“Besides this May
We know
There is Another—
How fair
Our Speculations of the Foreigner!
Some know Him whom We knew—
Sweet Wonder—
A Nature be
Where Saints, and our plain going Neighbor
Keep May!"
- Emily Dickinson, Besides This May
In the news today - May 20th, the 140th day of 2010:
…the Devastating Oil Spill seeps into the Louisiana Wetlands, as the Interior Secretary Acknowledges Lax Oil Regulation; North Korea Denies Sinking a South Korean Warship; Bangkok Burns as Anarchy Reigns; Europe’s Ongoing Economic Woes Unfold; Air Travel Delays Loom due to Intermittent Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland; Pakistan bans Facebook and YouTube; and, in Washington, two retired generals are warning that more than a Quarter of Young Americans are now Too Fat to Fight…
On the bright side, today is Eliza Doolittle Day!
In fact, this day and month have been chosen to observe, commemorate, or raise awareness of many different causes around the world - from the sublime to the ridiculous (listed in no particular order):
National Military Appreciation Month
In the news today - May 20th, the 140th day of 2010:
…the Devastating Oil Spill seeps into the Louisiana Wetlands, as the Interior Secretary Acknowledges Lax Oil Regulation; North Korea Denies Sinking a South Korean Warship; Bangkok Burns as Anarchy Reigns; Europe’s Ongoing Economic Woes Unfold; Air Travel Delays Loom due to Intermittent Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland; Pakistan bans Facebook and YouTube; and, in Washington, two retired generals are warning that more than a Quarter of Young Americans are now Too Fat to Fight…
On the bright side, today is Eliza Doolittle Day!
In fact, this day and month have been chosen to observe, commemorate, or raise awareness of many different causes around the world - from the sublime to the ridiculous (listed in no particular order):
National Military Appreciation Month
World Trade Month
Jewish American Heritage Month
South Asian Heritage Month
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
International Bike (Bicycle) Week and Bike Month
New Zealand Music Month
National Strawberry Month
Older Americans Month
National Stroke Awareness Month
National Moving Month
Fungal Infection Awareness Month
National Hamburger Month
Honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary Month
National Breastfeeding Week
International Doula Month
National Share A Story month
Frigga Blót (Germanic Neopaganism)
Mental Health Awareness Month
and
National Zombie Awareness Month
In the words of Ralph W. Emerson - “What potent blood hath modest May."
Born on this day:
1768 - Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States
1799 - Honoré de Balzac, French novelist
1818 - William Fargo, co-founder of Wells, Fargo & Company
1883 - King Faisal I of Iraq
1908 - James Stewart, American actor
1915 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general
1944 - Joe Cocker, British singer
1946 - Cher, American singer and actress
1959 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole of Hawaii, American singer
1971 - Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece
1971 - Tony Stewart, American race car driver
1982 - Imran Farhat, Pakistani cricketer
And, finally, May 20th in history:
325 - The Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church is held
526 - Earthquake kills 250,000 in Antioch, Syria
1293 - Earthquake kills 30,000 in Kamakura, Japan
1498 - Explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India
1570 - Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
1609 - Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe
1775 - Mecklenburg Patriots declare Independence from England (in Charlotte, NC)
1784 - England and the Netherlands sign peace treaty (Peace of Paris)
1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive patent for blue jeans
1900- Opening of the second modern Olympic Games in Paris
1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States
1916 - "The Saturday Evening Post" publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting
1927 - Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean aboard “the Spirit of St. Louis”
1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot
1940 - The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1956 - United States drops hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll
1956 - Heartbreak Hotel/I Was the One - Elvis Presley - number one on the charts
1969 - The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends – US and South Vietnamese troops prevail
1978 - Mavis Hutchinson, 53, makes it to New York City to become the first woman to run across America - the 3,000-mile trek took her 69 days
1980 – Quebec says No to independence from Canada
1983 - Car bomb in South Africa kills 16
1984 - First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually
1989 - Sunday Silence wins Preakness by a nose
1990 - Hubble Space Telescope sends 1st photographs from space
1991 - Chicago Bull Michael Jordan named NBA’s MVP
1991 - Jeff Reardon gains his 300th career save
2002 - The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal
2006 - San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds ties Babe Ruth for second place on the career list with his 714th home run.
2007 - "The Simpsons" airs 400th episode
2008 - Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.
As for the future, Nostradamus and NASA predict an Annular Solar Eclipse on this day, May 20th, in 2012.
If the past is anything to go by, the world will keep on turning, inexorably, to May.
“Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants." - Dorothy Parker
The Dickinson poem is a perfect introduction to this entertaining collection of facts, dates, and events--and to give Dorothy Parker the last word (and such a last word it is, too) is a brilliant stroke.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amusing little list of May factoids; I am forever forgetting when Zombie Awareness month is! :)
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about Eliza Doolittle day - and who knew all the other talented people born on May 20. Up til now the only birthday I had celebrated on May 20th was that of my first childhood dog - who knew she shared the day with such illustrious company.
I love the Dorothy Parker quote too~