MAY 22nd: 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis arrived at London's Heathrow Airport to begin his first British tour, along with his new bride, 14 year old third cousin, Myra. Although advised not to mention it, Lewis answered all questions about his private life. The public's shock over Lewis' marriage marks the start of a controversy leading to his British tour being cancelled after just 3 of the scheduled 37 performances.
MAY 22nd: 2017 Manchester Arena Bombing - 'Ariana Grande Concert' An Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American singer Ariana Grande. Twenty-three people died, including the attacker, and more than 800 were wounded, some of them children . . . . . . Manchester Arena bombing - Wikipedia
MAY 23rd: 1992 Italian Judge Giovanni Falcone Assassinated Falcone and his wife, magistrate Francesca Morvillo, were killed along with their three security escorts when a bomb exploded under their car on a road near the town of Capaci, in what has become known as the Capaci massacre. He was a noted senior anti Mafia prosecutor.
MAY 23rd: 1970 Paul McCartney's debut solo album, McCartney, started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart. Apart from Linda McCartney's vocal contributions, McCartney performed and recorded the entire album solo. The album featured 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. Paul McCartney - Maybe I’m Amazed (Official Video) - YouTube
MAY 23rd: 1934 - "Finally, together -they died" = Bonnie and Clyde - Known for Barrow Gang bank robberies Bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and gunned down with over 100 rounds of ammunition by Police in Black Lake, Louisiana. - led by former Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer . . Bonnie Elizabeth Parker - Born October 1, 1910 - Rowena, Texas - - - Died May 23, 1934 (aged 23) Clyde Chestnut Barrow - Born March 24, 1909 - Ellis County, Texas - Died May 23, 1934 (aged 25 = - Bienville Parish, Louisiana, United States Bonnie and Clyde in an undated photo found by police at an abandoned hideout
Today in History May 24th What a day in history and this is just a small sample 1431 Joan of Arc was charged with heresy and witchcraft and burned at the stake. 1788 The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, were published in book form. 1889 The Johnstown Flood, in Pennsylvania, killed more than 2,200 people Note: Members of the exclusive South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club ignored warnings the The South Fork Dam was vulnerable to collapse under extremely heavy rain 1922 The Lincoln Memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was dedicated in Washington, D.C. Note: Years before Daniel Chester French began working on the Lincoln Memorial, he was commissioned by the town of Concord, Massachusetts to sculp The Minute Man Statue which was unveiled April 19, 1875 1935: American track-and-field standout Jesse Owens set three world records and equaled one other at a meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Note: In 1936 at the Berlin Olympics he won 4 Gold medals frustrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Note: Jesse Owens would have only won 3 Gold Medals, but at the last moment the 2 Jewish runners in the 4x4 relay were replaced by Owens and fellow Olympian Ralph Metcalfe. The Americans withdrew the two Jewish runners so they wouldn't offend Adolf Hitler. 1941 The German battleship Bismarck sank the HMS Hood Note: The Hood was a battlecruiser not a Battleship. It had the guns of a Battleship but lacked the necessary steel plating. It was scheduled to be retrofitted with armor but with it's busy schedule the Captain could never find the time. Note: After Captain Ernst Lindemann under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens sunk the HMS hood, Lutjens made the fatal mistake of contacting the German High command to report the sinking of the Hood. The British ships unbeknownst to Lutjens lost contact with the Bismarck, and his radio broadcast reestablished his location. 1953 Mount Everest summit (29,032 ft) reached by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 1977 The Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) which connected the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay to the harbor at Valdez, 800 miles to the south was completed.
Today in History May 25th 1895 Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for indecency. Wilde served two years and then spent the last three years of his life in exile. Note: There were 3 Trials of Oscar Wilde, In the first Oscar dropped the charges of libel against John Douglas, The Marquess of Queensberry for claiming his son was having a homosexual affair with Wilde (Yes, the same Marquess of Queensberry rules, in boxing) In the second trial there was a hung jury, and in the third trial Oscar Wilde was found guilty on all charges of indecency. He was fortunate he wasn't charged with Sodomy in which there were dozens of young men lined up ready to testify to his sexual proclivities. 1961 President John F. Kennedy announces to Congress his goal of sending an American to the moon by the end of the decade Note: That dream was realized on July 20, 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission when Commander Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module Eagle on the surface of the moon 1979 6-year-old Etan Patz goes missing and became among the first missing children to be featured on milk cartons. Note: Etan’s disappearance led to nationwide search that wasn’t resolved until 2017, when Pedro Hernandez was convicted of abducting and killing him. 1977 Memorial Day weekend opens with an intergalactic bang as George Lucas’ s blockbuster Star Wars movie hits American theaters. 2020 White Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kills George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for almost 10 minutes. The death, recorded by bystanders, touched off the largest protest movement in U.S. history
Today, Tuesday May 25, is Towel Day Fans of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy carry a towel with them as described in his books. To know the location of one's towel is symbolic of being in control of one's own life. If you have your towel, "What the strag (non-hitch hiker) will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
1907 May 26 John Wayne is born John Wayne, an actor who came to epitomize the American West, is born in Winterset, Iowa. Born Marion Michael Morrison, Wayne’s family moved to Glendale, California, when he was six years old. As a teen, he rose at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and after school he played football and made deliveries for local stores. When he graduated from high school, he hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. However, after the school rejected him, he accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In the summer of 1926, Wayne’s football coach found him a job as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed by John Ford. Ford started to use Wayne as an extra, and he eventually began to trust him with some larger roles. In 1930, Ford recommended Wayne for Fox’s epic Western The Big Trail. Wayne won the part, but the movie did poorly, and Fox let his contract lapse. During the next decade, Wayne worked tirelessly in countless low-budget western films, sharpening his talents and developing a distinct persona for his cowboy characters. Finally, his old mentor John Ford gave Wayne his big break, casting him in his brilliant 1939 western, Stagecoach. Wayne played the role of Ringo Kid, and he imbued the character with the essential traits that would inform nearly all of his subsequent screen roles: a tough and clear-eyed honesty, unquestioning valor, and a laconic, almost plodding manner. After Stagecoach, Wayne’s career took off. Among the dozens of Westerns he appeared in—many of them directed by Ford-were memorable classics like Tall in the Saddle (1944), Red River (1948), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon(1949), Rio Bravo (1959), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In all these films, The Duke, as he was known, embodied the simple, and perhaps simplistic, cowboy values of decency, honesty, and integrity. Besides Westerns, Wayne also acted in war films. It was a small leap from the valorous cowboy or cavalry soldier to the brave WWII fighters of films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Flying Leathernecks (1951). Deeply conservative in his politics, Wayne also used his 1968 film, The Green Berets, to express his support of the American government’s war in Vietnam. By the late 1960s, some Americans had tired of Wayne and his simplistically masculine and patriotic characters. Increasingly, western movies were rejecting the simple black-and-white moral codes championed by Wayne and replacing them with a more complex and tragic view of the American West. However, Wayne proved more adaptable than many expected. In his Oscar-winning role in True Grit(1969), he began to escape the narrow confines of his own good-guy image. His final film, The Shootist (1976), won over even his most severe critics. Wayne—who was himself battling lung cancer—played a dying gunfighter whose moral codes and principles no longer fit in a changing world. Three years later, Wayne died of cancer. To this day, public polls identify him as one of the most popular actors of all time
John Wayne was quite the character, he had an on and off relationship with Maureen O'Hara for many years into the 1970s. He would visit St. Croix, in the USVI with Maureen and her husband Charlie Blair a pilot who owned Antilles Airboats in the islands. My Mom was a ticket agent at the seaplane ramp on St Thomas for years, and the things she saw go down... (including the crash that killed old Charlie). John Wayne got rather large in later life and had to be hoisted into the co-pilot seats of the Grumman Gooses they flew inter-island back then. That's the three of them with a Goose in the background.
This day in History May 27th 1647 Achsah Young (Alice Young) becomes the first woman known to be executed as a witch in Massachusetts. 1849 Opening of the Great Hall at Euston station in London 1907 The Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco. 1937 San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opens. Note: Since it was erected more than 1,700 people have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. 25 are known to have survived, 1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII 1941 The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by British naval and air forces. 1942 Czech resistance fighters kill Reinhard Heydrich The high-ranking German Nazi official was one of the main architects of the Holocaust. Note In retaliation, the Nazis murdered all male inhabitants over 15 years of age in the Czech village of Lidice 1969 Construction begins on Walt Disney World in Florida. 1981 John Hinckley attempts suicide by overdosing on Tylenol Note: It was the third attempted suicide by Hinckley who, on March 30, 1981, attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. Using a revolver 1995 Actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia
MAY 27th: 1943 Pass me a Biro The Ballpoint pen, is patented in America by Hungarian Laszlo Biro. László Bíró - Wikipedia
MAY 27th: 1950 - Frank's way Frank Sinatra made his TV debut on NBC's "Star-Spangled Review." He went on to be one of the most successful and recognizable figures in music history.
MAY 27th: 2008 - Goodbye to the 5 and Dime UK High street chain Woolworths announced it would stop selling CD singles in its stores saying that the format was in "terminal decline" and would be removed from the shelves from August. Sales of CD singles had fallen sharply as the popularity of downloading music from the internet had increased. - Deloitte closed all 807 Woolworths stores between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009, resulting in 27,000 job losses. Woolworths Group plc entered administration on 27 January 2009, and it was officially dissolved on 13 October 2015.
MAY 27th: 1923 - Happy Birthday Henry = Henry Kissinger - KCMG Born: May 27th, 1923, Fürth, Germany Known For : Henry Kissinger came to the United States in 1938, and became a U.S. citizen in 1943. He served in the Army between 1943 and 1946, and graduated from Harvard in 1950. He went on to gain a masters in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954. He had been a member of Harvard's faculty from 1954 to 1969 when he was made Richard Nixon's Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He continued in this role, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. He was appointed the U.S. Secretary of State in 1973, and served in that position until 1977.
Today in History May 28th 1738 Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the French inventor of the execution device was born 1830 Congress authorizes Indian removal Act from all states to the western Prairie. Note: Known as the Trail of Tears, it led to the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states 1863 The 54th Massachusetts, a regiment of African-American recruits, leaves Boston, headed for Hilton Head, South Carolina. Note: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first all-black regiment to see major action during the civil war. Their assault on Battery Wagner, a Confederate earthwork fortification on Morris Island, on July 18, 1863, convinced Army officers of their value, prompting the further enlistment of black soldiers. 1892 Sierra Club formed by John Muir and others in San Francisco, for conservation of nature 1923 US Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere Note: Despite the AG proclamation, local laws in the US continued to be enforced. Several prominent women activists were arrested and sentenced for wearing clothing that was deemed appropriate only for men. Amelia Bloomer popularized the loose-fitting garment that bears her name, and bloomers caught on as women took up sports like cycling, tennis and horse-riding. 1977 The Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Southgate, Kentucky, 165 people died and more than 200 were injured as a result of the blaze. Note: John Davidson was the lead performer that night (The John Davidson Show 1982)