May 24th is

Aviation Maintenance Technician Day *

National Scavenger Hunt Day

International Tiara Day *

World Schizophrenia Day *

Emergency Medical Services for Children Day *
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MORE!  Samuel Morse, Charles Edward Taylor, and Patti LaBelle click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Methodist Christians – Aldersgate Day celebrates the conversion of John Wesley

Bermuda – Bermuda Day

Bulgaria – Culture and Literacy Day

Cayman Islands –
General Elections Holiday

Ecuador – La Batalla de Pichincha
(Battle of Pinchincha Day)

Eritrea – Independence Day

Macedonia –
St Cyril and St Methodius Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1218 – The Fifth Crusade, organized by Pope Innocent III, and led by King Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, leaves Acre, bound for Egypt

1595 – The Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library

1626 – Peter Minuit of the Dutch West India Company busy the island of Manhattan from Seyseys, chief of the Canarsees, for trade goods valued at 60 guilders (most of the island is actually controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks branch of the Wappinger tribe)

1677 – Alexandre de Villenueve born, French classical composer and priest

1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit born, developed Fahrenheit temperature scale, and invented the mercury thermometer

1743 – Jean-Paul Marat born, French physician, scientist, and journalist, political theorist who was one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution

La Mort de Marat painted by Jacques-Louis David (1793)

1752 – Private Oliver Cromwell born, a free black in New Jersey, who serves in the American Revolutionary War from 1777 to 1781; his discharge papers are signed by Commander-in-Chief George Washington, who awarded him the Badge of Military Merit; some years later, he receives a veteran’s pension, and buys a 100-acre farm

1767 – Joseph Ignaz Schnabel born, German composer and violinist

1775 – John Hancock is unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress; he will be the first to sign the Declaration of Independence

1793 – Dr. Philippe Pinel, appointed Chief Physician of the Paris men’s and women’s public insane asylums, ends the practice of chaining patients to the walls (the first patient’s chains were actually removed by an ex-patient who became Pinel’s assistant, now known only as Poussin) (see 1985 entry)

1819 – Queen Victoria born, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and from 1876 on, also Empress of India

1830 – “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is first published as a poem by American writer Sarah Josepha Hale

1836 – Joseph Rowntree born, Quaker chocolatier, philanthropist and social reformer; offered free education for employees under 17,   provide a library at the chocolate factory, and employed a social welfare officer, doctor and a dentist whose services were free to employees; donated ₤10,000 pounds to establish a pension fund his workers; built low-income housing, and founded three trusts, all still in existence: a research and policy development group, a society to preserves the history and legacy of  the Rowntrees, and a charitable trust which gives grants to projects that address the root problems of social issues

1844 – Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s 1st telegraph message

1855 – Arthur Wing Pinero born, British playwright and stage director;  The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, The Enchanted Cottage

1868 – Charles Edward Taylor born, American machinist-mechanic-inventor; designed built, and maintained engines for the Wright Brothers airplanes (see 2001 entry)

1870 – Ynes Mexia born, Mexican-American botanist and explorer, discoverer of over 132,000 plant species, mostly in the Andes, providing research institution with vast collections of specimens with accurate and extensive annotations

1878 – Lillian Moller Gilbreth born, American psychologist, industrial engineer, efficiency expert and author; Cheaper by the Dozen

1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge opens, after 14 years of construction costing $18 million; the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time

1885 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs born, CBE, British educational psychologist and psychoanalyst, nursery school advocate

1898 – Kathleen Hale born, British author, artist and illustrator; children’s book series Orlando the Marmalade Cat

1898 – Helen Brooke Taussig born, American physician; founded pediatric cardiology

1905 – Mikhail Sholokhov born, Soviet writer; 1965 Nobel Prize; And Quiet Flows the Don

1914 – George Tabori born, Hungarian Jewish writer and theater director; working in Berlin in the 1930s, he had to flee the Nazis, first to London and then to the U.S.; The Cannibals, The Prince

1929 – The first Marx Brothers film, The Cocoanuts premieres

1930 – Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia when she lands in Darwin, Northern Territory.

1934 – Jane Byrne born, American politician, first woman elected Mayor of Chicago

1935 – Joan Micklin Silver born, American director and screenwriter; Hester Street

1941 – Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan, is born, American singer-songwriter, and Nobel Laureate

1944 – Patti LaBelle born, American singer, lead singer for Labelle, first African-American vocal group on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine

1946 – Tansu Çiller born, Turkish economist and politician, first female Prime Minister of Turkey (1993-1996)

1951 – Racial segregation in Washington, D.C. restaurants ruled illegal

1965 – In Lamont v. Postmaster General, the U.S Supreme Court rules a federal law requiring the post office to detain and deliver only upon the addressee’s request unsealed foreign mailings of “communist political propaganda “is unconstitutional

1966 – The musical Mame, based on the novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis, opens on Broadway for 1508 performances

1969 – The Beatles single “Get Back” becomes #1 for five weeks

1973 – U.S. Congress passes the Emergency Medical Services Systems Act, managed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); in 1979, the American Academy of Pediatrics was asked to develop EMS programs specifically for children, and legislation is enacted in 1984-85 to fund these programs as state partnership grants; the first grants are utilized in 1986 – Emergency Medical Services for Children Day *

1976 – In Paris, two California wines win top honors at a blind wine tasting by the best of France’s wine experts, shocking the French, and the wine world is changed forever

1983 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules  8-1 in Bob Jones University v. United States that the religion clauses of the First Amendment did not prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from revoking the tax exempt status of a religious university whose practices are contrary to a compelling government public policy, such as eradicating racial discrimination. Bob Jones University had completely excluded black applicants until 1971, and from 1971 until 1975, admitted black students only if they were married. After 1975, the University began to admit unmarried black applicants, but continued to deny “admission to applicants engaged in an interracial marriage or known to advocate interracial marriage or dating.” The University also imposed a disciplinary rule that prohibited interracial dating

1985 – Joann Verbanic is the founder of the Schizophrenia Anonymous (later Alliance) support group, and a founding member in 2008 of the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America (SARDAA), a co-sponsor of World Schizophrenia Day * on the anniversary of the day that Dr. Philippe Pinel ends the practice of chaining mental patients to the walls of the Paris public asylums (see 1793 entry)

1988 – British Parliament passes Section 28 adds Section 2A to the Local Government Act, a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship” It is repealed in Scotland on June 21 2000, one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the new Scottish Parliament, and on November 18, 2003, by the rest of the U.K.

2001 – Urged by Richard Dilbeck, the FAA created the prestigious Charles E. Taylor Master Mechanic Award to honor AMTs, who had served at least 50 years in aircraft maintenance.  Aviation Maintenance Technician Day * – in 2002, California Senator Knight introduced a resolution honoring Aviation Maintenance Technicians annually in honor of Charles Taylor’s birthday (see 1868 entry)

2005 – The first International Tiara Day * is launched by Barbara Bellissimo of Seasons of Success to encourage women and girls to celebrate their true inner beauty
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