Smokey Bear born today! May 9, 1950 A bear cub is rescued from a New Mexico fire, becoming the symbol for forest fire prevention. By 1964, his fan mail was so great that he was given his own zip code, 20252. The forest service had been using a cartoon version of Smokey Bear since 1944. This cub became the live embodiment of that cartoon. "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires."
They Couldn't Hit an Elephant at this Distance May 9, 1864 During the Civil War battle of Spotsylvania, American general John Sedgwick proclaims, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance," just as he was shot and killed by a confederate sharpshooter.
Dan Quayle - the idiot Vice President May 9, 1989 U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle states in a speech to the United Negro College Fund: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or, not to have a mind is being very wasteful."
Joan of Arc Canonized May 9, 1920 Joan of Arc is canonized by Pope Benedict XV. She led the French armies against the English during the Hundred Years' War and was burned at the stake for cross dressing by the Church. Did they teach you this in school? We were not told why she was burned at the stake, just that she was.
The eradication of smallpox was a great scientific achievement but it also had a major pitfall. Since it was declared eradicated by the WHO it wouldn’t be necessary to vaccinate people any more. The Soviet Union realized that no one in the future would have a defense against smallpox, so they immediately began stockpiling the agent. They then decided to add it to their list of strategic operational biological weapons along with plague, anthrax, and Marburg
Today in History May 10th 1994 John Wayne Gacy Executed in Illinois for the murders and rape of 33 young men and boys 1941 : Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission, he was captured by British forces and held by the British for the remainder of the war 1924 : J. Edgar Hoover is appointed by President Calvin Coolidge to be the Sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation 1940 : Winston Churchill becomes the leader of a coalition government after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said he was stepping aside following German forces invading Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg by air and land. 1994 : The inauguration ceremony for South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela takes place in the Union Buildings amphitheater in Pretoria
1775 Second Continental Congress assembles as Americans capture Fort Ticonderoga On May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold lead a successful attack on Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, while the Second Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Congress faced the task of conducting a war already in progress. Fighting had begun with the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, and Congress needed to create an official army out of the untrained assemblage of militia laying siege on Boston. The transformation of these rebels into the Continental Army was assisted by the victory of the Vermont and Massachusetts militia under the joint command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold at the British garrison at Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. Their major achievement was to confiscate enough British cannon to make the Patriot militias into an army capable of an artillery barrage. Allen and more than 100 of his Green Mountain Boys had already decided to take the fort when Arnold arrived with formal military commissions from Massachusetts and Connecticut and a militia of his own. The Green Mountain Boys were unwilling to follow anyone but Allen into battle, so Allen and Arnold shared command as the Patriot militia surprised and overwhelmed the 50 Redcoats in the isolated garrison, who were completely unaware of the bloodshed in Massachusetts. The cannon seized at Ticonderoga and the next day at Crown Point, also on Lake Champlain, allowed the new Continental Army under General George Washington to drive the British from Boston the following spring. Ironically, both Allen and Arnold would eventually be accused of treason against the Patriot cause they had served so well in its earliest and neediest moments. Allen avoided conviction for his attempt to reattach Vermont to the British empire in the unstable days of the new republic. Arnold’s name, however, became synonymous with traitor for his attempt to sell the fort at West Point, New York, to the British in 1780.
May 11th 1934 : A huge dust storm is spotted moving from the Midwest. The dust storm was 1,500 miles long, 900 miles across and two miles high, covering almost one-third of the country. Farmers lost large amounts of Topsoil during just a few years the phenomenon was known as ( The Dust Bowl Years) 1953 : A F5 tornado struck Waco, Texas where 48 were known dead and more than 250 injured. 40 years later another type of Tornado which struck Waco tx killing 80 and wounding several police officers but that's for another day.
1949 May 11 Evidence found against French serial killer known as “The Queen of Poisoners” The body of Leon Besnard is exhumed in Loudun, France, by authorities searching for evidence of poison. For years, local residents had been suspicious of his wife Marie, as they watched nearly her entire family die untimely and mysterious deaths. Law enforcement officials finally began investigating Marie after the death of her mother earlier in the year. Marie married Leon in August 1929. The couple resented the fact that they lived relatively modestly while their families were so well off. When two of Leon’s great aunts perished unexpectedly, most of their money was left to Leon’s parents. Consequently, the Besnards invited Leon’s parents to live with them. Shortly after moving in, Leon’s father died, ostensibly from eating a bad mushroom. Three months later, his widow also died and neighbors began chatting about a Besnard family jinx. The inheritance was split between Leon and his sister, Lucie. Not so surprisingly, the newly rich Lucie died shortly thereafter, supposedly taking her own life. Becoming increasingly greedy, the Besnards began looking outside the family for their next victim. They took in the Rivets as boarders, who, under the Besnards’ care, also died abruptly. No one was too surprised when the Rivets’ will indicated Marie as the sole beneficiary. Pauline and Virginie Lallerone, cousins of the Besnards, were next in line. When Pauline died, Marie explained that she had mistakenly eaten a bowl of lye. Apparently, her sister Virginie didn’t learn her lesson about carelessness, because when she died a week later, Marie told everyone that she too had inadvertently eaten lye. When Marie fell in love with another man in 1947, Leon fell victim to her poisoning as well. Traces of arsenic were found in his exhumed body, as well as in the rest of her family’s corpses. But Marie didn’t let a little bit of pesky evidence get in her way. She managed to get a mistrial twice after trace evidence was lost while conducting the tests for poison each time. By her third trial, there wasn’t much physical evidence left. On December 12, 1961, Marie Besnard was acquitted. The “Queen of Poisoners,” as the French called her, ended up getting away with 13 murders.
Today in History: (May 11) 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in Tang-dynasty China, making it the world's oldest dated printed book. The Diamond Sutra (Sanskrit: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sutra from the genre of Prajñāpāramitā ('perfection of wisdom') sutras. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the Diamond Sūtra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia, and it is particularly prominent within the Chan (or Zen) tradition, along with the Heart Sutra. A copy of the Tang-dynasty Chinese version of the Diamond Sūtra was found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in 1900 by Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu and sold to Aurel Stein in 1907. They are dated back to 11 May 868. It is, in the words of the British Library, "the earliest dated printed book". It is also the first known creative work with an explicit public-domain dedication, as its colophon at the end states that it was created "for universal free distribution". 1659 - Christmas Banned - Celebration of the Christmas holiday is made illegal in Massachusetts. The Puritans associated such celebrations with paganism and idolatry. Violators were fined. This remained in effect until 1681. 1682 - Religious Freedom, Massachusetts repeals its law requiring capital punishment for Quakers reentering the territory after banishment. Mary Dyer was hanged in 1660 for violating this law. 1867 – The major powers of Europe signed the Treaty of London to resolve a crisis over the political status of Luxembourg between France and Prussia. 1894 – In response to a 28-percent wage cut, 4,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on strike in Illinois, bringing rail traffic west of Chicago to a halt. 1928 - First Regularly-Scheduled U.S. TV Broadcasts - By General Electric station WGY of Schenectady, New York. Programs were broadcast Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 1981 – Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, the first megamusical, opened at the New London Theatre to become an unprecedented commercial success. 1998 – India began the Pokhran-II nuclear-weapons test, its first since the Smiling Buddha test 24 years earlier. Today is also: A Christian feast day: Anthimus of Rome Gangulphus of Burgundy Majolus of Cluny Mamertus, the first of the Ice Saints National Technology Day (India) Statehood Day (Minnesota) Vietnam Human Rights Day
Today's Birthdays! Salvador Dali Born May 11, 1904 d. 1989 Spanish artist. Artwork: The Persistence of Memory (1931). Quote: "A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others." Irving Berlin (Israel Beilin) Born May 11, 1888 d. 1989 American songwriter. Music: God Bless America (1938) and White Christmas (1942). Recordings of White Christmas have sold over 100,000,000 copies. Berlin wrote White Christmas, even though he was Jewish.
Today in History May 12th 1215 English barons served an ultimatum to King John 1792 The flush toilet was patented. 1820 Florence Nightingale known as “The Lady with the Lamp," was born in Florence, Italy 1873 The penny postal card, issued by the Post Office was first put on sale in Springfield, Massachusetts 1926 Italian Col. Umberto Nobile of the Italian army piloted his Norge dirigible over the North Pole with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. 1932 The body of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded area of Hopewell, N.J. 1940 The Nazi blitz conquest of France began with the crossing at the Muese River. 1942 1,500 Jews were gassed in Auschwitz. 1951 The 1st H Bomb test was on Eniwetok Atoll 1978 The US Commerce Department said hurricanes would no longer be named exclusively after women. 1992 Actor Robert Reed of "The Brady Bunch" died in Pasadena, Calif at 59 1997 At the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh, prosecution witness Michael Fortier testified that McVeigh had been bent on triggering a "general uprising in America."
1864 May 11 Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart is mortally wounded A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most well-known generals of the South, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, just six miles north of Richmond, Virginia. The 31-year-old Stuart died the next day. During the 1864 spring campaign in Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Grantapplied constant pressure on Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In early May, the two armies clashed at the Wilderness and again at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, as they lurched southward toward Richmond. Meanwhile, Grant sent General Phil Sheridan and his cavalry on a raid deep behind Confederate lines. The plan was to cut Lee’s supply line and force him out of the trenches in retreat. Sheridan’s troops wreaked havoc on the Rebel rear as they tore up railroad tracks, destroyed supply depots, and held off the Confederate cavalry in several engagements, including the Battle of Yellow Tavern. Although Sheridan’s Federal troops held the field at the end of the day, his forces were stretched thin. Richmond could be taken, Sheridan wrote later, but it could not be held. He began to withdraw back to the north. The death of Stuart was a serious blow to Lee. His leadership was part of the reason the Confederates had a superior cavalry force in Virginia during most of the war. Yet Stuart was not without his faults: He had been surprised by a Union attack at the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863, and failed to provide Lee with crucial information at Gettysburg. Stuart’s death, like Stonewall Jackson’s the year before, seriously affected Lee’s operations.
Cross of Jesus Sold May 12, 1993 Two small slivers of olive wood that are claimed to be from Jesus' cross are auctioned for $18,587. The two pieces of wood were just one-tenth and two-tenths of an inch long. Accompanying the bits of wood were two certificates, an 1885 certificate from the Vatican authenticating the wood as part of Jesus' cross and another dated 1856 recording that it was a gift from the patriarch of Jerusalem to Edouard Thouvenel, at the time France's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (the predecessor of present-day Turkey). The collection was sold by Thouvenel's heirs. According to Catholic tradition, St. Helena found the True Cross in Jerusalem in AD 320. Civil Rights May 12, 1950 The American Bowling Congress ends its 34-year-old ban of membership to blacks. First Worldwide Radio Broadcast May 12, 1937 The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth is broadcast by the BBC. NOTE: My grandfather worked at NBC then, he left me 78 RPM pressings of the coronation speech on vinyl disks. I still have them, beautifully engraved on the flip side in a special leather case. Spitting May 12, 1896 The New York City Department of Health passes the first ban in the U.S. on spitting in public places. HAPPY BIRTHDAY George Carlin Born May 12, 1937 d. 2008 American Grammy-winning comedian. He hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live (1975). Albums: Class Clown (1972, which contained the classic Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television, which he was arrested for performing in Milwaukee).
Today in History May 13th 1607 English colonists land near the James River in Virginia. 1648 Margaret Jones of Plymouth is found guilty of witchcraft and is sentenced to be hanged. Note: She was the first person to be executed for witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during a witch-hunt that lasted from 1648 to 1692 1846 The United States declares war on Mexico after fighting has already begun. 1944 Allied forces in Italy break through the German Gustav Line into the Liri Valley. 1981 Pope John Paul II survives an assassination attempt
On this day in 1985 the Philadelphia Police Department dropped two bombs from a helicopter on houses occupied by a Black separatist group; MOVE. In the ensuing fire 11 people, including 5 children aged 7 to 14, burned alive, and 65 neighboring houses burned to the ground, leaving around 250 people homeless. The victims remains were cremated and "disposed of", without having been identified or next of kin notified.
I remember The day police bombed a city street: can scars of 1985 Move atrocity be healed? After the bomb struck, a fire took hold and began to spread. The police commissioner, Gregore Sambor, critically and fatally decided “to let the fire burn”. Pressure is also mounting ahead of the anniversary for an apology to be issued by Philadelphia. Wilson Goode, the first black mayor of the city, who approved the 1985 attack though he claims to have been ignorant of key aspects of it, has said sorry on several occasions. But there has never been a formal apology from the city. No one involved in conceiving and carrying out the assault has ever been prosecuted.
