Today is May 5 2014

National Hoagie Day: More

• Oyster Day: More
  
• National Chocolate Custard Day : More
• Cinco de Mayo: More
• Totally Chipotle Day: More
• Melanoma Monday: More
• National Cartoonists Day: More
• Childhood Stroke Awareness Day: More

• In 1809, Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent. It was for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
  From Wikipedia: 'Mary Dixon Kies (March 21, 1752 – 1837) was the first American woman to apply for and receive a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. On May 5, 1809, her patent for a new technique of weaving straw with silk and thread to make hats was signed by President James Madison.
  
  'Because of the Napoleonic Wars, the United States embargoed all trade with France and Great Britain, creating a need for American-made hats to replace European millinery. The straw-weaving industry filled the gap, with over $500,000 ($9 million in today's money) worth of straw bonnets produced in Massachusetts alone in 1810.
  
  Mary Kies was not the first American woman to innovate in hat-making. In 1798, New Englander Betsy Metcalf invented a method of braiding straw. Her method became very popular, and she employed many women and girls to make her hats. The method created a new industry for girls and women because the straw bonnets could be made at home from local resources, so women and girls could do work for themselves. Thus, Betsy Metcalf started the American straw-hat industry. Under the Patent Act of 1790 she could have sought a patent, but like most women at the time, who could not legally hold property, she chose not to. Mary Kies, however, broke that pattern on May 5, 1809. Dolly Madison was so pleased by Kies' innovation that she sent a personal letter applauding her.
  
  Kies' technique proved valuable in making cost-effective work bonnets. In so doing, she bolstered New England's hat economy, which had been faltering due to the Embargo Act of 1807. However, a change in the fashion of the day made her unable to profit from her invention and she died penniless in 1837. Her original patent file was destroyed in a fire at the United States Patent Office 1836 fire.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1862, The Cinco de Mayo celebration is born when French troops are halted in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.
  From Wikipedia: 'Cinco de Mayo Spanish for "May 5th", or literally, "Five of May") is a celebration held on May 5. The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza. In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is sometimes mistaken to be Mexico's Independence Day—the most important national holiday in Mexico—which is celebrated on September 16.'
  
  'Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the French occupation of Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War of 1846–48 and the 1858–61 Reform War. The Reform War was a civil war which pitted Liberals (who believed in separation of church and state and freedom of religion) against the Conservatives (who favored a tight bond between the Roman Catholic Church and the Mexican State). These wars left the Mexican Treasury nearly bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years. In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish a Latin empire in Mexico that would favor French interests, the Second Mexican Empire.'
  
  'Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving President Juárez and his government into retreat. Moving on from Veracruz towards Mexico City, the French army encountered heavy resistance from the Mexicans close to Puebla, at the Mexican forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The 6,000-strong French army attacked the much smaller and poorly equipped Mexican army of 2,000. Yet, on May 5, 1862, the Mexicans managed to decisively crush the French army, then considered "the premier army in the world".
  
  'The victory represented a significant morale boost to the Mexican army and the Mexican people at large. In the description of The History Channel, "Although not a major strategic win in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza's success at Puebla represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and bolstered the resistance movement." As Time magazine remarked, "The Puebla victory came to symbolize unity and pride for what seemed like a Mexican David defeating a French Goliath." It helped establish a much-needed sense of national unity and patriotism'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia (Battle of Puebla): More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1891, The Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in NY, with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.
  From Wikipedia: 'Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park.
  
  'Carnegie Hall is named after Andrew Carnegie, who funded its construction. It was intended as a venue for the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society, on whose boards Carnegie served. Construction began in 1890, and was carried out by Isaac A. Hopper and Company. Although the building was in use from April 1891, the official opening night was May 5, with a concert conducted by maestro Walter Damrosch and great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Originally known simply as "Music Hall" (the words "Music Hall founded by Andrew Carnegie" still appear on the façade above the marquee), the hall was renamed Carnegie Hall in 1893 after board members of the Music Hall Company of New York (the hall's original governing body) persuaded Carnegie to allow the use of his name. Several alterations were made to the building between 1893 and 1896, including the addition of two towers of artists' studios, and alterations to the smaller auditorium on the building's lower level'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1895, Richard Outcault creates the first Sunday comic strip "The Yellow Kid".
  From Wikipedia: The Yellow Kid was the name of a lead American comic strip character that ran from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip Hogan's Alley (and later under other names as well), it was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper, although its graphical layout had already been thoroughly established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons. Outcault's use of word balloons in the Yellow Kid influenced the basic appearance and use of balloons in subsequent newspaper comic strips and comic books.
  
  Although a cartoon, Outcault's work aimed its humor and social commentary at Pulitzer's adult readership. The strip has been described as "... a turn-of-the-century theater of the city, in which class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment were acted out by a mischievous group of New York City kids from the wrong side of the tracks.
  
  The Yellow Kid is also famous for its connection to the coining of the term yellow journalism.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1904, Boston Red Sox pitcher Cy Young throws first perfect game of modern era
  From Wikipedia: 'Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. During his 22-season baseball career (1890–1911), he pitched for five different teams. Young established numerous pitching records, some of which have stood for a century. Young compiled 511 wins, which is most in Major League history and 94 ahead of Walter Johnson who is second on the list. Young was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.
  
  One year after Young's death, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the previous season's best pitcher.
  
  In addition to wins, Young still holds the major league records for most career innings pitched (7,356), most career games started (815), and most complete games (749). He also retired with 316 losses, the most in MLB history. Young's 76 career shutouts are fourth all-time. He also won at least 30 games in a season five times, with ten other seasons of 20 or more wins. In addition, Young pitched three no-hitters, including the third perfect game in baseball history, first in baseball's "modern era". In 1999, 88 years after his final major league appearance and 44 years after his death, editors at The Sporting News ranked Young 14th on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, baseball fans named him to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1934, The first Three Stooges short film, 'Woman Haters', is released.
  From Wikipedia: 'Woman Haters is the inaugural short subject released by Columbia Pictures in 1934 starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). The comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.
  
  The Stooges, employed as traveling salesmen, join the Woman Haters Club. They swear never to get romantically involved with a woman. That does not last very long.
  
  The film closes as the Stooges, now old men, finally reunite at the now almost empty Woman Haters club house when Jim enters and declares he wants to rejoin'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1941, The perfume, 'Chanel No. 5' released for sale.
  From Wikipedia: 'Chanel No. 5 is the first perfume launched by French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. The chemical formula for the fragrance was compounded by French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux.
  
  Traditionally, fragrance worn by women had adhered to two basic categories: respectable women favored the pure essence of a single garden flower, and sexually provocative perfumes heavy with animal musk or jasmine were associated with women of the demi-monde, prostitutes or courtesans. Chanel felt the time was right for the debut of a scent that would epitomize the flapper and would speak to the liberated spirit of the 1920s.
  
  Chanel’s initial marketing strategy was to generate buzz around her new fragrance by hosting a promotional event. She invited a group of elite friends to dine with her in an elegant restaurant in Grasse where she surprised and delighted her guests by spraying them with Chanel No. 5. The official launch place and date of Chanel No. 5 was in her rue Cambon boutique in the fifth month of the year, on the fifth day of the month: 5 May 1921. She infused the shop's dressing rooms with the scent, and she gave bottles to a select few of her high society friends. The success of Chanel No. 5 was immediate'.
  - At Wikipedia" More
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• In 1945, A Japanese balloon bomb (released from Japan and using the Jet Stream for direction) exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon. A pregnant woman and five children were killed, while on a Sunday School picnic. This was the only lethal occurrence of these bombs meant to set fires in Canadian and U.S. forests.
  From Wikipedia: 'A fire balloon ("balloon bomb", "Code Fu (Weapon)"), was a weapon launched by Japan during World War II. A hydrogen balloon with a load varying from a 15 kg (33 lb) antipersonnel bomb to one 12-kilogram (26 lb) incendiary bomb and four 5 kg (11 lb) incendiary devices attached, it was designed as a cheap weapon intended to make use of the jet stream over the Pacific Ocean and drop bombs on American and Canadian cities, forests, and farmland.
  
  The Japanese fire balloon was the first ever weapon possessing intercontinental range (the second being the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and the third being the R-7 ICBM). The Japanese balloon strikes on North America were at that time the longest ranged attacks ever conducted in the history of warfare, a record which was not broken until the 1982 Operation Black Buck raids during the Falkland Islands War.
  
  The balloons were ineffective as weapons but were used in one of the few attacks on North America during World War II.'
  
  'On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman (Elsie Winters Mitchell, born February 26, 1919) and five children were killed when they discovered a balloon bomb that had landed in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. Archie Mitchell was the pastor of the Bly Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. He and his pregnant wife Elsie drove up to Gearhart Mountain with five of their Sunday school students (aged 11–14) to have a picnic. They had to stop at this spot near Bly, Oregon, due to construction and a road closing. Elsie and the children got out of the car at Bly, while Archie drove on to find a parking spot As Elsie and the children looked for a good picnic spot, they saw a strange balloon lying on the ground. As the group approached the balloon, a bomb attached to it exploded, killing Elsie and all five children instantly. Archie and several members of the road crew witnessed the explosion and immediately ran to to the scene and used their hands to extinguish the fire on Elsie's and the children's clothing, but they could not save them. Two members of the road crew gathered their bearings and headed to Bly. These are the only known deaths caused by the balloon bombs. Aside from the Aleutian Islands Campaign in the Alaska Territory, they are the only known deaths in the contiguous U.S. as the result of enemy action during World War II and the only civilian casualties on American soil after the US entry into the war'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1961, Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
  From Wikipedia: 'Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett "Al" Shepard, Jr., (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, and businessman, who in May 1961 became the second person and the first American to travel into space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit.
  
  Ten years later, at age 47 and the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission (1971), piloting the lander Antares to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions. He became the fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven to do so. During the mission, he hit two golf balls on the lunar surface.
  
  On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space.] He named his spacecraft, Mercury Spacecraft 7, Freedom 7. It was launched by a Redstone rocket, and unlike Gagarin's 108-minute orbital flight in a Vostok spacecraft three times the size of a Mercury capsule, Shepard stayed on a ballistic trajectory for a 15-minute sub-orbital flight, which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles (187 km) and to a splashdown point 302 statute miles (486 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range. Shortly before the launch, Shepard said to himself: "Don't mess up, Shepard ..." Unlike Gagarin, whose flight was strictly automatic, Shepard had some control of Freedom 7, spacecraft attitude in particular. Shepard's launch was seen live on television by millions. According to Gene Kranz in his book Failure Is Not an Option, "When reporters asked Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, 'The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.'
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1962, West Side Story soundtrack album goes to #1 and stays #1 for 54 weeks which is more than 20 weeks longer than any other album.
  From Wikipedia: 'West Side Story is the soundtrack to the 1961 film West Side Story. Released in 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard' s album charts, giving it the longest run at No. 1 of any album in history, although some lists instead credit Michael Jackson's Thriller, on the grounds that West Side Story was listed on a chart for stereo albums only at a time when many albums were recorded in mono. In 1962, it won a Grammy award for "Best Sound Track Album – Original Cast" and Johnny Richards orchestrations of the movie score (on Kenton's West Side Story) also winning a Grammy in 1962 for "Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album" further bolstering the popularity of the movie and soundtrack. In the United States, it was the best-selling album of the 1960s, certifying three times platinum by the RIAA on November 21, 1986'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1962, Chris Montez recorded the song, Let's Dance.
  From Wikipedia: '"Let's Dance" is a 1962 hit-single by Chris Montez, written and produced by Jim Lee.
  
  The personnel on the original recording included Joel Hill on guitar, Ray Johnson on organ, Ray Pohlman on bass and Jesse Sailes on drums. When initially released, the song shot to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., and to No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1975, The A's release pinch runner Herb Washington (former track sprinter). He played 105 games without batting, pitching, or fielding He stole 30 bases, and scored 33 runs.
  From Wikipedia: 'Herbert Lee Washington (born November 16, 1951) is a former world-class sprinter who parlayed his speed into a brief Major League Baseball (MLB)stint in 1974 and 1975 with the Oakland Athletics. Washington was called out on a pickoff play in the 1974 World Series. He was replaced sin 1975 when the Athletics acquired a baserunning specialist who was also a position player. Washington returned to professional track, then became the owner/operator of numerous McDonald's restaurants and a minor league professional hockey franchise. He held a number of executive posts on varied boards and organizations.
  
  'In 1974, Washington was tapped by Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley to become the team's "designated runner". Finley and Washington worked out a one-year $45,000 contract with a $20,000 signing bonus. The contract had an unusual clause requiring Washington to grow facial hair before the beginning of the season. Washington had difficulty growing a full mustache, so he used an eyebrow pencil to simulate full facial hair.
  
  Washington played in 105 MLB games without batting, pitching, or fielding, playing exclusively as a pinch runner. He had 31 stolen bases in 48 attempts and scored 33 runs during his short career. Washington is one of only seven players to have more game appearances than plate appearances, presumably excluding starting pitchers who played primarily for the American League, and relief pitchers.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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Nothing. Looks like I was lazy on this day.

No. 1 song

• Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles: More
  'Twist and Shout' has been displaced by 'Can't Buy Me Love', which will hold the no. 1 spot until May 16th, when 'Hello, Dolly!', takes over.

Top movie

• The Carpetbaggers More
  Having displaced 'The Pink Panther', it will be there until the weekend box office of May 17 , 1964 when, 'Crack in the World', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: May 5 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: May 5 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 5th May More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 5th May More
• On-This-day.com history 5th May More
• On-This-day.com music history 5th May More
• Wikipedia.com: History May 5 More

National Asparagus Month National Barbeque Month National Chocolate Custard Month National Egg Month National Gazpacho Aficionado Month National Hamburger Month National Salad Month National Strawberry Month

May is:

May origin (from Wikipedia):
The month May was named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May. Conversely, the Roman poet Ovid provides a second etymology, in which he says that the month of May is named for the maiores, Latin for 'elders,' and that the following month (June) is named for the iuniores, or 'young people'

May ' is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days.
May is a month of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and spring in the Northern Hemisphere (Summer in Europe). Therefore May in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of November in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. '

May at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1964 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
  RSS: More

Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2014 Postal Holidays More
• 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More