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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Pip Wilson

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Today is

In Flanders fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place.
John McCrae, Canadian poet, writing on May 3, 1915
 
At Philip and James, away with the lambs;
That thinkest to any milk of their dams;
At Lammas leave milking, for fear of a thing,
Lest in winter they sing.
To milk and to fold them, is much to require,
Except ye have pasture to fill their desire;
Yet many by milking (such heed do they take)
Not hurting their bodies, much profit do make.
Five ewes allow to every cow, make a proof by a score,
Shall double thy dairy or trust me no more:
Yet may a good huswife that knoweth the skill,
Have mixt or unmixt, at her pleasure and will.
...
Be sure thy neat have water and meat;
From bull, cow fast, till Crouchmas be past;
From hiefer bull bid thee till Lammas bid thee,
Leave cropping from May to Michaelmas-day.
Thy brake go and sow where barley did grow;
The next crop wheat is husbandry neat.
Fine basil sow in a pot to grow;
Watch bees in May for swarming away.
Tusser, Thomas (1524 - 1580), Five hundreth pointes of good husbandrie: as well for the champion or open countrie, as also for the woodland or severall ; mixed in everie month with huswiferie, over and besides the booke of huswiferie, London: 'Printed in the now dwelling house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate Street at the signe of the starre', 1586

I heard the song
Of the world's last whale
As I rocked in the moonlight
And reefed the sail.
It'll happen to you
Also without fail
If it happens to me
Sang the world's last whale.
Pete Seeger, American folksinger, born on May 3, 1919

There is nothing in the world I wouldn't do for Hope, and there is nothing he wouldn't do for me...we spend our lives doing nothing for each other.
Bing Crosby, American singer, born on May 3, 1903

I've always believed he was born in 1904, and that's the way his grave reads. But the reference books say 1903. That's all right; we'll celebrate his 100th all year and into 2004.
Kathryn Crosby, widow of Bing   Source

We'll find them [weapons of mass destruction]. It'll be a matter of time to do so.
USA President George W Bush; lying in remarks to reporters, May 3, 2003

Source: Bush Administration Officials' Lies about Iraq's Supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction in Their Own Words

May 3 is the 123^rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124^th in leap years), with 242 days remaining.
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Festival of Tarentia, for the goddess Bona Dea, ancient Rome (May 3 - 4)

(December 3 was also a festival for this goddess.)

On May 3 - 4 (though as early as May 1), the ancient Romans commemorated the Tarentia festival for the 'Good Goddess': Bona Dea, which is the most popular name by which the goddess Fauna or Fatua (Fate) was known. She is also an aspect of the goddess Artemis Calliste, the Lily of Heaven. Angitia, a deity of the Marsii might have been the same goddess, and the Good Goddess is also identified with Cybele, Maia, Ge, Ops, Terra, Tellus, Semele, Marica and Hekate, and was thus a fertility and earth goddess. Her priestesses grew medicinal herbs and the sick were tended to in the gardens outside her temples. She was associated with the cornucopia, snakes and coins and her image frequently occurred on ancient Roman coins.

It was said that her father, Faunus, (known to the Greeks as Pan), had tried to seduce her but failed, despite having got her drunk on wine and having whipped her with a myrtle branch. Eventually, he father turned himself into a serpent and in that form succeeded in penetrating his daughter. Another legend says that Faunus was her husband and became incensed at Fauna's drunkenness, so he killed her, but then deified her.

Bona Dea protected against eye-disease and blindness, and it is interesting to note that after the Roman Empire became Christian, the temple of Bona Dea Oclata or Restitutrix in Rome, Santuario della Bona Dea, became converted to a church for St Cecilia, whose name derives from a Latin gens (family) Caecilius, (from kaiko, one-eyed), and was a patron not only of composers, music, musicians, musical instrument makers, poets and singers, but also of the blind.

The December festival to Bona Dea was a women-only affair, and for that reason not included in the Roman calendar; this was also because it fell into a category between private and public ceremonies. Unlike the celebrations of the calends of May, the December rites were by invitation only and private in that they were not held in her temples on the Aventine Hill and in Trastevere, not attended by the pontiffs nor paid for by the State ('publico sumptu'). They were, however, attended by the Vestal Virgins, held 'pro populo Romano' (i.e., for the Roman people), and the women met in the house of a Consul or Praetor Urbanus. The wife of the pontifex maximus officiated at the ceremony.

At Bona Dea's festivities (called 'incredibilis cerimonia' by Cicero) on this day, paintings or drawings of men or their genitals were forbidden, along with the words 'wine' and 'myrtle', associated as they were with her lustful father (the jar in which wine was served, was referred to arcanely as a "honey-pot"). Even representations of male animals were veiled (Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 97, 2). In this, we find many similarities to the Bacchanalia in honour of Dionysus-Bacchus, which were also female-only celebrations.

Not a lot is known about the nature of the Bona Dea mysteries. We do know that a sacred serpent appeared alongside the goddess and that  her tabernacles were covered in vine leaves. The Roman satirist Juvenal said that the rites were orgiastic. A pig was sacrificed (a sow is the usual sacrifice for deities such as Ceres and Tellus), wine under the name of milk was offered to the goddess, the congregation danced to the sound of harps and flutes. Plutarch wrote that myrtle was excluded from the private use in the cult at home, because it was sacred to Venus and could have overtones of sexual impurity, and Macrobius tells us that myrtle was banned from use in the temple.

There were shamanic/witchcraft aspects to the Bona Dea rites, and her devotees said they flew with her through the night sky, entering the houses of the rich to feast. The hawthorn tree, also known as the may tree and white thorn, was sacred to the Good Goddess. These holy bushes and trees were associated with sacred wells and shrines and on festive days would be garlanded with ribbons and flowers.

During the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCE, the celebration took place at his house on the night of December 3. Earlier in the day Cicero had made the famous speech which is known as his third Catiline Oration, describing to the people the capture of the conspirators. After the assembly was dismissed, the people accompanied him home, as was usual, but, his house being occupied by the Bona Dea congregation, he was obliged to go to a friend's house to spend the night. There he sat deliberating with a few of his trusted counsellors what to do with the prisoners, when a message came hastily from his wife Terentia (Tarentia) that an auspicious sign had occurred during the mysteries, and that he should take heart. The fire upon the altar had blazed up with great brilliancy, and when the women were terrified, the Vestal Virgins had at once interpreted the event as a good omen, and urged Terentia to send word to her husband to that effect.

Images of her sanctuary    Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Crouchmas 
(often called the Feast of the The Invention (Discovery) of the Holy Cross), Roman Catholicism

(Feast day abolished by Pope John XXIII in 1960)

(Poetic narcissus, Narcissus poeticus, is today's plant, dedicated to this feast.)

St Helena (Flavia Iulia Helena, also known as Saint Helena and Helena of Constantinople, c. 248 - c. 329 CE) was empress and mother of the Roman emperor Constantine I (Constantine the Great). England's Geoffrey of Monmouth, claimed that she was a daughter of British King Coel Godhebog, meaning "King Cole the Magnificent". Other versions of the legend mention Coel not as King but as dux (chief) of Camelodunum (Colchester). (Her legendary father is not the same as King Coel Hen, meaning 'Coel the Old' – 'Old King Cole' of the nursery rhyme.)

She travelled to Jerusalem and demanded all the alleged crosses of Jesus Christ be brought to her. (She also got the four nails, the spear which pierced the side of Jesus, and other relics. Of the four nails, two were placed in Rome's imperial crown, and one at a later date was taken by Charlemagne to France; a fourth was thrown in the Adriatic to calm the waters of that stormy sea.)

The body of a dead man was placed on each cross; when it was on the true cross, the body came to life. Thus was the True Cross of Christ 'invented', an archaic expression that means 'discovered'. May 3^rd for centuries commemorated that event, until the abolition of this feast day by Pope John XXIII in 1960.

The cross was entrusted to the Bishop of Jerusalem and small pieces were cut off and sold to pilgrims, but it was found the cross had the power of self-regeneration. This legend was, no doubt, created to explain all the pieces of the cross that ended up in Medieval European churches.

In 614, Jerusalem was captured and the cross carried into Persia. There it remained a few years, but was recovered by the conquests of Heraclitus, who carried it back to Jerusalem on his back. This event is commemorated by Roman Catholic Church on September 14, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, or Holyrood Day, the word 'rood' meaning 'cross'.

In 1561 John Calvin wrote a tract that said that if all the pieces of the True Cross were gathered together, they would load a large ship, and would take 300 men, not one, to carry it. However, on this score, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes:

"The work of Rohault de Fleury, 'Mémoire sur les instruments de la Passion' (Paris, 1870), deserves more prolonged attention; its author has sought out with great care and learning all the relics of the True Cross, drawn up a catalogue of them, and, thanks to this labour, he has succeeded in showing that, in spite of what various Protestant or Rationalistic authors have pretended, the fragments of the Cross brought together again would not only not 'be comparable in bulk to a battleship', but would not reach one-third that of a cross which has been supposed to have been three or four metres in height, with transverse branch of two metres ... proportions not at all abnormal ... Here is the calculation of this savant: Supposing the Cross to have been of pine-wood, as is believed by the savants who have made a special study of the subject, and giving it a weight of about seventy-five kilograms, we find that the volume of this cross was 178,000,000 cubic millimetres. Now the total known volume of the True Cross, according to the finding of M. Rohault de Fleury, amounts to above 4,000 000 cubic millimetres, allowing the missing part to be as big as we will, the lost parts or the parts the existence of which has been overlooked, we still find ourselves far short of 178,000,000 cubic millimetres, which should make up the True Cross."

A piece of the True Cross was the most important relic venerated by the Crusaders. It was kept in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (pictured above) under the protection of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who raised it as a standard of the army before every battle. It was captured from the Europeans by the Arab freedom fighter Saladin (1137 - 1193) during the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

According to one legend, the True Cross was built from the Tree of Knowledge.

Today was also traditionally called Crouchmas and Holy Rood (Holyrood) Day, this latter name also being applied to the feast of the previously mentioned Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14. Crouchmas (from Latin crux = cross) is the term not just for today, but for a long season, lasting from May 3 until St Helen's Day (August 18). Rogation Sunday (the Sunday before Ascension Day) is called Crouchmas Sunday, and Rogation week is also known as Crouchmas.

In England, this was considered a propitious day for putting bulls to cows. However, in Scotland, May 3 was called 'Avoiding Day' or the 'Dismal Day' and the day of the week upon which it fell was considered to be unlucky throughout the year. It might be because this was the day the fallen angels were expelled from heaven.

In art, St Helena is dressed in imperial regalia and holds a large cross.

"The September date is often referred to in the West as Holy Cross Day; the May date was dropped from the liturgical calendar by the Second Vatican Council in 1970. (See also Roodmas.) The Orthodox still commemorate both events on September 14, one of the twelve Great Feasts of the liturgical year, and the 'Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross' on August 1st, the day on which the relics of the True Cross would be carried through the streets of Constantinople to bless the city.

"In addition to celebrations on fixed days, there are certain days of the variable cycle when the Cross is celebrated. The Roman Catholic Church has a formal 'Adoration of the Cross' (the term is inaccurate, but sanctioned by long use) during the services for Good Friday, while the Orthodox celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent. In Greek Orthodox churches everywhere, a replica of the cross is brought out in procession on Holy Thursday for the people to venerate."   Source

"This festival of the Romish church is also in the church of England calendar; Mr. Audley says, 'the word invention sometimes signifies the finding a thing that was hidden;' thence the name of this festival, which celebrates the alleged finding of the cross of Christ by St. Helena, who is said to have found three crosses on Mount Calvary, but the true one could not be distinguished, till a sick woman being placed on each, was healed by one, which was therefore pronounced the veritable cross. Mr. Audley quotes, that 'the custody of the cross was committed to the bishop of Jerusalem. Every Easter Sunday it was exposed to view, and pilgrims from all countries were indulged with little pieces of it enchased in gold or gems. What was most astonishing, the sacred wood was never lessened, although it was perpetually diminished, for it possessed a secret power of vegetation.' It appears from Ribadeneira, that St. Paulinus, says, 'the cross being a piece of wood without sense or feeling, yet seemeth to have in it a living and everlasting virtue; and from that time to this it permitteth itself to be parted and divided to comply with innumerable persons, and yet suffereth no loss or detriment, but remains as entire as if it had never been cut, so that it can be severed, parted, and divided, for those among whom it is to be distributed, and still remains whole and entire for all that come to reverence and adore it.' There is no other way left to the Romish church to account for the superabundance of the wood of the cross."   
William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online

"We might fill many pages with the often ridiculous relics of the innumerable saints of the Romish calendar. Some of the stones with which St. Stephen was stoned were shown at Florence, at Arles, and at Vigaud, in Languedoc. The Augustine monks at Poictiers worshipped one of the arrows with which St. Sebastian was slain, or at least made other people worship it; and there was another at Lambesc, in Provence. St. Sebastian had become multiplied in a very extraordinary manner, for his body was found in four places, and his head in two others, quite independent of his body; while the grey friars at Angers exhibited his brains, which, when the case was broken up in the religious wars, were found to have been turned into a stone. St. Philip appears to have had three feet—at least, a foot of St. Philip's was found in three several places. Materialism in religion was carried to such a point, that the celebrated monastery of Mont St. Michael, in Normandy, exhibited the sword and buckler with which the archangel Michael combated the spirit of evil, and we believe they were preserved there till the period of the great French Revolution; and one of the relic-mongers of earlier times is said to have exhibited a feather of the Holy Ghost—supposing, no doubt, from the pictorial representations, that the sacred spirit was a real pigeon.

"The multiplicity of the same object seems sometimes to have embarrassed the exhibitors of relics, There is an old story of a rather sceptical visitor of sacred places in France, in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, to whom in a certain monastery the skull of John the Baptist was shown, on which he remarked, with some surprise, 'Ali! the monks of such a monastery showed me the skull of John the Baptist yesterday.' 'True,' said the monastic exhibitor, not disconcerted, 'but those monks only possess the skull of the saint when he was a young man, and ours was his skull when he was advanced in years and wisdom.' All the clergy, however, did not possess this peculiar style of ingenuity; but some labour was bestowed in sustaining the earlier doctrine, much enlarged in its application, that all holy relics possessed the miraculous power of multiplying themselves."
Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers's Book of Days)

 

The Southern Cross

"The lower regions of the air were loaded with vapours for some days. We saw distinctly, for the first time, the cross of the south, only in the night of the 4th and 5th of July, in the sixteenth degree of latitude. It was strongly inclined, and appeared, from time to time, between the clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by uncondensed lightnings, reflected a silver light. The pleasure felt on discovering the southern cross was warmly shared by such of the crew as had lived in the colonies. In the solitude of the seas, we hail a star as a friend from whom we have been long separated. Among the Portuguese and the Spaniards, peculiar motives seem to increase this feeling; a religious sentiment attaches them to a constellation, the form of which recalls the sign of the faith planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the new world. The two great stars which mark the summit and the foot of the cross, having nearly the same right ascension, it follows, that the constellation is almost vertical at the moment when it passes the meridian. This circumstance is known to every nation that lives beyond the tropics, or in the southern hemisphere."   Alexander von Humboldt

How the Southern Cross was formed (Australian Aboriginal myth) 

Baiame, the Great Spirit, made the animals and plants, and created man and woman to rule over them. They were told they could eat plants, but not animals. All was well until one drought year. A man in desperation killed some kangaroo rats, and shared them with his wife. They offered some of the flesh to one of their friends, but he was mindful of the prohibition, and walked away from them rather than eat. 

He walked across a broad plain, to the edge of a river that flowed despite the great drought. The man and woman followed him and saw him on the other side of the river, lying under a tall gum tree. They saw a black figure, half man and half beast, which was the Yowie (Spirit of Death), take the man up into the tree.

The tree was lifted up into the sky, flying south. Two white cockatoos tried to catch the flying tree.

Because Baiame's rules had been violated, and man had experienced death as the kangaroo rat had; the swamp oaks sighed and the gum trees wept tears of blood. To this day the Kamilroi tribe knows the Southern Cross as Yaraandoo, the place of the white gum tree, and the Pointers as Mouyi, the white cockatoos.

Baiame and Man: how human beings came about

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World Press Freedom Day Throughout the world, May 3 serves as an occasion to inform the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and as a reminder that many journalists brave death or jail to bring people their daily news. Impunity - Getting Away with Murder International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Transparency International United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Special Page   The main theme of World Press Freedom Day 2006 is the correlation between media freedom and the eradication of poverty. 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Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Additional  resources: The additional resources links on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not necessarily represent an endorsement by the United Nations. Arab Press Freedom Watch    Committee to Protect Journalists International Center for Journalists    International Federation of Journalists International Freedom of Expression Exchange    International Press Institute OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media    Reporters Without Borders World Association of Newspapers The World Press Freedom Committee, with 44 affiliated organizations on six continents, is in the forefront of the struggle for a press free of government interference everywhere and for full and free flow of news. The World Press Freedom Review examines the state of the media in over 184 countries, territories and administered areas, documenting press freedom violations and major media developments all over the world. More   Feast Day of St Philip the Apostle and St James (brother of Jesus) (James the Lesser) The traditional date of this feast was moved to May 11 in 1955 when May Day was dedicated to St Joseph the Worker. However, in 1969 it was again moved to today. Orthodox Churches celebrate the feast on November 14. St Philip, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, might have been previously a disciple of St John the Baptist. He was martyred c. 80 at Hierapolis, Phrygia. Philip is the patron of hatters, and pastry chefs. This Philip is sometimes confused with Philip the Evangelist, who appears in several episodes of Acts. 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June 22, 1527), Italian historian and political author (The Prince) Old Nick? Some people believe that we got the name 'Old Nick' (the Devil) from this writer, and his name is associated with evil scheming. But this perception does not entirely stand close scrutiny. Machiavelli was born in Florence of an ancient but not wealthy family and received a liberal education; at age 29 he was appointed secretary to the Ten, or committee of foreign affairs for the Florentine Republic. He went on diplomatic missions to allies and enemies and proved an able diplomat. When the Medicis took Florence, Machiavelli was imprisoned and tortured, on the charge of conspiring against the new regime. Pardoned by the new Pope Leo X (Giovanni Medici, who had imprisoned him), he retired for several years to San Casciano and wrote, but lived in poverty. He commenced writing The Prince to show the Medicis his worth as a statesman, for his rehabilitation and it was not written for publication, but for the rulers only. In about 1519 the Medicis received him into favour and he drew up a new constitution for Florence. Machiavelli died on June 22, 1527, aged 58. The Prince was published in 1532. Some years later the Council of Trent declared it "an accursed book".  In the book, Machiavelli ignores morality but displays a good understanding of human nature. He also wrote drama and a history of Florence, as well as an Art of War.   The main theme of his most important works is that all means may be used in order to maintain authority, and that the worst acts of the ruler are justified by the treachery of the government. 1662 Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (d. 1736), master builder 1761 August von Kotzebue (d. 1819), dramatist 1826 Charles, Crown Prince of Sweden-Norway (d. 1872) 1844 Richard D'Oyly Carte, London theatrical impresario, producer of Savoy operas, best known for producing the comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan 1861 Emmett Dalton (d. 1937), American outlaw 1893 Konstantine Gamsakhurdia (d. 1975) Georgian writer and public benefactor 1898 Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel   1903 Bing Crosby (d. 1977), American actor and crooner who had 38 No 1 singles, surpassing even Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Crosby won the best actor Oscar for playing an easy going priest in Going My Way. A keen golfer, he died aged 73 on a Spanish golf course – after a tour of England that had included a sold-out engagement at the London Palladium. His large ears were pinned back during his early films, until partway through She Loves Me Not. All four sons from his first marriage condemned him for his strict and aloof personality, and Lindsay and Dennis committed suicide (Crosby left a clause in his will stating that his sons could not collect his money until they were in their 80s). However, his daughter, Mary, praised him as a kind and loving father in his later life and second marriage. (Many reputable sources, such as Internet Movie Database give 1904, and others give May 2, as Crosby's date of birth, but I'm inclined believe today is the one. Please feel free to discuss at Corrigenda anything at Wilson's Almanac Scriptorium and the Book of Days that you feel requires amending.) "Then in 1940 he was teamed with comedian and off-camera buddy Bob Hope in Road to Singapore The picture offered a winning combination of songs, romance, in-jokes, and burlesque shtick. Over the next 20 years, the team went on the Road to Zanzibar (1941), ... Morocco (1942), ... Utopia (1945), ... Rio (1947), ... Bali (1952), and ... Hong Kong (1962), exchanging snappy patter, kidding each other's public personas, and generally seeming to have a good time."   Source "During the Vietnam War, a secret code was to have been broadcast informing all US personnel that an immediate evacuation had been ordered. The code was the playing of Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas' twice on the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN), followed by the announcement 'The temperature in Hanoi is 105 and rising.'"   Source "During most of his lifetime Bing celebrated May 2, 1904 as his birthdate. After Bing's death in 1977 a Tacoma priest disclosed Roman Catholic Church baptismal records that revealed Bing's actual birthdate. Contemporary newspaper reports of Bing's birth also confirm the date as May 3, 1903: The Tacoma Daily News Wednesday, May 6, 1903: "Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Crosby are receiving congratulations on the arrival of a son at their household May 3." Tacoma Daily Ledger, Thursday May 7, 1903: "A little son arrived May 3 in the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Crosby"."   Source 1906 Mary Astor (d. 1987), actress 1913 William Inge (d. 1973), playwright 1919 Pete Seeger, radical American folksinger. Seeger was a longtime member of the Communist Party. When Joseph Stalin created the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Adolf Hitler, Seeger followed the Party line and opposed US conflict with Nazi Germany, recording with the Almanac Singers an activist album, Songs for John Doe. When the pact was broken, the Communist Party changed its tactic and Seeger called for the withdrawal of the album from sale, and the recall of sold copies. "In the 'John Doe' album, Mr. Seeger accused FDR of being a warmongering fascist working for J.P. Morgan. He sang, 'I hate war, and so does Eleanor, and we won't be safe till everybody's dead.' Another song, to the tune of 'Cripple Creek' and the sound of Mr. Seeger's galloping banjo, said, 'Franklin D., Franklin D., You ain't a-gonna send us across the sea,' and 'Wendell Willkie and Franklin D., both agree on killing me.' "... two months after 'John Doe' was released ... Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union. As good communists, Mr. Seeger and his Almanac comrades withdrew the album ..." Time for Pete Seeger to repent 1919 Betty Comden, lyricist 1933 James Brown, American soul singer 1937 Frankie Valli, American singer 1950 Howard Ashman (d. 1991), lyricist 1951 Christopher Cross (b. Christopher Geppert), American singer-songwriter whose works have earned him five Grammy Awards, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe 1959 Ben Elton, British comedian and author 1959 Uma Bharati, first woman chief minister of Madhya Pradesh 1969 Daryl F Mallett, author and actor   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section Send a free e-card greeting for today's celebrations to a loved one Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year. Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Brothers And Sisters Day [ May 2 ] Birthdays Cinco De Mayo (Mexico) [ May 5 ] Spirituality Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Hindu holidays Varies Baisakhi Varies Mahavir Jayanti Varies Hanuman Jayanti Varies Arbor Day Varies Child Care Professionals Day Varies Wesak Day (Malaysia) Varies Buddha Purnima Varies Birthmothers' Day Varies Senior Citizens Day Varies Unmothers' Day Varies Mothers' Day   May 1 May Day 1 Chocolate Parfait Day 1 New Homeowner's Day 1 Plant A Flower Day 1 Beltane 1 Lei Day (Hawaii, USA) 1 Bird Day (Oklahoma, USA) 1 School Principals' Day 1 Global Love Day 2 Teacher Day 2 Brothers And Sisters Day 2 Baby Day 3 Raspberry Popover Day 3 Polish-American Day( Connecticut, USA) 4 Naked Day 4 Orange Juice Day 4 National Day Of Prayer 4 International Firefighters' Day 5 Cinco De Mayo 5 International Tuba Day 5 Halfway Point Of Spring 5 Chocolate Custard Day 5 Hoagie Day 5 International Midwives Day 6 Nurses Day 6 No Diet Day 6 Astronomy Day 6 Freud Day 6 Derby Day 7 School Day 8 Student Nurses Day 8 World Red Cross Day 8 V-E Day 9 Tear Tags Off Mattresses Day 10 Blood Pressure Day 10 School Nurse Day 10 Clean Up Your Room Day 10 Golden Spike Day 11 Minnesota Day 11 Chair Day 12 Kite Day 12 Limerick Day 12 Military Spouse Day 12 Receptionists Day 13 Frog Jumping Day 13 Tulip Day 13 Leprechaun Day   ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap           If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   425 Pope Gelasius asserted his spiritual power was superior to the temporal power of the Roman Emperor. 679 Mayan King Flint-Sky-God K, or in Maya, Tok-Chan-K'awil, of Dos Pilas who came to power in 645 CE, defeated and captured the King of Tikal, Shield-Skull, along with his Kin Balam god litter.   738 The so-called 'axing of 18-Rabbit' (Waxaklahun U-Bah-Chan, high king of Copán). 18-Rabbit was the Mayan snake divinity of Naranjo, an ancient city of the Maya civilization in the Peten department of Guatemala, about 10 km west of the border with Belize. It was18-Rabbit who, on January 10, 738, dedicated the final (sixth) phase of the Ball Court at Copán. I have a conflicting date at December 27, which I would like to reconcile. Any information gratefully received. 18-Rabbit   Early History of Belize Mayan History   1375 The earliest recorded eclipse of the sun was noted, Usarit, Syria. 1494 Christopher Columbus and crew (on Columbus's second voyage to the Americas) became the first known Europeans to sight Jamaica. 1535 Hernán Cortés landed at the site of La Paz, Baja California.  "According to some accounts, Cortés, complaining about the heat, exclaimed, in Latin, 'Oh, callida fornax' (meaning, more or less, 'It's freaking hot here!'), hence the name 'California'."   Source: Earth, Moon and Sky 1654 The first toll bridge in America came into operation in Massachusetts. 1679 Archbishop James Sharp was assassinated. 1715 Edmond Halley observed a total eclipse phenomenon: 'Baily's Beads'. More 1758 Death of Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675). 1765 America's first medical school opened in Philadelphia. 1788 The first daily evening paper, the Star and Evening Advertiser, was published in London. 1790 Port Louis in Tobago was razed by fire. 1791 The May Constitution of Poland (the first modern constitution in Europe) was proclaimed by the Polish Diet. 1806 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark met Nez Perce Chief, Weahkoonut (Bighorn). 1808 The first duel ever to be fought from hot air balloons occurred today. One of the rivals was shot dead over Paris. 1808 Finnish War: The fortress of Sveaborg was lost by Sweden to Russia. 1809 Britain's Royal Academy opened. 1810 Lord Byron, (deformed right leg notwithstanding), swam the Hellespont in an effort to emulate Leander of the Greek myth. He completed the feat in one hour and ten minutes. The Hellespont later became known as the Dardanelles, Turkey, where the WWI Battle of Gallipoli was fought, 1915. He celebrated the feat in Don Juan: A better swimmer you could scarce see ever He could, perhaps, have pass'd the Hellespont, As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided) Leander, Mr Ekenhead, and I did.   1814 Bourbon monarch King Louis XVIII took the throne of France following Napoléon's defeat by the allies. 1841 New Zealand was proclaimed a colony independent of New South Wales (Australia). 1848 At Vienne, Dauphiné, France, twenty witnesses claimed to have seen an army in the sky. 1860 Charles XV of Sweden-Norway was crowned king of Sweden. 1867 The Hudson's Bay Company gave up all claims to Vancouver Island. 1886 Police killed four and wounded at least 200 as Chicago's finest attacked McCormick Reaper Works strikers. 1897 Anarchist Emma Goldman spoke in Philadelphia, USA, in early May; her lecture on 'The Women in the Present and Future' was "loudly applauded". Goldman was credited with the ability to relate anarchism to the working people of Philadelphia, thus helping to boost the movement there. Returning to New York, Goldman underwent an operation on her foot, requiring several months of recuperation. Source: The Daily Bleed The Emma Goldman Papers   1912 The first victims of the RMS Titanic were buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 1917 US destroyers began arriving in Britain to stand against the Germans in WWI. 1933 Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first women to head the United States Mint. 1937 The Barcelona May Days began and lasted until May 8, during which time factions (basically Communist and anarchist) on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged each other in violent street battles in the city of Barcelona. 1937 Gone With the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, won the Pulitzer Prize.     1945 World War II: Britain's Royal Air Force sank the floating prisons Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland in Lübeck Bay. The ships were carrying some 7,000 prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, virtually all of whom died. This makes it a nautical disaster far greater than the sinking of the Titanic, in which 1,523 people perished in the accidental sinking. Compare, too, with the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the greatest maritime disaster in history in which 9,372 people were killed by 'our side', approximately 5,000 to 7,000 of them refugees. Also by way of comparison, Germany's sinking of Britain's Lusitania resulted in the loss of 1,198 lives and the USA's entry into World War One. "Actually, among the greatest naval disasters in history are the Baltic Sea sinkings of three other German vessels by Soviet submarines in the first half of 1945: the Wilhelm Gustloff, on January 30, 1945, with the loss of at least 5,400 lives, mostly women and children; the General Steuben on February 10, 1945, with the loss of 3,500, mostly refugees and wounded soldiers; and, above all, the Goya on April 16, 1945, taking the lives of some 7,000 refugees and wounded soldiers."   Source Photo-montage with sound See also May 14, 1927, in the Book of Days (Cap Arcona launch) 1946 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East commenced in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 1947 New post-war Japanese constitution went into effect, giving the country a democracy with a parliamentary system. 1951 Royal Festival Hall opened on London's South Bank. Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth inaugurated the Festival of Britain.   1951 The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees began their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by US President Harry S Truman. 1952 US lieutenant colonels Joseph O Fletcher and William P Benedict landed a plane at the geographic North Pole. 1960 The off-Broadway musical comedy, The Fantasticks, opened in New York City's Greenwich Village (it is the longest-running musical of all time). 1965 After a weekly magazine in the United States ran an article felt in Cambodia to be derogatory to the Cambodian royal family, that nation broke off diplomatic relations with the USA. 1968 Rock musician Jimi Hendrix recorded 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)'.   Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    1969 Jimi Hendrix was arrested at Toronto airport for possessing illegal drugs. 1971 All Things Considered, National Public Radio's excellent flagship news program, broadcast for the first time. Some NPR programs are available at our Podcast Page. 1978 Happy spamiversary! Marketer Gary Thuerk sent a promotional email: "WE INVITE YOU TO COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH ..."   Source via ARPAnet, the US government-run computer network that eventually became the Internet. This was the first spam email ever. 1982 Falklands War: The Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by an Exocet missile and sank. 1989 Death of Christine Jorgensen (b. 1926), one of the earliest and most prominent transsexuals to have a sex-change operation. 1989 In New York, an Andy Warhol silk-screen portrait of Marilyn Monroe sold at auction for $A5.14 million. 1991 The Declaration of Windhoek was signed. 2000 Datapoint, the company that commissioned the Intel 8008 microprocessor, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 2002 The remains of Saartje Baartman (1789 - 1816), the so-called 'Hottentot Venus' (pictured), were returned to South Africa at the request of President Nelson Mandela. Harvard academic, Stephen Jay Gould, had campaigned for her return. 2003 USA: New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapsed. The Old Man of the Mountain, or Mountains, also known as the 'great stone face', was a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, that, when viewed from the correct angle, appeared to be the jagged profile of a face. American statesman Daniel Webster once said: "Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoemakers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men." Old Man of the Mountain - Official Website    NH State Parks - Old Man of the Mountain    'Indian Heads' and other humanoid rocks    Faces in Nature    More   2005  "On World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty International celebrates 'the mighty blog' as having 'profound implications for press freedom and human rights.' The organization states, 'People in Iran and China have used blogs to expose violations by their governments and provide the outside world with information.' Yet, in both countries, 'the authorities have increasingly targeted bloggers to stifle dissent.' According to Freedom House's annual survey, 'the United States has suffered 'notable setbacks' in press freedom,' slipping to 24th of 194 countries."   Source   Tomorrow: Veneration of the Thorn    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     Quotations by Steven Wright I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.  I plugged my phone in where the blender used to be. I called someone. They went "Aaaaahhhh ..."  I put a new engine in my car, but didn't take the old one out. Now my car goes 500 miles an hour. The harmonica sounds *amazing*.  I put contact lenses in my dog's eyes. They had little pictures of cats on them. Then I took one out and he ran around in circles.  I put hardwood floors on top of wall-to-wall carpet.  I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.  I put my air conditioner in backwards. It got cold outside. The weatherman on TV was confused. "It was supposed to be hot today."  I replaced the headlights in my car with strobe lights. Now it looks like I'm the only one moving.  I saw a bank that said "24 Hour Banking", but I don't have that much time.  I saw a close friend of mine the other day ... He said, "Stephen, why haven't you called me?" I said, "I can't call everyone I want. My new phone has no five on it." He said, "How long have you had it?" I said, "I don't know ... my calendar has no sevens on it."  I saw a sign: "Rest Area 25 Miles". That's pretty big. Some people must be really tired.  I saw a sign at a gas station. It said "help wanted". There was another sign below it that said "self service". So I hired myself. Then I made myself the boss. I gave myself a raise. I paid myself. Then I quit.  I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second.  I saw a tree fall in the woods, and I didn't hear it.  I spilled spot remover on my dog. He's gone now.  I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.  It doesn't matter what temperature the room is, it's always room temperature.  It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.   Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research. I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude. © My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

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