This Day in History

[xoxoxoBruce]

International No Diet Day is observed today.

I never heard of that...
but that didn't stop me from celebrating it to the fullest.

[Gravdigr]

Today is May 8.

Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered this day in 1945, and it is celebrated as VE Day.

Today is also Ima Get Drunk As Fuck Day, and is celebrated everywhere within a five foot circle of me.


Events

1429 – Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War.

1541 – Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.

1794 – Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.

1861 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.

1877 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.

1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton (PBUH) first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.

1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

1912 – Paramount Pictures



is founded.

1919 – Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.

1973 – A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.

1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

1984 – The Thames Barrier is officially opened.

1988 – A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".



1847 – Oscar Hammerstein I, 1884 – Harry S. Truman (33rd POTUS), 1895 – Fulton J. Sheen, 1911 – Robert Johnson



1919 – Lex Barker, 1920 – Saul Bass, 1926 – David Attenborough, 1926 – Don Rickles, 1928 – Ted Sorensen, 1940 – Peter Benchley (author Jaws), 1940 – Ricky Nelson, 1940 – Toni Tennille (Capt. & Tenille), 1941 – James Traficant, 1943 – Danny Whitten (Crazy Horse), 1944 – Gary Glitter (kiddie fiddler), 1944 – Bill Legend (T. Rex), 1950 – Robert Mugge, 1951 – Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind, & Fire), 1951 – Chris Frantz (Talking Heads), 1953 – Billy Burnette (Fleetwood Mac), 1953 – Alex Van Halen, 1954 – David Keith, 1955 – Stephen Furst ('Flounder' in Animal House), 1956 – Jeff Wincott, 1958 – Lovie Smith, 1959 – Ronnie Lott, 1961 – Bill de Blasio, 1964 – Melissa Gilbert, 1973 – Marcus Brigstocke, 1975 – Enrique Iglesias



1794 – Antoine Lavoisier, 1819 – Kamehameha I , 1880 – Gustave Flaubert, 1903 – Paul Gauguin, 1947 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, 1982 – Neil Bogart (founded Casablanca Records, signed Donna Summer, The Village People, T. Rex, Parliament, Harry Chapin, Joan Jett, et al), 1982 – Gilles Villeneuve, 1985 – Dolph Sweet, 1988 – Robert A. Heinlein, 1994 – George Peppard (Breakfast At Tiffany's, Banacek, The A-Team), 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, 1999 – Dana Plato (Diff'rent Strokes), 2008 – Eddy Arnold, 2013 – Jeanne Cooper (played 'Katherine Chancellor' for forty years on The Young and The Restless), 2016 – William Schallert (that guy who was in that thing)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today is also Ima Get Drunk As Fuck Day, and is celebrated everywhere within a five foot circle of me.

Do you recycle the jars?

[Gravdigr]

I keep 'em. So, yeah I guess I do. Well, Momdigr does, she uses them when she cans stuff.

[Gravdigr]

Today is May 9.

Today is also "Lord, If I Get Through This, I'll Cut Way Back. Promise." Day.


Events

1092 – Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated. It was the tallest building in the world for 238 years.

1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch (of Punch & Judy) made his first recorded appearance in England.

1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.

1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.

1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro



becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h).

1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.

1945 – World War II: The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst.

1950 - Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard hit store shelves.

1958 – The Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo



has its world premiere in San Francisco.

1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid,



making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.

1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.

1980 – In Norco, California, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.



1800 – John Brown, 1837 – Adam Opel (yeah, that Opel), 1860 – J. M. Barrie, 1873 – Anton Cermak, 1874 – Howard Carter, 1882 – Henry J. Kaiser, 1914 – Hank Snow, 1918 – Mike Wallace "The Grand Inquisitor", 1921 – Daniel Berrigan, 1936 – Albert Finney, 1936 – Glenda Jackson, 1937 – Dave Prater♪♫(Sam & Dave), 1940 – James L. Brooks (The Simpsons), 1942 – John Ashcroft, 1944 – Richie Furay♪♫(Buffalo Springfield, Poco), 1945 – Steve Katz♪♫(Blood, Sweat, & Tears), 1946 – Candice Bergen, 1949 – Billy Joel, 1950 – Tom Petersson(Cheap Trick, 'invented' the twelve-string bass guitar), 1961 – John Corbett (Northern Exposure), 1962 – Dave Gahan♪♫(Depeche Mode)



1914 – C. W. Post (founded Post Foods), 1968 – Harold Gray (created Little Orphan Annie), 1986 – Tenzing Norgay, 1998 – Alice Faye, 2004 – Alan King, 2010 – Lena Horne, 2012 – Vidal Sassoon