May 26th is
Paper Airplane Day
Blueberry Cheesecake Day
International Chardonnay Day
Don’t Fry Friday
Heat Awareness Day
World Lindy Hop Day
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MORE! Dorothea Lange, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Peggy Lee. click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Australia – National Sorry Day *
Belgium – Ascension Friday
Denmark –
Crown Prince Frederik’s Birthday
Georgia – Independence Day
Germany – Vechta:
Tante Mia tanzt music festival
Guyana – Independence Day
Netherlands – Hellendoorn:
Daupop Festival
Poland – Mother’s Day
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On This Day in HISTORY
946 – Edmund I, King of the English, is assassinated by Leofa, a thief sentenced to exile
1135 – Alfonso VII of León and Castile is crowned in León Cathedral as Imperator totius Hispaniae (Emperor of all of Spain)
1538 – The city of Geneva, Switzerland, expels John Calvin and his followers, after the city’s council insists that unleavened bread be used for communion at Easter services, so Calvin refuses to give communion at all, and a riot ensues. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years
1647 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony bans Jesuit priests from the colony on penalty of death; in addition to being French Catholics, and England and France were at war, the Jesuits had converted many Indians in Canada who were potential French allies
1647 – Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut
1799 – Aleksandr Pushkin born, Russian poet, novelist, dramatist and short-story writer
1805 – The Lewis and Clark expedition first sights the Rocky Mountains
1837 – Washington Roebling born, American civil engineer; Brooklyn Bridge designer
1860 – During the struggle for the unification of Italy, the Expedition of the Thousand, a volunteer corps led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, with help from disgruntled locals, occupies Palermo, Italy
1861 – U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair announces end of postal connection to the South
1861 – The Union blockades New Orleans LA and Mobile AL
1869 – Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1881 – Julia C. Stimson born, American nurse, Major in the United States Army, superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during WWI, chief of the Nursing Council on National Defense during WWII, recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal as well as Victory Medals for WWI and WWII
1883 – Mamie Smith born, American singer, pianist, and dancer; the first African American artist to make a vocal blues recording (1920)
1895 – Dorothea Lange born, American photographer and journalist; notable work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression
1896 – Tsar Nicholas II is crowned; he will be the last Tsar of Russia
1898 – San Francisco approves City Charter, allows Municipal ownership of utilities
1899 – Muriel McQueen Fergusson born, Canadian politician, Senator and first woman Speaker of the Canadian Senate
1906 – The Archaeological Institute of America is formed
1908 – The first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made at Masjed Soleyman in southeast Persia; the United Kingdom acquires the rights
1909 – Helen Moore Anderson born, American diplomat; President Truman appoints her as Ambassador to Denmark, first woman to serve as chief of mission at the level of ambassador (1949-1953); then appointed by President Kennedy as ambassador to Bulgaria (1962-1964); President Lyndon Johnson appoints her to UN Trusteeship Council and a year later she serves on the UN Committee for Decolonization
1913 – The Actors’ Equity Association of America is formed in New York
1913 – Emily Duncan becomes Great Britain’s first woman magistrate
1916 – Henriette Roosenburg born, journalist, Dutch resistance courier during WWII and political prisoner; tells story in her memoir The Walls Came Tumbling Down
1920 – Peggy Lee born, American singer-songwriter
1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs Immigration Act of 1924 into law; immigration remains open to the college-educated and skilled workers, but entry was denied to Mexicans, and disproportionately to Eastern and Southern Europeans and Japanese. At the same time, the legislation allowed for more immigration from Northern European nations such as Britain, Ireland and Scandinavian countries
1927 – The last Model T Ford, #15,000,000, rolls off the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company
1930 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. Norris that since Norris purchased intoxicating liquor but did not sell it or transport it, he was not in violation of the Constitution
1937 – San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opens after five years of construction; Pedestrian Day, some 200,000 walkers marvel at the 42,000-foot-long suspension bridge. It opens for vehicles the following day
1940 – The first successful helicopter flight in the U.S., in a Vought-Sikorsky US-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky
1951 – Sally Ride born, American physicist and astronaut, first American woman in space, physics professor, member of committees to investigate the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters
1961 – The Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee is established in Atlanta GA
1963 – The Organization of African Unity (OAU) is formed
1966 – Vietnamese student protesters attack and burn the U.S. Information Service library and cultural center, after the Saigon police unit assigned to protect flees
1972 – President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in Moscow
1973 – Deep Purple’s single “Smoke On The Water” is released
1987 – U.S. Supreme Court upholds a provision in the Bail Reform Act of 1984 contested in United States v. Salerno; bail may be denied to arrestees charged with serious felonies if clear and convincing evidence shows that no release conditions “will reasonably assure . . . the safety of any other person and the community”
1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in County of Sacramento vs. Lewis that police can’t be held responsible for injuries to either fleeing suspects or bystanders caused by high-speed chases unless their actions are so egregious that they “shock the conscience” – allowing lawsuits only if police officers show a “reckless disregard for life” – and leaving those injured with no federal remedy against the state and local governments that employ the police officers
1998 – National Sorry Day * a grassroots movement prompted by the refusal of Prime Minister John Howard to issue an official apology to the Aboriginal people from the Australian government because he “did not subscribe to the black armband view of history.” Sorry Day is in remembrance of the mistreatment of indigenous Australians, especially the “Stolen Generations” – Aboriginal and mixed-race children separated, often forcibly, from their families, attempting to supplant the indigenous culture
2009 – President Obama nominates federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
2011 – Congress passes a four-year extension of post-September 11th powers, contained in the Patriot Act, to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists
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