May 22 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 213 days remaining until the end of time.
334BCE The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus. Gannicus would've given them a battle, too!
1892 Dr. Washington Sheffield invents toothpaste tube because somebody had to do it
1906 Wright Brothers patent the aeroplane
1931 Canned rattlesnake meat 1st goes on sale in Florida
1954 Robert Zimmerman is Bar Mitzvahed
1967 "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" debuts on NET (now PBS)
1986 Cher calls David Letterman an asshole on Late Night on NBC
2002 American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
2011 An EF5 Tornado strikes the US city of Joplin, Missouri killing 161 people, the single deadliest US tornado since modern record keeping began in 1950. It's still pretty big news around these parts.
1844 Mary Cassatt, maybe gay US painter/printmaker
1907 Sir Laurence Olivier, bisexual English actor/director/producer
1930 Harvey Milk, gay US politician/gay rights activist/martyr
February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 316 days remaining until the end of time.
1891 1st shipment of asparagus arrives in San Francisco from Sacramento. I have no idea why this is a significant event in world history. I mean, I like asparagus and am happy that others do as well, but Sacramento is only an hour away from SF, so what’s the big deal?
1895 William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
1951 St. Louis Browns sign pitcher Satchel Paige, 45. Twenty years later on this date, Paige becomes the first Negro Leaguer elected to the Hall of Fame
1953 "Adventures of Superman" TV series premieres in syndication
1964 1st appearance of Beatles on "Ed Sullivan Show" (73.7 million viewers)
1971 Philip Carey portrays a positive gay character, a first for television, on an episode of All in the Family (Season 1, Episode 005 "Judging Books By Covers")
1985 Madonna's "Like a Virgin" album goes #1 for 3 weeks–longer than she was a virgin.
1999 Jerry Falwell outs Tinky Winky. . .and he should know
1909 Carmen Miranda, Portugese singer/actress/fruit lover
1986 Osman Khalid Butt, Pakistani-UK actor named after my favorite body part
1987 Henry Cejudo, US Olympic Gold Medal freestyle wrestler
1906 Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet, see de sunshine in de medders.
1966 Sophie Tucker, Russian-US singer and actress (My Yiddish Momme), is the last of the red hot mamas. Said Sophie, "I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Believe me, honey, rich is better."
2010 Walter Frederick Morrison, American inventor (Frisbee), gets tosssed.
