May 31 - Spinning

Spinning

This Day In History

1279 BC

Rameses II (The Great) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

1578

Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool's gold, used to pave streets in London.

1669

Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary.

1790

Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

1859

The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.

1907

Taxis first begin running in NYC.

1927

The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.

1929

The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, "The Karnival Kid", is released.

1977

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed.

Famous Birthdays

1162

Genghis Khan, Khagan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1227)

1443

Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII of England (d. 1509)

1754

Andrea Appiani, Italian painter (d. 1817)

1819

Walt Whitman, American poet (d. 1892)

1857

Pope Pius XI (d. 1939)

1894

Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956)

1898

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman (d. 1993)

1922

Denholm Elliott, English actor (d. 1992)

1930

Clint Eastwood, American film director and actor

1938

Johnny Paycheck, American singer (d. 2003)
Peter Yarrow, American folk singer (Peter, Paul and Mary)

1943

Joe Namath, American football player

May 30 - Smile

Smile

This Day In History

1536

King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.

1539

In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.

1631

Publication of La Gazette, first French newspaper.

1854

The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.

1859

Westminster's Big Ben rings for the first time in London.

1868

Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time.

1879

New York's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
1896
 First car accident occurs: Henry Wells hits a bicyclist in NYC.

1911

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.

1914

The new and then largest Cunard liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York.

1922

In Washington, D.C. the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.

1958

Memorial Day: the remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

1966

Launch of Surveyor 1, the first US spacecraft to achieve landing on an extraterrestrial body.

1971

Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.

Famous Birthdays

1461

Georg von Peuerbach, Austrian astronomer, mathematician and instrument maker (d. 1461)

1814

Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (d. 1894)

1846

Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (d. 1920)

1882

Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (d. 1915)

1896

Howard Hawks, American film director (d. 1977)

1908

Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)

1909

Benny Goodman, American clarinetist and bandleader (d. 1986)

1918

Bob Evans, American restaurateur (d. 2007)

1922

Hal Clement, American science fiction writer (d. 2003)

1943

Gale Sayers, American football player

1949

P.J. Carlesimo, American basketball coach

1951

Stephen Tobolowsky, American actor

1953

Colm Meaney, Irish actor

1963

Helen Sharman, British chemist, the first Briton in space

1971

Idina Menzel, American actress and singer

1974

Cee-Lo Green, American musician

May 29 - Jawsome

Jawsome

This Day In History

1414

Council of Constance.

1453

Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire.

1790

Rhode Island becomes the last of the original United States' colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state.

1852

Jenny Lind leaves New York after her wildly successful two-year American tour.

1886

Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal.

1913

Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, provoking a riot.

1919

Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Crommelin.

1942

Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history.

1950

St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1953

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday.

1982

Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit Canterbury Cathedral.

1999

Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

Famous Birthdays

1594

Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Bavarian general (d. 1632)

1736

Patrick Henry, American patriot, 1st & 6th Governor of Virginia (d. 1799)

1794

Johann Heinrich von Mädler, German astronomer (d. 1874)

1860

Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (d. 1909)

1874

G. K. Chesterton^*, English novelist (d. 1936)

1903

Bob Hope, British-born comedian and actor (d. 2003)

1906

T.H. White, British author (d. 1964)

1917

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)

1938

Fay Vincent, American baseball commissioner
1952
Louise Cooper, British fantasy writer (d. 2009)

1953

Danny Elfman, American musician and composer

1959

Rupert Everett, English actor
1961
 Melissa Etheridge, American musician

* - "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected."

May 28 - Party

Party

Overheard

[E is playing hide and seek with new friend A.]
E: 1, 2, 3, 4, ready or not...
A: No! You have to make it take a long time. Count slower.
D: And higher. To ten, maybe twenty.
E: Oh! OK. 1... 2... 14... 15...

This Day In History

585 BC

585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.

1503

James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor are married according to a Papal Bull by Pope Alexander VI. A Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England signed on that occasion results in a peace that lasts ten years.

1892

In San Francisco, California, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club.

1930

The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.

1934

Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

1936

Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication.

2002

Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.

Famous Birthdays

1660

King George I of Great Britain (d. 1727)

1779

Thomas Moore, Irish poet (d. 1852)

1853

Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919)

1858

Carl Rickard Nyberg, Swedish inventor (d. 1939)

1888

Jim Thorpe/Wa-Tho-Huk, American pentathlete, decathlete, football, baseball and basketball player (d. 1953)

1908

Ian Fleming, English author (d. 1964)

1940

Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist

1944

Rudy Giuliani, 107th Mayor of New York City
Gladys Knight, American R&B and soul singer and actress

1945

John Fogerty, American singer, songwriter and guitarist (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

1947

Zahi Hawass, Egyptian egyptologist

1968

Kylie Minogue, Australian actress and singer

1970

Glenn Quinn, Irish actor (d. 2002)

1982

Alexa Davalos, American actress

1986

Michael Oher, American football player

May 27 - What's Cooking

What's Cooking?

This Day In History

1703

Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

1849

The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened.

1919

The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.

1930

The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.

1933

The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

1937

Golden Gate Bridge opens.

1962

The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire starts.

Famous Birthdays

1332

Ibn Khaldun, Arab polymath (d. 1406)

1794

Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)

1818

Amelia Bloomer, American suffragette (d. 1894)

1819

Julia Ward Howe, American poet (The Battle Hymn of the Republic) (d. 1910)

1837

Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)

1871

Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)

1894

Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)

1909

Dolores Hope, American singer and philanthropist

1911

Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)

1912

Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)

1915

Herman Wouk, American writer

1922

Christopher Lee, English actor

1925

Tony Hillerman, American writer (d. 2008)

1934

Harlan Ellison, American author

1936

Louis Gossett Jr., American actor

1939

Don Williams, American country singer

1955

Richard Schiff, American actor

1957

Siouxsie Sioux, English musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees)

1971

Paul Bettany, English actor

May 26 - Cleaning Up

Cleaning Up

This Day In History

17

Germanicus returns to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other German tribes west of the Elbe.

1864

Montana is organized as a United States territory.

1896

Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

1897

Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.

1948

The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.

1969

Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.

1977

George Willig climbs the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center.

1998

The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.

Famous Birthdays

1667

Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (d. 1754)

1689

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (d. 1762)

1880

W. Otto Miessner, American composer and music educator (d. 1967)

1886

Al Jolson, American singer (d. 1950)

1895

Dorothea Lange, American photographer (d. 1965)

1907

John Wayne, American actor (d. 1979)

1912

Jay Silverheels, Canadian actor (d. 1980)

1913

Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)

1920

Peggy Lee, American singer (d. 2002)

1923

James Arness, American actor (d. 2011)

1926

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

1948

Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter

1951

Sally Ride, American astronaut

1955

Masaharu Morimoto, Japanese chef

1962

Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor

1966

Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
Zola Budd, South African athlete

1971

Matt Stone, American animator and filmmaker

May 25 - What's a Frugal

What's a Frugal?

Come to think of it, what's a gourmet?

This Day In History

240 BC

First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1738

A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.

1878

Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.

1925

John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

1935

Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks three world records and ties a fourth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1953

The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.

1955

First ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition led by Joe Brown and George Band.

1961

U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.

1962

The Old Bay Line, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, goes out of business.

1977

Star Wars is released in theaters.

2001

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

Famous Birthdays

1572

Maurice of Hesse-Kassel, German music patron and composer (d. 1632)

1803

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)

1878

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American tap dancer and actor (d. 1949)

1887

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, Italian Catholic priest (d. 1968)

1889

Igor Sikorsky, Russian-born American aviation designer (d. 1972)

1921

Hal David, American lyricist and songwriter

1922

Kitty Kallen, American big band singer

1926

Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)

1927

Robert Ludlum, American writer (d. 2001)

1929

Beverly Sills, American soprano (d. 2007)

1936

Tom T. Hall, American singer and songwriter

1939

Ian McKellen, English actor

1944

Frank Oz, British-born American puppeteer and director

1967

Poppy Z. Brite, American author

1969

Stacy London, American fashion consultant

1976

Ethan Suplee, American actor

1978

Brian Urlacher, American football player

May 24 - Trunk

Trunk

A present from Kansas!

This Day In History

1595

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

1626

Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.

1738

John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.

1830

Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.
The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.

1844

Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line.

1883

The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

1930

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

1935

The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.

1940

Igor Sikorsky's VS-300 performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1956

The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland

1962

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

1970

The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.

1976

The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.

2001

15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.

Famous Birthdays

15 BC

Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commander (d. 19)

1544

William Gilbert, English natural philosopher (d. 1603)

1686

Gabriel Fahrenheit, German inventor and thermometer maker (d. 1736)

1794

William Whewell, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1866)

1819

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)

1868

Charlie Taylor, American mechanic, associate of the Wright brothers (d. 1956)

1878

Lillian Moller Gilbreth, American engineer (d. 1972)

1879

H. B. Reese, American inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and founder of H. B. Reese Candy Co. (d. 1956)

1891

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

1941

Bob Dylan, American singer and songwriter

1943

Gary Burghoff, American actor

1949

Jim Broadbent, English actor

1953

Alfred Molina, London-born Spanish-Italian actor

1955

Rosanne Cash, American singer

1960

Doug Jones, American actor

1965

John C. Reilly, American actor

1972

Greg Berlanti, American television writer and producer

May 23 - Dino

Dino

This Day In History

1609

Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.

1788

South Carolina ratifies the Constitution as the 8th American state.

1829

Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna.

1873

The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

1911

The New York Public Library is dedicated.

1958

Explorer 1 ceases transmission.
1974
 Commissioner Maurice Nadon announces that the RCMP would begin to accept applications from females as regular members of the force.

1995

The first version of the Java programming language is released.

2006

Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.

Famous Birthdays

1707

Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (d. 1778)

1734

Franz Anton Mesmer, Austrian physician/hypnotist (d. 1815)

1820

James Buchanan Eads, American engineer and inventor (d. 1887)

1834

Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter (d. 1890)

1848

Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (d. 1896)

1883

Douglas Fairbanks, American actor (d. 1939)

1898

Scott O'Dell, American author (d. 1989)

1910

Margaret Wise Brown, American author (d. 1952)
Scatman Crothers, American actor and musician (d. 1986)
Franz Kline, American Expressionist painter (d. 1962)
Artie Shaw, American clarinetist and bandleader (d. 2004)

1919

Robert Bernstein, American comic book writer (d. 1988)

1921

James Blish, American fantasy & science fiction author (d. 1975)

1928

Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)

1933

Joan Collins, English actress

1934

Robert Moog, American inventor (d. 2005)

1935

Susan Cooper, is an English-born American children's author

1946

H. Paul Shuch, American SETI scientist

1954

Marvelous^* Marvin Hagler, American boxer

1958

Drew Carey, American actor, comedian and game show host

1965

Charlie Hayes, American baseball player

1974

Jewel, American singer

* - No, really. He had it legally changed in 1982 because he was annoyed that announcers didn't always use his nickname.