May 5th is

Cartoonists Day *

Cinco de Mayo

Enchilada Day

International Tuba Day *

International Midwives Day *

Revenge of the Fifth Day *

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MORE! John B. Stetson, Nellie Bly, and Sinclair Lewis, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bhutan – Zhabdrung  Kuchoe
(memorial day for unifier of Bhutan)

Ethiopia – Arbegnoch Qen
(patriots’ victory day)

Guyana – Arrival Day

Japan – Kodomo no Hi
(children’s day)

Kygtzstan – Constitution Day

Mexico – Battle of Puebla Day
(May 5^th battle won over French troops)

Netherlands – Bevrijdingsdag
(liberation from Nazi occupation)

Palau – Senior Citizens’ Day

South Korea – Orininal
(children’s day)

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On This Day in HISTORY

1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England, leading to the signing of the Magna Carta

1260 – Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire

1494 – On his second voyage, Christopher Columbus sights an island, naming it Santa Gloria (modern-day Jamaica) and claims it for Spain

1646 – English King Charles I, after his army is beaten by Oliver Cromwell’s “New Model Army,” flees (disguised as a servant) putting himself in the hands of the Scottish Presbyterian army besieging Newark. They take him north to Newcastle upon Tyne; nine months later, the Scots make a deal with the parliamentary commissioners and deliver Charles to them

1798 – U.S. Secretary of War William McHenry orders the USS Constitution made ready for sea

1809 – Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent in her own name, for a technique to weave straw with silk and thread in hat-making

1813 – Søren Kierkegaard born, Danish philosopher-theologian and poet; regarded as the first existentialist

1818 – Karl Marx born, German philosopher socialist revolutionary, economist and author; The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital

1824 – Lucy Larcom born, American poet and author, editor of Our Young Folks magazine, writes songs, poems and letters describing life working in the cotton mills, and for her book A New England Girlhood

1830 – John B. Stetson born, American hat manufacturer; develops the ‘Stetson’ cowboy hat

1862 – The Battle of Puebla took place, now celebrated as Cinco de Mayo

1864 – Nellie Bly born, pseudonym of American journalist and author Elizabeth Jane Cochrane; makes record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, pioneer of the exposé, exposed horros of a mental institution, helped create the field of investigative journalism

1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S.

1882 – Sylvia Pankhurst born, British suffragist and socialist activist, founder of the East London Federation of Suffragettes which eventually becomes the Workers’ Socialist Federation, founder of the newspaper Workers’ Dreadnought

1891 – Music Hall is dedicated in New York City, later renamed Carnegie Hall; the first performer is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1890 – Christopher Morley born, American journalist, author and poet; Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop

1892 – U.S. Congress extends the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 more years. The act requires all Chinese in the U.S. to be registered or face deportation

1892 – Dorothy Garrod born, English archaeologist who directs excavations at Mount Carmel in Palestine (1929-1934), and conducts Paleolithic research at Gibraltar and in Kurdistan; first woman professor at University of Cambridge (1939-1952)

1893 – The Panic of 1893 – the New York Stock Exchange takes a nosedive; by year’s end, the nation is in a depression

1911 – Pritilata Waddedar born, Bengali educator and revolutionary nationalist, teacher and headmistress at Nandankanan Aparnacharan School in Chittagong; she commits suicide rather than be arrested by British authorities after an attack on a European club

1912 – Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.

1916 – U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic

1917 – Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns
his flying certificate with the French Air Service

1921 – Del Martin born, American feminist and gay rights activist; with her partner Phyllis Lyon, she founds the Daughters of Bilitis, the first social and political organization for lesbians in the US, acts as president and editor of The Ladder, helps form the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, and serves in the White House Conference on Aging. Martin and Lyon marry in 2008

1922 – Irene Gut Opdyke born, Polish nurse who aids Jews persecuted by the Nazis during WWII

1925 – John T. Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, TN, is arrested for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution

1926 – Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin is shown in Germany for the first time

1926 – Sinclair Lewis refuses a 1925 Pulitzer for Arrowsmith

1927 – Sylvia Fedoruk born, Canadian physicist, politician and athlete, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, first woman member of the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada, former president of the Canadian Ladies Curling Association, member of the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame

1936 – Edward Ravenscroft receives a patent for the screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip

1942 – Tammy Wynette born as Virginia Wynette Pugh; Country singer

1945 – The Netherlands and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control

1955 – Damn Yankees opens on Broadway, and runs for 1,019 performances

1961 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space when he makes a 15 minute suborbital flight in a capsule

1979 – International Tuba Day * created by Joel Day, a high school tuba player who felt the instrument and its players are underappreciated; he spreads the word when he went to college; now celebrated in many parts of the U.S and several foreign countries

1987 – The U.S. congressional Iran-Contra hearings open

1990 – The National Cartoonists Society proclaims the first Cartoonists Day *

1991 – In New York, Carnegie Hall marks its 100th anniversary

1991 – International Midwives Day * is launched by the International Confederation of Midwives, now an observance on the United Nations calendar

2007 – Revenge of the Fifth Day * celebrates the Dark Side of the Force, playing on Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, for the 30^th anniversary of the Star Wars debut

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