Almanac for May 12th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 12th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-12-Never-Cry-Wolf-G2G71FO0YL

I love this memoir. I couldn't put it down.

Artist Birthday: Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne film The Keep article by Movies of the 80s

Bummer May 12th

May 12, 1976: Original Yardbirds lead singer Keith Relf dies at his London home at the age of 33. Relf is apparently playing an electric guitar in his basement when the shock occurs. Although taken to West Middlesex Hospital, the father of two boys is pronounced dead. His chronic asthma and emphysema, along with medications he took for these conditions, may have been a contributing factor that weakened his ability to withstand the shock.

May 12, 1982: Norwegian-Spanish priest Juan María Fernández y Krohn attacks Pope John Paul II with a bayonet, apparently believing the Pope was in league with Soviet communists. The attack occurs in  Fátima, Portugal, the site of an alleged apparition of Mary the mother of Jesus, where the Pope has gone on a pilgrimage. 

The Pope is slightly wounded, but recovers. Fernández y Krohn is sentenced to seven years in prison for attempted murder and contempt of court, but released after three years.

May 12, 2010: Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 leaves Johannesburg, South Africa, bound for Libya. A series of errors by the flight crew causes the aircraft to crash into low terrain, killing 103 of the aircraft’s 104 occupants. Among the dead is novelist Bree O’Mara, an Irish and South African dual citizen. 

The sole survivor was a 9-year-old boy from the Netherlands. Both of his legs were broken, but he sustained no life-threatening injuries. His parents were killed in the crash, so he was subsequently adopted by his aunt and uncle. 

Almanac for May 11

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 11th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-11-U7U21EMSP7

Bummer May 11th

May 11, 1910: Lewis Emerson Rader, Sr., a politician who served in the Washington state legislature until 1899, dies of starvation while attempting a “fasting cure” under the supervision of quack medical practitioner Linda Laura Hazzard. Hazzard, who practiced medicine while falsely claiming to be a doctor, will also die from her own quack practices in 1938.

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May 11, 1984: A fire breaks out in the Haunted Castle attraction inside Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in New Jersey. The fire is put out within 90 minutes and at first all staff and guests are thought to be accounted for. Later, the badly burned bodies of eight teenage guests are found inside the attraction. The teenagers died after becoming trapped inside the castle.

May 11, 1981: Bob Marley dies of acral lentiginous melanoma, a form of skin cancer not related to exposure to UV rays, which has spread to his lungs and brain. Marley is only 36 years old. His last words are reportedly, “Money can’t buy life.”

May 11, 1985: The Bradford City football (soccer) stadium in West Yorkshire, England catches fire when a fan drops a lit cigarette into the litter under the bleachers. High winds, wooden bleachers, and flammable roofing material quickly spread the fire, and locked exits prevented some fans from escaping quickly. More than 200 people are injured and 56 spectators die.

Almanac for May 10th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for May 10th: https://ko-fi.com/post/May-10-O5O51EMSNV

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: John Wilkes Booth

Today's Observance: Mother's Day

Bummer May 10

May 10, 1692: Sarah Osborne of the Massachusetts Bay Colony dies in prison where she’s been awaiting trial, having been accused of witchcraft.

May 10, 1933: Led by Joseph Goebbels, a crowd of 40,000 Germans gathers at the State Opera building in Berlin to watch the German Student Union burn approximately 25,000 books that they’ve decided are “un-German.”

May 10, 1943: Fire destroys the grounds of the National Library of Peru in Lima, taking it with numerous irreplaceable historical artifacts.

May 10, 1992: Singer and actress Sylvia Blagman Syms suffers a heart attack and dies during the standing ovation while performing in the Oak Room cabaret of the Algonquin Hotel. 

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.