July 5th is:

Apple Turnover Day

Bikini Day *

Graham Cracker Day *

Workaholics Day
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MORE! P. T. Barnum, Clara Zetkin and Ray Charles, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Algeria — Independence Day

Armenia — Constitution Day

Cape Verde — Independence Day

Czech Republic and Slovakia —
Saints Cyril & Methodius Day

Isle of Man — Tynwald Day
(Manx National Day)

Rwanda – Peace and Unity Day

United States – New Hampshire:
Mary Louse Hancock Day *

Venezuela — Independence Day
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On This Day in HISTORY

328 – Constantine the Great is present as Constantine’s Bridge is opened, a Roman bridge over the Danube River, considered the longest river bridge of the ancient world

1687 – Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

1755 – Sarah Kemble Siddons born, the most famous and admired English actress of her generation, especially for her portrayal of tragic roles, Lady Macbeth in particular

Sara Siddons as Lady Macbeth, 1814, by Henry George Harlow

1764 – János Lavotta born, Hungarian composer, violinist and theatre director, a noted composer of music based on Verbunkos, Hungarian dance music strongly influenced by the Rom (inaccurately called gypsies)

1775 – The American Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition, a final attempt to avoid full-out warfare with Great Britain; when the King refuses to meet with the Americans or even look at the petition, many colonists who had been looking for a compromise realized the only choices were independence or complete submission to British rule

1775 – William Crotch born, English composer and organist; professor of music at Oxford University, appointed to the Royal Academy of Music

1794 – Graham Cracker Day *- Sylvester Graham born, Presbyterian minister, noted vegetarian and whole-grain advocate; Graham crackers, inspired by his preaching, are named for him

1801 – David Farragut born, American admiral noted for ordering “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” at the Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama, the Confederates’ only remaining open port on the Gulf of Mexico, in which his fleet is victorious

1810 – P. T. Barnum born, co-founder Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1841 – Thomas Cook organizes first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough

1852 – Frederick Douglass delivers his speech, What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? – to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester NY

1853 – Cecil Rhodes born, British mining magnate, white supremacist politician in South Africa, co-founder of De Beers, which controls the diamond cartel

1857 – Clara Zetkin born, German Marxist theorist, labor and anti-war activist, women’s rights advocate, an organizer of the first International Women’s Day in 1910; the Clara Zetkin Medal is awarded to honor women active in women’s rights

1865 – The second of the British Locomotive Acts (dubbed the ‘Red Flag’ Act ), the 1865 act was the most restrictive: automobiles, and all other ‘road locomotives’ were restricted to  a maximum speed of 4 mph (6.4 km/h) in the country and 2 mph in the city, and required that a man carrying a red flag walk at least 60 yards (55 m)in front of the vehicle, who must assist with the passage of horse and carriages, after signaling the driver to stop for them; vehicles had to have functional lights, and were prohibited from sounding whistles or blowing off steam while on the road

1865 – The U.S. Secret Service begins operating as part of the Treasury Department

1867 – A. E. Douglass born, American astronomer and archaeologist, discovered the correlation between tree rings and sunspot cycles; developed dendrochronology, dating past events and the age of trees by analyzing their growth rings

1879 – Wanda Landowska born, Polish harpsichordist, first person to record Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord, instrumental in reviving the harpsichord’s popularity in the 20th century

1880 – Jan Kubelík born, Czech violinist and composer

1884 – The German Empire takes control of Cameroon, Kamerun in German, during the European “Scramble for Africa,” declaring the German Protectorate of Kamerun

1888 – Louise Freeland Jenkins born, American astronomer; compiles a catalogue of stars within 10 parsecs of the sun; editor, 3rd edition of the Yale Bright Star Catalogue; research on trigonometric parallax of nearby stars, and variable stars

1889 – Jean Cocteau born, French writer/playwright/artist/filmmaker

1899 – Anna Arnold Hedgeman born, American civil rights leader, politician, and writer;  first African American woman to hold a mayoral cabinet post in New York, YWCA executive director, executive secretary of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC), assistant dean of women at Howard University

1913 – Smiley Lewis born, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1914 – Annie Fischer born, Hungarian pianist and composer

1915 – The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia, reluctantly sent by train to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco (it has sustained damage during previous tours); it makes many stops coming and going and was seen by an estimated 10 million people during its journey back and forth, and another 2 million people flock to see it at the exposition. This is the last time it will leave the confines of Philadelphia

1920 – Mary Louse Hancock Day *- Mary Louise Hancock born, American politician and activist; New Hampshire state senator and Planning Director, known as the “Grand Dame” of New Hampshire politics, recipient of the Robert Frost Award and the Susan B. Anthony Award

1921 – Chicago White Sox players accused of throwing the World Series

1934 – Bing Crosby records “Love in Bloom” with Irving Aaronson’s orchestra

1934 – “Bloody Thursday” – San Francisco police open fire on striking longshoremen, killing two men and wounding another, during a strike that lasted 83 days and led to the unionization of all the U.S. West Coast ports

1935 – President Franklin Roosevelt signs the National Labor Relations Act

1946 – Bikini Day *- French fashion designer Louis Réard introduces his new swimsuit design, the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll where Americans test hydrogen bombs

1948 – Britain’s National Health Service inaugurated

1950 – The Israeli Knesset (parliament) enacts the Law of Return, declaring the right of all Jews to come to Israel, becoming residents and citizens

1953 – Caryn Linda Navy born, American mathematician and computer scientist. Blind  from retinopathy of prematurity; known for her work in set-theoretic topology and  Braille technology; graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), honored with the AMITA Senior Academic Award from the Association of MIT Alumnae

1954 – Elvis Presley records “That’s All Right” in Memphis TN

1961 – Ray Charles releases “Hit the Road Jack”

1968 – Rock concert impresario Bill Graham opens The Fillmore West in San Francisco

1973 – The Isle of Man begins issuing its own postage stamps

1975 – Bad Company releases “Feel Like Making Love”

1984 – In U.S. v. Leon, U.S. Supreme Court weakens the 70-year-old ”exclusionary rule,” which protects a defendant’s rights by forbidding the use of the direct and indirect evidentiary fruits of the government’s misconduct, ruling 6-3 that evidence seized with defective court warrants can be used against defendants in criminal trials, calling it the “good faith” exception

1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from adult (sheep’s) cells

2009 – Largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold is discovered near Hammerwich, England

2013 – India’s National Food Security Act enacted to provide food subsidies for the poor

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