May 29th is

Biscuit Day

Coq Au Vin Day

Paperclip Day

Learn About Composting Day

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers *

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MORE! Patrick Henry, Sojourner Truth and Tenzing Norgay, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Buddhism –  Buddha’s birth and enlightenment/Parinirvana/Hari Raya Waisak/Vesak/ Visakha Bucha

Nepal – Republic Day

Nigeria – Democracy Day

Turks & Caicos Islands –
Heroes’ Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1328 – Philip the Fortunate is crowned as Philip IV, the first King of France from the House of Valois; because his predecessor, King Charles IV, had died without a male heir, Philip’s claim to be the nearest male relative of Charles IV is disputed by English King Edward III, son of Isabella, Charles’ sister. But the French invoke Salic Law, which bans inheritance through the female line; this squabble over the throne sets off the Hundred Years’ War in 1337

1453 – Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fitah capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire

1453 – French banker Jacques Coeur’s possessions are confiscated because of a rumour started by his debtors, that he poisoned the King’s mistress, Agnès Sorel, who had died suddenly in February, 1450. Courtier Jeanne de Vendôme and Italian Jacques Colonna formally accuse Coeur of murder, without any evidence to support their charge, but King Charles VII gives orders for his arrest and seizure of his goods, reserving for himself a large sum of money for the war in Guienne. Commissioners, all of whom either owe Coeur money, or are holders of his forfeited estates, try him for a whole laundry list of crimes, so he is found guilty and imprisoned. In 1455, he escapes, making his way to Rome, where he comes under the protection of Nicholas V, and upon the death of Nicolas, is made captain of a fleet of galleys by Calixtus III, and sent to the relief of Rhodes during the ongoing war with Turks, but becomes ill and dies on the way

1630 – John Winthrop, founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, begins his History of New England

1660 – Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland 

1677 – Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes a peace between Virginia colonists and the local Indians

1716 – Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton born, French naturalist and pioneer in plant physiology; first director of the Museum of Natural History in Paris

Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton by Alexander Roslin

1721 – South Carolina is formally incorporated as a royal colony

1727 – Peter II Alexeyevich, 11-year-old grandson of Peter the Great, becomes Tsar of Russia

1733 – The right of Canadians to enslave natives is upheld at Quebec City. For about two centuries, slavery was legal in New France, and in Lower Canada under British rule. Captive human beings were owned by people from almost every level of society, including governors, bishops, military officers, merchants, priests, blacksmiths and tailors. James McGill, founder of McGill University, had slaves. So did Marguerite d’Youville, the Grey Nuns founder who was canonized in 1990. Two-thirds of the slaves in New France were natives, mostly from the Pawnee nations of modern-day Nebraska, whose French Canadian name – Panis – became a synonym for an indigenous slave of any origin. Between 1629 and 1833, there were over 4,100 slaves in Quebec, many in Quebec City, where owning a slave was a status symbol. Black slaves were twice as expensive as native slaves

1736 – Patrick Henry born, fiery orator of the American Revolution, Virginia planter, attorney and politician

1753 – Joseph Haydn’s first opera, Krumme Teufel (‘The Limping Devil’) premieres in Vienna

1765 – Patrick Henry’s speech against the Stamp Act to Virginia’s House of Burgesses; he answers cries of “Treason!” with, “If this be treason, make the most of it!”

1787 – The Virginia Plan, drafted by James Madison, is presented by Edmund Randolph to the Constitutional Convention, proposing a strong central government composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial

1790 – Rhode Island is last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution

1848 – Wisconsin becomes the 30th U.S. state

1849 – Abraham  Lincoln says “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

1851 – Sojourner Truth delivers her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron OH

1852 – Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ completes a very successful two-year American tour, and donates her considerable profits to charity

1860 – Isaac Albéniz born, Spanish composer, piano prodigy; a Spanish nationalist school of music leader; Iberia, Suite española, Cantos de España

1861 – Dorothea Dix offers her help in setting up hospitals for Union Army

1874 – G.K. Chesterton born, English author, playwright, poet critic and philosopher; Father Brown mystery series

1876 – Helen Woodard Atwater born, American author-editor, first full-time editor of the Journal of Home Economics

1880 – Oswald Spengler born, German historian and philosopher; Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West)

[One of my nominees for ‘Most Depressing Philosopher’ – he said “Optimism is cowardice”]

1889 – August Strindberg’s play Hemsoborna, based on his novel, The People of Hemsö, premieres in Copenhagen

1892 – Alfonsina Storni born in Switzerland, Argentinean poet, journalist and feminist; important Argentine and Latin-American modernist poet; health issues, depression and economic hardship led her to commit suicide by drowning in the sea at age 46

1894 – Beatrice Lillie born in Canada, British comedic performer and singer, satirical lyrics and sketch writer; inveterate entertainer of WWII troops – before one performance she learned that her only son had been killed in action, but refused to cancel or postpone her appearance; won a Tony Award in 1953 for her revue, An Evening With Beatrice Lillie

1897 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold born in Austria, first composer of international stature to compose film scores for Hollywood after moving to the U.S. during the rise of Nazi Germany; notable orchestral scores for Errol Flynn vehicles: Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk 

1900 – Escalator Day *  The Otis Elevator Company registers the trade name “Escalator”

1903 – Bob Hope born as Leslie Townes in England, American comedian, vaudevillian, singer and author; his career spanned almost 80 years on stage, radio, screen and television; best remembered for the “Road” musical comedy pictures with co-star Bing Crosby, his television variety specials with his theme song of “Thanks for the Memories,” and for hosting the Academy Awards shows from 1939 through 1977

1906 – T. H. White born in India, English novelist, essayist and historian; noted for The Once and Future King series, and Mistress Masham’s Repose, a children’s book

1908 – Diana Morgan born, Welsh playwright and screenwriter for Ealing Studios; Bats in the Belfry, A Run for Your Money, Hand in Hand 

1912 – Curtis Publishing fires 15 young women for dancing the “Turkey Trot” during their lunch break

1912 – The Ballets Russes premieres their ballet L’après-midi d’un faune(The Afternoon of a Faun) in Paris, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky

1913 – Igor Stravinsky’s score The Rite of Spring debuts in Paris, provoking a riot

1914 – Tenzing Norgay born, Nepali Sherpa mountaineer; shared being first to reach the summit of Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary, on his 39^th birthday in 1953

1917 – John Fitzgerald Kennedy born, 35^th U.S. President

1919 – Albert Einstein’s light-bending prediction is confirmed by Arthur Eddington

1922 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules organized baseball is a sport, not a business, so it is not subject to antitrust laws

1923 – Louisiana’s Attorney General declares it is legal for women to wear slacks in public

1932 – “Bonus Army” of WWI veterans, most out of work during the Great Depression, starts assembling in Washington, D.C. to insist on cash-payment redemption of their service certificates, awarded in 1924 but not set for redemption until 1945

1935 – Sylvia Robinson born, American singer, record producer and co-founder/CEO of Sugar Hill Records, and founder of Bon Ami Records; dubbed the “Mother of Hip-Hop”

1942 – Bing Crosby records “White Christmas” – biggest selling record to date

1943 – Meat and Cheese are rationed in the U.S. as part of the war effort

1945 – Joyce Tenneson born, American fine arts photographer; noted for her nude studies, and primarily using a large-format (20 X 24) Polaroid camera; recipient of the 1990 “Photographer of the Year” Award from Women in Photography International

1953 – Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition

1965 – Bob Dylan’s album Bringing It All Back Home hits #1 in the UK

1968 – The Truth in Lending Act (TILA), requiring disclosure of terms and conditions of finance charges in consumer credit transactions; placing restrictions on garnishing wages; and authorizing the National Commission on Consumer Finance, goes into effect

1968 – Jessica Morden born, British Labour Party Member of Parliament for Newport East since 2005, the first woman MP in South Wales; on the board of The Young People’s Trust for the Environment

1968 – Hida Viloria born, Lantinx American writer and intersex/non-binary rights activist; author of Born Both: An Intersex Life; outspoken opponent to medically unnecessary genital surgeries and hormone therapies on intersex infants and minors

1969 – Crosby, Stills and Nash, the group’s first album, debuts

1971 – The Rolling Stones’ single “Brown Sugar” hits #1 in the U.S.

1974 – Jenny Willott born, British Liberal Democrat, Member of Parliament for  Cardiff Central (2005-2015), the first woman elected to the seat; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs and Women and Equalities (2013-2014)

1989 – Student protesters in China construct a replica of Statue of Liberty

1990 – Boris Yeltsin is elected President of the Russian Republic

1995 – Pink Floyd releases a 2-CD album, Pulse

1999 – NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery completes its first docking with the International Space Station

2002 – The first International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers *

2004 – The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington DC

2005 – French voters soundly reject the European Union’s proposed constitution

2014 – President Obama approves US military training of ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad and al Qaeda-linked groups

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