31/05/2010

I saw this pup in Spain, there were 2 of them, got to play with them for half hour. I dont know what happened on May 31, and am too lazy to find out. Sorry.

1431: Joan of Arc is burnt alive in Rouen; in 1883 In New York City, a rumour that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that crushes twelve people; 1961 – Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The first day of the Kaamatan harvest festival (Labuan, Sabah) and Anguilla Day, commemorates the beginning of the Anguillian Revolution in 1967.
Born today

1010 – Emperor Renzong of China; 1220: Alejandro Nevski, héroe nacional y santo ruso; 1814 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist (d. 1876); 1846: Carl Fabergé, orfebre y joyero ruso; 1961 – Harry Enfield, British comedian; 1909 – Benny Goodman, American clarinetist and bandleader; 1918 – Guadalupe "Pita" Amor, Mexican poet; 1939 – Michael J. Pollard, American actor; 1948: Salvador Puig Antich, Catalan revolutionary – the last to be executed by the Garotte; 1953 – Colm Meaney, Irish actor; 1955 – Topper Headon, British musician; 1961 – Harry Enfield, British comedian; 1970 – Flora Chan, Hong Kong television actress.

29/05/10

The Council of Konstanz convened in 1414.  Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was publicly performed for the first time in 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.  I think we all know what those wacky French people did.  Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953.  The Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985 killed 39 spectators.

Born today:  Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), Bob Hope (1903-2003), Danny Elfman (1953), Rupert Everett (1959), Melissa Ethridge (1961), Noel Gallagher (1967), Mel B (1975) and Andrei Arshavin (1981).

It is Republic Day in Nepal.

28/05/10

The Spanish Armada began leaving Lisbon for the English Channel in 1588.  Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Acts in 1830, authorising the forced removal of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muskogee and Seminole) from the southeastern United States into what is now Oklahoma.  Greek women gained the right to vote in 1952.  Nepal became a republic in 2008.

Born today:  Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Carl Larsson (1853-1919), Ian Fleming (1908-1964), Thora Hird (1911-2003), Prince Buster (1938), Gladys Knight (1944), John Fogerty (1945), Roland Gift (1962), Kylie Minogue (1968) and Charles N'Zogbia (1986).

It is Flag Day in the Philippines.

27/05/10

Simeon I became the first Emperor of Bulgaria in 893.  Women from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba fought the Spanish army in the Battle of La Coronilla in 1812.  The bubonic plague struck San Francisco in 1907.  An earthquake shook the island of Java in 2006, killing around 6000 people.

Born today:  Wild Bill Hickock (1837-1876), Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), Rachel Carson (1907-1964), John Cheever (1912-1982), Herman Wouk (1915), Christopher Lee (1922), Tony Hillerman (1925-2008), John Barth (1930), Louis Gossett, Jr. (1936), Cilla Black (1943), Siouxsie Sioux (1957), Paul Gascoigne (1967) and Jamie Oliver (1975).

It is Children's Day in Nigeria.

26/05/10

25/05/10

The Diet of Worms ended with the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther to be an outlaw.  The Republic of Formosa was formed in 1895.  Tennessee biology teacher John Scopes was indicted for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution in 1925.  A cyclone and storm surge killed 10,000 people in Bangladesh in 1985.

Born today:  Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Theodore Roethke (1908-1963), Robert Ludlum (1927-2001), Ian McKellen (1939), Frank Oz (1944), Klaus Meine (1948), Paul Weller (1958), Anthea Turner (1960), Mike Myers (1963), and Lauryn Hill (1975).

It is Liberation Day in Lebanon.

24/05/10

The Fifth Crusade left Acre for Cairo in 1218.  The First Kingdom of Greece was declared at the Convention of London in 1832.  The Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic in 1883.

Born today:  Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), Mikhail Sholokhov (1905-1984), Siobhán McKenna (1923-1986), Bob Dylan (1941), Patti LaBelle (1944), Jim Broadbent (1949), Alfred Molina (1953), Roseanne Cash (1955), Kristin Scott Thomas (1960), and Eric Cantona (1966).

It is Victoria Day in Canada, eh?

23/05/10

Savonarola was burned at the stake in 1498.  The Netherlands declared independence from Spain in 1568.  The Second Defenestration of Prague occurred in 1618 and Cyrill Demian received a patent for the accordian in 1829.

Born today:  Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), Franz Anton Mesmer (1737-1815), Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939), Scatman Crothers (1910-1986), Rosemary Clooney (1928-2002), Nigel Davenport (1928), Joan Collins (1933), Robert Moog (1934), John Newcombe (1944), Luka Bloom (1955), Jimmy McShane (1957-1995) and, if my memory serves me, the lovely and talented Mr. Terry Hall's older son, Felix, is turning 22 today.  Somewhere here abouts, anyway.  How I know that is not nearly as stalkerish as it sounds.

It is World Turtle Day.

22/05/10

Alexander the Gread defeated Darius III at the Battle of Granicus in 334 BC.  Richard, Duke of York, defeated Henry VI at the First Battle of St. Albans in 1445.  Nearly 1000 people headed west from Independence, Missouri, in 1843 -- the first group to set out on  what became known as the Oregon Trail.  The most powerful earthquake ever recorded struck southern Chile in 1960.  It measured 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale.  Ceylon adopted a new constitution in 1972, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka.

Born today:  lobster-loving Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855), Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), Hergé (1907-1983), Laurence Olivier (1907-1989), Charles Aznavour (1924), George Best (1946-2005), Bernie Taupin (1950), Jerry Dammers (1955), and Morrissey (1959).

It is Republic Day in Sri Lanka.

21/05/10

Otto III became Holy Roman Emperor at the age of 16 in 996.  French troops invaded the Paris Commune in 1871, beginning La Semaine Sanglante.  By the end of the week, 20,000 communards were dead and another 38,000 had been arrested.  In 1924, two University of Chicago students, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, killed 14 year old Bobby Franks for the thrill of committing "the perfect crime."  In 1994, the MV Bukoba sank in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000 people.  An earthquake in Algeria killed around 2000 people in 2003.

Born today:  Albrech Dürer (1471-1528), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), Fats Waller (1904-1943) and Leo Sayer (1948)

Today is the Circassian Day of Mourning in the northern Caucasus.

20/05/10

The First Council of Nicea convened in 325.  King Sancho IV of Castile founded the Estudio de Escuelas Generales de Alcalá, now known as the Universidad Complutense, in 1293.  XWA in Montreal began the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America in 1920.

Born today:  Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), Sigrid Undset (1882-1949),Jimmy Stewart (1908-1997), Sadaharo Oh (1940), Joe Cocker (1944), Cher (1946), Louis Theroux (1970), Iker Casillas (1981), and Peter Cech (1982)

It is Independence Day in East Timor.

19/05/10

Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1536.  Thick smoke and heavy clouds plunged eastern Canada and much of New England into complete darkness at around 10:00 a.m. in 1780.  The darkness stayed for more than 24 hours.  Oscar Wilde was released from Reading gaol in 1897.

Born today:  Nellie Melba (1861-1931), James Fox (1939), Nora Ephron (1941), Pete Townshend (1945), Grace Jones (1948), Joey Ramone (1951-2001), Victoria Wood (1953) and Manuel Almunia (1977).

It is World Hepatitis Day.

18/05/10

The Bruges Matins took place in 1302.  The Flemish militia massacred almost the entire French garrison.  The colony of Rhode Island passed the first law in North America which made slavery illegal in 1652.  Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897.  The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington in 1980 killed 57 people and caused $3,000,000,000 damage.

Born today:  Omar Khayyám (1048-1131), Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Walter Gropius (1883-1969), Frank Capra (1897-1991), Fred Perry (1909-1995), Perry Como (1912-2001), Walter Sisulu (1912-2003), Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991) and Rick Wakeman (1949).

It is Revival, Unity and Poetry of Magtymguly Day in Turkmenistan.

17/05/10

Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River in 1673.  TSV 1860 München was founded in 1860, oddly enough.  Thor Heyerdahl set out from Morocco to cross the Atlantic in the papyrus boat Ra II in 1970.

Born today:  Edward Jenner (1749-1823), Erik Satie (1866-1925), Maureen O'Sullivan (1911-1998), Dennis Hopper (1936), Taj Mahal (1942), Enya (1961) and Trent Reznor (1965).

Today is Syttende Mai in Norway and wherever Americans with Norwegian ancestry live in any numbers.

16/05/10

A 27 year-old Edgar Allen Poe married a 13 year-old Virginia Clemm, who just happened to be his first cousin, in 1836.  In 1975, India annexed Sikkim and Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

Born today:  Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), Henry Fonda (1905-1982), Studs Terkel (1912-2008), Nicky Chinn (1945), Robert Fripp (1946), Pierce Brosnan (1953), Olga Korbut (1955), Hazel O'Connor (1955) and Krist Novoselic (1965).

It is the feast day of Peregrine of Auxerre.

15/05/10

George III survived two assassination attempts in 1800.  Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940 which featured what they called the "Speedee Service System".  The Red Army began its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988.

Born today:
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), Pierre Curie (1859-1906), Katherine Ann Porter (1890-1980), Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1941), James Mason (1909-1984), Jasper Johns (1930), Brian Eno (1948), Mike Oldfield (1953), Patrice Evra (1981) and Andy Murray (1987).


It is Teachers' Day in Mexico and South Korea.

14/05/10

Louis XIV became King of France at the age of four in 1643.  Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination in 1796.  The Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955.

Born today:  Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Eric Morecambe (1926-1984), Siân Phillips (1934), Bobby Darrin (1936-1973), George Lucas (1944), Francesca Annis (1945), David Byrne (1952), Ian Astbury (1962) and Cate Blanchett (1969).

It is National Unification Day in Liberia.

13/05/10

Construction of the Lal Qila in Delhi was completed in 1648.  Captain Arthur Phillips set out from Portsmouth with a fleet of 11 ships in 1787 to establish a penal colony in Australia.  Three children; Lucia Santos, Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto reported a vision of the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal, in 1917.  In 2005, Uzbek troops opened fire on a crowd protesting the imprisonment of 23 businessmen on what were believed to be trumped up charges.  The official estimate of deaths is 180.  Independent estimates range from 1500-5000.

Born today:  Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989), Mary Wells (1943-1992), Armistead Maupin (1944), Stevie Wonder (1950) and that creepy looking guy from that Twilight movie (1986).

It is Rotuma Day in Fiji.

12/05/10

Jagiellon University, the oldest university in Poland, was founded in 1364.  The National University of San Marcos, in Lima, Peru, was founded in 1551.  It is the oldest university in the Americas.  The first County Championship was held in 1890.  Yorkshire defeated Gloucestershire.  A magnitude 8 earthquake in Sichuan killed 69,000 in 2008.

Born today:  Edward Lear (1812-1888), Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Jules Massenet (1842-1912), Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), Wilfrid Hyde-White (1903-1991), Leslie Charteris (1907-1993), Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), Farley Mowat (1921), Tony Hancock (1924-1968), Burt Bacharach (1928), George Carlin (1937-2008), Susan Hampshire (1937), Ian Dury (1942-2000), Steve Winwood (1948), Gabriel Byrne (1950), Billy Duffy (1961) and Catherine Tate (1968).

It is International Nurses' Day.

11/05/10

Byzantium was renamed Nova Roma in 330, although it became commonly known as Constantinople.  About 4000 workers for the Pullman Palace Car Company of Chicago went on strike in 1894, which became one of the most significant events in the US labour movement.  A flash fire in the stands at Valley Parade in Bradford killed 56 spectators in 1985.

Born today:  Irving Berlin (1888-1989), Margaret Rutherford (1892-1972), Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), Richard Feynman (1918-1988), Mort Sahl (1927), Eric Burdon (1941), Jeremy Paxman (1950), Natasha Richardson (1963-2009), Andrés Iniesta (1984).

It is the feast day of Gangulphus of Burgundy.

10/05/10

Louis XVI became King of France in 1774.  The National Gallery opened to the public in 1824.  The Sepoy Rebellion began in 1857.  The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869.  Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in 1994.

Born today:  Leon Bakst (1866-1924), Fred Astaire (1899-1987), David O. Selznick (1902-1965), Mother Maybelle Carter (1909-1978), Maureen Lipman (1944), Donovan Leitch (1946), Dave Mason (1946), Sid Vicious (1957), Bono (1960), Merlene Ottey (1960), Dennis Bergkamp (1969).

It is Mothers' Day in Mexico.

09/05/10

The Battle of Megiddo took place in 1457 BC.  Lincoln Cathedral was consecrated in 1092.  Australia's first parliament convened in Melbourne in 1901.  Australia's parliament convened in Canberra for the first time in 1927.  The US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Enovid from Searle Laboratories as the world's first oral contraceptive in 1960.

Born today:  J.M. Barrie (1860-1937), Howard Carter (1874-1939), Hank Snow (1914-1999), Richard Adams (1920), Joan Sims (1930-2001), Geraldine McEwan (1932), Alan Bennett (1934), Roger Hargreaves (1935-1988), Albert Finney (1936), Glenda Jackson (1936), David Gahan (1962) and Paul Heaton (1962).

Somewhat ironically, it is Mother's Day in the US and Canada today.

08/05/10

Hernando de Soto reached the mouth of what is now the Mississippi River in 1541.  He named it Rio de Espíritu Santo.  The first games of the Italian football league were played in 1898.  Mt. Pelée in Martinique erupted in 1902, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing 30,000.  Estonian schoolgirls, Aili Jögi and Ageeda Paavel blew up the Soviet war memorial in Tallinn in 1946.

Born today:  Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910), David Attenborough (1926), Phyllida Law (1932), Thomas Pynchon (1937), Dave Rowntree (1964) and Marcus Brigstocke (1973).

It is International Red Cross/Red Crescent Day.

07/05/10

The dome of the Hagia Sophia collapsed in 558.  Charles University in Prague was founded in 1348.  Joan of Arc lead the final charge of the Siege of Orleans in 1429.

Born today:  David Hume (1711-1776), Robert Browning (1812-1889), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Gary Cooper (1901-1961) and Christy Moore (1945).

Today is the feast day of Acacius of Byzantium.

Second page trouble?

I keep getting an error message when I try to go to the 2nd page of comments.  Anyone else?

06/05/10

The Eiffel Tower opened to the public in 1889.  The Hindenburg erupted into flames as it attempted to dock in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937.  Thirty-six people were killed.  The Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.

Born today:  Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), Orson Welles (1915-1985), Graeme Souness (1953) and George Clooney (1961).

It is the Day of Bravery in Bulgaria.

05/05/10

Kublai Khan became ruler of the Mongols in 1260.  The Swiss canton of Aargau denied citizenship to Jewish residents in 1809.  Mexico defeated the French, thwarting an attempted invasion, in 1862 at the Battle of Puebla.  The Bay View Massacre happened in Milwaukee in 1886, when 14,000 labourers gathered to protest outside the Milwaukee Iron Company for an 8 hour work day.  Wisconsin militiamen started firing on the crowd as they walked toward the company's gates, killing 7 people, including a 13 year old boy.

Born today:  Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Karl Marx (1818-1883), Tyrone Power (1914-1958), Tammy Wynette (1942-1998), Michael Palin (1943), Mary Hopkin (1950), Roddy Radiation (1955), Ian McCulloch (1959), Naomi Klein (1970) and Yossi Benayoun (1980).

It's Men's Day in Romania and Cinco de Mayo in bars all across the US.

04/05/10

John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were both condemned as heretics by the Council of Konstanz in 1415.  Two heretics, one council.  Isn't intolerance fun?  The Haymarket Riot of Chicago resulted in the deaths of 8 people in 1886.  Students gathered in Tienanmen Square in 1919 to protest the Treaty of Versailles.  At Kent State University in 1970, four students were killed and nine wounded when the Ohio National Guard fired on a protest of the US invasion of Cambodia.

Born today:  Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), Dick Dale (1937) and Cesc Fábregas (1987).

It is the Day of Remembrance of the Dead in the Netherlands and the Day of Remembrance of Martyrs and the Disabled in Afghanistan.

03/05/10

The University of Athens was founded in 1837.  Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields" in 1915.  Anne Frank House opened in 1960.  An F5 tornado with wind speeds as high as 318 mph hit Oklahoma City in 1999, leaving 42 dead, more than 600 injured and causing around $1,000,000,000 in damage.

Born today:  Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901), Jacob Riis (1849-1914), Bing Crosby (1903-1977) and Pete Seeger (1919).

It is Constitution Day in Japan, Lithuania and Poland.

02/05/10

Anne Boleyn was arrested on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft in 1536.  Tennessee Williams won a Pulitzer Prize for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955.  Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar in 2008, killing 130,000 and leaving millions homeless.

Born today:  Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Vernon Castle (1887-1918), Lorenz Hart (1895-1943), Peggy Mount (1915-2001), Satyajit Ray (1921-1992), Theodore Bikel (1924), Luis Suárez Miramontes (1935), Jacques Rogge (1942), Judge Dread (1945), Lesley Gore (1946), David Suchet (1946), Alan Titchmarsh (1949) and David Beckham (1975).

It is Teachers' Day in Iran.

01/05/10

With the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328, the English Crown recognised Scotland as an independent nation.  And then the Acts of Union undid it in 1707.  Carolus Linnaeus published Species Plantarum in 1753.  Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro was performed for the first time in 1786.  The Folies Bergère opened in 1869.  The Empire State Building was dedicated in 1931.  The Salk polio vaccine became available in 1956.  And in 2003, Shrub stood aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a banner stating "Mission Accomplished" to tell the world that major combat operations in Iraq had come to an end.

Born today:  Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), Judy Collins (1939) and Joanna Lumley (1946)

It is Beltane and May Day.