Almanac for May 9th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 9th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-9-X8X01EMSMU

https://ko-fi.com/s/a2343b3ee4

Artist Birthday #1: Billy Joel
Artist Birthday #2: Joy Harjo

Beatles Trivia
May 9, 1964: Louis Armstrong’s “Hello, Dolly” becomes the #1 song on the U.S. popular music charts, ending the Beatles’ 14-week streak of having the #1 single. Three Beatles songs (“Can’t Buy Me Love,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “She Loves You”) contributed to the streak.

Bummer May 9th

May 9, 1914: Cereal manufacturer Charles William (C.W.) Post, recovering from emergency surgery for what was believed to be appendicitis, dies by self-inflicted gunshot wound when he can longer stand his severe abdominal pain. 

His death leaves the Post cereal fortune to his only child, Marjorie Merriweather Post, who uses some of it to build her mansion, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida.

May 9, 1977: American novelist James Jones dies at age 55 from congestive heart failure.

 

May 9, 1987: All 183 people on board die when LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashes into a wooded area outside Warsaw, Poland. Faulty roller bearings inside one of its engines caused an explosion that, in turn, caused the aircraft to lose flight control and electricity. Unable to dump fuel, the aircraft hit the ground at 295 miles per hour and exploded. 

On the flight recorder, the crew can be heard saying, “Do widzenia! Cześć, giniemy!" (“Goodbye! Bye, we’re dying!”)

May 9, 2001: 126 people die at Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, when police fire a tear gas canister into the stands and a stampede results. During a football (soccer) game between Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, Ghana’s two most popular teams, Kotoko supporters threw bottles onto the field. When police fired the tear gas, some of the stadium’s gates were locked and fleeing fans found themselves unable to escape. Ten people died from trauma and the other 116 from crush asphyxia. 

Almanac for May 8th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 8th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-8-L4L41EMSM5

Bummer May 8th

May 8, 1794: French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who works as a tax collector, is tried and convicted of treason during the French Revolution. He is executed by guillotine the same day.

May 8, 1902: In the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, Mount Pelée erupts and destroys the town of Saint-Pierre, killing between 29,000 and 30,000 people and leaving only a handful of survivors.

May 8, 1974: 36-year-old blues-rock musician Graham Bond dies, crushed under the wheels of a Tube train at Finsbury Park Station in London. Most authorities agree that the manner of his death was suicide. Bond had financial and creative problems prior to his death and was known to experience severe depression.

May 8, 2012: Children’s book illustrator and author Maurice Sendak dies in the hospital of complications from a stroke.

Almanac for May 7th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 7th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-7-M4M41EMSLE

Artist Birthday: Robert Browning

Kobo, Walmart: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/christmas-eve-48 

Pleasantville (NJ) Press, April 30, 1926

Audiobook: https://aeess.com/downloads/anns-an-idiot-mp3-audiobook-download/

Bummer May 7th

May 7, 1896: Serial killer H.H. Holmes (real name: Herman Webster Mudgett) is executed by hanging at Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia after his conviction for 27 murders and attempted murder of six other people. His neck does not break when his body is dropped, and it takes over 15 minutes for Holmes to strangle to death. 

May 7, 1918: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1,198 people.

May 7, 1999: As part of a NATO action intended to curb Serbian aggression in Kosovo, a NATO aircraft accidentally bombs the Chinese embassy to Serbia, killing three Chinese citizens and injuring 20 others. 

Almanac for May 6th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 6th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-6-F1F11EMSJU

May 6th was Sigmund Freud's birthday.

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Freud Day
Artist Birthday: Rudolph Valentino

Bummer May 6th

May 6, 1937: The airship Hindenburg catches fire and crashes while attempting to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey. One person on the ground, 13 passengers, and 22 crew members are killed. Many of the survivors suffer severe burns.

The event was captured by several news reel cameras and covered for the radio station WLS (Chicago) by reporter Herbert Morrison. Morrison’s commentary has become as widely remembered as the disaster itself. An urban legend states that Morrison was fired for having a too-human (read: unprofessional) reaction to the tragedy, but this is untrue, although he did leave WLS to take a job at another station about a year after the accident.

May 6, 1965: James Krebs, the former center for the Los Angeles Lakers who retired from the NBA in 1964, dies at the age of 29. While helping a neighbor remove a tree that a storm had knocked over onto the neighbor’s roof, Krebs is fatally struck in the head by one of the tree’s limbs.

Almanac for May 5th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 5th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-5-R6R71EMSJ3

May 5, 1927: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is published.

Bummer May 5th

May 5, 1821: Exiled former emperor Napoleon Bonaparte dies at age 51 of an unknown ailment on the British island of Saint Helena. His cause of death has been speculated to be anything from stomach cancer to accidental cyanide poisoning to deliberate arsenic poisoning.

May 5, 1945: Six people are killed by a Japanese incendiary device near Bly, Oregon. 

May 5, 1968: Character actor Albert Dekker is found dead of apparent autoerotic asphyxiation by his fiancee inside the bathtub of their Hollywood home. Police found no evidence of either foul play or suicide. Dekker appears to have practiced self-bondage, including placing a ball gag in his own mouth, and died as a result of accidental self-strangulation from a noose wrapped around the shower curtain rod.

May 5, 1994: American Michael Fay, age 18, receives four lashes with a bamboo cane after being convicted of vandalism in Singapore. Fay attended the Singapore American School and lived with his American mother and Singaporean stepfather. This is believed to be the first time an American was sentenced to corporal punishment in another country.

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Almanac for May 4th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 4th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-4-K3K71EMSH0

Today's Observance: Star Wars Day ("May the Fourth Be With You")
Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Audrey Hepburn

Bummer May 4th

May 4, 1897: On the second day of a charity bazaar set up by Catholic charitable organizations in Paris, aristocratic women shop in a wooden warehouse set up to look like a Medieval market. Decorations of cardboard, cloth, papier-mache, and wood help achieve this effect. As an extra attraction, an early movie projector called a cinematograph is set up with ether lamps as a light source.

The projection equipment catches fire. With flammable materials all around and little to no signage marking the exits, the largely female crowd is trapped inside. 126 people die; 200 more are injured. Many of the dead were so badly burned that they could only be identified by their clothing, jewelry, or expensive dental work.

May 4, 1970: Members of the National Guard open fire at students at Kent State University who are peacefully protesting against the Vietnam War. They wound nine students and kill four other students.

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Almanac for May 3rd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 3rd: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-3rd-Z8Z81EMSGG

Bummer May 3rd

May 3, 1950: Wittenberg College (Springfield, Ohio) student Dean Niswonger takes part in a Alpha Tau Omega fraternity hazing ritual in which he’s dropped off away from campus and has to find his way back. Niswonger falls asleep by the side of a road and is hit by a truck and killed.

May 3, 1963: Civil rights protestors in Birmingham, Alabama are brutally beaten by the police. Filmed images of the violence are distributed throughout the world, bringing international attention to the African-American civil rights movement. 

May 3, 2007: 3-year-old Madeleine McCann from the U.K. is reported missing from the hotel room of her parents in Algarve, Portugal, where the McCanns are vacationing. As of 2026, the girl’s whereabouts are still unknown.

Mother's Day is coming May 10th! This is an affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4cUqJJ0