May 30th is

Loomis Day *

Hole in My Bucket Day

Mint Julep Day

Water a Flower Day
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MORE! Mahlon Loomis, Agnès Varda and Benjamin Britten, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Anguilla – Anguilla Day

Hong Kong and Macau – Tuen Ng
(Dragon Boat Festival)

Nicaragua – Día de las Madres

Spain – Canary Islands:
Día de Canarias

Taiwan – Dragon Boat Festival

Trinidad and Tobago –
Arrival Day *
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On This Day in HISTORY

70 AD– Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall; The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometers

1381 – The Peasants’ Revolt, a major uprising caused by high taxes to recover the cost of the 100 Years’ War with France, political instability, and losses caused by the Black Plague – the final straw was a violent confrontation with tax collectors. The turmoil lasts until November 1381, and casualties of at least 1.500 civilians

1431 – In Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan d’Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal

Joan d’Arc at the Stake  – 19th century painting – artist uncredited

1539 – Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay, Florida, with 600 soldiers, hunting gold

1631 – Publication begins of Gazette de France, the first French newspaper

1806 – Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel supposedly over heated insults exchanged in a dispute about a horse-racing bet, but Dickinson had accused Jackson’s wife of bigamy

1834 – Portuguese Minister of Justice Joaquim António de Aguiar issues a law seizing “all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices and any other houses” from the Catholic religious orders in Portugal, earning him the nickname of “The Friar-Killer”

1842 – John Francis fails in an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with Prince Albert

1845 – The Fatel Razack arrives, from India, in the Gulf of Paria of Trinidad and Tobago, carrying the first Indians to the country – now commemorated as Arrival Day *

1847 – Alice Sophia Stopford Green born, Irish historian and nationalist, supported the pro-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and was among the first nominees to the newly formed Seanad Éireann in 1922, where she served as an independent member until her death; The Making of Ireland and its Undoing

1848 – Mexico ratifies treaty selling U.S. New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado for $15 million

1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 is signed into law by President Pierce; the initial purpose of the act, drafted primarily by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, was to open up thousands of new farms and to make feasible the Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. The popular sovereignty clause of the law led pro- and anti-slavery elements to flood into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down, resulting in ‘Bleeding Kansas’

1866 – Die verkaufte Braut (The Bartered Bride), an opera by Bedřich Smetana, premieres in Prague

1872 – Mahlon Loomis, dentist and inventor, receives a patent on July 30 for “an improvement in telegraphing, a wireless telegraph system – I couldn’t find a reason for May 30 to be Loomis Day * – he was born in July and died in October

1874 – Josephine Preston Peabody born, American poet and playwright; Stratford-on-Avon prize for her drama The Piper 

1896 – The first U.S. auto accident: Henry Wells hits a cyclist in New York City

1899 – Pearl Hart, a female outlaw, robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of the mining town Globe, Arizona

1901 – Cornelia Otis Skinner born, American actress, monologist, and author of Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

1903 – Countee Cullen born, African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance

1907 – Germaine Tillion born, French anthropologist, ethnologist and member of the French resistance for which she spent time in Ravensbrück concentration camp

1909 – Benny Goodman born, clarinetist/bandleader; the ‘King of Swing’

1912 – U.S. Marines are sent to Nicaragua to quell a local uprising, and prevent other nations from building a canal there

1912 – Joseph Stein born, American dramatist/playwright; wrote the book for the musical Fiddler on the Roof

1914 – The new Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, largest of the day at 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City

1915 – Jerome B. Weisner born, chair of President Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee (1961-1964); critic of NASA’s manned space flights, supporter of Rachel Carson’s findings on DDT, advocate for arms control and critic of anti-ballistic-missile defense systems; President of MIT (1971-1980); named on Richard Nixon’s infamous “enemies list”

1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington DC

1923 – Howard Hanson’s First Symphony, “Nordic” premieres

1926 – George William Jorgensen, Jr born, better known as Christine Jorgensen, pioneer transsexual

1928 – Agnès Varda born, Belgian director, producer, screenwriter and academic, known for work on feminist issues and social commentary

1932 – The National Theatre of Greece is founded

1932 – Pauline Oliveros born, American composer, pioneer in development of experimental and post-war electronic art music

1946 – Candy Lightner born, political activist, founder of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)

1962 – Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem premieres

1964 – Wynonna Judd born, American singer, The Judds

1964 – The Beatles’ single “Love Me Do” is #1 in the U.S.

1965 – Vivian Malone is the first black graduate from University of Alabama

1975 – The European Space Agency (ESA) is formed

1980 – J.M.W.Turner’s painting Juliet & Her Nurse sells for $6.4 million

1991 – In BURNS v. REED, the U.S. Supreme Court rules prosecutors can be sued for legal advice they give police officers

2003 – The movie Finding Nemo, starring Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres, is released in the US and Canada

2016 – Former Chad dictator Hissène Habré becomes the first ex-head of state convicted of crimes against humanity, by the Extraordinary African chambers
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