● 1912 - Princess Dukhye of Korea (d. 1989)

● 1913 - Richard Dimbleby, British journalist and broadcaster (d. 1965)

● 1917 - Steve Cochran, American actor (d. 1965)

● 1918 - Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)

● 1921 - Jack Steinberger, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1921 - Hal David, American lyricist and songwriter

● 1922 - Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (d. 1984)

● 1922 - Kitty Kallen, American big band singer

● 1924 - István Nyers, Hungarian footballer (d. 2005)

● 1925 - Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (d. 1974)

● 1925 - Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)

● 1925 - Don Liddle, baseball player (d. 2000)

● 1926 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer (d. 1991)

● 1927 - Robert Ludlum, American writer (d. 2001)

● 1929 - Beverly Sills, American soprano

● 1931 - Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut

● 1932 - K.C. Jones, Basketball Hall of Famer

● 1932 - John Gregory Dunne, American writer (d. 2003)

● 1933 - Ray Spencer, English footballer

● 1935 - Cookie Gilchrist, American football player

● 1936 - Tom T. Hall, American singer and songwriter

● 1938 - Raymond Carver, American writer (d. 1988)

● 1939 - Dixie Carter, American actress ("Designing Women")

● 1939 - Ian McKellen, English actor ("Lord of the Rings" movies)

● 1943 - Leslie Uggams, Singer-actress

● 1943 - Jessi Colter, American singer

● 1943 - John "Poli" Palmer, British rock musician (Family)

● 1944 - Frank Oz, English-born puppeteer and director

● 1944 - Pierre Bachelet, French singer and songwriter (d. 2005)

● 1944 - John Bunnell, former Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon and TV personality

● 1947 - Karen Valentine, Actress ("Room 222")

● 1948 - Klaus Meine, German musician (Scorpions)

● 1949 - Jamaica Kincaid, Antiguan-born novelist

● 1951 - Patti D'Arbanville, Actress

● 1952 - Gordon Smith, U.S. senator, R-Ore.

● 1953 - Eve Ensler, American playwright

● 1953 - Daniel Passarella, Argentine football player

● 1955 - Connie Sellecca, Actress

● 1956 - Sugar Minott, Jamaican singer

● 1956 - David P. Sartor, American music composer

● 1956 - Tatsutoshi Goto, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1958 - Paul Weller, British musician (The Jam, Style Council)

● 1960 - Amy Klobuchar, U.S. senator, D-Minn.

● 1960 - Guy Fletcher, keyboardist (Dire Straits)

● 1963 - Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian ("Saturday Night Live," "Austin Powers" movies)

● 1966 - McLoud, Swiss composer and artist

● 1967 - Matt Borlenghi, Actor

● 1967 - Poppy Z. Brite, American author

● 1968 - Joseph Reitman, Actor

● 1968 - Kendall Gill, American basketball player

● 1969 - Anne Heche, American actress

● 1969 - Stacy London, American fashion consultant

● 1969 - Glen Drover, Guitar player (Megadeth)

● 1970 - Jamie Kennedy, American actor

● 1970 - Joey Eischen, baseball player

● 1971 - Sonya Smith, American actress

● 1971 - Justin Henry, American actor

● 1972 - Octavia Spencer, American actress

● 1973 - Demetri Martin, American comedian

● 1973 - Molly Sims, American supermodel and actress ("Las Vegas")

● 1973 - Daz Dillinger, American hip-hop performer

● 1975 - Lauryn Hill, American singer

● 1976 - Ethan Suplee, Actor ("My Name is Earl")

● 1976 - Miguel Tejada, Dominican Major League Baseball player

● 1976 - Cillian Murphy, Irish actor

● 1978 - Todd Whitener, Rock musician (Tantric)

● 1978 - Brian Urlacher, American football player

● 1979 - Corbin Allred, Actor

● 1979 - Carlos Bocanegra, American soccer player

● 1979 - Jonny Wilkinson, English international and Newcastle Falcons rugby player

● 1979 - Caroline Ouellette, French Canadian ice hockey player

● 1979 - Sam Sodje, Nigerian footballer

● 1980 - Jae Hee, South Korean actor

● 1980 - David Navarro, Spanish footballer

● 1982 - Adam Boyd, English footballer

● 1983 - Kunal Khemu, Indian actor

● 1984 - Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir, 2005 Miss World

● 1984 - Kyle Brodziak, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1984 - Shawne Merriman, American football player

● 1985 - Lauren Frost, Actress, singer

● 1985 - Luciana Abreu, Portuguese singer and actress

● 1986 - Yoan Gouffran, French football player

● 1987 - Timothy Derijck, Belgian football player

● 1993 - Dilley sextuplets, American sextuplets

● 1999 - Maisy McLeod-Riera, New Zealand actress

DEATHS

● 709 - Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne

● 735 - Bede, English historian and monk

● 967 - Murakami, Emperor of Japan (b. 926)

● 992 - Mieszko I first lord and knight of Poland

● 1085 - Pope Gregory VII

● 1261 - Pope Alexander IV

● 1452 - John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury

● 1555 - Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (b. 1508)

● 1555 - Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)

● 1595 - Valens Acidalius, German critic and poet (b. 1567)

● 1632 - Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1572)

● 1667 - Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (b. 1620)

● 1681 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish playwright (b. 1600)

● 1693 - Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de la Fayette, French writer (b. 1634)

● 1741 - Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian (b. 1660)

● 1786 - Peter III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (b. 1717)

● 1789 - Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)

● 1797 - John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal (b. 1719)

● 1805 - William Paley, English philosopher (b. 1743)

● 1848 - Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (b. 1797)

● 1849 - Benjamin d'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (b. 1777)

● 1899 - Rosa Bonheur, French realist painter and sculptor (d. 1822)

● 1912 - Austin Lane Crothers, American politician (b. 1860)

● 1917 - Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (b. 1891)

● 1919 - Madame C.J. Walker, African American philanthropist and tycoon (b. 1867)

● 1924 - Lyubov Popova, Russian painter (b. 1889)

● 1926 - Symon Petlura, Ukrainian politician and statesman (b. 1879)

● 1927 - Payne Whitney, American businessman (b. 1876)

● 1930 - Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1848)

● 1934 - Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)

● 1935 - Sir Frank Watson Dyson, English astronomer (b. 1868)

● 1940 - Joe De Grasse, American film director (b. 1873)

● 1943 - Nils von Dardel, Swedish post-impressionist painter (b. 1888)

● 1951 - Paula von Preradović, Croatian-born writer (b. 1887)

● 1954 - Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (b. 1913)

● 1965 - Sonny Boy Williamson, American singer, songwriter, and musician (b. 1899)

● 1968 - Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (b. 1881)

● 1977 - Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (b. 1904)

● 1979 - John Arthur Spenkelink, American murderer (b. 1949)

● 1981 - Fredric Warburg, British publisher and author (b. 1898)

● 1983 - Jean Rougeau, French Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1925)

● 1986 - Chester Bowles, American politician (b. 1901)

● 1988 - Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)

● 1993 - David Peterson, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)

● 1994 - Sonny Sharrock, American jazz guitarist (b. 1940)

● 1995 - Dany Robin, French actress (b. 1927)

● 1996 - Bradley Nowell, American singer and guitarist (Sublime) (b. 1968)

● 2000 - Nicholas Clay, British actor (b. 1946)

● 2003 - Jeremy Michael Ward, American musician (The Mars Volta) (b. 1976)

● 2004 - Roger W. Straus, Jr., American publisher (b. 1917)

● 2005 - Sunil Dutt, Indian actor and politician (b. 1929)

● 2005 - Robert Jankel, British coachbuilder (b. 1938)

● 2005 - Graham Kennedy, Australian television personality (b. 1934)

● 2005 - Ruth Laredo, American pianist (b. 1937)

● 2005 - Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (b. 1965)

● 2006 - Desmond Dekker, Jamaican ska musician (b. 1941)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Aldhelm
● St. Augustine of Canterbury
● St. Bruno of Würzburg
● St. Dionysius of Milan
● St. Dunchadh
● St. Egilhard
● St. Frederic
● St. Genistus
● St. Gregory VII, Pope [1073-85], confessor (died 1085)
● St. Hildebert
● St. Julius of Dorostorum
● St. Leo of Troyes
● St. Marie-Madeleine-Sofie Barat (died 1865)
● St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
● Sts. Maximus & Victorinus
● St. Reinolf
● St. Urban I, pope (222-230), martyr
● St. Zenobius
● Bede the Venerable, priest, monk of Jarrow (died 735)

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for May 12 (Civil Date: May 25)
● St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus
● St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople.
● St. Sabinus, Archbishop of Cyprus.
● St. Polybius, Bishop of Cyprus.
● St. Dionysius, archimandrite of St. Sergius' Monastery.
● St. Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow.
● New-Martyr John of Walachia.

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Theodore of Cythera, monk.
● Commemoration of the Monk Dorotheus, disciple of St. Dionysius of St. Sergius' Lavra.

● Anglican:
● St. Aldelmus, bishop/confessor
● Bede the Venerable, priest, monk of Jarrow (died 735)

● Buddhist-Hong Kong : Buddha's Birthday

● Ancient Latvia - Urbanas Diena observed

● Argentina - Day of May Revolution/National Day (1810)

● Africa Day commemorating the 1963 fouding of the AU's precursor, OAU

● Chad, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe - African Liberation Day

● United States - National Tap Dance Day; celebrated on the birthday of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, born in 1878.

● Lebanon, Liberation Day (1999)

● Towel Day celebrated Worldwide

● Jordan : Independence Day/Arab Renaissance Day (1946)

● Lybia, Sudan : Sudan National Day/May Revolution Day (1969)

● Yugoslavia : Day of Youth

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● US : Memorial Day/Decoration Day, a legal holiday (1868) - ( Monday )
● Virginia : Confederate Memorial Day (1868) - ( Monday )


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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