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Today is May 8 2016

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   I.
Today's Holidays and Historical Events (updated daily)
Today's Food Holiday
  • National Coconut Cream Pie Day: More
    From Wikipedia (Cream Pie): 'A cream pie is a type of pie or cake filled with a rich custard or pudding that is made from milk, cream, flour, and eggs. It can come in many forms, including vanilla, lemon, lime, peanut butter, banana, coconut, and chocolate. A constant feature of all cream pies is the whipped cream topping. The custard filling is related to the French crème patissière which is a key component of various French cakes and tarts. It is a one-crust pie. The crust may be a standard pie crust made with flour and lard, or one made from crumbled cookies or graham crackers'.

    From Wikipedia (Coconut): 'The coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family).

    It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which, botanically, is a drupe, not a nut. The spelling cocoanut is an archaic form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning "head" or "skull", from the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.

    Per 100 gram serving with 354 calories, raw coconut meat supplies a high amount of total fat (33 grams), especially saturated fat (89% of total fat) and carbohydrates (24 grams) (table). Micronutrients in significant content include the dietary minerals, manganese, iron, phosphorus and zinc'.
  • National Have A Coke Day: More
Other celebrations/observances today:
  • Mother's Day: More
    Second Sunday in May. May 8th is earliest date on which it can fall and May 14th the latest.
    From Wikipedia: 'Mother's Day in the United States is an annual holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Mother's Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as the positive contributions that they make to society. Although many Mother's Day celebrations world-wide have quite different origins and traditions, most have now been influenced by the more recent American tradition tradition established by Anna Jarvis, who campaigned for the holiday. Organized by Jarvis, the first official Mother's Day was celebrated at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine. Previous attempts at establishing Mother's Day in the United States sought to promote peace by means of honoring mothers who had lost or were at risk of losing their sons to war.

    During the 19th century, women's peace groups in USA tried to establish holidays and regular activities in favor of peace and against war. A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. In 1868, Ann Jarvis, mother of Anna Jarvis, created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day", the purpose of which was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War." Jarvis – who had previously organized "Mother's Day Work Clubs" to improve sanitation and health for both Union and Confederate encampments undergoing a typhoid outbreak – wanted to expand this into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the celebration became popular. Her daughter would continue her mother's efforts.

    There were several limited observances in the 1870s and the 1880s but none achieved resonance beyond the local level. At the time, Protestant schools in the United States already held many celebrations and observations such as Children's Day, Temperance Sunday, Roll Call Day, Decision Day, Missionary Day and others. In New York City, Julia Ward Howe led a "Mother's Day for Peace" anti-war observance on June 2, 1872, which was accompanied by a "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world" (nowadays known as Mother's Day Proclamation). The observance continued in Boston for about 10 years under Howe's personal sponsorship, then died out. In these celebrations, mothers all around the world would work towards world peace.

    In its present form, Mother's Day was established by Anna Jarvis with the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker following the death of her mother, Ann Jarvis, on May 9, 1905. Jarvis never mentioned Howe or Mothering Sunday, and she never mentioned any connection to the Protestant school celebrations, always claiming that the creation of Mother's Day was hers alone.

    A small service was held on May 12, 1907 in the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna's mother had been teaching Sunday school. The first "official" service was on May 10, 1908, in the same church, accompanied by a larger ceremony in the Wanamaker Auditorium in the Wanamaker's store in Philadelphia. The next year the day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.

    Jarvis then campaigned to establish Mother's Day first as a U.S. national holiday and then later as an international holiday. The holiday was declared officially by the state of West Virginia in 1910, and the rest of the states followed quickly.

    On May 10, 1913, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on all federal government officials (from the president down) to wear a white carnation the following day in observance of Mother's Day. On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and requesting a proclamation. The next day, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother's Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday'.
  • Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day: More
    From Wikipedia: 'Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.
  • Truman Day: More
    Celebrates the birthday of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the U.S.
    From Wikipedia: 'Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53), an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a United States Senator from Missouri (1935–45) and briefly as Vice President (1945) before he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected in his own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as America sought its path after the war, and tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.
  • Miguel Hidalgo's Birthday in Mexico: More
    Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was a leader in the Mexican War of Independence against Spain.
    From Wikipedia: 'Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo-Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican Catholic priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.

    He was a professor at the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo in Valladolid and was ousted in 1792. He served in a church in Colima and then in Dolores, Guanajuato. After his arrival, he was shocked by the poverty he found. He tried to help the poor by showing them how to grow olives and grapes, but in Mexico, growing these crops was discouraged or prohibited by the authorities due to Spanish imports of the items. In 1810 he gave the famous speech, "The Cry of Dolores", calling upon the people to protect the interest of their King Fernando VII (held captive by Napoleon) by revolting against the European-born Spaniards who had overthrown the Spanish Viceroy.

    He marched across Mexico and gathered an army of nearly 90,000 poor farmers and Mexican civilians who attacked and killed both Spanish Peninsulares and Criollo elites, even though Hidalgo's troops lacked training and were poorly armed. These troops ran into a clan of 6,000 well-trained and armed Spanish troops; most fled or were killed at the Battle of Calderón Bridge on 17 January 1811. Hidalgo was executed by a firing squad on 30 July 1811 at Chihuahua, Chihuahua'.
Awareness / Observance Days on: May 8
  • Health
    • TSA National Awareness Week: More
      May 8-14 in Australia. By Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia Inc.
      From Wikipedia: 'Tourette syndrome (also called Tourette's syndrome, Tourette's disorder, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, GTS or, more commonly, simply Tourette's or TS) is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. These tics characteristically wax and wane, can be suppressed temporarily, and are preceded by a premonitory urge. Tourette's is defined as part of a spectrum of tic disorders, which includes provisional, transient and persistent (chronic) tics.

      Genetic and environmental factors play a role in the etiology of Tourette's, but the exact causes are unknown. In most cases, medication is unnecessary. There is no effective treatment for every case of tics, but certain medications and therapies can help when their use is warranted. Education is an important part of any treatment plan, and explanation and reassurance alone are often sufficient treatment. Comorbid conditions (co-occurring diagnoses other than Tourette's) such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) are present in many patients seen in tertiary specialty clinics. These other conditions often cause more functional impairment to the individual than the tics that are the hallmark of Tourette's; hence, it is important to correctly identify comorbid conditions and treat them.

      The eponym was bestowed by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) on behalf of his resident, Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (1857–1904), a French physician and neurologist, who published an account of nine patients with Tourette's in 1885'.
    • National Nurses Week (May 6-12),
      -- National Nurses Day / National National RN Recognition Day(First day of National Nurses Week),
      -- National School Nurse day (Wednesday of School Nurses Week),
      -- National Student Nurses Day (May 8),
      -- International Nurses Day (May 12 Florence Nightingale' birthday May 12 1820),
      From Wikipedia: 'In the U.S., National Nurses Week was first observed from October 11–16, 1954 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's mission to Crimea. President Nixon later proclaimed a 'National Nurse Week' in 1974. In 1982, President Reagan signed a proposal officially designating May 6 as 'National Recognition Day for Nurses,' now known as National Nurses Day or National RN Recognition Day.
    • International Thalassemia Day: More
      From the web site: 'Thalassaemia major is a disorder of the blood. More specifically, a disorder of the haemoglobin molecule inside the red blood cells'.
      From Wikipedia: 'Thalassemia (British English: thalassaemia), also called Mediterranean anemia, is a form of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorder characterized by abnormal formation of hemoglobin. The abnormal hemoglobin formed results in improper oxygen transport and destruction of red blood cells. Thalassemia is caused by variant or missing genes that affect how the body makes hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. People with thalassemia make less hemoglobin and have fewer circulating red blood cells than normal, which results in mild to severe microcytic anemia.

      Thalassemia can cause complications, including iron overload, bone deformities, and cardiovascular illness. However, this same inherited disease of red blood cells may confer a degree of protection against malaria (specifically, malaria caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum), which is or was prevalent in the regions where the trait is common. This selective survival advantage of carriers (known as heterozygous advantage) may be responsible for perpetuating the mutation in populations. In that respect, the various thalassemias resemble another genetic disorder affecting hemoglobin, sickle-cell disease.
    • World Ovarian Cancer Day: More
      From the web site: 'Ovarian cancer is diagnosed annually in nearly a quarter of a million women globally, and is responsible for 140,000 deaths each year'.
    • World Red Cross / Red Crescent Day: More
      On the birthday of Henry Dunant,. From the web site: 'The first Red Cross and Red Crescent Day was held in 1948. This event is supported by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement; a humanitarian movement which aims to protect peoples lives and health, alleviate or prevent suffering and ensure respect is given to all'.
  • Animal and Pets
    • World Migratory Bird Day: More
      Second weekend of May. Supported by the United Nations Environment Program and other international organizations.
  • Other
    • National Mills Weekend in the UK: More
      The second weekend in May, by Wind and Watermills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). In Great Britain.
    • Emancipation Day (Mississippi): More
      Date in 1865 that African Americans learned of their freedom.
    • Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War: More
      A U.N. day. From the web site: 'By resolution 59/26 of 22 November 2004, the UN General Assembly declared 8–9 May as a time of remembrance and reconciliation and, while recognizing that Member States may have individual days of victory, liberation and commemoration, invited all Member States, organizations of the United Nations System, non-governmental organizations and individuals to observe annually either one or both of these days in an appropriate manner to pay tribute to all victims of the Second World War'.
Events in the past on: May 8
  • In 1886, Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named 'Coca-Cola' as a patent medicine.
    From Wikipedia: 'John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharmacist, and is best known for being the inventor of Coca-Cola.

    In April 1865, while serving as a lieutenant colonel of the Confederate Army's Third Georgia Cavalry Battalion, Georgia State Guard, Pemberton was wounded in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia. He sustained his injury from a saber with which he was slashed across his chest, and like many wounded veterans of many wars, he became addicted to the morphine used to ease the pain. As the pharmacist that he was in civilian life, Pemberton sought a cure for his addiction. In 1866, in Columbus, Georgia, he started working on painkillers that would serve as opium-free alternatives to morphine. His first was "Dr. Tuggle's Compound Syrup of Globe Flower (Cephalanthus occidentalis)". He next began experimenting with coca and coca wines, eventually creating his own version of Vin Mariani, containing kola nut and damiana, which he called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. According to Coca-Cola historian, Phil Mooney, Pemberton's world-famous soda was "created in Columbus, Georgia and carried to Atlanta".

    With public concern about the drug addiction, depression, and alcoholism among war veterans, and "neurasthenia", as well as among "highly-strung" Southern women, Pemberton's medicine was advertised as particularly beneficial for "ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration".

    In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, Pemberton found himself forced to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca. Pemberton relied on Atlanta drugstore owner-proprietor Willis E. Venable to test, and help him perfect, the recipe for the beverage, which he formulated by trial and error. With Venable's assistance, Pemberton worked out a set of directions for its preparation that eventually included blending the base syrup with carbonated water by accident when trying to make another glass. Pemberton decided then to sell it as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name "Coca-Cola" for the alliterative sound, which was popular among other wine medicines of the time. Although the name quite clearly refers to the two main ingredients, the controversy over its cocaine content would later prompt The Coca-Cola Company to state that the name was "meaningless but fanciful". Robinson also hand wrote the Spencerian script on the bottles and ads. Pemberton made many health claims for his product, touting it as a "valuable brain tonic" that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion and calm nerves, and marketed it as "delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating", and "invigorating"'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1877, At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a two-day, all-breed benched conformation show that takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City annually since 1877.

    The Westminster show was first held on May 8, 1877, making it the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the United States behind only the Kentucky Derby, which was first held in 1875. (Both events were held even during the World War years.) The show originated as a show for gun dogs, primarily Setters and Pointers, initiated by a group of hunters who met regularly at the Westminster Hotel at Irving Place and Sixteenth Street in Manhattan. They decided to create a kennel club called the Westminster Kennel Club specifically for the purpose of holding a dog show. The prizes for these first shows included such items as pearl handled pistols, of use to the hunters and terriermen who worked these dogs in the field.

    'Held at Gilmore's Garden (Madison Square Garden) the Westminster show drew over 1200 dogs and proved so popular that its scheduled three days was extended to four, with the club donating proceeds from that fourth day to the ASPCA for creation of a home for stray and disabled dogs.

    The Westminster Kennel Club predates the formation of the American Kennel Club by seven years, and became the first club admitted to the AKC after AKC's founding in 1884. Breed parent clubs (e.g., the Afghan Hound Club of America) create the standards for judging their breeds, with the AKC administering the rules about shows and judging'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
  • In 1879, George Selden files for 1st patent for a gasoline-driven automobile.
    From Wikipedia: 'George Baldwin Selden (September 14, 1846 in Clarkson, New York – January 17, 1922 in Rochester, New York) was a patent lawyer and inventor who was granted a U.S. patent for an automobile in 1895.

    Inspired by the mammoth internal combustion engine invented by George Brayton displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, Selden began working on a smaller lighter version, succeeding by 1878, some eight years before the public introduction of the Benz Patent Motorwagen in Europe, in producing a one-cylinder, 400-pound version which featured an enclosed crankshaft with the help of Rochester machinist Frank H. Clement and his assistant William Gomm. He filed for a patent on May 8, 1879 (in a historical cross of people, the witness Selden chose was a local bank-teller, George Eastman, later to become famous for the Kodak camera). His application included not only the engine but its use in a 4 wheeled car. He then filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent was granted on November 5, 1895'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1899, Ernest Rutherford publishes his discovery of two different kinds of radiation (Alpha and Beta Particles).
    From Wikipedia: 'Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday (1791–1867).

    In early work he discovered the concept of radioactive half-life, proved that radioactivity involved the nuclear transmutation of one chemical element to another, and also differentiated and named alpha and beta radiation. This work was done at McGill University in Canada. It is the basis for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he was awarded in 1908 "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances", for which he is the first Canadian and Oceanian Nobel laureate, and remains the only laureate born in the South Island.

    At Cambridge, Rutherford started to work with J. J. Thomson on the conductive effects of X-rays on gases, work which led to the discovery of the electron which Thomson presented to the world in 1897. Hearing of Becquerel's experience with uranium, Rutherford started to explore its radioactivity, discovering two types that differed from X-rays in their penetrating power. Continuing his research in Canada, he coined the terms alpha ray and beta ray in 1899 to describe the two distinct types of radiation. He then discovered that thorium gave off a gas which produced an emanation which was itself radioactive and would coat other substances. He found that a sample of this radioactive material of any size invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay – its "half-life" (11½ minutes in this case).
    - At Wikipedia: More
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    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1912, Paramount Pictures is founded.
    From Wikipedia: 'Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Studios or simply Paramount, and formerly known as Famous Players-Lasky Corporation) is an American film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor, consistently ranked as one of the "Big Six" film studios of Hollywood. It is a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Viacom. Paramount is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

    Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company (1895) and Pathé (1896), followed by the Nordisk Film company (1906), and Universal Studios (1912). It is the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company. Hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time (leading to the slogan "Famous Players in Famous Plays"). By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success. Its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt.

    That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, later known as Samuel Goldwyn. The Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a suitable location site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film, The Squaw Man.

    Starting in 1914, both Lasky and Famous Players released their films through a start-up company, Paramount Pictures Corporation, organized early that year by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson, who had bought and merged several smaller firms. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies. Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation.
    - At FamousDaily: More
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - At Wikipedia: More
  • In 1945, V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender. From Wikipedia: 'The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany'.
    From Wikipedia: 'Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.

    The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory. On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany.

    After regaining their independence from the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries now commemorate the end of World War II on 8 May, the Victory in Europe Day. In Ukraine from 2015, 8 May was designated as a day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, but it is not a public holiday'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1980, The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.
    From Wikipedia: 'Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, derived from varius ("spotted") or varus ("pimple"). The disease was originally known in English as the "pox" or "red plague"; the term "smallpox" was first used in Britain in the 15th century to distinguish variola from the "great pox" (syphilis). The last naturally occurring case of smallpox (Variola minor) was diagnosed on 26 October 1977

    Infection with smallpox is focused in small blood vessels of the skin and in the mouth and throat before disseminating. In the skin it results in a characteristic maculopapular rash and, later, raised fluid-filled blisters. V. major produced a more serious disease and had an overall mortality rate of 30–35 percent. V. minor caused a milder form of disease (also known as alastrim, cottonpox, milkpox, whitepox, and Cuban itch) which killed about 1 percent of its victims. Long-term complications of V. major infection included characteristic scars, commonly on the face, which occur in 65–85 percent of survivors. Blindness resulting from corneal ulceration and scarring, and limb deformities due to arthritis and osteomyelitis were less common complications, seen in about 2–5 percent of cases.

    After vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011.

    The English physician Edward Jenner demonstrated the effectiveness of cowpox to protect humans from smallpox in 1796, after which various attempts were made to eliminate smallpox on a regional scale. The introduction of the vaccine to the New World took place in Trinity, Newfoundland in 1800 by Dr. John Clinch, boyhood friend and medical colleague of Jenner. As early as 1803, the Spanish Crown organized the Balmis expedition to transport the vaccine to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Philippines, and establish mass vaccination programs there. The U.S. Congress passed the Vaccine Act of 1813 to ensure that safe smallpox vaccine would be available to the American public.

    The global eradication of smallpox was certified, based on intense verification activities in countries, by a commission of eminent scientists on 9 December 1979 and subsequently endorsed by the World Health Assembly on 8 May 1980'.
    - At Wikipedia: More
    - On YouTube: More
  II.
Henry's Heads Up! - previous days social media post (updated daily)

Tomorrow's food holiday is
'National Coconut Cream Pie Day'. From Wikipedia (Cream Pie): 'A cream pie is a type of pie or cake filled with a rich custard or pudding that is made from milk, cream, flour, and eggs. It can come in many forms, including vanilla, lemon, lime, peanut butter, banana, coconut, and chocolate. A constant feature of all cream pies is the whipped cream topping. The custard filling is related to the French crème patissière which is a key component of various French cakes and tarts. It is a one-crust pie. The crust may be a standard pie crust made with flour and lard, or one made from crumbled cookies or graham crackers'.

From Wikipedia (Coconut): 'The coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family).

It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which, botanically, is a drupe, not a nut. The spelling cocoanut is an archaic form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning "head" or "skull", from the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.

Per 100 gram serving with 354 calories, raw coconut meat supplies a high amount of total fat (33 grams), especially saturated fat (89% of total fat) and carbohydrates (24 grams) (table). Micronutrients in significant content include the dietary minerals, manganese, iron, phosphorus and zinc'.
[The Hankster says] Let me see. I've used the Three Stooges gag too often. Ah, yes. If Little Jack Horner pulled plums out of his Christmas pie (via this thumb) would he break his thumb nail on a coconut in a Coconut Cream Pie. Inquisitive minds may not want to know this, but silly ones do.

- ' National Have A Coke Day'. On the anniversary of the selling of the first Coca Cola. See 1886 in the history section.


Other celebrations/observances tomorrow:

- 'Mother's Day'. Second Sunday in May. May 8th is earliest date on which it can fall and May 14th the latest. From Wikipedia: 'Mother's Day in the United States is an annual holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Mother's Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as the positive contributions that they make to society. Although many Mother's Day celebrations world-wide have quite different origins and traditions, most have now been influenced by the more recent American tradition tradition established by Anna Jarvis, who campaigned for the holiday. Organized by Jarvis, the first official Mother's Day was celebrated at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine. Previous attempts at establishing Mother's Day in the United States sought to promote peace by means of honoring mothers who had lost or were at risk of losing their sons to war.

During the 19th century, women's peace groups in USA tried to establish holidays and regular activities in favor of peace and against war. A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. In 1868, Ann Jarvis, mother of Anna Jarvis, created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day", the purpose of which was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War." Jarvis – who had previously organized "Mother's Day Work Clubs" to improve sanitation and health for both Union and Confederate encampments undergoing a typhoid outbreak – wanted to expand this into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the celebration became popular. Her daughter would continue her mother's efforts.

There were several limited observances in the 1870s and the 1880s but none achieved resonance beyond the local level. At the time, Protestant schools in the United States already held many celebrations and observations such as Children's Day, Temperance Sunday, Roll Call Day, Decision Day, Missionary Day and others. In New York City, Julia Ward Howe led a "Mother's Day for Peace" anti-war observance on June 2, 1872, which was accompanied by a "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world" (nowadays known as Mot her's Day Proclamation). The observance continued in Boston for about 10 years under Howe's personal sponsorship, then died out. In these celebrations, mothers all around the world would work towards world peace.

In its present form, Mother's Day was established by Anna Jarvis with the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker following the death of her mother, Ann Jarvis, on May 9, 1905. Jarvis never mentioned Howe or Mothering Sunday, and she never mentioned any connection to the Protestant school celebrations, always claiming that the creation of Mother's Day was hers alone.

A small service was held on May 12, 1907 in the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna's mother had been teaching Sunday school. The first "official" service was on May 10, 1908, in the same church, accompanied by a larger ceremony in the Wanamaker Auditorium in the Wanamaker's store in Philadelphia. The next year the day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.

Jarvis then campaigned to establish Mother's Day first as a U.S. national holiday and then later as an international holiday. The holiday was declared officially by the state of West Virginia in 1910, and the rest of the states followed quickly.

On May 10, 1913, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on all federal government officials (from the president down) to wear a white carnation the following day in observance of Mother's Day. On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and requesting a proclamation. The next day, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother's Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday'.

- 'National Student Nurses Day takes place on the 8th of May every year. The celebration was initiated in 2008.

- 'Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day'. From Wikipedia: 'Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.

- 'Truman Day'. Celebrates the birthday of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the U.S. From Wikipedia: 'Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53), an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a United States Senator from Missouri (1935–45) and briefly as Vice President (1945) before he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected inhis own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as America sought its path after the war, and tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.

- 'Miguel Hidalgo's Birthday in Mexico'. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was a leader in the Mexican War of Independence against Spain. From Wikipedia: 'Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo-Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican Catholic priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.

He was a professor at the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo in Valladolid and was ousted in 1792. He served in a church in Colima and then in Dolores, Guanajuato. After his arrival, he was shocked by the poverty he found. He tried to help the poor by showing them how to grow olives and grapes, but in Mexico, growing these crops was discouraged or prohibited by the authorities due to Spanish imports of the items. In 1810 he gave the famous speech, "The Cry of Dolores", calling upon the people to protect the interest of their King Fernando VII (held captive by Napoleon) by revolting against the European-born Spaniards who had overthrown the Spanish Viceroy.

He marched across Mexico and gathered an army of nearly 90,000 poor farmers and Mexican civilians who attacked and killed both Spanish Peninsulares and Criollo elites, even though Hidalgo's troops lacked training and were poorly armed. These troops ran into a clan of 6,000 well-trained and armed Spanish troops; most fled or were killed at the Battle of Calderón Bridge on 17 January 1811. Hidalgo was executed by a firing squad on 30 July 1811 at Chihuahua, Chihuahua'.


Awareness / Observance Days on: May 8
o Health
- 'TSA National Awareness Week'. May 8-14 in Australia. By Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia Inc.
From Wikipedia: 'Tourette syndrome (also called Tourette's syndrome, Tourette's disorder, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, GTS or, more commonly, simply Tourette's or TS) is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. These tics characteristically wax and wane, can be suppressed temporarily, and are preceded by a premonitory urge. Tourette's is defined as part of a spectrum of tic disorders, which is provisional, transient and persistent (chronic) tics.

Genetic and environmental factors play a role in the etiology of Tourette's, but the exact causes are unknown. In most cases, medication is unnecessary. There is no effective treatment for every case of tics, but certain medications and therapies can help when their use is warranted. Education is an important part of any treatment plan, and explanation and reassurance alone are often sufficient treatment. Comorbid conditions (co-occurring diagnoses other than Tourette's) such as attention-deficit hypeity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) are present in many patients seen in tertiary specialty clinics. These other conditions often cause more functional impairment to the individual than the tics that are the hallmark of Tourette's; hence, it is important to correctly identify comorbid conditions and treat them.

The eponym was bestowed by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) on behalf of his resident, Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (1857–1904), a French physician and neurologist, who published an account of nine patients with Tourette's in 1885'.

- 'National Nurses Week (May 6-12),
-- National School Nurse day (Wednesday of School Nurses Week),
-- National Student Nurses Day (May 8),
-- International Nurses Day (May 12 Florence Nightingale' birthday May 12 1820),
From Wikipedia: 'In the U.S., National Nurses Week was first observed from October 11–16, 1954 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's mission to Crimea. President Nixon later proclaimed a 'National Nurse Week' in 1974. In 1982, President Reagan signed a proposal officially designating May 6 as 'National Recognition Day for Nurses,' now known as National Nurses Day or National RN Recognition Day. I In 1990, the American Nurses Association (ANA) expanded the holiday into the current National Nurses Week celebrated from 6 May to 12 May.''.

- 'International Thalassemia Day'.
From Wikipedia: 'Thalassemia (British English: thalassaemia), also called Mediterranean anemia, is a form of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorder characterized by abnormal formation of hemoglobin. The abnormal hemoglobin formed results in improper oxygen transport and destruction of red blood cells. Thalassemia is caused by variant or missing genes that affect how the body makes hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. People with thalassemia make less hemoglobin and havr circulating red blood cells than normal, which results in mild to severe microcytic anemia.

Thalassemia can cause complications, including iron overload, bone deformities, and cardiovascular illness. However, this same inherited disease of red blood cells may confer a degree of protection against malaria (specifically, malaria caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum), which is or was prevalent in the regions where the trait is common. This selective survival advantage of carriers (known as heterozygous advantage) may be responsible for perpetuating the mutation in populations.at respect, the various thalassemias resemble another genetic disorder affecting hemoglobin, sickle-cell disease.

- 'World Ovarian Cancer Day'. From the web site: 'Ovarian cancer is diagnosed annually in nearly a quarter of a million women globally, and is responsible for 140,000 deaths each year'.

- 'World Red Cross / Red Crescent Day'. On the birthday of Henry Dunant,. From the web site: 'The first Red Cross and Red Crescent Day was held in 1948. This event is supported by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement; a humanitarian movement which aims to protect peoples lives and health, alleviate or prevent suffering and ensure respect is given to all'.

o Animal and Pets
- 'World Migratory Bird Day'. Second weekend of May. Supported by the United Nations Environment Program and other international organizations.

o Other
- 'National Mills Weekend in the UK: More The second weekend in May, by Wind and Watermills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). In Great Britain.

- 'Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War'. A U.N. day. From the web site: 'By resolution 59/26 of 22 November 2004, the UN General Assembly declared 8–9 May as a time of remembrance and reconciliation and, while recognizing that Member States may have individual days of victory, liberation and commemoration, invited all Member States, organizations of the United Nations System, non-governmental organizations and individuals to observe annually either one or both of these days in an appropriate manner to pay tribute to all victims of the Second World War'.


Historical events in the past on: May 8

- In 1886, Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named 'Coca-Cola' as a patent medicine. From Wikipedia: 'John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharmacist, and is best known for being the inventor of Coca-Cola. In April 1865, while serving as a lieutenant colonel of the Confederate Army's Third Georgia Cavalry Battalion, Georgia State Guard, Pemberton was wounded in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia. He sustained his injury from a saber with which he was slashed across his chest, and like many wounded veterans of many wars, he became addicted to the morphine used to ease the pain. As the pharmacist that he was in civilian life, Pemberton sought a cure for his addiction. In 1866, in Columbus, Georgia, he started working on painkillers that would serve as opium-free alternatives to morphine. His first was "Dr. Tuggle's Compound Syrup of Globe Flower (Cephalanthus occidentalis)". He next began experimenting with coca and coca wines, eventually creating his own version of Vin Mariani, containing kola nut and damiana, which he called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. According to Coca-Cola historian, Phil Mooney, Pemberton's world-famous soda was "created in Columbus, Georgia and carried to Atlanta". With public concern about the drug addiction, depression, and alcoholism among war veterans, and "neurasthenia", as well as among "highly-strung" Southern women, Pemberton's medicine was advertised as particularly beneficial for "ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration". In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County enacted temperance legislation, Pemberton found himself forced to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca. Pemberton relied on Atlanta drugstore owner-proprietor Willis E. Venable to test, and help him perfect, the recipe for the beverage, which he formulated by trial and error. With Venable's assistance, Pemberton worked out a set of directions for its preparation that eventually included blending the base syrup with carbonated water by accident when trying to make another glass. Pemberton decided then to sell it as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name "Coca-Cola" for the alliterative sound, which was popular among other wine medicines of the time. Although the name quite clearly refers to the two main ingredients, the controversy over its cocaine content would later prompt The Coca-Cola Company to state that the name was "meaningless but fanciful". Robinson also hand wrote the Spencerian script on thebottles and ads. Pemberton made many health claims for his product, touting it as a "valuable brain tonic" that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion and calm nerves, and marketed it as "delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating", and "invigorating"'.

- In 1877, At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens. From Wikipedia: 'The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a two-day, all-breed benched conformation show that takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City annually since 1877.

The Westminster show was first held on May 8, 1877, making it the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the United States behind only the Kentucky Derby, which was first held in 1875. (Both events were held even during the World War years.) The show originated as a show for gun dogs, primarily Setters and Pointers, initiated by a group of hunters who met regularly at the Westminster Hotel at Irving Place and Sixteenth Street in Manhattan. They decided to create a kennel club called the Westmins ter Kennel Club specifically for the purpose of holding a dog show. The prizes for these first shows included such items as pearl handled pistols, of use to the hunters and terriermen who worked these dogs in the field.

'Held at Gilmore's Garden (Madison Square Garden) the Westminster show drew over 1200 dogs and proved so popular that its scheduled three days was extended to four, with the club donating proceeds from that fourth day to the ASPCA for creation of a home for stray and disabled dogs.

the Westminster Kennel Club predates the formation of the American Kennel Club by seven years, and became the first club admitted to the AKC after AKC's founding in 1884. Breed parent clubs (e.g., the Afghan Hound Club of America) create the standards for judging their breeds, with the AKC administering the rules about shows and judging'.

- In 1879, George Selden files for 1st patent for a gasoline-driven automobile. From Wikipedia: 'George Baldwin Selden (September 14, 1846 in Clarkson, New York January 17, 1922 in Rochester, New York) was a patent lawyer and inventor who was granted a U.S. patent for an automobile in 1895.

Inspired by the mammoth internal combustion engine invented by George Brayton displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, Selden began working on a smaller lighter version, succeeding by 1878, some eight years before the public introduction of the Benz Patent Motorwagen in Europe, in producing a one-cylinder, 400-pound version which featured an enclosed crankshaft with the help of Rochester machinist Frank H. Clement and his assistant William Gomm. He filed for a patent on May 8, 1879 (in a historical cross of people, the witness Selden chose was a local bank-teller, George Eastman, later to become famous for the Kodak camera). His application included not only the engine but its use in a 4 wheeled car. He then filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent was granted on November 5, 1895'.

- In 1899, Ernest Rutherford publishes his discovery of two different kinds of radiation (Alpha and Beta Particles). From Wikipedia: 'Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday (1791–1867).

In early work he discovered the concept of radioactive half-life, proved that radioactivity involved the nuclear transmutation of one chemical element to another, and also differentiated and named alpha and beta radiation. This work was done at McGill University in Canada. It is the basis for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he was awarded in 1908 "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances", for which he is the first Canadian and Oceanian Nobel laureate, and remains the only laureate born in the South Island.

At Cambridge, Rutherford started to work with J. J. Thomson on the conductive effects of X-rays on gases, work which led to the discovery of the electron which Thomson presented to the world in 1897. Hearing of Becquerel's experience with uranium, Rutherford started to explore its radioactivity, discovering two types that differed from X-rays in their penetrating power. Continuing his research in Canada, he coined the terms alpha ray and beta ray in 1899 to describe the two distinct types of radiation. He then discovered that thorium gave off a gas which produced an emanation which was itself radioactive and would coat other substances. He found that a sample of this radioactive material of any size invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay – its "half-life" (11½ minutes in this case).

- In 1912, Paramount Pictures is founded. From Wikipedia: 'Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Studios or simply Paramount, and formerly known as Famous Players-Lasky Corporation) is an American film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor, consistently ranked as one of the "Big Six" film studios of Hollywood. It is a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Viacom. Paramount is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company (1895) and Pathé (1896), followed by the Nordisk Film company (1906), and Universal Studios (1912). It is the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company. Hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time (leading to the slogan "Famous Players in Famous Plays"). By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success. Its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt.

That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, later known as Samuel Goldwyn. The Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a suitable location site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film, The Squaw Man.

Starting in 1914, both Lasky and Famous Players released their films through a start-up company, Paramount Pictures Corporation, organized early that year by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson, who had bought and merged several smaller firms. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies. Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly tofilm producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation.

- In 1945, V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender. From Wikipedia: 'The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany'. From Wikipedia: 'Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.

The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory. On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany.

After regaining their independence from the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries now commemorate the end of World War II on 8 May, the Victory in Europe Day. In Ukraine from 2015, 8 May was designated as a day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, but it is not a public holiday'.

- In 1980, The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox. From Wikipedia: 'Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, derived from varius ("spotted") or varus ("pimple"). The disease was originally known in English as the "pox" or "red plague"; the term "smallpox" was first used in Britain in the 15th century to distinguish variola from the "great pox" (syphilis). The last naturally occurring case of smallpox (Variola minor) was diagnosed on 26 October 1977

Infection with smallpox is focused in small blood vessels of the skin and in the mouth and throat before disseminating. In the skin it results in a characteristic maculopapular rash and, later, raised fluid-filled blisters. V. major produced a more serious disease and had an overall mortality rate of 30–35 percent. V. minor caused a milder form of disease (also known as alastrim, cottonpox, milkpox, whitepox, and Cuban itch) which killed about 1 percent of its victims. Long-term complications of V. major infection included characteristic scars, commonly on the face, which occur in 65–85 percent of survivors. Blindness resulting from corneal ulceration and scarring, and limb deformities due to arthritis and osteomyelitis were less common complications, seen in about 2–5 percent of cases.

After vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011.

The English physician Edward Jenner demonstrated the effectiveness of cowpox to protect humans from smallpox in 1796, after which various attempts were made to eliminate smallpox on a regional scale. The introduction of the vaccine to the New World took place in Trinity, Newfoundland in 1800 by Dr. John Clinch, boyhood friend and medical colleague of Jenner. As early as 1803, the Spanish Crown organized the Balmis expedition to transport the vaccine to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Philippines, and establish mass vaccination programs there. The U.S. Congress passed the Vaccine Act of 1813 to ensure that safe smallpox vaccine would be available to the American public.

The global eradication of smallpox was certified, based on intense verification activities in countries, by a commission of eminent scientists on 9 December 1979 and subsequently endorsed by the World Health Assembly on 8 May 1980'.

 III.
Top Song & Movie 50 years ago today (last updated May 7 2016 next May 28 2016

No. 1 song

  • Monday, Monday - The Mamas and the Papas
    On YouTube: More
    At Wikipedia: More
    'Good Lovin'' has been displaced by 'Monday, Monday', which will hold the no. 1 spot until May 28 1966, when 'When a Man Loves a Woman - Percy Sledge', takes over.From Wikipedia: "Monday, Monday" is a 1966 song written by John Phillips and recorded by the Mamas and the Papas using background instruments played by members of The Wrecking Crew[1] for their 1966 album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. It was the group's only number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Top movie

  • Doctor Zhivago (once again)
    At Wikipedia:  More
    On IMDb: More
    On YouTube (trailer): More
    Having displaced 'The Singing Nun', it will be there until the weekend box office of May 29 1966 when, 'The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming', takes over.
    From Wikipedia: 'Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 British-Russian-American epic romantic drama film directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. It is set in Russia between the years prior to World War I and the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, and is based on the Boris Pasternak novel of the same name. While immensely popular in the West, the book was banned in the Soviet Union for decades. For this reason, the film could not be made in the Soviet Union and was instead filmed mostly in Spain'.
  IV.
Today in the Past (reference sites): May 8
   V.
This month May 2016 (updated once a month - last updated - May 8 2016)

Monthly holiday / awareness days in May

Food
Aramanth Month - Grain of the month
Gifts From The Garden Month
International Mediterranean Diet Month
National Barbeque Month
National Egg Month
National Hamburger Month
National Mediterranean Diet Month
National Salad Month
National Salsa Month
National Sweet Vidalia Onions Month
National Vinegar Month

Health
ALS Awareness Month - (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease)
APS Awareness Month - Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome
Arthritis Awareness Month
Asthma Awareness Month
Better Hearing and Speech Month
Borderline Personality Disorder Month
Brain Tumor Awareness Month
Celiac Awareness Month
Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month
EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) Awareness Month
Family Wellness Month
Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Month
Food Allergy Action Month
Global Health and Fitness Month
Heal the Children Month
Healthy Vision Month
Huntington's Disease Awareness Month
Lupus Awareness Month
Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month
National Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month
National Better Hearing Month
National Hepatitis Awareness Month
National High Blood Pressure Education Month
National Meditation Month
National Mental Health Month
National Osteoporosis Prevention Month
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
National Physiotherapy Month
National Stroke Awareness Month
National Toddler Immunization Month
National Tuberous Sclerosis Month
National Water Safety Month
National Youth Traffic Safety Month
Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month
Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month
Prader-Willi Syndrome Awareness Month
Preeclampsia Awareness Month
Skin Cancer Awareness Month
Spiritual Literacy Month
Strike Out Strokes Month
Tay-Sachs and Canavan Diseases Month
Tourettes Syndrome Awareness Month
Toxic Encephalopathy and Chemical Injury Awareness Month
Ultra-violet Awareness Month
Women's Health Care Month
World Lyme Disease Awareness Month

Animal / Pet
Chip Your Pet Month
Gardening for Wildlife Month
Go Fetch! Food Drive for Homeless Animals Month
National Guide Dog Month
National Pet Month
National Service Dog Eye Examination Month
Pet Cancer Awareness Month

Other
American Wetlands Month
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Building Safety Month
Clean Air Month
Creative Beginnings Month
Family Reunion Month
Get Caught Reading Month
Global Civility Awareness Month
Golf Month
Haitian Heritage Month
Home Schooling Awareness Month
International Audit Month
International Business Image Improvement Month
International Victorious Woman Month
Jewish-American Heritage Month
Latino Books Month
Motorcycle Safety Month
Mystery Month
National Bike Month
National Foster Care Month
National Good Car Keeping Month
National Inventors Month
National Photo Month
National Smile Month
Personal History Month
Social Security Education Awareness Month
Tennis Month
Textile Month
Young Achievers of Tomorrow 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

  VI.
TV fifty years ago 1966 (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2016)

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

 VII.
Best selling books fifty years ago (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2016)

Best selling books of 1966 More

VIII.
Fun (Last link added October 1 2014, but content on each site may change daily)
  • 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
  IX.
Other Holiday Sites (Last link added October 1 2014. Link content changes yearly)

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


US Government Holidays

  • 2016 Postal Holidays More
  • 2016 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

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