1958 President Eisenhower proclaims Law Day On May 1, 1958, President Eisenhower proclaims Law Day to honor the role of law in the creation of the United States of America. Three years later, Congress followed suit by passing a joint resolution establishing May 1 as Law Day. The idea of a Law Day had first been proposed by the American Bar Association in 1957. The desire to suppress the celebration of May 1, or May Day, as International Workers’ Day aided in Law Day’s creation. May Day had communist overtones in the minds of many Americans, because of its celebration of working people as a governing class in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. The American Bar Association defines Law Day as: “A national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law. Law Day underscores how law and the legal process have contributed to the freedoms that all Americans share.” The language of the statute ordaining May 1 calls it “a special day of celebration by the American people in appreciation of their liberties and? rededication to the ideals of equality and justice under law.” On a day that, in many parts of the world, inspires devotion to the rights of the working classes to participate in government, Law Day asks Americans to focus upon every American’s rights as laid out in the fundamental documents of American democracy: the Declaration of Independence and the federal Constitution. The declaration insists that Americans “find these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and guarantees the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The Bill of Rights amended to the Constitution codifies the rights of free speech, free press and fair trial. Law Day celebrates the legal construct for the determination of rights that the revolutionary leaders of the 1770s, hoping to prevent the sort of class warfare that went on to rack Europe from 1789 to 1917, were so eager to create
I'm not familiar with the Vampira show but her cleavage is certainly befitting a Gothic vampire novel ...lol... She was Goth long before Goth became popular, but I just don't care very much for its current iteration.
May 1, 2011, ten years ago today, Osama Bin Laden was shot dead by navy seals. How did everyone miss that?
We didn't miss it but after President Obama made the announcement and dropped the mic, nothing more needs to be said.
Same way they forgot the "end" of the Vietnam war. So very many people are under so much pressure and stress that they're just grateful to get to nightfall. America has one of the highest suicide rates of any developed nation. The annual U.S. suicide rate increased 24% between 1999 and 2014, from 10.5 to 13.0 suicides per 100,000 people, the highest rate recorded in 28 years. 21 million Americans suffer from addiction, yet only 10% of them have access to treatment. Drug overdose deaths have more than tripled since 1990. From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 Americans died from overdose 128 of them a day. Until we can collectively address this thanatotic despair that's overwhelming so many of us, don't be surprised if folk seem to be a bit distracted.
Osama bin Laden - Wikipedia Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 AM local time (4:00 PM eastern time)[note 1][240][241] by a United States military special operations unit. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was ordered by United States President Barack Obama and carried out in a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation by a team of United States Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group(also known as DEVGRU or informally by its former name, SEAL Team Six) of the Joint Special Operations Command,[242] with support from CIA operatives on the ground.[243][244] The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was launched from Afghanistan.[245] After the raid, reports at the time stated that U.S. forces had taken bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for positive identification, then buried it at sea, in accordance with Islamic law, within 24 hours of his death.[246] Subsequent reporting has called this account into question—citing, for example, the absence of evidence that there was an imam on board the USS Carl Vinson, where the burial was said to have taken place.[247] Pakistani authorities later demolished the compound in February 2012[248] to prevent it from becoming a neo-Islamistshrine.[249][250][251][252][253][254][excessive citations] In February 2013, Pakistan announced plans to build a ₨265 million PKR ($30 million USD) amusement park in the area, including the property of the former hideout.[255]
Well it seems the history believers are finding facts for us to digest. A good thing. We need history to remind us what NOT to do.
Today in History, May 2 2021 First Ship Sunk by Nuclear-Powered Submarine May 2, 1982 The British submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano as part of the Falklands War, killing 323 people. The General Belgrano was previously commissioned as the USS Phoenix and had survived the Pearl Harbor attack. Civil War - Stonewall Jackson Shot by Friendly Fire May 2, 1863 Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is shot by his own men when they mistake his troops for Union soldiers during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia. The injuries required the amputation of his left arm. He died of complications of pneumonia eight days later. King Henry VIII May 2, 1536 Henry VIII charges his second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn, with treason, incest, and adultery. She was beheaded two weeks later. Lesley Gore (Lesley Sue Goldstein) Born May 2, 1946 d. 2015 American singer. Music: It's My Party (1963, #1), which she recorded at the age of 16, working with Quincy Jones. In 1967, she appeared in the TV show Batman as Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions. Benjamin Spock Born May 2, 1903 d. 1998 American pediatrician. Author of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946). He won a gold medal for rowing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. In 1968, he was convicted of conspiracy to aid others in draft evasion and sentenced to two years.
May 1st, 1921, Under the British Government of Ireland Act, Ireland was partitioned into two self-governing territories, Northern and Southern Ireland.
May 3, 1946 Japanese war crimes trial begins In Tokyo, Japan, 28 Japanese military and government officials were accused of committing war crimes. The trial ended with 25 of 28 Japanese defendants being found guilty. Of the three other defendants, two had died during the lengthy trial, and one was declared insane. December 23, 1948, General Hideki Tojo and the six others were executed in Tokyo. May 3, 1965 173rd Airborne Brigade deploys to South Vietnam It was the first U.S. Army ground combat unit committed to the war. Combat elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade included the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Battalions May 3, 1997 in a six game match Chess Grand-master Garry Kasparov loses 3 ½ to 2 ½ to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue May 3, 1973 Chicago's Sears Tower, world's tallest building finished May 3, 1938 Nazi Concentration camp at Flossenburg opens Because it was more of a forced labor camp for the production of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes rather than solely a death camp, Only 30,000 died out of the 100,000 prisoners that passed through the camp.
1946 May 03 Japanese war crimes trial begins In Tokyo, Japan, the International Military Tribunals for the Far East begins hearing the case against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II. On November 4, 1948, the trial ended with 25 of 28 Japanese defendants being found guilty. Of the three other defendants, two had died during the lengthy trial, and one was declared insane. On November 12, the war crimes tribunal passed death sentences on seven of the men, including General Hideki Tojo, who served as Japanese premier during the war, and other principals, such as Iwane Matsui, who organized the Rape of Nanking, and Heitaro Kimura, who brutalized Allied prisoners of war. Sixteen others were sentenced to life imprisonment, and two were sentenced to lesser terms in prison. On December 23, 1948, Tojo and the six others were executed in Tokyo. Unlike the Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals, where there were four chief prosecutors, to represent Great Britain, France, the United States and the USSR, the Tokyo trial featured only one chief prosecutor–American Joseph B. Keenan, a former assistant to the U.S. attorney general. However, other nations, especially China, contributed to the proceedings, and Australian judge William Flood Webb presided. In addition to the central Tokyo trial, various tribunals sitting outside Japan judged some 5,000 Japanese guilty of war crimes, of whom more than 900 were executed. Some observers thought that Emperor Hirohito should have been tried for his tacit approval of Japanese policy during the war, but he was protected by U.S. authorities who saw him as a symbol of Japanese unity and conservatism, both favorable traits in the postwar U.S. view.
Today in History May 4, 1863 The Battle of Chancellorsville, Beaten Union Army withdraws May 4, 1878 Thomas Edison phonograph shown to the public for the first time May 4, 1904 Construction begins on the Panama Canal May 4, 1919 1st legal Sunday baseball game in NYC, 35,000 watch the Phillies beat the NY Giants 4-3 May 4, 1932 Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion but was soon transferred to the new Alcatraz prison. In November 1939, suffering from the general deterioration of late stage syphilis, he was released and retired to his Florida home where he died in 1947, a powerless recluse. May 4, 1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island May 4, 1961 CORE begins freedom rides from Washington, D.C. May 4, 1970 National Guard kills 4 at Kent State in Ohio May 4, 1979 Margaret thatcher becomes the first woman tyo be elected Prime Minister of the united Kingdom May 4, 1992 A not guilty verdict of four Los Angeles police Officers in the case of Rodney King sets-off the LA riots May 4, 1998 The Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences sparing him from the death penalty.
1905 The U.S. officially begins construction on the Panama Canal A ceremony on May 4, 1905 marks the official beginning of the second attempt to build the Panama Canal. This second attempt to bridge the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will succeed, dramatically altering world trade as well as the physical and geopolitical landscape of Central America. For decades before it was attempted, merchants and engineers fixated on the idea of creating a passage through Central America for ocean-going vessels, sparing them thousands of nautical miles and the dangerous trip around Cape Horn. A French company was the first to attempt building such a canal, but the results were disastrous: roughly 20,000 workers perished due to accidents and tropical diseases, and the company collapsed without coming close to completing the canal. In 1902, the United States Congress passed the Spooner Act, authorizing the acquisition of the defunct French company. After failing to reach a deal with Colombia to dig the canal, the Unites States backed separatists in the Isthmus of Panama, leading to the birth of a new nation as well as the Panama Canal Zone, a strip of land 10 miles wide along the route of the canal over which the United States would hold jurisdiction. On May 4, 1905, dubbed “Acquisition Day,” the project became official. The Americans largely avoided the mistakes that had doomed the French project. Engineers used dams to create an inland lake, connected to the oceans by locks, rather than building a sea-level canal all the way across the isthmus. In addition to creating Gatún Lake, then the largest artificial lake in the world, the project also required the blasting of the Galliard Cut, also known as the Culebra Cut, an artificial gorge which was dynamited out of the rock of the Continental Divide so that the canal could flow through. In October of 1913, nearly 10 years after construction had resumed, a telegraph from President Woodrow Wilson triggered the detonation of a dike and the flooding of the Culebra Cut, joining the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. The following August, the Panama Canal officially opened, immediately altering patterns of world trade in ways comparable only to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Accidents, disease and the extremely hot conditions killed 5,609 workers over the decade it took to complete the canal. The United States remained the de factosovereign of the canal and the Canal Zone until 1979 when, under President Jimmy Carter, the U.S. agreed to transfer management of the canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.
Today in History May 5th 1260 Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire 1494 Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica on his second voyage to the New World 1646 King Charles I surrenders in Scotland. He was beheaded on Tuesday January 30, 1649 1814 British attack Fort Ontario, Oswego, New York 1877 Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles 1912 Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing 1925 Dayton School Teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee 1961 Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space 1997 "Married With Children" final episode on Fox TV 2012 Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970
1919 Italian delegates return to Paris peace conference On May 5, 1919, the delegation from Italy—led by Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino—returns to the Versailles Peace Conference in Paris, France, after leaving abruptly 11 days earlier during contentious negotiations over the territory Italy would receive after the First World War. Italy’s entrance into World War I on the side of Britain, France and Russia in May 1915 had been based on the Treaty of London, signed the previous month, in which the Allies promised Italy post-war control over a good deal of territory. This included the land along Italy’s border with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, stretching from Trentino through the South Tyrol to the city of Trieste (an area of historic dispute between Italy and Austria); parts of Dalmatia and numerous islands along Austria-Hungary’s Adriatic coast; the Albanian port city of Vlore (Italian: Valona) and a central protectorate in Albania; and territory from the Ottoman Empire. When Orlando and Sonnino arrived in Paris in 1919, they regarded the Treaty of London as a solemn and binding agreement, and expected its terms to be carried out and Italy to be rewarded for its participation alongside the victorious Allies. The leaders of Britain and France, for their part, deeply regretted making such promises; they viewed Italy with annoyance, feeling the Italians had botched their attacks on Austria-Hungary during the war, failed to honor their naval promises and repeatedly asked for resources which they then failed to put towards the war effort. The American president, Woodrow Wilson, felt even more strongly that Italy’s demands could not be met, as they violated the self-determination of other nationalities—particularly South Slav or Yugoslav peoples—living in the territories in question. Negotiations over Italy’s demands, planned to last six days, opened on April 19, 1919, in Paris. Tensions flared immediately, as Orlando and Sonnino held firm in the face of fierce resistance from the other leaders, warning of civil war in Italy—driven by an increasingly radical movement of right-wing nationalists—if the country did not receive what it had been promised. On April 23, Wilson published a statement arguing that the Treaty of London must be set aside and reminding Italy that it should be satisfied with receiving the territory of the Trentino and the Tyrol, where the majority of the population was Italian. A day later, Orlando and Sonnino left Paris and returned to Rome, where they were met with a frenzied demonstration of patriotism and anti-Americanism. In a speech before the Italian parliament, Orlando urged his people to stay calm and stated that Italy’s claims were based on such high and solemn reasons of right and justice that they ought to be recognized in their integrity. The rabid nationalists, led by the charismatic poet and playwright Gabriele D’Annunzio, held meetings throughout the country, bitterly disparaging the Allied leaders—especially Wilson—and hinting at war if Italy’s demands were not met. In Paris, the Italian departure threatened the entire conference, as the delegation from Germany was scheduled to arrive soon to receive their terms. The secretariat of the conference began combing the draft of the German treaty to remove all references to Italy, even as the Italian government and the other Allies struggled to find a way for Italy to return to the negotiations. After a delegation from Austria was invited to Paris and slated to arrive in the middle of May, the Italians realized their position was worsening. Meanwhile, Wilson and the U.S. were promising Italy a much-needed $25 million credit; Britain and France believed this offer would free them from their obligations in the Treaty of London, and hopes of a better compromise were beginning to fade for Orlando and his compatriots. On May 5, it was announced that Orlando and Sonnino were returning to Paris and the secretariat began to add the Italian references back in to the German treaty by hand. In the final Treaty of Versailles, signed in June, Italy received a permanent seat on the League of Nations, the Tyrol and a share of the German reparations. Many Italians were bitterly disappointed with their post-war lot, however, and conflict continued over Fiume, a port city in Croatia in which Italians made up the largest single population, and other territories in the Adriatic. In the fall of 1919, D’Annunzio and his supporters seized control of Fiume, occupying it for 15 months in defiance of the Italian government and making interminable nationalist speeches. Resentment of Britain, France and the United States continued to simmer, along with wounded Italian pride and ambitious dreams of future greatness—all emotions that would later be harnessed to devastating effect by the fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Today in History May 6, 1937 The Hindenburg Disaster The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its moorings at Naval Air Station Lakehurst NJ 6:00 am The Hindenburg should be landing in Lakehurst NJ but due to a strong headwind its 12 hours behind schedule. 3:00 pm Captain Max Pruss delays landing due to thunderstorms in the area. 5:00 pm Conditions at Lakehurst are suitable for landing despite the heavy rain. 6:11 pm Captain Max Pruss begins the landing sequence by steering the airship into the wind. 6:17 pm The airship is heavy at the rear, so the captain orders ballast released from the water tank. 6:19 pm The Captain orders 6 members of crew come to the nose of ship to add more weight upfront. 6:20 pm Airship arrives at the landing area. Crew lowers two anchor ropes, then the cable to mooring mast 6:21 pm The First anchor drops to ground, closely followed by a second. 6:25 pm Crowds on the ground sees flames on the top near the fin. Then the nose of the ship rears up, the fire roars through the airship with 97 people trapped inside. 6:25:34 pm Thirty-four seconds after the first flames were seen the Hindenburg crashes to the ground engulfed in flames. Out of the 97 passengers and crew, 29 are dead, 1 ground personnel died, and 6 others later died in the hospital. Note: At the end of his life, Captain Max Pruss believed the Hindenburg disaster was the result of sabotage. In a 1960 interview, he dismissed the possibility that an electrical discharge could have ignited the hydrogen, arguing that zeppelins had passed through thunderstorms and even lightning many times without incident.
Today in History May 7th On May 7, 1994, Norway’s most famous painting, “The Scream” 1893 by Edvard Munch, is recovered almost three months after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo. On May 7, 1954 French defeated at Dien Bien Phu In northwest Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces decisively defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. The victory signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina. On May 7, 1915 The German submarine sinks Lusitania On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned.
1896 May 07 Serial killer H.H. Holmes is hanged in Philadelphia Dr. H. H. Holmes, one of America’s first well-known serial killers, is hanged to death in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born Herman Mudgett in New Hampshire, Holmes began torturing animals as a child. Still, he was a smart boy who later graduated from the University of Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education with a series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for nonexistent people and then presented corpses as the insured. In 1886, Holmes moved to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months later, he bought the pharmacy from the owner’s widow after his death. She then mysteriously disappeared. With a new series of cons, Holmes raised enough money to build a giant, elaborate home across from the store. The home, which Holmes called “The Castle,” was reported to have had secret passageways, fake walls and trapdoors. Holmes’ basement also allegedly contained a lab with equipment used for his dissections. (Many of these allegations were likely exaggerated, however.) Young women in the area, along with tourists who had come to see the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in Holmes’ castle, suddenly began disappearing. Medical schools purchased many human skeletons from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked how he obtained the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after attempting to use another corpse in an insurance scam. He confessed, saying, “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing.” He was executed on this day in 1896. Devil in the White City, a book about Holmes’ murder spree and the World Fair by Erik Larson, was published in 2003.
May 8th, (1963) = BOND, JAMES BOND Dr. No, First in the James Bond series, premieres in the U.S. It starred Sean Connery as 007. (However, it was not the first James Bond movie. The first James Bond movie was a live TV-broadcast of Casino Royale.)
