May 9th is

Butterscotch Brownie Day

World Moscato Wine Day

National Lost Sock Memorial Day

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MORE! J. M. Barrie, Fay Kanin and Nelson Mandela, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Transdniestria, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine – Victory Day

Armenia – Victory & Peace Day

Bosnia and Herzegovina –
Victory Over Fascism Day

Alderney, Guernsey & Jersey –
Liberation Day

India – West Bengal: Rabindranath
Tagore Jayanti (Tagore birthday)

Kosovo, Moldova – Europe Day

Malaysia – General Election Holiday

Uzbekistan – Day of Remembrance and Honors

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On This Day in HISTORY

1092 – In England, Lincoln Cathedral AKA St. Mary’s Cathedral in Lincoln, is consecrated. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of the diocese of Canterbury

1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, sealed by the marriage of King John I of Portugal to Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster; it is the oldest diplomatic alliance still in force in the world

Tomb of John I and Philippa

1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California

1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch, of Punch and Judy, makes his first recorded appearance in England

1746 – Gaspard Monge born, French mathematician, inventor of descriptive geometry, the basis of technical drawing, and ‘father of differential geometry’

1763 – The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac’s War against British forces

1800 – John Brown born, American abolition extremist, who led a group of volunteers during the ‘Bleeding Kansas’ crisis in 1856, killing pro-slavery supporters, then in 1859 led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in what is now West Virginia, killing seven defenders. Tried and convicted of treason, murder and inciting a slave insurrection by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and hanged

1850 – Edward Weston born in England, American chemist, worked on electroplating; developed electrochemical cell, named Weston after him, for the voltage standard

1860 – J. M. Barrie born, Scottish novelist and playwright; Peter Pan

1865 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships

1865 – Elizabeth Garver Jordan born, American journalist, author, editor, and suffragist, editor of Harper’s Bazaar

1873 – Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression, which began to ease in 1879, but didn’t end completely until 1896

1874 – The first horse-drawn bus makes its début in Mumbai, India

1874 – Howard Carter born, British archaeologist and illustrator, discoverer of Egyptian tomb of King Tutankhamen

Howard Carter birds: Falcon, Owl, and Duck 

1874 – Lilian Baylis born, English theatrical manager, founder of the Old Vic theatre, famed for its Shakespearean productions

1883 – Jose Ortega y Gasset born, Spanish philosopher and humanist

1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show opens in London

1895 – Lucian Blaga born, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher

1901 – Australia’s first parliament is opened by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V, in temporary quarters in Melbourne

1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h)

1906 – Eleanor Estes born, American children’s author-illustrator and librarian; The Hundred Dresses was a Newbery Honor Book, and Ginger Pye won the 1952 Newbery Medal

1911 – The works of Gabriele D’Annunzio, an author associated with the Decadent movement, are placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican

1916 – William Pène du Bois born, American author and children’s book illustrator; editor of The Paris Review; 1948 Newbery Medal winner; The Twenty-One Balloons

1917 – Fay Kanin born, American screenwriter, playwright and producer;  Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President (1979-1983); co-author of  the screenplay for Teacher’s Pet; in the early 195os, she and her husband were blacklisted for two years by the HUAC because she had taken classes at the Actors Lab in Hollywood – some of the teachers were suspected of being communist sympathizers – and they had both been members of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization, a group which supported U.S. efforts during WWII

1920 – Richard Adams born, English novelist; Watership Down

1921 – Daniel Berrigan born, American priest, poet, and activist

1921 – Sophie Scholl born, German student-activist , member of the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, convicted of high treason for distributing anti-war leaflets, and executed

1921 – Mona Van Duyn born, American poet; Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1992); National Book Award for Poetry

1930 – Kalifa Tillisi born, Libyan historian and linguist

1934 – Alan Bennett born, English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist; The Madness of George III

1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa by force on May 5

1936 – Glenda Jackson born, British actress and Labour politician; Royal Shakespeare Company member (1964-1968); awarded two Academy Awards for Best Actress for Women in Love and Touch of Class; also gave notable performances in the BBC television series Elizabeth R and the film Sunday Bloody Sunday. Member of Parliament (1992-2015); outspoken critic of the Blair government, especially plans to raise education tuition fees in Britain, and pushed for Tony Blair’s resignation following the Judicial Enquiry into his reasons for going to war in Iraq

1938 – Charles Simic born in Serbia, American poet and editor

1944 – Richie Furay born, American singer-songwriter; Buffalo Springfield

1945 – The Channel Islands are liberated by the British after five years of German occupation during WWII

1946 – Ayşe Nur Zarakolu born, Turkish author, publisher and human rights advocate; co-founder of the publishing house Belge (fire-bombed in 1995); director of Cemmay, a book-distribution company, the first Turkish woman hired as a company director; a relentless challenger to repressive Turkish press laws, she also helped publicize in Turkey the Armenian Genocide and the plight of Kurdish people living within its borders in spite of government bans on mentioning them; imprisoned multiple times for her publications, Amnesty International designated her a prisoner of conscience, and the International Publishers  Association honored her with its inaugural International Freedom to Publish Award in 1998, but the Turkish government confiscated her passport and she was not allowed to attend the ceremony. In 2004, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey for convicting Zarakolu for publishing a book about journalist Ferhat Tepe, murdered by the militant ultra-nationalist Turkish Revenge Brigade (used by the Turkish military intelligence in operations against Kurdish insurgents);  İnsan Hakları Derneği (İHD), a Turkish human rights organization she helped found, bestows the Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought prize in her honor

1948 –  Czechoslovakia’s Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect

1949 – Rainier III becomes Prince of Monaco

1949 – Billy Joel born, American singer-songwriter and pianist

1950 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe,  to maintain peaceful relations; the “Schuman Declaration” influenced founding of the European Union

1953 – Eleanor Roosevelt lobbies Congress for a National Teachers’ Day. In 1985, the National PTA expands her idea into Teacher Appreciation Week, now in association with the National Education Association, held during the first full week in May

1955 – West Germany joins NATO

1958 – Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo premieres in San Francisco

1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces approval of birth control as an additional indication  for Searle’s Enovid, making it the world’s first approved oral contraceptive pill

1961 – FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow condemns TV programming as a “vast wasteland” in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters.

1964 – Ngô Đình Cẩn, de facto ruler of central Vietnam  under his brother President Ngô Đình Diệm before the family’s overthrow, is executed

1968 – Ruth Kelly born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament (1997-2010); served as Secretary of State for Transport (2007-2008), Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (2006-2007), Minister for Women and Equality (2006-2007), and Secretary of State for Education and Skills (2004-2006)

1970 – In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 demonstrators protest the Vietnam War in front of the White House

1974 – Watergate: The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public hearings to consider the impeachment of President Richard Nixon

1994 – South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president

2015 – Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day

2015 – The Japan Anniversary Association officially declares May 9 as “Goku Day” based on the popular manga and anime series Dragon Ball

https://youtu.be/2PA1ZqJtxq8

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