Today in History

4th MAY:
1535 Five Carthusian monks hung, drawn and quartered



Five Carthusian monks from London Charterhouse monastery hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England

Henry VIII and the Carthusian Monks - The Tudor Society

 

4th MAY:
*TESTWATCH"

• 1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
• 1956 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
• 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
• 1983 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
• 1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

 

4th MAY:
1957 Alan Freed hosts "Rock n' Roll Show"



America's First Prime Time Rock n Roll Show Debuts.
On this day in 1957, ABC brought radio's top DJ, Alan Freed to television, and that made “The Big Beat”, the first nationally-televised rock 'n roll dance show.

May 4, 1957...America's First Prime Time Rock n Roll Show Debuts - Eyes Of A Generation...Television's Living History

 

5th MAY:

• 1921 Perfume Chanel No. 5 released by fashion designer Coco Chanel

Chanel No 5: The story behind the classic perfume - BBC News

 

5th MAY:
TESTWATCH:

• 1955 US performs nuclear test at Nevada test Site
• 1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
• 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada test Site
• 1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1987 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll

 

6th May

1758: Birth of Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary.
1833: In the United States, John Deere manufactures the first steel plate.
1840: the United Kingdom issues the world's first postage stamps.
1851: John Gorrie patents an ice-making machine (a mechanical refrigerator).
1856: Birth of Sigmund Freud, Austrian physician and philosopher, father of psychoanalysis.
1890: In the United States, the Mormons renounce polygamy.
1908: In Spain, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez publishes the novel Blood and Sand.
1914: In London (England), the House of Lords denies women the vote.
1915: Birth of Orson Welles, American actor and film-maker.
1937: In Lakehurst, New Jersey, the airship Hindenburg explodes, killing dozens of people.
1940: John Steinbeck receives the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1961: George Clooney, American actor and filmmaker, is born.
1965: The United States launches Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1968: In Paris, the government declares a state of siege due to incidents caused by the French May student revolution.
1992: Death of Marlene Dietrich, German actress.
1994: Inauguration of the Eurotunnel by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand.
1997: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is created.
2004: The last episode of the hit comedy series Friends, which ran for ten seasons, airs in the United States.
2006: Death of Lillian Asplund, the last survivor with memories of the Titanic tragedy.

Celebrations, International No Diet Day.

 

6th MAY:

• 1864 Battle of Port Walthall Junction, fought in Virginia begins (Battle of Port Walthall Junction), Union victory (US Civil War)
• 1864 Battle of Wilderness, fought in Virginia, Confederate General James Longstreet seriously injured (Overland Campaign), inconclusive result (US Civil War)

Confederate GeneralJames Longstreet

• 1864 Union Army General Sherman begins advance to Atlanta Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign (US Civil War)

Union GeneralWilliam Tecumseh Sherman

 

6th MAY:

• 1937 German airship Hindenburg

explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 on board and 1 on the ground

Hindenburg disaster - Wikipedia

 

6th MAY:

• 1966 Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England

BBC ON THIS DAY | 6 | 1966: Moors murderers jailed for life

 

7th MAY:
TESTWATCH:

• 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
• 1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

 

7th MAY:

1983 - Paul Weller
Former Jam leader Paul Weller unveiled his new group The Style Council at an anti nuclear benefit gig in London.


The Style Council scored seven UK Top 10 hits and the band was also very successful in Australia and New Zealand during the 1980s, with multiple hit singles and albums.

 

7th MAY:

• 1984: Agent Orange in Vietnam

US veterans reached an out-of-court settlement for $180m with companies who produced the chemicals, including Monsanto and Dow Chemical. Remarkably, Dow maintains that there is no evidence to link Agent Orange to illnesses from US veterans and Vietnamese civilians.
Vietnam’s forgotten war victims | News | Al Jazeera

Agent Orange in Vietnam (Famous Photo) - On This Day

 

Celebrations 8th May.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.

Victory in Europe Day

Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in Honour of Those Who Lost Their Lives in World War II.

United States, (Mississippi): Emancipation Day.

International Donkey Day.

 

Today in History May 8th


1348: Ship from Bordeaux carrying the plague, lands in Melcombe Regis (now Weymouth), Dorset. The beginning of the Terrible Pestilence (Black Death) in England.

 

A very important day for Europe


This Day in History - May 8, 1945, was the day Nazi Germany declared an end to the war. People called the day V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day, for it was a celebration of their victory.

It may be worth a Thread of its own

 

May 8th:

• 1962 Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie are honoured

. . .

... for saving 1200 Jews during WWII, in a ceremony on the Avenue of the Righteous, Jerusalem
The German industrialist, German spy, and member of the Nazi party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic.

His story became famous through the historic novel "Schindler's List" published by Thomas Keneally in 1982 and by the film of the book made by director Steven Spielberg. The film starred Liam Neeson and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1993.

Oskar Schindler - Wikipedia

.

 

May 8th:

• 1973 Indians holding South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrender

Wounded Knee Occupation - Wikipedia

 

May 10th:
1924 J. Edgar Hoover appointed head of FBI



President Calvin Coolidge appointed Hoover as the fifth Director of the Bureau of Investigation, partly in response to allegations that the prior director, William J. Burns, was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal.

J. Edgar Hoover - Wikipedia

 

May 14th

• 1948 Israel declares independence from British administration
  • 1948 Israeli Radio Station Kol Yisrael's 1st broadcast
  • 1948 US grants Israel de facto recognition

David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day.

Milestones: 1945–1952 - Office of the Historian (state.gov)

 

May 14th
TESTWATCH

• 1948 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
• 1955 US performs nuclear test at Pacific Ocean
• 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
• 1965 2nd Chinese atom bomb explodes
• 1965 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1975 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site