Observed on the birthday of one of its champions, Edward Lear.The limerick, which dates from the early 18th century, has been described as the only fixed verse form indigenous to the English language. It gained its greatest popularity following the publication of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense (and its sequels).
Example:
There was a young poet named Lear
Who said, it is just as I fear
Five lines are enough
For this kind of stuff
Make a limerick each day of the year.
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12 May 1847. Anniversary of the invention of the odometer by Mormon pioneer William Clayton while crossing the plains in a covered wagon. Previous to this, mileage was calculated by counting the revolutions of a rag tied to a spoke of a wagon wheel.
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May 12 – World Bird Day and International Migratory Bird Day bring awareness to the need for conservation of migratory birds and their habitats in the Western Hemisphere. The program promotes environmental education and international conservation.
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13 May 1914. World heavyweight boxing champion, 1937-49, nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Joseph Louis Barrow was born near Lafayette, AL. He died 12 April 1981, at Las Vegas, NV. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery. (Louis’s burial there, by presidential waiver, was the 39th exception ever to the eligibility rules for burial in Arlington National Cemetery.)
13 May 1846. Although fighting had begun days earlier, Congress officially declared war on Mexico on this date. The struggle cost the lives of 11,300 American soldiers and resulted in the annexation by the US of land that became parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and Colorado. The war ended in 1848. Read more at http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/.
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13 May 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation authorizing US-Canadian construction of a waterway that would make it possible for oceangoing ships to reach the Great Lakes.
May 13 – Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) is an Israeli holiday commemorating the unification of Jerusalem following the Six Day War in June 1967.
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The German physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit was born on 14 May 1686 (old calendar style) at Danzig, Prussia. He introduced the use of mercury in thermometers and devised the Fahrenheit temperature scale.
Observed first in 1907 at the request of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who asked her church to hold a service in memory of all mothers on the anniversary of her mothers death. In 1909, two years after her mothers death, Jarvis and friends began a letter-writing campaign to create a Mother’s Day observance. Congress passed legislation in 1914 designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Some say the predecessor of Mothers Day was the ancient spring festival dedicated to mother goddesses: Rhea (Greek) and Cybele (Roman).
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14 May 1796. In the 18th century smallpox was a widespread and often fatal disease. Edward Jenner, a physician in rural England, heard reports of dairy farmers who apparently became immune to smallpox as a result of exposure to cowpox, a related but milder disease. After two decades of studying the phenomenon, Jenner injected cowpox into a healthy eight-year-old boy, who subsequently developed cowpox. Six weeks later, Jenner inoculated the boy with smallpox. He remained healthy. Jenner called this new procedure vaccination, from vaccinia, another term for cowpox. Within 18 months, 12,000 people in England had been vaccinated and the number of smallpox deaths dropped by two-thirds.
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The first public performance of John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever was on 14 May 1897 at Philadelphia.
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14 May 1942. During WWII women became eligible to enlist for noncombat duties in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) by an act of Congress. Women also served through Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Coast Guard or Semper Paratus Always Ready Service (SPARS), the Womens Reserve of the Marine Corps.
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Bay to Breakers, the largest footrace in the world with over 70,000 runners crosses the city of San Francisco.
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Ellen Church became the first airline flight attendant on May 15, 1930 on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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On 15 May 1856, the American newspaperman who wrote the Wizard of Oz stories was born at Chittenango, NY. Although The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the most famous, Baum also wrote many other books for children, including more than a dozen about Oz. He died at Hollywood, CA, 6 May 1919.
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On 15 May 1940, nylon hose went on sale at stores throughout the USA. Competing producers bought their nylon yarn from E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (later DuPont). W.H. Carothers, of DuPont, developed nylon, called Polymer 66, in 1935. It was the first totally man-made fiber and over time was substituted for other materials and came to have widespread application.
Image: CC 4.0, International Erik Liljeroth Nordiska Museet
15 May. Peace Officer Memorial Day is a day to remember police and peace officers killed in action .Every 57 hours a police officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in America. During National Police week and on Peace Officer Memorial Day, the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum honors those lost with memorial services and outreach to surviving family.
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Biographer’s Day marks the anniversary of the meeting, at London, England, May 16, 1763, of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, beginning history’s most famous biographer-biographee relationship. Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) and his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) are regarded as models of biographical writing. Thus this day is recommended as one on which to start reading or writing a biography.
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Born on 16 May 1801, American statesman, secretary of state under Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $ 7,200,000. At the time some felt the price was too high and referred to the purchase as Seward’s Folly. Seward was governor of New York, 1839 43, and a member of the US Senate, 1848 60. On the evening of Lincolns assassination, 14 April 1865 Seward was stabbed in the throat by Lewis Posell, a fellow conspirator of John Wilkes Booth. Seward recovered and maintained his cabinet position under President Andrew Johnson until 1869. Born at Florida, NY, he died at Auburn, NY, 18 October 1872.
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On 17 May 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation of public schools solely on the basis of race denied black children equal educational opportunity even though physical facilities and other tangible factors may have been equal. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. The case was argued before the Court by Thurgood Marshall, who would go on to become the first black appointed to the Supreme Court.
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17 May 2004. Massachusetts became the first US state to sanction gay marriage on this date. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples received licenses and were married.
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On 17 May 1792, some two dozen merchants and brokers agreed to establish what is now known as the New York Stock Exchange. In fair weather they operated under a buttonwood tree on Wall St, at New York, NY. In bad weather they moved to the shelter of a coffeehouse to conduct their business.
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Between Oct 12, 1943, and Jan 17, 1944, there were five Allied attempts to take the German position at the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino. Although the abbey had been reduced to rubble, it served as a bunker for the Germans. In the spring of 1944 Marshal Alphonse Pierre Juin devised an operation that crossed the mountainous regions behind the fortress-like structure, using Moroccan troops of the French Expeditionary Force. Specially trained for mountain operations, they climbed 4,850 feet to locate a pass. On May 15, 1944, they attacked the Germans from behind. On May 18 Polish troops attached to this force took Monte Cassino.
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International Museum Day was created to pay tribute to museums of the world. Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding and peace among people. Observed annually on May 18 since 1977.
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On 18 May 1980, a major eruption of Mount Saint Helen’s volcano, in southwestern Washington, blew steam and ash more than 11 miles into the sky. First major eruption of Mount Saint Helen’s since 1857, though on Mar 26, 1980, there had been a warning eruption of smaller magnitude.
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