May 28th is

Amnesty International Day *

Brisket Day

Hamburger Day

Sierra Club Day *

Menstrual Hygiene Day *
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MORE! Ian Fleming, Alan Turing and Gladys Knight, click 

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Armenia – First Republic Day

Azerbaijan – Republic Day

China – Dragon Boat Festival

Ethiopia – Dergue Downfall Day *

India – Himachal Pradesh & Rajasthan:
Maharana Pratap Jayanti (birthday)

Philippines – Flag Day *

Turkmenistan – Carpet Day

United States – Indianapolis IN:
101^st Indianapolis 500 (auto race)
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On This Day in HISTORY

585 BC – According to Herodotus, a solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales of Miletus. The eclipse is interpreted as an omen, which stops a battle between the Medes and the Lydians, who agree to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated

1359 (?) – Owain Glyndŵr born, Welsh ruler, last native of Wales to be Prince of Wales, leads a fierce revolt against English rule which ultimately fails

1533 – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, declares the marriage of Henry VII of England and Anne Boleyn to be valid

1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel. (The last ship leaves port on May 30)

The Spanish Armada and English ships in August 1588, artist unknown

1608 – Claudio Monteverdi’s Arianna premieres in Mantua

1779 – Thomas Moore born, Irish singer-songwriter; wrote lyrics for “The Minstrel Boy” and “The Last Rose of Summer”

1830 – U.S. Congress passes, and President Andrew Jackson signs into law two days later, the Indian Removal Act; the act authorizes the President to negotiate with southern Native tribes for their removal to territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral lands, but Jackson uses the act to exceed the authority it grants him. He forces the relocation of 46,000 native peoples from their tribal homelands, known as the “Trail of Tears” because so many die from exposure, disease and starvation during forced marches under military compulsion

1858 – Lizzie Black Kander born, American social reformer; working as a truant officer, she is appalled at the living conditions of immigrants, and joins the Milwaukee chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, which provides classes in sewing, cooking and English to Russian immigrants; Kander founds the Milwaukee Jewish Settlement House, and teaches cooking and nutrition classes there; she compiles The Settlement Cookbook, the sale of which funds the settlement and allows it to move into larger facilities as it grows

1888 – Jim Thorpe born, American athlete and Olympic gold medalist, the first American Indian to win a gold medal; member of the Sac and Fox nation

1892 – Sierra Club Day * – The Sierra Club is incorporated in San Francisco “to explore, enjoy, and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them,” and “to enlist the support and cooperation of the people and government in preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra Nevada”

1898 – Philippines Flag Day * – The Philippine flag is first unfurled after the revolutionary army defeats the Spanish at the Battle of Alapan

1900 – Gare d’Orsay railway station opens in Paris, the world’s first electrified urban rail terminal

1910 – T-Bone Walker born, American Blues guitarist

1910 – Ian Fleming born, British author of the James Bond spy thriller series

1912 – Ruby Payne-Scott born, Australian physicist and astronomer, the first woman radio astronomer

1913 – May Swenson born, American poet, translator and playwright, poet-in-residence for several universities, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, recipient of numerous awards and honors

1916 – Walker Percy born, American novelist; National Book Award Winner; The Moviegoer, Love in the Ruins, Lost in the Cosmos

1929 – The first all-color talking picture On With the Show is exhibited

1934 – The Glyndebourne festival in Sussex, England, is inaugurated

1936 – Alan Turing submits “On Computable Numbers” for publication, in which he sets out the theoretical basis for modern computers.

1936 – Betty Shabazz born, American nurse; PhD, Medgar Evers College Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs; civil rights activist

1940 – Maeve Binchy born, Irish author, playwright, columnist; one of Ireland’s most recognizable writers; 1999 British Book Award for Lifetime Achievement

1941 – Frank Sinatra records “This Love of Mine” with Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra

1944 – Gladys Knight born, American Motown singer-songwriter, leader of Gladys Knight and the Pips; ‘Empress of Soul’

1945 – John Fogerty born, American singer-songwriter, guitarist; Creedence Clearwater Revival and solo career

1952 – The women of Greece win the right to vote

1955 – “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” is #1 on the pop charts

1961 – The Observer, a British newspaper, publishes an article called “The Forgotten Prisoners” by the lawyer Peter Benenson. Citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles 18 and 19, Benenson announces an “Appeal for Amnesty, 1961” campaign and calls for “common action” – which inspires the founding of Amnesty International, one of the best-known and most-effective human rights organizations in the world – celebrated as Amnesty International Day *

1966 – The Rolling Stones’ single “Paint It Black” is #1 in the UK

1966 – Ike and Tina Turner release “River Deep, Mountain High”

1976 – 29^th Cannes Film Festival: Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese, wins the Palme d’Or

1979 – The European Market accepts Greece as member

1987 – Whitney Houston releases her album Whitney

1991 – Dergue Downfall Day * – After years of disastrous policies which include a brutal crackdown on opposition groups known as the Red Terror; holding up international aid during the worst famine in a century; forced resettlement of opponents in the worst famine areas, resulting in 400,000 starvation deaths; the Dergue regime falls, just days after its leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, flees to asylum in Zimbabwe

1998 – Elton John and Bernie Taupin won an Ivor Novello Award for their re-written version “Candle in the Wind ’97”

2008 – The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty

2014 – Menstrual Hygiene Day is created by NGO WASH United, a German-based group, with support from over 270 global partners, to end the isolation and shaming of women and girls as “unclean” during their monthly menses

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