May 17

It’s Pack Rat Day and National Cherry Cobbler Day and Armed Forces Day

ON THIS DAY…
1521 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason
1673 Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River
1733 England passed the Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
1775 The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada
1792 A group of brokers meeting at a coffee house in New York City organize the New York Stock Exchange; the first transactions are made under a tree on Wall Street
1809 The Papal States were annexed by France; Pope Pius VII responded by excommunicating Napoleon
1839 A water wheel was patented by Lorenzo Adkins
1846 The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax
1865 The International Telegraph Union (the later International Telecommunication Union) is established
1875 The first Kentucky Derby was run at Louisville; the winner was Aristides
1883 Buffalo Bill Cody’s first wild west show premiered in Omaha, NE
1884 Alaska became a US territory
1890 The first weekly comic paper, “Comic Cuts,” was published in London
1900 During the Boer War, British troops relieve Mafeking
1924 In Santa Cruz, CA the Giant Dipper roller coaster opened to the public
1926 Chiang Kai-shek was made supreme war lord and “generalissimo” in Canton, China
1932 Congress changed the name “Porto Rico” to “Puerto Rico”
1938 The Radio quiz show “Information Please!” premiered on the NBC Blue Network
1939 Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns
1940 Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium and began the invasion of France
1946 President Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen
1954 The US Supreme Court reverses an 1896 ruling that education should be “separate but equal,” ruling that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional
1955 Psychiatrist Nathan Kline appeared before the US Congress to explain his work with the drug reserpine; he is credited with founding the field of psychopharmacology with his discovery and use of reserpine to treat the mental disorder psychosis
1955 An atomic reactor was patented by Fermi and Szilard
1961 Fidel Castro offered to exchange prisoners captured in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion for 500 bulldozers
1962 Disney’s live-action feature film Bon Voyage starring Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman and Tommy Kirk is released in the US
1967 The governor of Tennessee signed into law the repeal of the 1925 state law, the Butler Act, prohibiting the teaching of evolution
1973 The US Senate committee investigating Watergate begins its televised proceedings; allegations of wrongdoing in the affair lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation
1974 Thirty-three people are killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland
1978 The remains of Charlie Chaplin are recovered by Swiss police
1984 Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture
1995 Jacques Chirac was sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure of Socialist Francois Mitterrand
1996 President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in; Megan’s Law, as it’s known, is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and slain in 1994
2001 A “Peanuts” stamp was issued by the US Postal Service
2003 Mozilla renames their browser from Phoenix to Firebird
2004 Transsexuals were cleared to compete in the Olympics for the first time
2004 In Massachusetts gay couples began exchanging vows, marking the first time a state has granted gays and lesbians the right to marry and making the United States one of four countries where homosexuals can legally wed
2006 Scientists reported the sequencing of the last chromosome in the Human Genome project, which began in 1990
2007 Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments; this is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953

BORN:
1749 Edward Jenner, surgeon and discoverer of vaccination for smallpox; Jenner also introduced the word virus
1776 Amos Eaton, botanist, geologist, and lawyer who aroused widespread interest in science through his public lectures and inspired many students as a teacher and writer of textbooks
1836 Joseph Norman Lockyer, astronomer who in 1868 discovered and named the element helium that he found in the Sun’s atmosphere before it had been detected on Earth
1868 Horace E. Dodge, American automobile manufacturers who invented one of the first all-steel cars in America
1897 Odd Hassel, physical chemist and corecipient, with Derek H.R. Barton of Great Britain, of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in establishing conformational analysis (the study of the 3-D geometric structure of molecules)
1908 Ralph Wright, screenwriter (The Three Caballeros, Lady and the Tramp, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Jungle Book, The AristoCats)
1909 Professor Julius Sumner Miller, science populariser who was Disney’s “Professor Wonderful” on new introductions, filmed at Disneyland, to the syndicated reruns of The Mickey Mouse Club
1911 Maureen O’Sullivan, actress (Tarzan the Ape Man, Tarzan and His Mate, The Thin Man, A Day at the Races)
1915 Marcel Roland de Quervain, glaciologist who investigated the physical properties of snow, which he applied to the development of avalanche warning systems and the mitigation of other problems associated with snowfields
1935 Dennis Potter, dramatist (The Singing Detective, Pennies from Heaven, Brimstone and Treacle)
1936 Dennis Hopper, actor-director-writer (Easy Rider, Giant, The Sons of Katie Elder, Cool Hand Luke, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet)
1946 F. Paul Wilson, novelist and short story writer (The Keep, The Tomb, The Select, Deep as the Marrow)
1950 Howard Ashman, two-time Academy Award-winning lyricist (“Under the Sea,” “Beauty and the Beast”, “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space”)
1955 Bill Paxton, actor-director (Big Love, Near Dark, Aliens, Frailty, A Simple Plan, Tombstone, Apollo 13, Indian Summer)
1958 Paul Whitehouse, actor-writer-comedian and BAFTA Award-winning producer (The Fast Show, Help, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Neverland, Corpse Bride)
1961 Enya (Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin), singer and songwriter; she is Ireland’s best-selling solo artist and is officially the country’s second biggest musical export (second only to U2)
1965 Trent Reznor, musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist (Nine Inch Nails)
1973 Sasha Alexander, actress (NCIS, Wasteland, Dawson’s Creek, Mission: Impossible III)

DIED:
1510 Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi), painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance, dies at 66
1727 Catherine I, Empress of Russia, the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as solo Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death. She also functioned as co-ruler with her husband from 1724 until his death early in the next year, dies at 43
1809 Josef Leopold Auenbrugger, physician who devised the diagnostic technique of percussion (the art of striking a surface part of the body with short, sharp taps to diagnose the condition of the parts beneath the sound); with this technique, he could estimate the amount of fluid in a patient’s chest and the size of his/her heart, dies at 86
1886 John Deere, blacksmith, agricultural equipment inventor and pioneer manufacturer, dies at 82
1916 Boris Golitsyn, physicist known for his work on methods of earthquake observations and on the construction of seismographs; he invented the first effective electromagnetic seismograph in 1906, dies at 54
1977 Erwin Wilhelm Müller, physicist who invented the field emission microscope, which provided magnifications in excess of one million, dies at 65
1992 Lawrence Welk, musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, hosting The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982, dies at 89
2004 Tony Randall, Emmy Award-winning actor (The Odd Couple, Mister Peepers, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Pillow Talk), dies at 84
2005 Frank Gorshin, character actor and impressionist (Batman, That Darn Cat!, Twelve Monkeys), dies at 72
2007 Lloyd Alexander, author of more than forty books, mostly fantasy novels for children and adolescents, as well as several adult books; his most famous contribution to the field of children’s literature is the fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain, dies at 83