Sunday, May 17, 2026

Paul McCartney 's "Days We Left Behind" Sounds Different From Anything the Former Beatle Has Released Before

Picture taken during the recent Paul McCartney concert in Syracuse that my son and I attended.



Earlier today, I published something about Ringo Starr's new album. Not a review, because I have not heard his new album yet. More of a little sitting back and marveling about how strange it is to hear new music released by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones more or less at the same time.

Yes, Ringo has a new album which just came out. But his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney also has an upcoming album, as do the Rolling Stones.

McCartney's new album is set to be released later this month (on the 29th, to be specific).

The first taste of the new album was a song which McCartney released. It's called "Days We Left Behind," and I have heard it now a number of times on the radio. It is good, although McCartney's voice sounds far different than anything else by him which I have heard. His voice is now revealing his age. that voice, which sounds haunting on this particular track, combines with the tone and lyrics of the song to lend it a certain melancholy - albeit beautiful - feel which also gives it a bit of a distinction among McCartney's obviously considerable body of work. 

It seemed worth sharing the link to the video for this song, which also includes the lyrics, so you can judge for yourself, if you have not already heard it.

Take a listen, and enjoy. 



Paul McCartney - Days We Left Behind (Lyric Video)  PAUL McCARTNEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n1IhyF6R0U&list=RD2n1IhyF6R0U&start_radio=1

Paul McCartney - Days We Left Behind (Lyric Video)


Ringo Starr Is Now 85, But He's Still Rocking & Has a New Album Out

This picture was taken, and recently cropped, by me. Taken from the Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band show in Worcester, Massachusetts, June 11, 2016



This picture was taken, and recently cropped, by me for the Ringo Starr In Conversation at Strands Bookstore - October 26, 2015



A few years ago - I think it might have been 2020 - some legendary musical acts released new material all at the same time. Bob Dylan released his first new song in eight years with "Murder Most Foul," and the Rolling Stones released "Living in a Ghost Town."

Well, I do not believe that Dylan released anything new this time around. But the Rolling Stones are coming out with an album of new material. And so are the two surviving Beatles.

Paul McCartney will be releasing  his new album "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" later this month.

Meanwhile, Ringo Starr just recently released his newest album, "Long Long Road."

Last month, Ringo was interviewed by the  American Association of Retired Persons. And it seemed timely to share this link here and now.

Take a look, and enjoy.



At 85, Ringo Starr Is Still Drumming and Still Surprising The Beatles legend talks about his new country album, staying sober for 38 years and the secret behind his lengthy marriage By Edna Gundersen,   AARP Published April 24, 2026

https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/music/ringo-starr-interview-long-long-road/?cmp=SNO-FB-ENT-CEL-ICM&socialid=20359251608

Ringo Starr Is Still Drumming and Still Surprising

May 17th: This Day in History

 



Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!



May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Ed is decided

In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court hands down an unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that racial segregation in public educational facilities is unconstitutional. The historic decision, which brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl who had been denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" accommodations in railroad cars conformed to the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. That ruling was used to justify segregating all public facilities, including elementary schools. However, in the case of Linda Brown, the white school she attempted to attend was far superior to her black alternative and miles closer to her home. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up Linda's cause, and in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court. African American lawyer (and future Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall led Brown's legal team, and on May 17, 1954, the high court handed down its decision.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the nation's highest court ruled that not only was the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in Linda's case, it was unconstitutional in all cases because educational segregation stamped an inherent badge of inferiority on African American students. A year later, after hearing arguments on the implementation of their ruling, the Supreme Court published guidelines requiring public school systems to integrate "with all deliberate speed."

The Brown v. Board of Education decision served to greatly motivate the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of racial segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.


Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

218   Seventh recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet


352 -   Liberius begins his reign as Catholic Pope replacing Julius I


884 - St Adrian III begins his reign as Catholic Pope

1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.

1525 - Battle at Zabern: duke of Lutherans beats rebels

1527 - Pánfilo de Narváez departs to explore Florida

1536 - Anne Boleyns 4 "lovers" executed

1540 -   Afghan chief Sher Khan defeated Mongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.


1544 - Scot earl Matthew van Lennox signs secret treaty with Henry VIII

1579 - Artois/Henegouwen/French-Flanders sign Treaty/Peace of Parma recognizing Spanish duke van Parma as land guardian

1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.

1620 - 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey)

1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi became the first to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface

1631 - Earl Johann Tilly attacks Maagdenburg

1648 - Emperor Ferdinand III defeats Maximilian I of Bavaria

1672 -   Frontenac becomes governor of New France (Canada)


1673 - Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring Mississippi

1678 - King Charles II and Louis XIV sign secret treaty



Louis XIV, the "Sun King" of France

1681 -   Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declares war on France.


1712 - Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria honored as "sovereign of Netherlands"

1733 - England passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions

1742 - Frederick great (Emperor of Prussia) beats Austrians

1744 - French army takes Austrian Netherlands

1750 - -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem

1756 - Britain declared war on France (7 Years' or the French and Indian War as it is known in the United States)

1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.

1787 - English slave ship Sisters, from Africa to Cuba, capsizes

1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established at 70 Wall Street when a group of 24 brokers and merchants met by a tree on what is now Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.

1794 - Hard frost in southern New England

1803 - John Hawkins & Richard French patent the Reaping Machine



1804 - Lewis and Clark begin exploration of Louisiana Purchase



1809 - Papal States annexed by France

1814 - Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden. Norway's constitution, which provided a limited monarchy, was signed. (National Day)

1814 - Norwegian constitution passed by constitutent assembly at Eidsvoll

1814 - Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.

1837 - Royal Decides installs the Weapon of Belgium firm(ly)

1845 - Rubber band patents

1848 - Premier earl Schimmelpenninck resigns

1849 - Fire destroy Centrum in St Louis Missouri

1853 - Thorbeckes liberals win 2nd-Parliamentary election



Flag of Australia

1859 - Australian Rules Football first 'laws of the game' published




1860 - German football club TSV 1860 München is founded

1862 - Battle of Princeton WV, ends, about 128 casualities

1863 - Battle of Big Black River Bridge, MS

1863 - Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.

1864 - Battle of Adairsville Georgia, Union forces Confederates to retreat

1865 - The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established.

1871 - Indians fighter Gen Sherman escapes in ambulance vs Comanches

1872 - Bohemian Club incorporated

1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky. Oliver Lewis aboard Aristides wins in 2:37.75

1876 - 7th US Cavalry under Custer leaves Ft Lincoln

1877 - The first telephone switchboard burglar alarm was installed by Edwin T. Holmes.

1881 - Frederick Douglass was appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, DC.

1881 - 7th Kentucky Derby: Jim McLaughlin aboard Hindoo wins in 2:40

1881 - Revised version of New Testament

1883 - Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha

1884 - Alaska becomes a US territory

1890 - Clyde Fitch's "Beau Brummel," premieres in NYC

1890 - Comic Cuts, 1st weekly comic paper, published in London

1890 - Pietro Mascagni's opera "Rustic Chivalry" premieres in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi

1894 - 19th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Assignee wins in 1:49.25

1895 - W G Grace completes his 100th 100 v Somerset at Bristol

1898 - Camp Merritt forms in Presidio [see 0503]

1899 - Victoria and Albert Museum foundation laid, London, England


The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa.

1900 - British troops relieve Mafeking (Cape Colony)





1902 - Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.

1903 - Cleve Indians beat NY Highlanders 9-2 in Columbus Ohio

1904 - Maurice Ravel's "Shéhérazade," premieres in Paris

1905 - Waseda U of Tokyo defeats LA High School 5-3 in baseball

1906 - Switzerland's Simpion Tunnel open to rail traffic

1909 - White firemen on Georgia RR strike to protest hiring blacks

1910 - Canada sets the designs for the 1-50 cent coins

1911 - 36th Preakness: Eddie Dugan aboard Watervale wins in 1:51

1915 - 40th Preakness: Douglas Hoffman aboard Rhine Maiden wins in 1:58

1915 - Cubs George "Zip" Zabel relieves with 2 outs in 1st & winds up with 4-3 19-inning win over Brooklyn in longest relief job ever

1915 - Last liberal British government of Asquith falls

1915 - National Baptist Convention chartered

1916 - British Summer Time (Daylight Savings), first introduced

1919 - War Department (UK) orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes.

1920 - First De Havilland double-decker flight (London) lands in Schiphol

1920 - First flight by Dutch airlines KLM (Koninklijke-Luchtvaart-Maatschappij)

1921 - Belgian-Luxembourg sign customs union

1921 - President Harding opens (via telephone) 1st Valencia Orange Show

1923 - Fire during closing day ceremonies at Grover Cleveland School (SC)

1924 - 50th Kentucky Derby: John Mooney aboard Black Gold wins in 2:05.2

1925 - Cleveland Indian Tris Speaker gets his 3,000th hit

1926 - Chiang Kai-shek is made supreme war lord in Canton

1926 - German government of Marx takes power

1926 - The American. Embassy in Buenos Aires was damaged by bombs that were believed set by sympathizers of Sacco and Vanzetti.

1927 - Chicago Cubs beat Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings

1927 - U.S. Army aviation pioneer, Major Harold Geiger, dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmstead Field, Pennsylvania

1928 - 9th modern Olympic games opens in Amsterdam

1930 - 56th Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Gallant Fox wins in 2:07.6

1932 - The U.S. Congress changed the name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."  

1933 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.

1937 - Juan Negrin succeeds Largo Caballero as Spain's premier

1938 - Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy

1938 - NBC aired the Information Please quiz show on the radio for the first time.

1939 - First sports telecast-Columbia vs Princeton-college baseball

1939 - The first fashion to be shown on television was broadcast in New York from the Ritz-Carleton Hotel.



1940 - Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium and began the invasion of France.

1940 - Nazi's bombs Middelburg/B IJzerdrat begins illegal defiance

1941 - Pennsylvania declares legal holiday to honor A's manager Connie Mack

1942 - Dutch SS vows loyalty to Hitler

1943 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.

1943 - World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.

1944 - -18] Allied air raid on Surabaja, Java

1944 - Chinese/US arm forces take Myitkyina Airport, Burma



General Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

1944 - General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th





1944 - Operation Straightline: Allies land in Neth New-Guinea

1945 - 2 US P-47 Thunderbolts bomb Kiushu

1946 - KVP Labor/Communists win first post-WWII Dutch parliamentary elections

1946 - President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

1947 - "Street Scene" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 148 performances

1948 - Israel liberated Acre, Nebi Yusha & Telel-Kadi

1948 - Soviet Union officially recognized Israel

1949 - British government recognized Republic of Ireland

1952 - 78th Preakness: Conn McCreary aboard Blue Man wins in 1:57.4

1953 - Yanks and Browns use record 41 players in a game

1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal,  reversing the Supreme Court's 1896 "separate but equal" Plessy Vs Ferguson decision

1955 - Dutch government of Drees resigns

1956 - The first synthetic mica (synthamica) was offered for sale in Caldwell Township, NJ.

1957 - Prayer Pilgrimage, biggest civil rights demonstration to date (DC)

1957 - School desegregation law, Brown v Board of education

1958 - 84th Preakness: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Tim Tam wins in 1:57.2

1958 - Emergency crisis proclaimed in Algeria

1959 - Sam Snead sets PGA record for 36 holes at 122

1960 - First atomic reactor system patents, J W Flora of Canoga Park CA

1961 - Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers

1962 - Marin County withdraws from BART district

1963 - Bruno Sammartino beats Buddy Rogers in NY, to become WWF champ

1963 - Houston Colt .45's Don Notterbart no-hits Phillies, 4-1

1963 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site

1964 - Phillies triple play Houston Colt .45s

1966 - KFDO (now KVIJ) TV channel 8 in Sayre, OK (ABC) begins broadcasting



1967 - Dylan's 1965 UK Tour is released as film "Don't Look Back"

1968 - European Space Research Org launches 1st satellite

1968 - Frank Howard belts record 8th HR in 5th straight game

1968 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site

1969 - "My Wife, My Dog, My Cat," by Maskman & The Agents hits #92

1969 - 95th Preakness: Bill Hartack aboard Majestic Prince wins in 1:55.6

1969 - The Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers agree to go from NFC to AFC in NFL

1969 - Russian probe Venera 6 landed on Venus

1970 - Hank Aaron becomes 9th player to get 3,000 hits

1970 - Thor Heyerdahl crosses Atlantic on reed raft Ra

1971 - Stephen Schwartz' musical "Godspell," premieres off-Broadway

1971 - Washington State bans sex discrimination

1972 - Netherlands and; China PR exchange ambassadors

1972 - Tottenham Hotspur wins 1st UEFA Cup in London

1973 - "Nash at Nine" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC for 21 performances

1973 - Joe Ferguson, hits the 6,000th Dodger home run

1973 - Televised Senate Watergate Committee hearings opened, headed by North Carolina senator Sam Ervin.

1973 - Stevie Wonder releases "You are the Sunshine of my Love"

1973 - US performs 3 nuclear tests at Rifle Colorado

1973 - Angels outfielder Bobby Valentine breaks his leg trying to scale wall to prevent a Dick Green home run during a 5-4 loss to the A's

1974 - Bayern Munchen wins 20th Europe Cup 1 at Brussels

1974 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 15th String quartet

1975 - "Funky Gibbon" by The Goodies hits #79

1975 - 101st Preakness: Darrel McHargue aboard Master Derby wins in 1:56.4

1975 - 10cc releases "I'm Not in Love"

1975 - Mick Jagger punches a restaurant window, gets 20 stitches

1975 - NBC TV bought the rights to show "Gone With the Wind." The one time rights cost NBC $5,000,000.  

1976 - 28th Emmy Awards: Mary Tyler Moore Show, Jack Albertson & M Learned

1976 - Earthquake in Uzbekistan: 1000's killed

1977 - Menahem Begins Likoed-party wins election in Israel

1978 - Lee Lacy hits record 3rd consecutive pinch-hit home run

1979 - -12°F (-11°C), on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii (state record)

1979 - Emmy 6th Daytime Award presentation

1979 - Phillies beat Cubs, 23-22, on 50 hits with 11 HRs

1980 - 106th Preakness: Angel Cordero Jr aboard Codex wins in 1:54.2

1980 - Kumar Anandan balanced on one foot for 33 hours

1980 - Major race rioting erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. Eight people were killed in the rioting, and 300 were injured.

1980 - Paul and Linda McCartney appear on Saturday Night Live

1981 - "Inacent Black" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 14 performances

1981 - Islanders score 5 power play goals against Flyers in a playoff game

1981 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Coca-Cola Golf Classic

1983 - Israel and Lebanon sign a peace treaty

1983 - Stanley Cup: NY Islanders sweep Edmonton Oilers in 4 games

1984 - Cincinnati Reds Mario Soto throws 4 strikeouts in one inning

1984 - Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend," sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.

1985 - Les Anderson, catches record 97 lb 4 oz Chinook Salmon, off Alaska

1985 - Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of "Dallas" on CBS-TV. He returned the following season.  

1986 - "Chicken Song" by Spitting Image hit #1 on the UK pop chart

1986 - 112th Preakness: Alex Solis aboard Snow Chief wins in 1:54.8

1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors and wounding 62.  Both Iraq and the United States called the attack a mistake.

1987 - "Stardust" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 102 performances

1987 - Eric ‘Sleepy’ Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set a playoff record for points in a single quarter with 29.

1989 - Longest Cab Ride Ever: 14,000 miles cost $16,000!

1989 - Napoli wins 18th UEFA Cup in Stuttgart



Statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens in front of the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa

1989 - Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa





1989 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr Gachet" auctioned for $825M

1990 - Cheers' star Kelsey Grammer sentenced to jail for 30 days for DWI

1990 - Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,831.71

1990 - European court rules pension rights for both men and women

1990 - The WHO takes Homosexuality out of its list of mental illnesses.

1992 - Expos Gary Carter is 3rd to catch 2,000 games (joins Boone & Fisk)

1993 - Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled

1994 - Bakili Muluzi's UDF wins Malawi presidents/parliamentary election



Bust of Bill Clinton in front of the Arkansas Governor's Mansion in Little Rock

1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. Megan's Law was named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1994.




1996 - Alicia Machado, 18, of Venezuela crowned 45th Miss Universe

1996 - Habib and Whitaker make 320 for 5th Cricket wkt, Leics v Worcs

1997 - 123rd Preakness: Gary Stevens aboard Silver Charm wins in 1:54

1997 - WIBC Bowling Queens won by Sandra Jo Shiery-Odom

1997 - Laurent Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), as his troops marched into Kinshasa.

1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game.

1999 - Eric Ford, a tabloid photographer, was sentenced to 6 months at a halfway house, 3 years probation and 150 hours of community service. The sentence stemmed from a charge that Ford had eavesdropped on a call between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and then sold a recording of the conversation.

1999 - Alex Trebek received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2000 - Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and David Luker surrendered to police in Birmingham, AL. The two former Ku Klux Klan members were arrested on charges from the bombing of a church in 1963 that killed four young black girls.

2000 - Austria, the U.S. and six other countries agreed on the broad outline of a plan that would compensate Nazi-Era forced labor.

2000 - In the Philippines an explosion rocks Glorietta 2 injuring 13 persons, mostly teenagers. According to local authorities, the homemade bomb was placed in front of a toilet beside a video arcade.

2000 - It was announced that Terra Networks SA and Lycos would be merging with the new name to be Terra Lycos. Terra made the deal happen with the purchase of $12.5 billion in stock.

2001 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp based on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip.

2004 - Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples exchanged marriage vows for the first time in the United States.

2006 - The U.S. aircraft carrier Oriskany was sunk about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first vessel sunk under a Navy program to dispose of old warships by turning them into diving attractions. It was the largest man-made reef at the time of the sinking.

2007 - Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.



These are the web pages that I used to complete this blog:

http://www.historyorb.com/events/may/17

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may17.htm


http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/May-17

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Some Pictures of a Woodpecker




Not sure if I ever actually published previous pictures that I took of the local woodpecker at my job before. Looked for it, but could not find it.

But I am printing these ones now.

This batch is from earlier this morning, maybe around seven or so this morning. The guy I relieve from work in the morning and I were still talking, so it was early in the shift. Maybe a little before seven, or maybe a little after, but around there for sure.

While we were talking, I happened to turn and saw this little guy digging in the topsoil. In years past, I saw either this woodpecker, or another one (probably related). Often times, he comes right up to the window and starts pecking and banging at it. My guess is that he or she thinks it is another bird, seeing it's own reflection and not recognizing it as such.

So I got up and snapped some pictures. Was not sure that any quality ones came out. Yet some of them actually did come out quite nicely, given that he kept moving away from me (probably saw motion from the other side of the window and did not want to take a chance. Despite that, the awkward angling, and the window and frames which sometimes got in the way, I managed a few decent quality shots.

That is good, because I see these guys all of the time, either hiking or walking (particularly at the Delaware Raritan Canal. Yet, it seems almost impossible to actually see them well enough in the wild to get a few good pictures.

Here are a few good pictures, which I am proud of having taken. My personal favorite is one which shows that he is not actually standing on the ground, but gripping onto the side of the revolving door. Looks like what he would likely do with a tree before he starts pecking away at it.

Very cool. So I put that one right at the top. 

Take a look and enjoy. 




















Movie Review: Knock at the Cabin

Now, I actually saw this movie, or at least a large part of this movie, probably last year or the year before at some point in time. But somehow, while it seemed entertaining and engaging, it did not quite grab me to the extent that the more recent viewing did.

Here's the scenario: there is a gay couple, Eric, played by Jonathan Groff, and Andrew, played by Ben Aldridge, who are trying to enjoy some time away at a remote cabin in the woods of Pennsylvania. They are there with their adopted daughter, Wen, played by Kristen Cui. Everything seems reasonably peaceful and quiet for the first few minutes.

Of course, that changes. Four strangers approach the cabin and demand entry. They carry these strange weapons and seem threatening. Yet, the situation is not what it might appear at first. In some ways, it is less immediately threatening than first appearances suggest. Yet, there is an eerie feeling that persists throughout the film, and it grows, if anything, once you learn more about the four strangers and what they actually want. 

Before I go on, of course, there should be the standard warning to stop reading if you intend to read this book, because there will be spoilers ahead.

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT


Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this movie already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning. 

Alright, so now that you have been warned about spoilers, and there are no excuses, let's get into the part of this review which is filled with spoilers.

The movie opens up with Wen just outside of the cabin in the woods, trying to capture butterflies. Unexpectedly, she is approached by this huge stranger, Leonard, played by Dave Bautista. He starts talking to her, and you get this eerie feeling, knowing that little children are obviously not supposed to talk to strangers. And he is just a huge man, so the situation feels threatening. Yet, he helps her to catch butterflies and does nothing outwardly or immediately threatening. 

Then, three other strangers come out of the woods. Leonard turns to them, and he suddenly seems troubled. Wen, meanwhile, feels alarmed enough to finally run away and go back to the cabin to warn her dads. They do not take her too seriously at first, until it is obvious that there are indeed people there. The phone lines are dead, and there is no cell phone reception, and the strangers clearly want to get inside of the cabin, although they insist that all they want to do is talk. They are all carrying these strange makeshift weapons, although they refer to these things as "tools." Andrew has a gun, but left it in the car, so that hardly seems like a viable option. Clearly an uncomfortable, tense situation.

Eventually, the four strangers gain entry into the cabin. Eric gets injured in the process and suffers a concussion. We see the couple tied up in chairs, and the four strangers standing before them. Wen is not tied up, and she is given free range of motion. Not surprisingly, she remains with her two dads, hugging them and clearly uncomfortable. Yet the four strangers do not seem to mean her any harm. 

At this point, the four strangers begin to introduce themselves. We already met Leonard, but learn that he is a math teacher. Then there is Adriane, played by Abby Quinn. She is a mother of a young boy, and is counting on this family to make the right choice, as she sees it. Sabrina, played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, is a broke nurse from southern California. Even after this, it remains unclear what exactly they want or why they are here. But they all have a sense of urgency about this matter, and this keeps the tension going. Finally, there is Redmond, played by Rory O'Bannon, who seems the least inviting and friendly. He is from Boston, but never has the patience to talk much about himself. Later, this comes to be part of the mystery and intrigue. For now, he seems impatient just to get this whole thing going. The mission of these four still seems mysterious, but we are about to find out what they want. 

Little by little, it is revealed to us. They are there because they kept having visions. Really, it is a message from God, or so they believe. What they say - which the family has an extremely difficult time believing - is that the world will end unless the family makes a sacrifice and kills one of their own. Suicide is not an option.

Now, this is when Redmond, one of the four invaders, becomes questionable. He had a very short fuse, and he becomes the first sacrifice when the family refuses their request for a sacrifice. Redmond is killed, and Andrew suddenly remembers something. He instinctively knew that he recognized Redmon, but could not put his finger on where he knew him from. Then he remembers having been attacked in a hate crime at a bar, and is sure that the man who attacked him is none other than Redmond. This convinces Andrew more than ever that these four are crazy and specifically targeting him and Eric for their lifestyle. 

Then, strange occurrences indeed keep happening. There is a massive tsunami that plunges much of the northwest coast of the United States underwater, creating stunning damage and deaths. After the sacrifice, there is a plague which seems to be catching on. Even after these reports, Andrew remains skeptical, claiming that it all could be a conspiracy. That these four knew of these events beforehand, and are just trying to play it on television for dramatic effect. 

However, these strange events become stranger still when literally hundreds of planes begin falling from the sky all around the globe, all at once. This is the event which finally convinces them that this is not being staged or manipulated. That this is all real. 

Eventually, they realize that there really is no escape. One person in the family needs to be sacrificed. Eric convinces Andrew, right at the end, that there can be no other way. He then gives Andrew the gun and gets him to shoot and kill him.

After the sacrifice, some semblance of normality can be restored. The world as it exists will, more or less, continue. 

This is not a typical horror movie. It builds suspense very slowly. Also, there are no real jump scares, or anything like that. Yet, it gives you a distinctly creepy feeling. There is undeniably something wrong right from the start. And as it is revealed, it feels increasingly engaging. 

The acting in the movie was solid. I was particularly pleasantly surprised by David Bautista, who is believable as a sensitive and scared, albeit huge, math teacher thrown into a very difficult and delicate situation. I only had seen him before in very different roles, and was not sure that he could do any other kinds of roles. But he was excellent in this film.

Generally, people seem to have mixed reactions to M. Night Shyamalan. I have met fans of his, and I know some people who absolutely cannot stand him. Perhaps the best description that I heard of him was from a coworker, who said that his movies are either hit or miss. He seems either to hit it out of the park, or he strikes out embarrassingly. There is no middle ground.

Yet, I rather like M. Night Shyamalan. His body of work tends to be complicated, but it seems to me that he often receives unfair criticism. Some of his movies, like The Village and especially The Happening. While those were not perfect movies, I nevertheless did not have quite as many problems with them as most people seem to have. If you suspend disbelief (which is what you often are supposed to do while watching movies or reading fiction, right?), and just accept the story for what it is, these actually can be quite moving and entertaining. 

Then there are those movies of his which everyone seems to love, including me. Classics like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Split. Those are some of the movies which, generally speaking, most viewers would tend to agree were among his best movies, the ones when he hits it out of the park. I love all of those movies and have seen each of them multiple times.

In this movie, Shyamalan manages to maintain tension consistently. Like other films, there are some surprises. In fact, it would be a surprise if there were no surprises in one of his movies. But this one works for me. 

Not sure what other people said about this one, although I saw some mixed reviews after briefly doing a Google search about the movie. Still, this one was a solid movie as far as I am concerned.

Highly recommended. 

May 16th: This Day in History

 



Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!


On this day in 955, Alberich II, the (bastard?) son of Octavianus, was elected pope. In 1165 on this day, Ramjbam & his family reached Acre Palestine. Florence became a republic on this day in 1527On this day in 1568, Mary Queen of Scotland fled to England. Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, was conceived on this day in 1571 at 4:37 AM. On this day in 1717, Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille, the most famous prison in Paris. In 1770 on this day, Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", was fought on this day in 1771 in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina. In 1804 on this day in Paris, the Senate & Tribune declared Napoleon the leader of France. Mississippi River steamboat service began on this day in 1817. On this day in 1822 during the Greek War of Independence, the Ottomans captured the Greek town of Souli. On this day in 1868, the United States Senate voted in against impeaching President Andrew Johnson of "high crimes and misdemeanors" in the first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment. In 1879 on this day, the Treaty of Gandamak established an Afghan state between Russia and the British. On this day in 1911, the Zeppelin "Deutscheland" was wrecked at Dusseldorf, Germany. The Sedition Act of 1918 was passed on this day by the U.S. Congress, effectively making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense. Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'Arc) was canonized as a saint in Rome on this day in 1920. On this day in 1940 during the German blitzkrieg campaign in western Europe of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill returned to London from Paris. In 1941 on this day during World War II, the Italian army under Aosta surrendered to the British at Amba Alagi in Ethiopia. The Germans made their last major air attack of World War II in Great Britain on this day in 1941 in Birmingham. On this day in 1943 during the Holocaust of World War II, the Jewish resistance known as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising ended in Poland after 30 days of fighting. Nazi soldiers gained control of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto, blowing up the last remaining synagogue and beginning the mass deportation of the ghetto's remaining dwellers to the Treblinka extermination camp. King Baudouin of Belgium visited what was still the Belgian colony in Congo on this day in 1955. The Big 4 summit in Paris collapsed on this day in 1960 as Soviet officials leveled spy charges against the United States due to the American U-2 spy plane incident. The iconic Pet Sounds album by the Beach Boys was released on this day in 1966. On this day in 1968, protests escalated around France. India annexed the Principality of Sikkim on this day in 1975. Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest on this day in 1975. Former Buggles members Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn replaced Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes on this day in 1980. On this day in 1986 during white minority apartheid rule, South African President P W Botha sent Coetzee to visit the imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift between the two nations when they formally met in Beijing on this day in 1989. Polls released on this day in 1992 showed that the American presidential election between candidates Ross Perot, incumbent Republican President George H.W. Bush and Democratic challenged Bill Clinton could be in a virtual deadlock. President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (since renamed Congo, as it had traditionally been before Mobutu's rule) had his 32 years of autocratic rule forcefully ended when rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila expelled him from the country. In Casablanca, Morocco, on this day in 2003, 33 civilians were killed and more than 100 people were injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. On this day in 2005, Kuwait permitted women's suffrage by a 35-23 National Assembly vote. Alex Salmond was elected First Minister of Scotland on this day in 2007, becoming the first Scottish National Party leader to be elected as First Minister after winning a historic victory at the Scottish general election on the 3rd May.



Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

   On this day in 955, Alberich II, the (bastard?) son of Octavianus, was elected pope.


   In 1165 on this day, Ramjbam & his family reached Acre Palestine.


1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

1527 -Alberich II, (bastard?) son of Octavianus elected pope


  Florence became a republic on this day in 1527.

1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor

1547 - Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg

  On this day in 1568, Mary Queen of Scotland fled to England.


Bust of Astronomer Johann Kepler

  Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, was conceived on this day in 1571 at 4:37 AM


1584 - 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond/Blokker/St-Pietersdal

1605 - Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI becomes Paul V

1606 - 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia

1648 - Battle at Zolty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks beat John Casimir

 

French Enlightenment Philosopher & Author Voltaire

  On this day in 1717, Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille, the most famous prison in Paris.      Writer Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, is imprisoned in the Bastille on this day in 1717.    The outspoken writer was born to middle-class parents, attended college in Paris, and began to study law. However, he quit law to become a playwright and made a name for himself with classical tragedies. Critics embraced his epic poem, La Henriade, but its satirical attack on politics and religion infuriated the government, and Voltaire was arrested in 1717. He spent nearly a year in the Bastille.    Voltaire's time in prison failed to dry up his satirical pen. In 1726, he was forced to flee to England. He returned several years later and continued to write plays. In 1734, his Lettres Philosophiques criticized established religions and political institutions, and he was forced to flee again. He retreated to the region of Champagne, where he lived with his mistress and patroness, Madame du Chatelet. In 1750, he moved to Berlin on the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia and later settled in Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known work, Candide. He died in Paris in 1778, having returned to supervise the production of one of his plays.  

1747 - Prince Willem V sworn in as admiral-general of Neth

1763 - Samuel Johnson 1st meets his future biographer James Boswell in London

Royal France

  In 1770 on this day, Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.  May 16, 1770: Louis marries Marie Antoinette  At Versailles, Louis, the French dauphin, marries Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. France hoped their marriage would strengthen its alliance with Austria, its longtime enemy. In 1774, with the death of King Louis XV, Louis and Marie were crowned king and queen of France.    From the start, Louis was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems he had inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In addition, his queen fell under criticism for her extravagance, her devotion to the interests of Austria, and her opposition to reform of the monarchy. Marie exerted a growing influence over her husband, and under their reign the monarchy became dangerously alienated from the French people. In a legendary episode, Marie allegedly responded to the news that the impoverished French peasantry had no food to eat by declaring "Let them eat cake."    At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Marie and Louis resisted the advice of constitutional monarchists who sought to reform the monarchy in order to save it, and by 1791 opposition to the royal pair had become so fierce that the two were forced to attempt an escape to Austria. During their trip, Marie and Louis were apprehended by revolutionary forces at Varennes, France, and carried back to Paris. There, Louis was forced to accept the constitution of 1791, which reduced him to a mere figurehead.    In August 1792, the royal couple was arrested by the sansculottes and imprisoned, and in September the monarchy was abolished by the National Convention. In November, evidence of Louis' counterrevolutionary intrigues with Austria and other foreign nations was discovered, and he was put on trial for treason by the National Convention. The following January, Louis was convicted and condemned to death by a narrow majority. On January 21, he walked steadfastly to the guillotine and was executed. Nine months later, Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason by a tribunal, and on October 16 she followed her husband to the guillotine.


 The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", was fought on this day in 1771 in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.

1792 - Denmark abolishes slave trade

1795 - Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassel state

1796 - Lombardije Republic forms 1803 - Peace of Amiens ends




French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte



  In 1804 on this day in Paris, the Senate & Tribune declared Napoleon the leader of France.


1811 - Peninsular War-Allies defeat French at Albuera

1815 - The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially names the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.

 Mississippi River steamboat service began on this day in 1817.

  On this day in 1822 during the Greek War of Independence, the Ottomans captured the Greek town of Souli.


1860 - -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln candidate

1861 - Twiggs Surrender, San Antonio, Texas during US Civil war

1861 - Confederate government offers war volunteers $10 premium

1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality

1862 - Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds first automobile

1863 - Battle of Champion's Hill, MS-bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign

1864 - Atlanta Campaign: Battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)

1864 - Battle of Bermuda Hundred, VA

1864 - Last battles at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia (6,666 casualties)

1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer

1866 - Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)

1868 - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Dalibor," premieres in Prague

1868 - The first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment in the U.S. Senate failed to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.

 On this day in 1868, the United States Senate voted in against impeaching President Andrew Johnson of "high crimes and misdemeanors" in the first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment. In February 1868, the House of Representatives charged Johnson with 11 articles of impeachment for vague "high crimes and misdemeanors." (For comparison, in 1998, President Bill Clinton was charged with two articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice during an investigation into his inappropriate sexual behavior in the White House Oval Office. In 1974, Nixon faced three charges for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.) The main issue in Johnson's trial was his staunch resistance to implementing Congress' Civil War Reconstruction policies. The War Department was the federal agency responsible for carrying out Reconstruction programs in the war-ravaged southern states and when Johnson fired the agency's head, Edwin Stanton, Congress retaliated with calls for his impeachment.    Of the 11 counts, several went to the core of the conflict between Johnson and Congress. The House charged Johnson with illegally removing the secretary of war from office and for violating several Reconstruction Acts. The House also accused the president of hurling slanderous "inflammatory and scandalous harangues" against Congressional members. On February 24, the House passed all 11 articles of impeachment and the process moved into a Senate trial.    The Senate trial lasted until May 26, 1868. Johnson did not attend any of the proceedings and was not required to do so. After all the arguments had been presented for and against him, Johnson waited for his fate, which hung on one swing vote. By a vote of 35-19, Johnson was acquitted and finished out his term. Presidents Johnson and Clinton are the only presidents for whom the impeachment process went as far as a Senate trial. Nixon resigned before the House of Representatives could vote on impeachment.

1869 - Cincinnati Reds play their first baseball game, win 41-7

1872 - Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for first time

1874 - First recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg Mass)

1875 - Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000

1877 - May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.

1879 - Antonin Dvorák's "Slavic Dancing," premieres

• In 1879 on this day, the Treaty of Gandamak established an Afghan state between Russia and the British.


1881 - In Germany, the world's first electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)

1882 - 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40.00

1884 - 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40.25

1888 - The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.

1888 - CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

1888 - The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.

1891 - George A Hormel and; Co introduce Spam

1894 - Fire in Boston destroys baseball stadium & 170 other buildings

1901 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Priory School" (BG)


1903 - First transcontinental motorcycle trip begins at SF (George Wymann)

1903 - George Wyman makes 1st motorcycle trip across the US

1910 - The U.S. Bureau of Mines was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1911 - Remains of a neanderthal man found in Jersey UK

  On this day in 1911, the Zeppelin "Deutscheland" was wrecked at Dusseldorf, Germany.


1914 - The American Horseshoe Pitchers Association (AHPA) was formed in Kansas City, Kansas.

1914 - Ewing Field, near Masonic Street, opens

1916 - 41st Preakness: Linus McAtee aboard Damrosch wins in 1:54.8

  The Sedition Act of 1918 was passed on this day by the U.S. Congress, effectively making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.



Picture of the Monument Jeanne d'Arc/Joan of Arc Monument (above) in the gardens in Québec City which now bears her name.


Joan of Arc Statue in Philadelphia



  Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'Arc) was canonized as a saint in Rome on this day in 1920.


1920 - Spanish bullfighter Joselito is fatally gored fighting his last bull

1921 - 47th Preakness: F Coltiletti aboard Broomspun wins in 1:54.2

1922 - White Star Line Majestic completes 5½ day maiden voyage

1924 - 108°F (42°C) in Blitzen Oregon


1927 - Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax

1929 - The first Academy Awards were given on this night. The term, Oscars, was not used to describe the statuettes given to actors and actresses until 1931. "Wings," Emil Jennings and Janet Gaynor wins

1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.



1936 - First British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France


1938 - 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire (Atlanta Ga)


1939 - Food stamps are First issued

1940 - Nazi's forbid non-professional auto workers



Statue of soldier, author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London

  On this day in 1940 during the German blitzkrieg campaign in western Europe of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill returned to London from Paris.

1941 - First US/radio performance of Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"


  In 1941 on this day during World War II, the Italian army under Aosta surrendered to the British at Amba Alagi in Ethiopia.

  The Germans made their last major air attack of World War II in Great Britain on this day in 1941 in Birmingham.


1941 - Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)

1942 - First transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma

1943 - -17th] RAF bombs Möhne & Eder (Battle of Ruhr)


 On this day in 1943 during the Holocaust of World War II, the Jewish resistance known as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising ended in Poland after 30 days of fighting. Nazi soldiers gained control of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto, blowing up the last remaining synagogue and beginning the mass deportation of the ghetto's remaining dwellers to the Treblinka extermination camp.    Shortly after the German occupation of Poland began, the Nazis forced the city's Jewish citizens into a "ghetto" surrounded by barbed wire and armed SS guards. The Warsaw Ghetto had an area of only 840 acres but soon held almost 500,000 Jews in deplorable conditions. Disease and starvation killed thousands every month, and beginning in July 1942, 6,000 Jews a day were transferred to the Treblinka concentration camp. Although the Nazis assured the remaining Jews that their relatives and friends were being sent to work camps, word soon reached the ghetto that deportation to the camp meant extermination. An underground resistance group was established in the ghetto--the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB)--and limited arms were acquired at great cost.    On January 18, 1943, when the Nazis entered the ghetto to prepare a group for transfer, a ZOB unit ambushed them. Fighting lasted for several days, and a number of Germans soldiers were killed before they withdrew. On April 19, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler announced that the ghetto was to be cleared out in honor of Hitler's birthday the following day, and more than 1,000 SS soldiers entered the confines with tanks and heavy artillery. Although many of the ghetto's remaining 60,000 Jewish dwellers attempted to hide themselves in secret bunkers, more than 1,000 ZOB members met the Germans with gunfire and homemade bombs. Suffering moderate casualties, the Germans initially withdrew but soon returned, and on April 24 they launched an all-out attack against the Warsaw Jews. Thousands were slaughtered as the Germans systematically moved down the ghetto, blowing up buildings one by one. The ZOB took to the sewers to continue the fight, but on May 8 their command bunker fell to the Germans, and their resistant leaders committed suicide. By May 16, the ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, and mass deportation of the last Warsaw Jews to Treblinka began.    During the uprising, some 300 hundred German soldiers were killed to the thousands of Warsaw Jews who perished. Virtually all the former ghetto residents who survived to reach Treblinka were dead by the end of the war.   



1944 - First of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz

1944 - Milt police attack gypsies

1945 - Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon Okinawa

1946 - The Irving Berlin musical "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman premieres in Broadway, NYC

1946 - Jack Mullin showed the world the first magnetic tape recorder.

1948 - The body of CBS News correspondent George Polk was found in Solonika Bay in Greece. It had been a week after he'd disappeared.

1948 - Botvinnik wins 5-player tournament to determine world chess champion

1948 - Chaim Weizmann elected 1st president of Israel

1948 - Egyptians enter the Gaza

1948 - George Polk, CBS news correspondant, body found

1948 - Israel issues its first postage stamps

1951 - The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

1952 - "New Faces (of 1952)" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 365 performances

1953 - Phillies Curt Simmons gives up a single, then retires next 27 in a row

1954 - Ted Williams gets 8 hits in 1st game (DH) since breaking collarbone

1954 - WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast

1955 - Heavyweight Rocky Marciano KOs Don Cockell in SF

  King Baudouin of Belgium visited what was still the Belgian colony in Congo on this day in 1955.


1955 - Rocky Marciano TKOs Don Cockell in 9 for heavyweight boxing title

1956 - Egypt recognizes People's Republic of China

1956 - Great Britain performs nuclear Test at Monte Bello Is Australia

1956 - Kraft Theater presents an act from "Profiles in Courage"



1957 - Maj Irwin, USAAF flies a Lockheed Starfight to a record 1,404.18 MPH

1957 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Invicti Athletae

1957 - US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton Conn

1957 - Yanks involved in Copacabana Incident, leads to Billy Martin trade

1958 - Eli Beeding experiences 83 g deceleration on a rocket sled, New Mex

1958 - Walter Irwin flies 2,259 KPH in F-104A Starfighter

1959 - 85th Preakness: William Harmatz aboard Royal Orbit wins in 1:57

1959 - WTOM TV channel 4 in Cheboygan, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting

  The Big 4 summit in Paris collapsed on this day in 1960 as Soviet officials leveled spy charges against the United States due to the American U-2 spy plane incident.

1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

1961 - 13rd Emmy Awards: Jack Benny Show, Raymond Burr & Barbara Stanwyck

1963 - "Beast in Me" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 4 performances

1963 - After 22 Earth orbits in Faith 7, Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, ending Project Mercury.

1964 - 90th Preakness: Bill Hartack aboard Northern Dancer wins in 1:56.8

1964 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1964 - Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ

1965 - "Roar of the Greasepaint" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 232 perfs

1965 - Balt Oriole Jim Palmer's pitching debut, beats Yankees 7-5 & homers

1965 - Bomb destroys USAF base Bien Hoa South Vietnam

1965 - Spaghetti-O's went on sale.

1965 - WNJU TV channel 47 in NY-Linden, NY (TEL) begins broadcasting

1965 - The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.



The cover of the landmark "Pet Sounds" album by the Beach Boys

  The iconic Pet Sounds album by the Beach Boys was released on this day in 1966.



1966 - National Welfare Rights Organization organizes

1966 - Stokely Carmichael named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating

1967 - Phila voters approve a $13 million bond issue to build a new stadium

1968 - Earthquake kills 47 in Japan


Le Drapeau Tricolore (Tricour Flag) which was a product of the French Revolution, and which remains the national flag of France to this day.

• On this day in 1968, protests escalated around France.  In France, the May 1968 crisis grew as a general strike spreads to factories and industries across the country, shutting down newspaper distribution, air transport, and two major railroads. By the end of the month, millions of workers were on strike, and France seemed to be on the brink of radical leftist revolution.    After the Algerian crisis of the l950s, France entered a period of stability in the 1960s. The French empire was abolished, the economy improved, and President Charles de Gaulle was a popular ruler. Discontent lay just beneath the surface, however, especially among young students, who were critical of France's outdated university system and the scarcity of employment opportunity for university graduates. Sporadic student demonstrations for education reform began in 1968, and on May 3 a protest at the Sorbonne (the most celebrated college of the University of Paris) was broken up by police. Several hundred students were arrested and dozens were injured.    In the aftermath of the incident, courses at the Sorbonne were suspended, and students took to the streets of the Latin Quarter (the university district of Paris) to continue their protests. On May 6, battles between the police and students in the Latin Quarter led to hundreds of injuries. On the night of May 10, students set up barricades and rioted in the Latin Quarter. Nearly 400 people were hospitalized, more than half of them police. Leftist students began calling for radical economic and political change in France, and union leaders planned strikes in support of the students. In an effort to defuse the crisis by returning the students to school, Prime Minister Georges Pompidou announced that the Sorbonne would be reopened on May 13.    On that day, students occupied the Sorbonne buildings, converting it into a commune, and striking workers and students protested in the Paris streets. During the next few days, the unrest spread to other French universities, and labor strikes rolled across the country, eventually involving several million workers and paralyzing France. On the evening of May 24, the worst fighting of the May crisis occurred in Paris. Revolutionary students temporarily seized the Bourse (Paris Stock Exchange), raised a communist red flag over the building, and then tried to set it on fire. One policeman was killed in the night's violence.    During the next few days, Prime Minister Pompidou negotiated with union leaders, making a number of concessions, but failed to end the strike. Radical students openly called for revolution but lost the support of mainstream communist and trade union leaders, who feared that they, like the Gaullist establishment, would be swept away in a revolution led by anarchists and Trotskyites. On May 30, President de Gaulle went on the radio and announced that he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling national elections. He appealed for law and order and implied that he would use military force to return order to France if necessary. Loyal Gaullists and middle-class citizens rallied around him, and the labor strikes were gradually abandoned. Student protests continued until June 12, when they were banned. Two days later, the students were evicted from the Sorbonne.    In the two rounds of voting on June 23 and 30, the Gaullists won a commanding majority in the National Assembly. In the aftermath of the May events, de Gaulle's government made a series of concessions to the protesting groups, including higher wages and improved working conditions for workers, and passed a major education reform bill intended to modernize higher education. After 11 years of rule, Charles de Gaulle resigned the presidency in 1969 and was succeeded by Pompidou. He died the next year just before his 80th birthday. 

1969 - Barbra Streisand appears at a Friars Club Tribute

1969 -   Students occupies Magden House Amsterdam


1969 - US nuclear sub Guitarro sinks off SF

1969 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1969 - Venera 5, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus, and returns data on the atmosphere.

1969 - Who's Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey charged with assault

1970 - 96th Preakness: Eddie Belmonte aboard Personality wins in 1:56.2

1970 - Grover Henson Feels Forgotten by Bill Cosby hits #70

1971 - U.S. postage for a one-ounce first class stamp was increased from 6 to 8 cents.

1971 - Benjamin Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave," premieres in Aldwych

1971 - Bulgaria adopts it's constitution

1972 - "Don't Play Us Cheap" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 164 perfs

1972 - Greg Luzinski's 500' HR hits Liberty Bell monument in Phila Vet

1973 - ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Dave Soutar

1973 - AC Milan wins 13th Europe Cup II in Saloniki

1974 - Helmut Schmidt becomes West German chancellor

1974 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR


  India annexed the Principality of Sikkim on this day in 1975.


 Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest on this day in 1975.    Via the southeast ridge route, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.    Located in the central Himalayas on the border of China and Nepal, Everest stands 29,035 feet above sea level. Called Chomo-Lungma, or "Mother Goddess of the Land," by the Tibetans, the English named the mountain after Sir George Everest, an early 19th-century British surveyor of the Himalayas. In May 1953, climber and explorer Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first successful climb of the peak. Hillary was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for the achievement. Ten years later, American James Whittaker reached Everest's summit with his Sherpa climbing partner, Nawang Gombu. In 1975, Junko Tabei conquered the mountain, and in 1988 Stacy Allison became the first American woman to successfully climb Everest.

1975 - Muhammad Ali TKOs Ron Lyle in 11 for heavyweight boxing title

1975 - Wings release "Listen to What the Man Said" in UK

1976 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens sweep Phila Flyers in 4 games

1977 - Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling on top of the Pan Am Building in Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.

1977 - Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1979 - FC Barcelona wins 19th Europe Cup II in Basel

1979 - NL approves Astros sales from Ford Motors to John J McMullen for $19M

1980 - 34th NBA Championship: LA Lakers beat Phila 76ers, 4 games to 2

1980 - Brian May of rock group Queen collapses on stage with hepatitis

1980 - Paul McCartney releases "McCartney II" album

 Former Buggles members Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn replaced Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes on this day in 1980.


1981 - "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks

1981 - 107th Preakness: Jorge Velasquez aboard Pleasant Colony wins in 1:54.6

1981 - Houston Astro Craig Reynolds hits 3 triples beating Cubs 6-1

1982 - "Barnum" closes at St James Theater NYC after 854 performances

1982 - "Is There Life after High School?" closes at Barrymore after 12 perfs

1982 - Columbia moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating in preparation for STS-4

1982 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Lady Michelob Golf Tournament

1982 - Salvador Jorge Blanco wins presidential election in Dominican Rep

1982 - Stanley Cup: NY Islanders sweep Vancouver Canucks in 4 games

1983 - Lebanese parliament accept peace accord with Israel

1983 - Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement rebels against the Sudanese government.

1984 - Guinea-Bissau adopts constitution

1984 - Juventus wins 24th Europe Cup II in Basel

1984 - Phillie pitcher Steve Carlton hits a grand slam homer

1984 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site

1984 - Mackay pays $218,718 for 44,166 tickets to keep Twins in Minnesota Twins sell 51,863 tickets but only 6,346 fans show up for the game

1985 - Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year

1985 - Pope John Paul II arrives in Belgium

1986 - "Top Gun," premieres

1986 - Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) comes back from dead on Dallas

1986 - Joaquín Balaguers PRSC wins Dominican Rep parliamentary election



Flag of South Africa during the apartheid era

  On this day in 1986 during white minority apartheid rule, South African President P W Botha sent Coetzee to visit the imprisoned Nelson Mandela.


1986 - The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.

1987 - "Mystery of Edwin Drood" closes at Imperial NYC after 608 perfs

1987 - 113th Preakness: Chris McCarron aboard Alysheba wins in 1:55.8

1987 - Weird Al Yankovic performs live at 72nd National Orange Show

1987 - The Bobro 400 set sail from New York Harbor with 3,200 tons of garbage. The barge travelled 6,000 miles in search of a place to dump its load. It returned to New York Harbor after 8 weeks with the same load.

1988 - A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar was as heroin and cocaine.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police do not have to have a search warrant to search discarded garbage.  

  Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift between the two nations when they formally met in Beijing on this day in 1989.


1990 - Dominican Republic President Joaquín Ricardo Balaguer re-elected

1990 - Juventus wins 19th UEFA Cup in Avellino

1991 - Daily Planet fires cub reporter Jimmy Olson (Superman character)

1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the United States Congress.

1992 - "Smells Like Nirvana," by Weird Al Yankovic hits #35

1992 - 118th Preakness: Chris McCarron aboard Pine Bluff wins in 1:55.6

  Polls released on this day in 1992 showed that the American presidential election between candidates Ross Perot, incumbent Republican President George H.W. Bush and Democratic challenged Bill Clinton could be in a virtual deadlock.


1992 - US space shuttle STS-49 landed safely (maiden voyage of Endeavour)

1993 - "3 Men on a Horse" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 40 performances

1993 - "Wilder, Wilder, Wilder" closes at Circle in Sq NYC after 30 perfs

1993 - Farmer Sugeng finds 1.2 million year old Pithecanthropus IX skull

1993 - Judd Nelson pleads no contest to kicking Kim Evans in the head

1993 - Suleyman Demirel elected president of Turkey

1994 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Orlando FL on WTKS 104.1 FM

1994 - Jacqueline Onassis admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment

1994 - Joaquín Balaguer (86) elected president of Dominican Republic

1994 - Tennis star Jennifer Capriati arrested on possession of marijuana

1996 - Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.

1995 - Japanese police arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara and charged him with Nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier

1996 - Sammy Sosa is 1st Chic Cub to hit 2 HRS in 1 inning


 President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (since renamed Congo, as it had traditionally been before Mobutu's rule) had his 32 years of autocratic rule forcefully ended when rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila expelled him from the country.


1997 - Atlanta Braves beat St Louis Cardinals, 1-0 in 13 innings

1997 - Brandi Sherwood, (Idaho) replaces Brook Lee (Miss Univ) as Miss USA

1997 - Brook Mehealani Lee, 26, of US crowned 46th Miss Universe

1997 - Expos trailing SF Giants by 9 runs comeback to win 14-13

1997 - St Louis Cards Gary Gaetti records his 2,000th hits 1998 - 124th Preakness

2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.

  In Casablanca, Morocco, on this day in 2003, 33 civilians were killed and more than 100 people were injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.


2003 - Adam Rich was placed on three years probation after he pled no contest to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He was also ordered to take part ina 60-day treatment program and pay about $1,200 in fines.

2004 - The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.

  On this day in 2005, Kuwait permitted women's suffrage by a 35-23 National Assembly vote.


2005 - Sony Corp. unveiled three styles of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine.

2006 - A large earthquake (7.4 on the Richter scale) occurs near New Zealand.

  Alex Salmond was elected First Minister of Scotland on this day in 2007, becoming the first Scottish National Party leader to be elected as First Minister after winning a historic victory at the Scottish general election on the 3rd May.



2011   Space shuttle Endeavour launches for its final commission in space


 

These are the web pages that I used to complete this blog:

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may16.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history