May 29th is

Biscuit Day

Coq Au Vin Day

Learn About Composting Day

Paperclip Day *

World Digestive Health Day

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers *

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MORE! Sojourner Truth, Tenzing Norgay and Hida Viloria, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Argentina – Army Day

Indonesia – Elderly Day

Nepal – Republic Day

Nigeria – Democracy Day

Sweden – Veterans Day

United Kingdom – Royal Oak Day *

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On This Day in HISTORY

1108 – Spanish Reconquista, Battle of Uclés:  just south of the Tagus River, Almoravid troops under the command of Abu Tahir Tamim ibn Yusuf win a decisive victory over combined forces of the Castile-León alliance commanded by Prince Sancho Alfónsez

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

1416 – Ottoman-Venetian Wars, Battle of Gallipoli: a Venetian naval squadron under Peitro Loredan defeats a much larger Ottoman fleet in the Dardanelles

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

Jacques Coeur, by follower of Jean Fouquet

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

1660 – Royal Oak Day * – Restoration of the Monarchy: Charles II ascends 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.”

Abraham Lincoln in the 1840s 

1851 – Inspired by the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments formulated and approved at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, a Women’s Rights Convention is held in Akron Ohio, led by Frances Dana Gage, in spite of a number of male hecklers, including several ministers. Sojourner Truth was the most notable speaker, delivering her powerful “Ain’t I A Woman?” oration

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

Jenny Lind, by Eduard Magnus 1862

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

1861 – Dorothea Dix offers her help in setting up hospitals for the Union Army. She serves as a Superintendent of Army Nurses (1861-1865) implementing the federal army nursing program in which over 3,000 nurses served. Union and Confederate wounded alike were treated and nursed.

1867 – Paperclip Day * – Samuel B. Fay is awarded a patent for a bent wire paper clip

1874 – G.K. Chesterton born, English author, playwright, poet, critic and philosopher; know for 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 for his 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 and the WWII film Went the Day Well?

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”

Sylvia Robinson -1958

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

1961 – Melissa Etheridge, American singer-songwriter,  gay rights and environmental activist; came out publicly as a lesbian in 1993, at the Triangle Ball, a gay celebration of President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, and has been an advocate for LGBQT rights since. Toured the U.S. and Canada in 2006, campaigning for renewable fuel. Etheridge is a breast cancer survivor and appeared on Dateline NBC in 2005, during Breast Cancer  Awareness Month, to talk about the disease

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

1966 – Natalie Nougayrède born, French journalist and editor for Le Monde, known for asking French officials tough questions  while she worked as a reporter (2005-2012). In 2005, she was honored with the Albert Londres Prize for her coverage of the Second Chechen War. In 2013, she became the first woman executive and managing editor of Le Monde, but resigned in 2014 because of disputes over proposed changes. She then became a writer and foreign affairs commentator for the British paper The Guardian. Nougayrède is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a pan-European think tank

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

1970 – Natarsha Belling born, Australian journalist and news presenter for Network 10 on Ten Weekend News since 2015; since 2019, she also appears on Studio 10, the network’s daily morning news and talk show

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)

1975 – Sarah Millican born, English comedian and author; noted for her book, How to be Champion

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

2018 – An article in The New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at Harvard’s T.H.Chan School of Public Health says the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria in 2017 was at least 70 times higher than the government’s official count of 64. The researchers, who conducted an extensive household-based survey, estimate that there were over 4,600 related deaths, many of them attributed to delayed or interrupted health care because of the widespread devastation of the island by the hurricane. Unsafe and unhealthy living conditions which caused injuries and illness that led to death later were also not taken into account by the government’s original count

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