Wednesday, May 1, 2019

May Day Musings

Everything you ever wanted to know about May Day. And then some. And then some more. Yeah, there's my regular mix of information, entertainment, far reaching tangents; some enlightenment, some offensive material (you'll know it when you see it), and an f-bomb. I even have a disclaimer, which I frequently do.


Because there is SOOOOO much information out there about this particular date (I was shocked), I am resorting to, um, appropriating (with minor edits) most of the text of this post from various Wikipedia articles, and throwing in my sundry snide comments along the way. Had I known in advance what a bottomless pit this was, I would have started days ago and come up with my own verbiage, per my usual approach. In the section of articles, I have put in bold the terms that have subsequent articles. In the last On This Day section, I am merely highlighting the significant items so it’s easier for you to skim over things without having necessarily to read them. (I figure you’ll either be tired or bored, or both, by then. See? I’m always thinking of you.) I mean, let's be real, I can't even promise you I've read the whole thing.

May Day

May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1st. It is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the festivities. In the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers' Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers' Day can also be referred to as "May Day", but it is a different celebration from the traditional May Day.

The earliest known May celebrations appeared with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held on April 27th during the Roman Republic era, and the Maiouma or Maiuma, a festival celebrating Dionysus and Aphrodite on an unknown date in May every three years. The Floralia opened with theatrical performances. In the Floralia, Ovid says that hares and goats were released as part of the festivities. Persius writes that crowds were pelted with vetches, beans, and lupins. A ritual called the Florifertum was performed on either April 27th or May 3rd, during which a bundle of wheat ears was carried into a shrine, though it is not clear if this devotion was made to Flora or Ceres. Floralia concluded with competitive events and spectacles, and a sacrifice to Flora.
Not this guy. Persius, not Perseus. (Better watch that blade, buddy.)
Nope, not this guy either.
According to the 6th century chronicles of John Malalas, the Maiouma was a "nocturnal dramatic festival, held every three years and known as Orgies, that is, the Mysteries of Dionysus and Aphrodite" and that it was "known as the Maioumas because it is celebrated in the month of May-Artemisios". During this time, enough money was set aside by the government for torches, lights, and other expenses to cover a thirty-day festival of "all-night revels." The Maiouma was celebrated with splendorous banquets and offerings. Its reputation for licentiousness caused it to be suppressed during the reign of Emperor Constantine, though a less debauched version of it was briefly restored during the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, only to be suppressed again during the same period.

[Maioumas and orgies. Not going there. You’ll have to read up on that on your own.]

A later May festival celebrated in Germanic countries, Walpurgis Night, commemorates the official canonization of Saint Walpurga on May 1st, 870. In Gaelic culture, the evening of April 30th was the celebration of Beltane (which translates to "lucky fire"), the start of the summer season. First attested in 900 AD, the celebration mainly focused on the symbolic use of fire to bless cattle and other livestock as they were moved to summer pastures. This custom continued into the early 19th century, during which time cattle would be made to jump over fires to protect their milk from being stolen by fairies. People would also leap over the fires for luck.

Since the 18th century, many Roman Catholics have observed May – and May Day – with various May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary In works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers in a May crowning. May 1st s also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day.

The best known modern May Day traditions, observed both in Europe and North America, include dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the tradition of giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.

In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing some of the older pagan festivals and combining them with more recently developed European secular and Catholic traditions, and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival.

International Workers' Day

Vienna, Austria, 2013
International Workers' Day, also known as Workers' Day, Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement which occurs every year on May Day (May 1st), an ancient European spring festival.

The date was chosen by a pan-national organization of socialist and communist political parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on May 4, 1886. The 1904 Sixth Conference in Amsterdam of the Second International (an organisation of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889 and dissolved in 1916), called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace."

The first of May is a national, public holiday in many countries across the world, in most cases as "Labour Day", "International Workers' Day" or some similar name – although some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September.

Labor Day

Labor Day in the United States of America is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws, and well-being of the country. It is the Monday of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend. It is recognized as a federal holiday.

Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. "Labor Day" was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in the United States officially celebrated Labor Day.

The Haymarket affair

This 1886 engraving was the most widely reproduced image of the Haymarket Affair. It shows Methodist pastor Samuel Fielden speaking, the bomb exploding, and the riot beginning simultaneously; in reality, Fielden had finished speaking before the explosion.
The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre, Haymarket riot, or Haymarket Square riot) was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886 at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed eight workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy. The evidence was that one of the defendants may have built the bomb, but none of those on trial had thrown it. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. Illinois governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two of the sentences to terms of life in prison; another committed suicide in jail rather than face the gallows. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887. In 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the remaining defendants and criticized the trial.

The Haymarket Affair is generally considered significant as the origin of International Workers' Day held on May 1st.

The Floralia

Triumph of Flora by Tiepolo (ca. 1743), a scene based on Ovid's description of the Floralia
The Floralia was a festival in ancient Roman religious practice in honor of the goddess Flora, held April 27th during the Republican era, or April 28th in the Julian calendar. The festival included Ludi Florae, the "Games of Flora" which lasted for six days under the empire.

The festival had a licentious, pleasure-seeking atmosphere. In contrast to many festivals which had a patrician character, the games of Flora were plebeian in nature.

Walpurgis Night

Walpurgisnacht at the open-air theatre in Heidelberg
Walpurgis Night, an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German Sankt Walpurgisnacht), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of April 30th and the day of May 1st. This feast commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, both of which occurred on May 1, 870.

Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling "pest, rabies and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft." In Germanic folklore, Hexennacht (Dutch: heksennacht), literally "Witches' Night", was believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Christians prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft, as Saint Walpurga was successful in converting the local populace to Christianity.[10] In parts of Christendom, people continue to light bonfires on Saint Walpurga's Eve in order to ward off evil spirits and witches. Others have historically made Christian pilgrimages to Saint Walburga's tomb in Eichstätt on the Feast of Saint Walburga, often obtaining vials of Saint Walburga's oil.

Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed throughout Northern- and Central Europe in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and Estonia. In Denmark, the tradition with bonfires to ward off the witches is observed as Saint John's Eve.

Beltane

A Beltane bonfire on Calton Hill in Edinburgh
Beltane or Beltain is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on May 1st, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is Lá Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn, and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh Calan Mai.

Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology. Also known as Cétshamhain ("first of summer"), it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered to the aos sí. Doors, windows, byres and livestock would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush: typically a thorn bush or branch decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells and rushlights. Holy wells were also visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness. Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.

Beltane celebrations had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Beltane at the other end of the year (around November 1st).

Interesting, isn't it? How the anti-witch Walpurgis Night and the Wiccan Beltane are observed in similar fashion...

May Crowning

Virgo by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg
May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary refer to special Marian devotions held in the Catholic Church during the month of May honoring the Virgin Mary as "the Queen of May". These services may take place inside or outside. A "May Crowning" is a traditional Roman Catholic ritual that occurs in the month of May.

A number of traditions link the month of May to Mary. Alfonso in the 13th century wrote in his Cantigas de Santa Maria about the special honoring of Mary during specific dates in May. Eventually, the entire month was filled with special observances and devotions to Mary.

The origin of the conventional May devotion is still relatively unknown. Herbert Thurston identifies the seventeenth century as the earliest instance of the adoption of the custom of consecrating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin by special observances. It is certain that this form of Marian devotion began in Italy. Around 1739, witnesses speak of a particular form of Marian devotion in May in Grezzano near Verona. In 1747 the Archbishop of Genoa recommended the May devotion as a devotion for the home. Specific prayers for them were promulgated in Rome in 1838.

According to Frederick Holweck, the May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite. In Rome by 1813, May devotions were held in as many as twenty churches. From Italy, May devotions soon spread to France. In Belgium, the May devotions, at least as a private devotion, were already known by 1803. The tradition of honoring Mary in a month-long May devotion spread eventually around the Roman Catholic world in the 19th century together with a month-long devotion to Jesus in June and the Rosary in October.

The May Queen

A May Queen of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada circa 1877
The May Queen or Queen of May is a personification of the May Day holiday, and of springtime and also summer. The May Queen is a girl who must ride or walk at the front of a parade for May Day celebrations. She wears a white gown to symbolise purity and usually a tiara or crown. Her duty is to begin the May Day celebrations. She is generally crowned by flowers and makes a speech before the dancing begins. Certain age-groups dance round a Maypole celebrating youth and the spring time.

James George Frazer speculated that the figure of the May Queen was linked to ancient tree worship.

In the High Middle Ages in England the May Queen was also known as the "Summer Queen". George C. Homans points out: "The time from Hocktide, after Easter Week, to Lammas (August 1st) was summer (estas)."

In 1557, a London diarist called Henry Machyn wrote:

"The xxx day of May was a goly May-gam in Fanch-chyrchestrett with drumes and gunes and pykes, and ix wordes dyd ryd; and thay had speches evere man, and the morris dansse and the sauden, and an elevant with the castyll, and the sauden and yonge morens with targattes and darttes, and the lord and the lade of the Maye".

[I’m glad they included the original text so we can see that today’s English isn’t as bad as we think it is. Luckily for us though they provided a translation.]

Modern English: On the 30th day of May was a jolly May-game in Fenchurch Street (London) with drums and guns and pikes, The Nine Worthies did ride; and they all had speeches, and the morris dance and sultan and an elephant with a castle and the sultan and young moors with shields and arrows, and the lord and lady of the May".

Morris dancers with handkerchiefs, Tim Green from Bradford, 23 April 2016
Many areas keep this tradition alive today. The oldest unbroken tradition is Hayfield, Derbyshire, based on a much older May Fair. Another notable event includes the one in the Brentham Garden Suburb, England which hosts it annually. It has the second oldest unbroken tradition although the May Queen of All London Festival at Hayes Common in Bromley is a close contender having been in existence for 105 years as of 2017. A May Day festival is held on the village green at Aldborough, North Yorkshire on a site that dates back to Roman times and the settlement of Isurium Brigantum. A May queen is selected from a group of 13 upward girls by the young dancers. She returns the next year to crown the new May Queen and stays in the procession. The largest event in this tradition in modern Britain is the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A May Day celebration held annually since 1870 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada has the distinction of being the longest running May Day celebration of its kind in the British Commonwealth.

Maypole

Dancing around the maypole, in Åmmeberg, Sweden
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place.

The festivals may occur on May Day (May 1st) or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer. In some cases the maypole is a permanent feature that is only utilised during the festival, although in other cases it is erected specifically for the purpose before being taken down again.

Primarily found within the nations of Germanic Europe and the neighbouring areas which they have influenced, its origins remain unknown. It has often been speculated that the maypole originally had some importance in the Germanic paganism of Iron Age and early Medieval cultures, and that the tradition survived Christianisation, albeit losing any original meaning that it had; however, more recent scholarship has found that the custom of the maypole arose in the context of medieval Christian Europe. It has been a recorded practice in many parts of Europe throughout the Medieval and Early Modern periods, although it became less popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the tradition is still observed in some parts of Europe and among European communities in the Americas.

Giant Stride

Children enjoying a May Pole Dance, circa 1930s [May Pole, my ass; “Dance" is just as ludicrous.]
Now, when I was a student at Willis Campbell Elementary School in Cass City Michigan (late 60s, early 70s), in our playground—as in many playgrounds around the country—we had, along with the swings, slides, teeter-totters (or see-saws if you prefer), merry-go-rounds and monkey bars, a fiendish device called a Giant Stride, which was basically a high-speed, iron version of its quaint and pastoral cousin. Of course, in our neck of the woods the name had been corrupted to “The Strikes”. I am quite sure the name did not take long to devolve, because the object of the exercise was to use your own body to inflict as much damage upon all the rest as possible, “striking” them hard enough to make them use their grip and fly off into the sunset. And while it was possible to do this as a solo act, frequently we employed the help of a friend in a maneuver most comparable to a Whip in the Roller Derby world: two would join hands and one would fling the other at double speed around the pole. The flinger would generally be the smaller of the two, not being able to generally gather much speed on their own anyway, but very capable of propelling a lighter flingee. Due to the constant parade of injuries this attraction provided, the thing was eventually chained up, and I assume ultimately removed. We are a slow learning group though because it was in service for many a year before that.

Whip It , 2009, with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore (also her directorial debut)
Some more Giant Stride photos from years gone by.

Another Giant Stride – at a playground in New York City, ca. 1910-1915. Source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Playgrounds, May Day, Glass negative, 1924 May. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington
Giant Stride, The Royal Normal College for the Blind, England [Seriously? As if the game wasn’t sadistic enough on its own, they came up with this variation?]
"Swing" Angas, George French 1822-1886: The New Zealanders Illustrated, 1847. Source: Wikimedia Commons [Is this how swing dancing was invented?]
Playgrounds From the Past (1)
Playgrounds From the Past (2) [Somewhere an insurance company just shit itself a little. I can remember doing this.]

Old playground rocking 'horse' [Sure the other playground equipment might injure you, but these fuckers could kill you: NOTHING says instant death quicker than a spring-loaded, 100 pound piece of cast iron.]
A short article, “Fun-Filled Danger of the Giant Stride”, is here:


Maypo

Perhaps it was my earliest known pun. Alas that knowledge is lost to the mists of history. But for whatever reason, I cannot hear May Pole without recalling Maypo.


Maypo is a brand of instant maple-flavored oatmeal cereal. It was originally manufactured by Maltex Co. and is now owned by Homestat Farm, Ltd. It was best known for its television commercials with the catchphrase, "I Want My Maypo" by Marky Maypo.



Maypo was developed by the Maltex Corporation in Burlington, Vermont, a company which had been manufacturing wheat and barley cereal since 1899 under the name Malted Cereals Company. The formula was invented in 1953 by Herbert A. Bahrenberg.

Shortly after the development of Maypo, Maltex was sold in 1956 and became a division of Heublein. By the mid-1960s its market share had declined and Maltex was sold to American Home Products. In 2001 Homestat Farm, Ltd. purchased Maypo.

The original "I Want My Maypo" ad was developed in 1956 by the Fletcher, Richards, Calkins & Holden Advertising Agency. The animation was created by John Hubley. The commercial, which appealed to children, increased sales on average 78%, with some markets increasing sales by 186%.

Maypo's later television ads sometimes featured athletes—including Mickey Mantle, Wilt Chamberlain and Johnny Unitas—crying "I want my Maypo!"



If you think your cereal is expensive now, you ought to see how much vintage cereal memorabilia is going for these days.

MTV's "I want my MTV!" image and branding campaign in 1982 was based on the "I want my Maypo!" catchphrase; both were developed by George Lois.

"I Want My MTV" (Quick call the Police!)

In 1985, Dire Straits gave a nod to the concept with Money For Nothing.

  
Mark Knopfler

The song ran into some controversy years later in Canada due to a presumed Snowflake Sensitivity issue (snow in Canada?) but that went away. You can read about it here:


Marky Maypo

As a mascot, Marky Maypo needed to have a toy tie-in. And he got one. Here is the Marky Maypo bank.
 
Is it me, or does he remind you of a pornstar. With clothes.
Here he is in bed...
He's looking for his lost chastity.
Oh, don't worry, it gets worse.

He doesn't look happy about this.







At least he's smiling now.




Now that that humiliation is over, let's bear in mind this is a child's bank. Which means that eventually whatever small change goes into it, must at some point come out. To buy more cereal related toys. Here's how that happens.

Marky has what can only be described as a butt plug.

There's nearly a $20 difference in the two styles. I can only assume it has to do with the comfort level; rubber is softer than hard plastic. I think it's best if we ignore the fact the the rubber one looks like an inverted plunger, because that would no doubt impact the comfort level, if not his bowels.
At least he has a friend to share in his misery.
Vintage Cereal Tangent

As I was looking for Maypo images, I came across a few other cereals from those bygone days.

Dr. Who


Mr. Spock
So if you mix them together in the same bowl, you get Dr. Spock:

(I swear for the life of me, I thought that said "enema" at first.)

My trip down memory lane nearly complete, Google had to remind me that the Good Old Days weren't always so good. I didn't ask for these they just showed up in my search.

I can actally remember these.
 
Oh, hell no.
I thankfully do not remember any such product. In case the shock of the image has prevented you from reading any of the text, there are only two things I want to hightlight. The first is the not so subtle irony that Howdy's Honey, is "U.S. Fancy Extra White". The second is that it was a product from Ithaca Michigan. I know people from there. (You got some 'splainin' to do.)
Back to reality

This post is about May Day, remember? I haven't forgotten. As you well know I get side tracked from time to time. There are still a couple of observances to cover.
 
Loyalty Day

Loyalty Day is observed on May 1st in the United States. It is a day set aside "for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom."

The holiday was first observed in 1921, during the First Red Scare. It was originally called "Americanization Day," and it was intended to replace the May 1 ("May Day") celebration of the International Workers' Day, which commemorates the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago.

During the Second Red Scare, it was recognized by the U.S. Congress on April 27, 1955, and made an official reoccurring holiday on July 18, 1958 (Public Law 85-529). President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1, 1955, the first observance of Loyalty Day. In 1958, Eisenhower urged Congress to move Child Health Day to the First Monday in October, to avoid conflicting with Loyalty Day. Loyalty Day has been recognized with an official proclamation every year by every president since its inception as a legal holiday in 1958.

Child Health Day

Child Health Day (Pub.L. 105–225, 112 Stat. 1255) is a United States Federal Observance Day observed on the first Monday in October.

According to 36 U.S.C. § 105, on Child Health Day the president invites "all agencies and organizations interested in child welfare to unite on Child Health Day in observing exercises that will make the people of the United States aware of the fundamental necessity of a year-round program to protect and develop the health of the children of the United States. "The holiday was enacted by Congress in 1928, and was first celebrated on May 1, 1929

In 2017 President Donald Trump proclaimed Child Health Day to be October 2. [Kinda unnecessary, I guess, since it already was Child Health Day.]

Mayday

“’Mayday Means Help!’ — a reminder from the June/July 1940 National Radio News. Note the pilot’s microphone, his airplane’s broken wings and propeller, and the sharks circling in the water!”
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.

It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organizations such as firefighters, police forces, and transportation organizations also use the term. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday mayday mayday") to prevent its being mistaken for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call.

The "mayday" procedure word was originated in 1923, by a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. The officer, Frederick Stanley Mockford, was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the expression "mayday" from the French m'aider ('help me'), a shortened form of venez m'aider ('come and help me'). It is unrelated to the holiday May Day.

Before the voice call "mayday", SOS was the Morse code equivalent of the mayday call. In 1927, the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington adopted the voice call mayday as the radiotelephone distress call in place of the SOS radiotelegraph (Morse code) call.

Other May Day remembrances

Bloody May

“On Berlin’s May Day 1929, the latent hostility between Social Democrats and Communists finally spilled over into bloodshed. A day meant to demonstrate workers’ unity instead showed tragic divisions in the face of rising Nazism.” The rest of the article is here:


A police cycle patrol guarding one of Berlin's barricaded streets, 1929. Keystone / Getty
Black Monday happened just under 6 months later on October 24, 1929, rendering the whole thing moot. Almost. There was that whole WWII thing that happened after…

Meanwhile, in Israel, May Day had plenty of ups and downs. Interesting article that gives a little perspective on the flux of Arab-Israeli relations over the years:


A quick tour of what’s going on right now all over the world:


There are a couple of marches planned in Seattle:


Cynthia Ruiz, at center wearing white, and Alissica Cortes, at center wearing black, participate in the 19th annual March for Immigrant and... (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)
And France is trying to keep things peaceful. They’re still not over the Notre Dame fire, after all.


In pictures: May Day celebrated around the world


The BBC has a bit of their tongue in their cheek with this article. Four of the twelve pictures have to do with celebrations; the remaining eight are “celebrations” disguised as rallies, protests, and conflicts.

On This Day

Lastly, on this day in history. I have left out the lion’s share, believe me.

Events

1776 Adam Weishaupt founds secret society of Illuminati [and the granddaddy of all conspiracy theories was born.]

1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "Marriage of Figaro" premieres in Vienna with Mozart himself directing

1884 Construction begins on Chicago's 1st skyscraper (10 stories) [I’m only including this one as a point of comparison to the one after the next one.]

1930 The planet Pluto is officially named by 11 year-old Venetia Burney [We all know this did not end well for Pluto.]

1931 Empire State Building opens in New York City [Two years later, King Kong falls for a dame.]

1939 Batman first appears in Detective Comics #27

1941 "Citizen Kane", directed by Orson Welles and starring himself, Joseph Cotten and Dorothy Corningore, premieres at the Palace Theater in New York City

1941 General Mills introduces CheeriOats (renamed Cheerios in 1945) an oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal [Not more cereal...]

1943 Food rationing begins in the United States during World War II [General Mills couldn’t keep up with the Cheerio demand.]

1952 Mr Potato Head introduced

1955 Showgirl Linda Lawson is crowned "Miss-Cue" in the Atomic Pageant, after the Operation Cue test is repeatedly delayed by high winds [What better way to celebrate the idea we now had the ability to blow up the world?]

Miss-Cue (Yes, that's a mushroom cloud on her head. We weren't doing Duck and Cover yet.)
1961 1st US airplane hijacked to Cuba [This would have been a regular meme back in the day if we only had memes.]

1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba [Kind of a hardball response to the hijacking, don’t you think?]

1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird"

1999 Animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants", created by Stephen Hillenburg, debuts on Nickelodeon

Birthdays

1852 Calamity Jane [Martha Jane Canary], American frontierswoman, born in Princeton, Missouri (d. 1903)

1907 Kate Smith, American singer (God Bless American), born in Greenville, Virginia (d. 1986)

1913 Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Steve Allen Plymouth Show), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 2005) [No relation to Bill Nye the Science Guy.]

1916 Glenn Ford, Canadian-American actor (Cade's County, Big Heat, Midway), born in Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne, Quebec, Canada (d. 2006) [Did you know he was Canadian?]

1918 Jack Paar, American television host of the Jack Paar Show (d. 2004), born in Canton, Ohio

1939 Judy Collins, singer (Send in the Clowns, Clouds), born in Seattle, Washington [And still killing it.]

1950 Dann Florek, American actor (Law & Order), born in Flat Rock, Michigan [Local boy makes good.]

1954 Ray Parker Jr, rock guitarist/vocalist (Ghostbusters), born in Detroit, Michigan

1961 Marilyn Milian, current judge on The People's Court [So much hotter than Judge Wapner or Ed Koch.]

Death came calling for these folks

1471 Thomas a Kempis, spiritual writer (Navolging of Christ), dies at 91

1539 Isabella of Portugal, queen of Spain and empress of Germany (b. 1503) [She’s the one who had a thing for Columbus; weird to think how many of us wouldn’t be here if not for that.]

1873 David Livingstone, British physician/explorer (Africa), dies at 60 [You know—I presume—this guy:


1904 Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (Slavic Dancing, New World Symphony), dies at 62

1945 Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi Minister of Propaganda, commits suicide aged 47 with his wife (43) and arranges the death of their 6 children, Heidrun (4), Hedwig (6), Holdine (8), Helmut (9), Hildegard (11), and Helga (12) [What kind of demon mind becomes a family annihilator after they’re dead? I don’t think Satan even had a room set up for that kind of evil.]

1965 Spike Jones [Lindley Armstrong Jones], American bandleader (Der Fueher's Face, Cocktails For Two), dies from emphysema at 53 [The Weird Al of his day. Sort of.]

1978 Aram Katchaturian, Russian composer (The Earth), dies at 74 [Did not like the nickname “Chicken” for some reason.]

1997 Bebe, AKA Flipper, dolphin, dies at 40

1998 Eldridge Cleaver, American activist (b. 1935)

2000 Stephen "Steve" Reeves, American professional bodybuilder, actor, and philanthropist (Hercules, Goliath, Sandokan), dies from a blood clot at 74 [The definitive Hercules. He just had “The Look”.]

2015 Grace Lee Whitney, American singer and actress (Yeoman Rand-Star Trek), dies at 85 [I always wished she had been on the show longer.]

2017 Stan Weston, American toy licensing agent, had concept for G.I. Joe, dies at 84

Weddings

1850 Soldier William Tecumseh Sherman (30) weds Eleanor Boyle Ewing in Washington, D.C.

1881 Physiologist Ivan Pavlov (32) weds Seraphima Karchevskaya

1954 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (36) weds Imelda Romualdez (24) in a Catholic church [Shoe businesses worldwide nearly collapsed when she died.]

1967 King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley (32) weds actress Priscilla Beaulieu (21) at Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada [Simply no other venue would do.]

1982 Actress Kate Jackson (33) weds business executive David Greenwald in Beverly Hills, California [On this list because she’s Kate.]

1991 Actor Robert Duvall weds Sharon Brophy

1996 Actress and talk show host Kelly Ripa (26) weds film actor Mark Consuelos (25) in Las Vegas [Not at all sure why she’s on the list. Especially without Regis.]

1998 "Reality Bites" actor Ethan Hawke (27) weds "Pulp Fiction" actress Uma Thurman (28)

1998 Professional Cyclist [and Drug Cheat] Lance Armstrong weds Kristin Richard (divorced 2003) [The drug cheat reference does not appear in the text: but whoever compiled the list added it as part of the image name they used. Too priceless not to include it here.]

1999 "Dixie Chicks" singer Emily Erwin (26) weds singer-songwriter Charlie Robison (34) at Lone Star State in Texas

1999 "As Good As It Gets" actor Greg Kinnear (35) weds British model Helen Labdon (29)

2010 Actor-producer Seth Green (36) weds actress Clare Grant (30) at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Nacasio, California [The Nerd runs deep with this one.]

Divorced

1978 Actress and model Bianca Jagger files for divorce from Rolling Stone rocker Mick Jagger after 7 years of marriage on the grounds of his adultery with model Jerry Hall

If you want the comprehensive run down, go here:


Well, there you have it. May Day is quite a day. After this, I’m gonna need the next three days to recover before Cinco de Mayo.


No comments: