Saturday, May 6, 2023

Today is the 126th day of 2023 and the 48th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1877, Oglala Lakota war leader Tasunke Witko aka Crazy Horse died in Nebraska.

In 1889, with the commencement of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the Eiffel Tower was opened to the public for the first time since its completion in March.

In 1937, the German dirigible Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock in New Jersey, killing 36.

In 1994, the Channel Tunnel, an undersea rail tunnel linking England and France, was officially opened.

In 2013, three women who had gone missing between 2002 and 2004 were rescued from their kidnapper’s home in Cleveland.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), psychiatrist; Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), actor; Orson Welles (1915-1985), actor/director; Willie Mays (1931- ), baseball player; Bob Seger (1945), singer-songwriter; Tony Blair (1953- ), British prime minister; George Clooney (1961- ), actor; Martin Brodeur (1972- ), hockey player; Adrianne Palicki (1983- ), actress; Gabourey Sidibe (1983- ), actress; Chris Paul (1985- ), basketball player.

TODAY’S FACT: Tony Blair was the first British prime minister in more than 150 years to have a child with his wife while in office.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1954, Roger Bannister, a 25-yearold British medical student, became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Our memory has no guarantees at all, and yet we bow more often than is objectively justified to the compulsion to believe what it says.” -- Sigmund Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 3:43.13 -- current world record time (minutes:seconds) in the mile run, set by Moroccan runner Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (May 5) and last quarter moon (May 12).

Sunday, May 7, 2023

Today is the 127th day of 2023 and the 49th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

In 1915, a German U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 off the coast of Ireland.

In 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered and withdrew from World War II.

In 1998, Mercedes-Benz announced its $36 billion merger with the Chrysler Corporation.

In 2000, Vladimir Putin assumed the presidency in Russia’s first democratic change of office.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Robert Browning (1812-1889), poet/playwright; Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), composer; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), composer; Gary Cooper (1901-1961), actor; Eva Peron (1919-1952), Argentine first lady/actress; Johnny Unitas (1933-2002), football player; Tim Russert (1950-2008), journalist; Breckin Meyer (1974- ), actor; Alex Smith (1984- ), football player; Aidy Bryant (1987- ), actress/comedian; Earl Thomas (1989- ), football player; Alexander Ludwig (1992- ), actor.

TODAY’S FACT: In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby. The horse went on to win the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, becoming the 10th horse to win the Triple Crown and the first to do so while undefeated.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1982, a jury ruled in favor of Raiders owner Al Davis in an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, allowing Davis to move the team from Oakland, California, to Los Angeles.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Life with all it yields of joy and woe, / And hope and fear, believe the aged friend,-- / Is just our chance o’ the prize of learning love, / How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.” -- Robert Browning, “A Death in the Desert” TODAY’S NUMBER: 16,024 -- height (in feet) of Puncak Jaya aka the Carstensz Pyramid, the highest summit in Indonesia. Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first person to scale the “Seven Summits” -- the highest peak on each of the seven continents -- when he reached the top of the Carstensz Pyramid on this day in 1986.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (May 5) and last quarter moon (May 12).

Monday, May 8, 2023

Today is the 128th day of 2023 and the 50th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1877, the first Westminster Kennel Club dog show was held in New York City.

In 1902, the city of Saint-Pierre was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Pelee on the island of Martinique, killing an estimated 30,000 people.

In 1945, Victory in Europe Day (or V-E Day) was celebrated as the Allies accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender, ending World War II in Europe.

In 1973, a 10-week standoff in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, between federal authorities and American Indian Movement activists ended.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), 33rd U.S. president; David Attenborough (1926- ), TV personality/environmentalist; Don Rickles (1926-2017), comedian/ actor; Thomas Pynchon (1937- ), author; Ricky Nelson (1940-1985), singer-songwriter; Toni Tennille (1940), singer-songwriter; Mike D’Antoni (1951- ), basketball coach; Bill Cowher (1957- ), football coach/analyst; Lovie Smith (1958- ), football coach; Enrique Iglesias (1975- ), singer- songwriter; Stephen Amell (1981- ), actor; Adrian Gonzalez (1982- ), baseball player.

TODAY’S FACT: Pharmacist John Pemberton sold the first Coca-Cola soft drink on this day in 1886.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first climbers to ascend Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” Harry Truman TODAY’S NUMBER: 418,500 -- total U.S. military and civilian deaths in World War II, according to the National WWII Museum.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (May 5) and last quarter moon (May 12).