Today is
May 5.
Today marks the approximate mid-point of
Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and of
Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
Today is
Cinco de Mayo.
Events
1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.
1260 –
Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
1821 – Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
1877 – American Indian Wars: Sitting Bull
leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
1904 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.
1945 – World War II: Six people are killed when a Japanese fire balloon explodes near Bly, Oregon. They are the only Americans killed in the continental US during the war.
1963 - On a recommendation by George Harrison Dick Rowe Head of A&R at Decca records, (and the man who turned down The Beatles) went to see The Rolling Stones
play at the Crawdaddy Club, London. The band were signed to the label within a week.
1968 - Aw shit, man, Buffalo Springfield broke up.
1973 – Secretariat
wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, an as-yet
unbeaten record.
1813 – Søren Kierkegaard, 1818 – Karl Marx, 1830 – John Batterson Stetson (hat dude), 1864 – Nellie Bly, 1898 – Blind Willie McTell, 1914 – Tyrone Power, 1926 – Ann B. Davis, 1934 – Ace Cannon, 1940 – Lance Henriksen, 1942 – Tammy Wynette, 1944 – John Rhys-Davies, 1944 – Roger Rees, 1945 – Kurt Loder, 1948 – Bill Ward
(Black Sabbath), 1955 – Jon Butcher
(Jon Butcher Axis), 1959 – Brian Williams, 1983 – Henry Cavill, 1988 – Adele
1821 – Napoleon, 1902 – Bret Harte, 2001 – Clifton Hillegass (created CliffsNotes), 2008 – Irv Robbins (Baskin-Robbins), 2013 –
Robert Ressler (coined the term "serial killer")