May 5th: 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!

http://www.history.com/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!

Now, I will admit that I did not see this one coming! May 5th resonates for one thing in particular in the United State, and that is the Cinqo de Mayo festivities, celebrating Mexican national heritage. But the History Channel website decides to focus on the first Americans in space, which is also a momentous occasion. Here is their article, and the website is: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 553, the Second Council of Constantinople (Fifth Ecumenical Council) opened. Kublai Khan became the ruler of the Mongol Empire on this day in 1260. The Battle of Beverhoutsveld was fought on this day in 1382, and the local population defeated a drunken army. King Charles I surrendered at Scotland on this day in 1646. Marie de Camargo, at the time just aged 16, premiered at the Opera of Paris on this day in 1726. Russia & Prussia sign the Treaty of Saint Petersburg on this day in 1762, which ended the Seven Years War. On this day in 1789, the Estates-General of France convened in Versailles, the first time that they had met since 1614. Many feel that this truly marked the start of the French Revolution, and a catalyst for events to come. King Louis XVI had summoned the Estates-General, which was an assembly consisting of and representing the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners (known as the Third Estate), which was to take an active role in addressing France's financial crisis. On this day during the War of 1812, the British attacked American forces at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. In 1821 on this day, former French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena. On this day in 1862, the Mexican army managed a victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867). This historical event is what the Cinco de Mayo celebrates, although it is not as major a holiday inside of Mexico itself. Carnegie Hall (then known as Music Hall) opened in New York City on this day in 1891. Peter Tchaikovsky was the guest conductor. The U.S. Congress extended the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 more years on this day in 1892. The act required Chinese in the U.S. to be registered or face deportation. The Panic of 1893 occurred on this day in 1893, as there was a huge crash in the New York Stock Exchange. The German-Latvian peace treaty was signed on this day in 1920. Polish troops occupied Kiev on this day in 1920. Afrikaans was established as an official language in South Africa on this day in 1925. On this day in 1941 during World War II, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa, the national capital exactly five years to the day after it had been occupied by Italy. Gandhi was freed from prison on this day in 1944. In 1945 on this day during the final days of World War II in Europe, Nazi German Admiral Karl Dönitz, who became the leader of Germany after Hitler's death by suicide, ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases. On this day in 1955, the Allies of World War II (the United States, France, and Great Britain) ended their military occupation of West Germany one decade after the end of the war, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) officially became a sovereign state. On this day in 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space aboard Freedom 7.

CINQO DE MAYO

The History Channel website did have something to say about the Cinqo de Mayo, although you have to search a little deeper. Here is what it says:

Cinco de Mayo—or the fifth of May—commemorates the Mexican army's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867). A relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Cinco de Mayo traditions include parades, mariachi music performances and street festivals in cities and towns across Mexico and the United States.

History of Cinco de Mayo: Battle of Puebla In 1861 the liberal Mexican Benito Juárez (1806-1872) became president of a country in financial ruin, and he was forced to default on his debts to European governments. In response, France, Britain and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, ruled by Napoleon III (1808-1873), decided to use the opportunity to carve a dependent empire out of Mexican territory. Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving President Juárez and his government into retreat.   

Certain that success would come swiftly, 6,000 French troops under General Charles Latrille de Lorencez (1814-1892) set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. From his new headquarters in the north, Juárez rounded up a rag-tag force of 2,000 loyal men—many of them either indigenous Mexicans or of mixed ancestry—and sent them to Puebla. Led by Texas-born General Ignacio Zaragoza (1829-1862), the vastly outnumbered and poorly supplied Mexicans fortified the town and prepared for the French assault. On May 5, 1862, Lorencez drew his army, well provisioned and supported by heavy artillery, before the city of Puebla and led an assault from the north. The battle lasted from daybreak to early evening, and when the French finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers. Fewer than 100 Mexicans had been killed in the clash.   

Although not a major strategic win in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza's success at Puebla represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and bolstered the resistance movement. Six years later—thanks in part to military support and political pressure from the United States, which was finally in a position to aid its besieged neighbor after the end of the Civil War—France withdrew. The same year, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, who had been installed as emperor of Mexico by Napoleon in 1864, was captured and executed by Juárez's forces. Puebla de Los Angeles was renamed for General Zaragoza, who died of typhoid fever months after his historic triumph there.  

Cinco de Mayo in Mexico 

Within Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is primarily observed in the state of Puebla, where Zaragoza’s unlikely triumph occurred, although other parts of the country also take part in the celebration. Traditions include military parades, recreations of the Battle of Puebla and other festive events. For many Mexicans, however, May 5 is a day like any other: It is not a federal holiday, so offices, banks and stores remain open.  

Cinco de Mayo in the United States 

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is widely interpreted as a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with substantial Mexican-American populations. Chicano activists raised awareness of the holiday in the 1960s, in part because they identified with the victory of indigenous Mexicans over European invaders during the Battle of Puebla. Today, revelers mark the occasion with parades, parties, mariachi music, Mexican folk dancing and traditional foods such as tacos and mole poblano. Some of the largest festivals are held in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.  

Confusion with Mexican Independence Day 

Many people outside Mexico mistakenly believe that Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican independence, which was declared more than 50 years before the Battle of Puebla. That event is commemorated on September 16, the anniversary of the revolutionary priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s famous “Grito de Dolores” (“Cry of Dolores”), a call to arms that amounted to a declaration of war against the Spanish colonial government in 1810.

Here is an article on it from the National Geographic Website:

Cinco de Mayo History: From Bloodshed to Beer Fest

The history of Cinco de Mayo: from Mexican battle to U.S. bacchanal.

Stefan Lovgren in Los Angeles for National Geographic News 

Updated May 5, 2010  

Today fiesta lovers across the United States will gather to celebrate the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo—literally "May 5" in Spanish. And some U.S. partygoers may be surprised to learn that Cinco de Mayo history is short on beer, long on bloodshed.  

Cinco de Mayo is often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16. On that date in 1810, Mexico declared its independence from Spanish rule. (Related blog post: Cinco de Mayo in any language.)  

Cinco de Mayo actually commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Yet Cinco de Mayo is celebrated only sporadically in Mexico, mainly in the southern town of Puebla (see map of Puebla) and a few larger cities.  

In recent years, though, Cinco de Mayo rapidly gained popularity in the U.S., where changing demographics have helped to turn the holiday into a cultural event. Latinos are the largest minority in the U.S. today with 44.3 million people, representing 15 percent of the population, according to a July 2008 U.S. Census Bureau report.  

A 1998 study in the Journal of American Culture found that the number of official U.S. celebrations of Cinco de Mayo topped 120.  

In 2006 the number of official Cinco de Mayo events was 150 or more, according to José Alamillo, professor of ethnic studies at Washington State University in Pullman, who has studied the cultural impact of Cinco de Mayo north of the border.  

Cinco de Mayo is even celebrated in towns across the U.S. that are predominately non-Hispanic, he noted.

"Cinco de Mayo, he said, is "definitely becoming more popular than St. Patrick's Day."  

(Related blog post: Happy Cinco de Mayo!)  

Cinco de Mayo History: Battle of Puebla  In 1862 a Mexican militia led by General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated far better equipped French expeditionary forces on Cinco de Mayo.  

Emperor Napoleon III had sent French troops to Mexico to secure dominance over the former Spanish colony and install one of his relatives, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as its ruler.  

Zaragoza won the battle, but the Mexicans ultimately lost the war. Maximilian became Mexico's emperor for three years before the country reclaimed its independence.  

Cinco de Mayo: From Brotherly Love to Chicano Power  

Cinco de Mayo gained its first popularity in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, partly because of an outpouring of brotherly love, Alamillo says.  

"The reason it became more popular [in the U.S. during that time] was in part because of the Good Neighbor policy," he said, referring to a U.S. government effort at the time to reach out to neighboring countries.  

"Cinco de Mayo's purpose was to function as a bridge between these two cultures," Alamillo said.  

The holiday's popularity really grew in the 1960s, when Mexican-American, or Chicano, activists embraced the holiday as a way to build pride among Mexican Americans, Alamillo says.  

The 1862 Cinco de Mayo victory carries a strong anti-imperialist message that resonates with many Mexican Americans, experts say.  

"As a community, we are tough and committed, and we believe that we can prevail," said Robert Con Davis-Undiano, a professor of Chicano studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.  

"That was the attitude of the ragtag Mexican troops who faced and defeated the French in Puebla," he said. 

"And Mexican Americans, other Latinos, and literally everyone can feel proud and motivated by that message."  

At the same time, Cinco de Mayo was transformed from a strictly nationalist celebration to a bicultural event that expressed the Mexican Americans' identity, Washington State's Alamillo says.  

"It allowed for Anglo-Americans to partake in and learn about Mexican culture through Cinco de Mayo," Alamillo said. (Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with pictures of Mexico.)  

"Mexican Americans by this point were interested in building this relationship, because they were asking for certain political demands and for more resources for the community.  

"It became a really interesting negotiation festival in a lot of ways."  

Cinco de Mayo: From Culture to Commercialism  

Then came the 1980s, and the commercialization of Cinco de Mayo.  

This, Alamillo says, is when the meaning of Cinco de Mayo changed from community self-determination to a drinking holiday for many people.  

He says U.S. corporations, particularly those selling alcohol, were eager to tap into the expanding Hispanic population in the U.S.  

"It's not just the large number of the Hispanics but also that it's a very young population that is particularly receptive to advertisers," Alamillo said.  

"Cinco de Mayo became a vehicle to tap into that market."  

Davis-Undiano, the University of Oklahoma professor, still sees Cinco de Mayo as a positive force that can bring Latinos and non-Latinos together, especially at a time when tensions surrounding the illegal immigration debate run high.  

(Related news: "U.S. Immigration Law Could Harm Desert Animals, Critics Say.") 

"I'm convinced there is a lot of unprocessed anxiety among non-Latinos concerning what changes that will come with a much larger Latino population," he said.  

"Cinco de Mayo gives everyone a chance to feel like a single community."  

Original version posted May 5, 2006

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100505-cinco-de-mayo-history/

Finally, I thought it appropriate to get a more historical perspective from a Mexican (or what purports to be Mexican, in any case) website. So here is the history, according to Mexonline.com: http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm

Introduction 

The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually September 16.    

Setting The Stage 

The battle at Puebla in 1862 happened at a violent and chaotic time in Mexico's history. Mexico had finally gained independence from Spain in 1821 after a difficult and bloody struggle, and a number of internal political takeovers and wars, including the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the Mexican Civil War of 1858, had ruined the national economy.

During this period of struggle Mexico had accumulated heavy debts to several nations, including Spain, England and France, who were demanding repayment. Similar debt to the U.S. was previously settled after the Mexican-American War. France was eager to expand its empire at that time, and used the debt issue to move forward with goals of establishing its own leadership in Mexico. Realizing France's intent of empire expansion, Spain and England withdrew their support. When Mexico finally stopped making any loan payments, France took action on its own to install Napoleon III's relative, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as ruler of Mexico.  Mexico Confronts 

The Invasion

France invaded at the gulf coast of Mexico along the state of Veracruz (see map) and began to march toward Mexico City, a distance today of less than 600 miles. Although American President Abraham Lincoln was sympathetic to Mexico's cause, and for which he is honored in Mexico, the U.S. was involved in its own Civil War at the time and was unable to provide any direct assistance.

Marching on toward Mexico City, the French army encountered strong resistance near Puebla at the Mexican forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. Lead by Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, a smaller, poorly armed militia estimated at 4,500 men were able to stop and defeat a well outfitted French army of 6,500 soldiers, which stopped the invasion of the country. The victory was a glorious moment for Mexican patriots, which at the time helped to develop a needed sense of national unity, and is the cause for the historical date's celebration.   

Unfortunately, the victory was short lived. Upon hearing the bad news, Napoleon III had found an excuse to send more troops overseas to try and invade Mexico again, even against the wishes of the French populace. 30,000 more troops and a full year later, the French were eventually able to depose the Mexican army, take over Mexico City and install Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico.

Maximilian's rule of Mexico was also short lived, from 1864 to 1867. With the American Civil War now over, the U.S. began to provide more political and military assistance to Mexico to expel the French, after which Maximilian was executed by the Mexicans - his bullet riddled shirt is kept at the museum at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City. So despite the eventual French invasion of Mexico City, Cinco de Mayo honors the bravery and victory of General Zaragoza's smaller, outnumbered militia at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  

Today's Celebration 

For the most part, the holiday of Cinco de Mayo is more of a regional holiday in Mexico, celebrated most vigorously in the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday throughout the country with different levels of enthusiasm, but it's nothing like that found in Puebla.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo has become increasingly popular along the U.S.-Mexico border and in parts of the U.S. that have a high population of people with a Mexican heritage. In these areas the holiday is a celebration of Mexican culture, of food, music, beverage and customs unique to Mexico.   

Commercial interests in the United States and Mexico have also had a hand in promoting the holiday, with products and services focused on Mexican food, beverages and festivities, with music playing a more visible role as well. Several cities throughout the U.S. hold parades and concerts during the week following up to May 5th, so that Cinco de Mayo has become a bigger holiday north of the border than it is to the south, and being adopted into the holiday calendar of more and more people every year.  

[Sources: Encyclopedia Encarta, Encyclopedia Britanica, Prescott's Mexico:1900, HistoryChannel.com, other sources. minor edits April 25, 2007]

• On this day in 553, the Second Council of Constantinople (Fifth Ecumenical Council) opened.

• Kublai Khan became the ruler of the Mongol Empire on this day in 1260.

•  The Battle of Beverhoutsveld was fought on this day in 1382, and the local population defeated a drunken army.

1430 - Jews are expelled from Speyer Germany

Christopher Columbus

1494 - On second voyage to New World, Christopher Columbus sighted Jamaica on his second trip to the Western Hemisphere. He named the island Santa Gloria.

1640 - English Short Parliament unites

• King Charles I surrendered at Scotland on this day in 1646.

1665 - Nicolaas Witsen visits patriarch Nikon in Moscow

•  Marie de Camargo, at the time just aged 16, premiered at the Opera of Paris on this day in 1726.

• Russia & Prussia sign the Treaty of Saint Petersburg on this day in 1762, which ended the Seven Years War.

1764 - Smolny-institution forms in St Petersburg for noble girls

1780 - Second oldest learned society in US (American Academy of Arts & Sciences) forms (Boston)

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 1789, the Estates-General of France convened in Versailles, the first time that they had met since 1614. Many feel that this truly marked the start of the French Revolution, and a catalyst for events to come. King Louis XVI had summoned the Estates-General, which was an assembly consisting of and representing the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners (known as the Third Estate), which was to take an active role in addressing France's financial crisis. 

1798 - U.S. Secretary of War William McHenry ordered that the USS Constitution be made ready for sea. The frigate was launched on October 21, 1797, but had never been put to sea.

1809 - Citizenship is denied to Jews of Canton of Aargau Switzerland

1809 - Mary Kies of South Killingly, Conn., became the first woman to be granted a patent. The patent was for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.

• On this day during the War of 1812, the British attacked American forces at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York.

1816 - American Bible Society organized (New York)

Pictures from the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, where Napoleon is buried.

• In 1821 on this day, former French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena. Napoleon Bonaparte, the former French ruler who once ruled an empire that stretched across Europe, dies as a British prisoner on the remote island of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean.    The Corsica-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoleon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over the reigns of the French government and save his nation from collapse. After becoming first consul in February 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802, he established the Napoleonic Code, a new system of French law, and in 1804 was crowned emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral. By 1807, Napoleon controlled an empire that stretched from the River Elbe in the north, down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees to the Dalmatian coast.    Beginning in 1812, Napoleon began to encounter the first significant defeats of his military career, suffering through a disastrous invasion of Russia, losing Spain to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula War, and enduring total defeat against an allied force by 1814. Exiled to the island of Elba, he escaped to France in early 1815 and raised a new Grand Army that enjoyed temporary success before its crushing defeat at Waterloo against an allied force under Wellington on June 18, 1815. Napoleon was subsequently exiled to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa. Six years later, he died, most likely of stomach cancer, and in 1840 his body was returned to Paris, where it was interred in the Hotel des Invalides.

1834 - Charles Darwin's expedition begins at Rio Santa Cruz

1834 - The first mainland railway line opened in Belgium.

1835 - King Leopold opens Brussels-Mechelen railway

1842 - City-wide fire burns for over 100 hours (Hamburg Germany)

1847 - American Medical Association organized (Philadelphia)

1854 - English pirate Plumridge robs along pro-English Finnish coast

1855 - NYC regains Castle Clinton, to be used for immigration

1861 - Alexandria, VA - CS troops abandon city

The flag of Mexico.

• On this day in 1862, the Mexican army managed a victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867). This historical event is what the Cinco de Mayo celebrates, although it is not as major a holiday inside of Mexico itself. 

1862 - Peninsular Campaign-Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia

1863 - Battle of Tupelo, MS

1863 - Joe Coburn KOs Mike McCoole for US boxing title in 63rd round

1864 - Atlanta Campaign: 5 days of fighting begins at Rocky Face Ridge

1864 - Battle between Confederate & Union ships at mouth of Roanoke

1864 - Battle of Wilderness, Virginia (Germanna Ford, Wilderness Tavern)

1864 - Campaign in Northern Georgia - Chattanooga GA to Atlanta GA

1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the United States

1865 - First US train robbery (North Bend Ohio)

1874 - Dutch Second Chamber passes child labor law

1877 - Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

1881 - Anit-Jewish rioting in Kiev Ukraine

1886 - A bomb exploded on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago, IL.

1886 - The Bay View Tragedy occurs, as militia fire upon a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin killing seven

• Carnegie Hall (then known as Music Hall) opened in New York City on this day in 1891. Peter Tchaikovsky was the guest conductor.

• The U.S. Congress extended the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 more years on this day in 1892. The act required Chinese in the U.S. to be registered or face deportation.

• The Panic of 1893 occurred on this day in 1893, as there was a huge crash in the New York Stock Exchange.

1900 - "The Billboard" began weekly publication

1901 - The first Catholic mass for night workers was held at the Church of St. Andrew in New York City.

1904 - The third perfect game of the major leagues was thrown by Cy Young (Boston Red Sox) against the Philadelphia Athletics. It was the first perfect game under modern rules. Boston won, 3-0.

1905 - Robert S Abbott published 1st issue of newspaper "Chicago Defender"

1908 - 34th Kentucky Derby: Arthur Pickens on Stone Street wins in 2:15.2

1908 - Great White Fleet arrives in San Francisco

1912 - V Olympic games open at Stockholm, Sweden

1912 - Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing (4/22 OS)

1915 - German U-20 sinks Earl of Lathom

1916 - US marines invade the Dominican Republic, and would stay until 1924

1917 - St Louis Brown Ernie Koob no-hits Chic White Sox, 1-0

1917 - Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earned his flying certificate with the French Air Service.

• The German-Latvian peace treaty was signed on this day in 1920.

• Polish troops occupied Kiev on this day in 1920.

1920 - American President Woodrow Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal

1921 - First ranger for Cleveland Metroparks hired

1921 - Miniature newspaper published (Brighton Gazette 10 x 13 cm)

1922 - Construction begins on Yankee Stadium (Bronx)

1924 - Unions terminate Twentse textile strike

1925 - John T Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

1925 - Ty Cobb goes 6 for 6, (16 total bases)

1925 - Yankee Everett Scott is benched, ending his 1,307-game playing streak

The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa.

• Afrikaans was established as an official language in South Africa on this day in 1925.

1926 - Geldrop soccer team forms

1926 - Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith"

1926 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was shown in Germany for the first time.

1927 - Dmitri Sjostakovitch' 1st Symphony, premieres in Berlin

1930 - First woman to fly solo from Engl to Australia takes-off (Amy Johnson)

1930 - Bradman scores 185* Aust v Leicestershire, 317 mins, 16 fours

1932 - Japan and China sign a peace treaty

1934 - 60th Kentucky Derby: Mack Garner aboard Cavalcade wins in 2:04

1935 - Jessie Owens of US, sets then long jump record at 26' 8½"

1936 - Edward Ravenscroft patents screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip

1936 - Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city.

1938 - Phillies Harold Kelleher faces 16 batters in 6th, as Cubs score 12 runs, both marks are National League records off one hurler in a single inning

1939 - Flash floods kill 75 in Northeast Kentucky

1940 - Norwegian government in exile forms in London

1941 - 2 Fokker's employees flee nazi occupied Netherlands to England

• On this day in 1941 during World War II, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa, the national capital exactly five years to the day after it had been occupied by Italy.    Benito Mussolini had been eyeing Ethiopia (also known as Abyssinia) as an economic colony to be added to Italian Somaliland, in East Africa, since the 1920s. He hoped to resettle 10 million Italians in a unified East Africa. Despite Ethiopia's membership in the League of Nations, which provided it with recourse to other member nations in the event of invasion, Italy, also a League member, attacked on October 3, 1935. Selassie formally protested before the League Council, but the League responded with only mild sanctions, fearing that a more extensive embargo, or the closure of the Suez Canal, denying Italy needed supplies and reinforcements, would lead to war-and Italy simply getting its oil from the United States, which was not a party to League agreements.    Britain and France, both fearing that a general war would be harmful to their collective security, proposed secret negotiations with Italy, wherein Italy would be offered territory in Ethiopia's northeast; in exchange, Mussolini would end his aggression. Ethiopia would only be told of this negotiation after the fact; should Selassie reject the terms, France and Britain were off the hook, having made a "good faith" effort at peace. They could then oppose further sanctions against Italy, even propose that the ones in place be removed, thereby sparing themselves a confrontation with Mussolini. But the plans for the secret negotiation were leaked to the press, and both Britain and France were humiliated publicly for selling out a weaker League partner.

1941 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Robert E Sherwood (There shall be no night)

1941 - Chanel No. 5 was released.

1942 - General Joseph Stilwell learned that the Japanese had cut his railway out of China and was forced to lead his troops into India.

1942 - British assault on Diego Suarez Madagascar

1942 - US begins rationing sugar during WW II

1943 - Postmaster General Frank C Walker invents Postal Zone System

A statue of Gandhi, the iconic leader of the Indian independence movement, at Union Square in New York City.

• Gandhi was freed from prison on this day in 1944.

1944 - Russian offensive against Sebastopol Krim

1945 - Mauthausen Concentration camp liberated

1945 - Netherlands & Denmark liberated from Nazi control

1945 - Uprising against SS-occupying troops in Prague

1945 - Premier Gerbrandy on Radio Orange tells Dutch they are liberated

• In 1945 on this day during the final days of World War II in Europe, Nazi German Admiral Karl Dönitz, who became the leader of Germany after Hitler's death by suicide, ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.

1945 - A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon. A pregnant woman and five children were killed.

1947 - Mississippi Valley flooding kills 16 & causes $850M in damage

1947 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men)

1948 - First air squadron of jets aboard a carrier

1948 - Belgian government of Spaak resigns

1949 - Council of Europe forms

1949 - KGO TV channel 7 in San Francisco, CA (ABC) begins broadcasting

1949 - Statue of Council of Europe drawn

1950 - Phumiphon Abundet crowned as king Rama IX of Thailand

1952 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (Caine Mutiny)

1952 - Ron Necciai of Pitts Pirate's Bristol Twins Class D farm team, strikes out 27, as he no-hits Welch Minors, 4 Minors do reach base

1954 - Military coup by general Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay

1955 - "Damn Yankees" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 1022 performances

1955 - Indies parliament accept hindu-divorce

1955 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada test Site

1955 - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) became a sovereign state after it was granted from the three occupying powers (France, Great Britain, United States)

• On this day in 1955, the Allies of World War II (the United States, France, and Great Britain) ended their military occupation of West Germany one decade after the end of the war, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) officially became a sovereign state. With this action, West Germany was given the right to rearm and become a full-fledged member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union.    In 1945, the United States, Great Britain, and France had assumed the occupation of the western portion of Germany (as well as the western half of Berlin, situated in eastern Germany). The Soviet Union occupied eastern Germany, as well as the eastern half of Berlin. As Cold War animosities began to harden between the western powers and Russia, it became increasingly obvious that Germany would not be reunified. By the late-1940s, the United States acted to formalize the split and establish western Germany as an independent republic, and in May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was formally announced. In 1954, West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the mutual defense alliance between the United States and several European nations. All that remained was for the Americans, British, and French to end their nearly 10-year occupation. This was accomplished on May 5, 1955, when those nations issued a proclamation declaring an end to the military occupation of West Germany. Under the terms of an agreement reached earlier, West Germany would now be allowed to establish a military force of up to a half-million men and resume the manufacture of arms, though it was forbidden from producing any chemical or atomic weapons.    The end of the Allied occupation of West Germany meant a full recognition of the republic as a member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union. While the Russians were less than thrilled by the prospect of a rearmed West Germany, they were nonetheless pleased that German reunification had officially become a dead issue. Shortly after the May 5 proclamation was issued, the Soviet Union formally recognized the Federal Republic of Germany. The two Germany's remained separated until 1990, when they were formally reunited and once again became a single democratic country.

1956 - 82nd Kentucky Derby: David Erb aboard Needles wins in 2:03.4

1956 - Broekster Boys soccer team forms in Damwoude 1956 - Jim Bailey (US) runs mile a record 3:58.6 in LA Calif

1956 - World championships of judo are first held, in Tokyo

1957 - Adolf Scharf elected president of Austria

1957 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Peach Blossom Golf Open

1958 - KNME TV channel 5 in Albuquerque, NM (PBS) begins broadcasting

1958 - Pulitzer prize awarded to James Agee for (Death in the Family)

1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak

1961 - 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space.  (aboard Freedom 7)

• On this day in 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space aboard Freedom 7.  From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).    NASA was established in 1958 to keep U.S. space efforts abreast of recent Soviet achievements, such as the launching of the world's first artificial satellite--Sputnik 1--in 1957. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two superpowers raced to become the first country to put a man in space and return him to Earth. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet space program won the race when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, put in orbit around the planet, and safely returned to Earth. One month later, Shepard's suborbital flight restored faith in the U.S. space program.    NASA continued to trail the Soviets closely until the late 1960s and the successes of the Apollo lunar program. In July 1969, the Americans took a giant leap forward with Apollo 11, a three-stage spacecraft that took U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth. On February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission.

1962 - 88th Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack aboard Decidedly wins in 2:00.4

1962 - LA Angel Bo Belinsky no-hits Balt Orioles, 2-0

1962 - West Side Story soundtrack album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 54 weeks which is more than 20 weeks longer than any other album

1964 - Separatists riot in Quebec

1965 - First large-scale US Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam

1966 - Borussia Dortmund wins 6th Europe Cup II

1966 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens beat Detroit Red Wings, 4 games to 2

1966 - Willie Mays hit his 512th HR

1969 - 23rd NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat LA Lakers, 4 games to 3

1969 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Norman Mailer (Armies of the Night)

1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada test Site

1971 - "Earl of Ruston" opens at Billy Rose Theater NYC for 5 performances

1971 - Race riot in Brownsville section of Brooklyn (NYC)

1972 - Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo Sicily; killing 115

1973 - 99th Kentucky Derby: Ron Turcotte aboard Secretariat wins in 1:59.4

1974 - Sandra Spuzich wins LPGA Lady Tara Golf Classic

1975 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Michael Shaara (Killer Angels)

1975 - A's release pinch runner Herb Washington (played 104 games without batting, pitching, or fielding He stole 30 bases, & scored 33 runs)

1976 - Anderlecht wins 16th soccer Europe Cup II

1976 - Train collision at Schiedam Neth, kills 24

1978 - Cincinnati Red Pete Rose becomes 14th player to get 3,000 hits

1979 - 105th Kentucky Derby: Ron Franklin on Spectacular Bid wins in 2:02.4

1979 - Masterpiece Radio Theater begins broadcasting

1979 - Voyager 1 passes Jupiter

1980 - Siege at Iranian Embassy in London ends; British commandos & police stormed the building

1980 - Constantine Karamanlis is elected for the first time President of Greece.

1981 - 16th & final Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yanks 4-1, hold 8-7-1 edge

1983 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1981 - Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army died in a prison hospital at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland on the 66th day of his hunger strike.

1984 - 110th Kentucky Derby: Laffit Pincay Jr aboard Swale wins in 2:02.4

1985 - Amy Alcott wins LPGA Moss Creek Women's Golf Invitational

1986 - Hall of Fame & Museum announced to be built in Cleveland

1987 - The U.S. congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened.

1987 - Detroit Tigers are 11 games back in AL, but go on to win AL East

1987 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1988 - Eugene A Marino installed as 1st black US archbishop

1989 - Mike Tyson gets second speeding ticket for drag racing in Albany NY

1990 - 116th Kentucky Derby: Craig Perret aboard Unbridled wins in 2:02

1990 - ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Chris Warren

1990 - Paul Hogan & Linda Koslowski wed in Byron Bay, Eastern Australia

1991 - A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after a Salvadoran man is shot by police.

1992 - Country singer Tammy Wynette hospitalized with bile duct infection

1994 - Michael Fay was caned in Singapore for vandalism. He received four lashes.

1994 - "Sally Marrand Her Escorts" opens at Helen Hayes NYC for 50 perfs

1994 - Labour beats Conservatives in British local elections

1994 - North-Yemen air force bombs Aden South Yemen

1995 - Last basketball game at Boston Gardens (Magic beats Celtics)

1996 - "Jack-Night on Town with J Barrymore" closes at Belasco after 12 perfs

1996 - Karrie Webb wins LPGA Sprint Titleholders Golf Championship

1996 - Renette Cruz, Vancouver, wins Miss Canadian Universe

1997 - Iridium-1 Delta 2 Launch, Successful

2000 - Conjunction of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn & Moon

2004 - Pablo Picasso's "Boy with a Pipe" became the most expensive painting ever sold.

2005 - The United Kingdom general election takes place, in which Tony Blair's Labour Party is re-elected for a third, consecutive term.

2006 - The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

2007 - Kenya Airways Flight KQ 507 crashes in Cameroon.

2012 - 17 people are killed and 47 missing after a flash flood in Nepal 2012 - Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970



As always, here are the websites that I got the bulk of the information on this blog entry from:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

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

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may05.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory