May 28th is

Amnesty International Day *

Hamburger Day

Sierra Club Day *

National Brisket Day

Menstrual Hygiene Day *

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MORE!  Jim Thorpe, May Swenson and Alan Turing, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Armenia – First Republic Day

Azerbaijan – Republic Day

Ethiopia – Dergue Downfall Day *

Philippines – Flag Day *

Turks and Caicos Islands –
National Heroes’ Day

United States – Memorial Day

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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

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; converted to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986

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; noted for her work at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation solar bursts; she discovered Type I and Type III bursts, and contributed to work on Type II and IV bursts, and the development of the first radio astronomical interferometer observation

 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 civil rights activist; took college classes in her thirties to earn a PhD; Medgar Evers College Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs (1980-1997); widow of Malcolm X

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

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

1946 – Dame Janet Paraskeva born, British government official; chair of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (2007-2012); Civil Service commissioner (2006-2007); previously served as a magistrate and member of the Youth Justice Board

1947 – Lynn Johnston born, Canadian cartoonist, known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse; first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist’s Society’s 1985 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year

1952 – The women of Greece win the right to vote

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

1955 – Laura Amy Schiltz born, American children’s and young adult author; her books are often set in historical times, including  Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, 2008 Newbery Medal winner, and The Hired Girl, winner of the 2015 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction; she also writes fantasy, like The Night Fairy

1961 – Amnesty International Day * – 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

1965 – Mary Coughlan born, Irish politician; served as Teachta Dála (1987-2011), which is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament); where she served on a number of committees, and was appointed several different cabinet positions; she served as Tánaiste (second most-senior officer in the Irish government, from 2009 to 2010)

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

1991 – Dergue Downfall Day * – In Ethiopia, the Dergue regime falls, after years of disastrous policies, including the ‘Red Terror’ brutal crackdown on opposition groups, holding up international aid during the worst famine in a century, and forced resettlement of opponents in the worst famine areas, resulting in 400,000 starvation deaths. The regime’s leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, had fled to asylum in Zimbabwe just days before

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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