The Day That Was

Like most dates, some significant and insignificant events took place on May 6th throughout the years.  Here are a few to either remember or discover for the first time.  In any event, this post should kill a good bit of time, leaving you closer to quittin’-time at the end.  You’re welcome!

 

158 years ago – In 1861, Arkansas seceded from the Union.

142 years ago – In 1877, Crazy Horse gave up his struggle to keep his land and surrendered to the White Man, along with 1,100 other cold and starving Indians who’d narrowly escaped their last battle a few months earlier.  The chief of the Oglala Sioux had been aggressively pursued by U.S. forces for his part in Custer’s Last Stand in the summer of 1876.

82 years ago – In 1937, The Hindenburg Disaster occurred in New Jersey.  As it flew over the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, the hydrogen-filled German blimp called The Hindenburg crashed and burned, killing 36 people.  The radio announcer on the scene yelled, “Oh the humanity!” . . . which went on to become one of the most famous quotes in American history.

 

 

 

 

79 years ago – In 1940, John Steinbeck won a Pulitzer Prize for “Grapes of Wrath”.  It’s about a guy named Tom Joad who loses everything in the Great Depression and risks moving his family from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to California.

Music inspired by Steinbeck’s classic novel includes The Ghost of Tom Woad by Bruce Springsteen, the Dust Bowl Dance by Mumford & Sons, and Grains of Wrath by Bad Religion.

 

 

  

 

 

78 years ago – In 1941, Bob Hope performed his first USO show, for troops at California’s March Field.  He’d end up performing HUNDREDS more, for troops in World War Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the first Iraq War.

65 years ago – In 1954, at a track meet in Oxford, England, medical student Roger Bannister became the first man to Break the Four-Minute Mile.  A remarkable feat at the time.  The current world record for running a mile was set in 1999 by a runner named Hicham El Guerrouj, from Morocco.  He ran a mile in three minutes, forty-three seconds.

25 years ago – In 1994, the English Channel Tunnel officially opened.  It’s the world’s longest undersea tunnel, with 23 miles of track at an average depth of 150 feet below sea level connected England to France.

25 years ago – In 1994, Bobcat Goldthwait set his chair on fire on “The Tonight Show” and got charged with a crime for it.  He pleaded no contest to recklessly causing a fire and had to pay $3,888 in fines and damages.

 

 

 

25 years ago – In 1994, Paula Jones sued President Billy Clinton for $700,000, claiming that he violated her civil rights by making unwanted sexual advances in 1991 when he was governor.  He allegedly asked her to “kiss it”.  Clinton ended up settling with her for the FULL AMOUNT . . . but without an apology. She got about $200,000 of that;  the rest went to her legal expenses.

22 years ago – In 1997, David Duchovny married “Madam Secretary” star Tea Leoni.  They separated over David’s SEX ADDICTION, then got back together.  But it didn’t last.  They split for good in 2014.

15 years ago – In 2004, the final episode of “Friends” aired on NBC.  It ran for 10 years and 236 episodes and went out with an estimated 51.1 million viewers, your author not among them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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