..Historical Events

[Tania Admin]

May 6th

1994

The Channel Tunnel, linking England and France, was officially opened on this day, nearly 200 years after the idea was first suggested. There were many misgivings, the sea having protected for centuries what Shakespeare described as “this precious stone set in the silver sea . . . this fortress built by Nature for herself against infection and the hand of war”.

Known as one of the most awesome Man Made Wonders Of The World

 

[Phoebe]

May 6th

1994

The Day the UK lost being an Island!!

 

[Osman]

Keep these coming Tania, very interesting

 

[Tania Admin]

May 7th

1965

In the early morning hours of May 7, 1965, a bleary-eyed Keith Richards awoke, grabbed a tape recorder and laid down one of the greatest pop hooks of all time: The opening riff of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” He then promptly fell back to sleep.

“When I woke up in the morning, the tape had run out,” Richards recalled many years later. “I put it back on, and there’s this, maybe, 30 seconds of ‘Satisfaction,’ in a very drowsy sort of rendition. And then it suddenly—the guitar goes ‘CLANG,” and then there’s like 45 minutes of snoring.” It wasn’t much to go on, but he played it for Mick Jagger later that same day. “He only had the first bit, and then he had the riff,” Jagger recalls. “It sounded like a country sort of thing on acoustic guitar—it didn’t sound like rock. But he didn’t really like it, he thought it was a joke… He really didn’t think it was single material, and we all said ‘You’re off your head.’ Which he was, of course.”

Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

 

[Osman]

Ah yes, my induction into the world of music, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

 

[Tania Admin]

May 8th

2010

This Lady Is Such a Funny Old Duck

Betty White becomes oldest “Saturday Night Live” host

On May 8, 2010, 88-year-old actress Betty White, known for her former roles on “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” becomes the oldest person to host the long-running, late-night TV sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). White’s hosting gig came about, in part, after hundreds of thousands of her fans signed onto a Facebook campaign rallying for it.

 

[Phoebe]

May 8th The very last full day of War in Europe in World war 2.

 

[Tania Admin]

Usually I do a daily, "On This Day" but today's was an extremely important turning stone in history and definitely deserves it's own thread.

Can you imagine how different the world would be without it?!

"May 9th"

1960

FDA approves "the pill"


The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the world’s first commercially produced birth-control bill–Enovid-10, made by the G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, Illinois.

Development of “the pill,” as it became popularly known, was initially commissioned by birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katherine McCormick. Sanger, who opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States in 1916, hoped to encourage the development of a more practical and effective alternative to contraceptives that were in use at the time.

 

[Lingus]

Socially important for women, for sure, and for men too ! ... and isn't it just a little bit ironic that the oral contraceptive pill's original USA approval date coincides with the celebration of Mother's Day ... in fact, next year both subjects will share the exact same date, 9th May 2021.

 

[Tania Admin]

Socially important for women, for sure, and for men too ! ... and isn't it just a little bit ironic that the oral contraceptive pill's original USA approval date coincides with the celebration of Mother's Day ... in fact, next year both subjects will share the exact same date, 9th May 2021.

I 100% agree on all accounts!

 

[Lingus]

To quote Margaret Sanger (from Woman and the New Race) :

" No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether or not she will be a mother. "



... and an excerpt of a section from the National Museum of Australia's website states :

" The release of the oral contraceptive pill ‘Anovlar’ in Australia on 1 February 1961 ushered in a momentous change in women’s lives.

Initially available only to married women, and burdened with a 27.5 per cent luxury tax, the pill would give women the freedom to avoid unwanted pregnancies and plan parenthood.

This control over their reproductive future saw more women enter the workforce.

Increased participation (and heightened social visibility) became the basis for ongoing social change that included legislation around equal pay for equal work and freedom from discrimination. "

 

[Madmax1700]

Oh my

 

[Tania Admin]

May 11th

1958

This woman is smart, classy and most definitely wears the pants in what was a very male dominated field.

Ellen Ochoa, an American engineer, former astronaut and the current Director of the Johnson Space Center, was born today in 1958. Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012.

 

[Osman]

Yes, I know of her, she was the first Hispanic woman to travel in space as part of the Space Shuttle Discovery, many years ago.

 

[Tania Admin]

12th May

1907

This lady was breathtakingly beautiful in my opinion.

Katharine Hepburn, an actress, was born today in 1907. She performed for more than 60 years, and won four Academy Awards for best actress including awards for The Philadelphia Story and On Golden Pond.

 

[Tania Admin]

13th May

1973

On May 13, 1973, during the early years of the women’s liberation movement, tennis stars Bobby Riggs and Margaret Court face off in a $10,000 winner-take-all challenge match. The 55-year-old Riggs, a tennis champion from the late 1930s and '40s who was notoriously skeptical of women’s talents on the tennis court, branded the contest a “battle of the sexes.” The match, which was played on Mother’s Day and televised internationally, was held on Riggs’ home turf, the San Vincente Country Club in Ramona, California, northeast of San Diego. Proceeds were promised to the American Diabetes Association.

 

[Farm Boy 2]

loretta lynn "the pill"

 

[Osman]

That wasn't Margaret Court in the photo, it was Billie Jean King. They both played him.

 

[Tania Admin]

That wasn't Margaret Court in the photo, it was Billie Jean King. They both played him.

Oops. Me bad. I will add a pic of Margaret Court now. Thank you for the heads up.

 

[Tania Admin]

Margaret Court.

 

[Tania Admin]

May 14th

1908

1st passenger flight in an airplane

Now this was some pretty important stuff. And oh how it changed our world. Mostly for the better ❤

Charles Furnas becomes the first passenger in an aeroplane in the United States, piloted by Wilbur Wright. They fly for a distance of approximately 600m in 28-3/5ths seconds in the Wright 1905 Flyer, modified with seats for pilot and passenger.

 

[Osman]

Little did they realise 112 years later, people would be flying less

 

[Tania Admin]

May 15th

1982

This song is so beautiful. It pulled on my heart strings as a child and still makes me emotional.

“Ebony And Ivory” begins a seven-week run at #1 on the pop charts


Without the black keys, the white keys on a piano would pretty much be stuck playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Do Re Mi.” If you want anything more interesting than that—if you want a song like “Yesterday,” for instance—you’re going to have to get the two sets of keys working together. From this little insight, Paul McCartney crafted the biggest hit record of his post-Beatles career: “Ebony And Ivory.” Recorded as a duet with the great Stevie Wonder, “Ebony And Ivory” took the top spot in the Billboard Hot 100 on May 15, 1982 and didn’t relinquish it until seven weeks later.

 

[Tania Admin]

May 16th

1929

Wow! Can you imagine being a part of something so glamorous. The ladies dressed so beautifully and the men looked so sophisticated. The after parties would have been quite interesting

The first-ever Academy Awards ceremony, Hollywood’s annual celebration of the best its creative artists have to offer over the previous year.

The official Academy Awards banquet took place in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Some 270 people attended, and tickets cost $5 each. After a long dinner, complete with numerous speeches, Douglas Fairbanks, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which had been formed in 1927, handed out 15 awards in a five-minute ceremony.

 

[Tania Admin]

May 17th

2004

Ridiculous that it took so long and even more ridiculous that it would be another 13 years before it became legal in Australia. Thank goodness our lovely gay community can now officially commit to one another and their love be recognised.

Marcia Kadish, 56, and Tanya McCloskey, 52, of Malden, Massachusetts, marry at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts, becoming the first legally married same-sex partners in the United States. Over the course of the day, 77 other same-sex couples tied the knot across the state, and hundreds more applied for marriage licenses. The day was characterized by much celebration and only a few of the expected protests materialized.

 

[Tania Admin]

May 18th

1995

Elizabeth Montgomery Passed away.

She was everyone's favourite witch. And what an absolute stunner!

Truth be known I still try to wiggle my nose to clean the house. Doesn't bloody work though!!

 

[Tania Admin]

May 19th

1965

We may live on a different continent, but this was a very important day for all women,,especially our sisters.



Patricia R. Harris was appointed as ambassador to Luxembourg, becoming the first woman African American ambassador.

 

[Tania Admin]

May 20th

1873

I can't imagine life without my blue denim jeans (and shorts here in Darwin weather). A big huge thank you to Levi and Jacob for changing the world with their awesome product ❤


San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.


Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis


150 year old Levi jeans in below picture

 

[Osman]

It's only fair I suppose.
Johann Strauss composed The Blue Danube in 1866, and 7 years later Levi Strauss invented the Blue Jean

 

[Tania Admin]

May 21st

1932

Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make solo, nonstop transatlantic flight.

I can't even begin to imagine the excitement she must have felt. Such a huge feat for the time and for women

Is it just me or does she look hell sexy in this pic?!


Five years to the day that American aviator Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to accomplish a solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, female aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first pilot to repeat the feat, landing her plane in Ireland after flying across the North Atlantic. Earhart traveled over 2,000 miles from Newfoundland in just under 15 hours.

Unlike Charles Lindbergh, Earhart was well known to the public before her solo transatlantic flight. In 1928, as a member of a three-person crew, she had become the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an aircraft. Although her only function during the crossing was to keep the plane’s log, the event won her national fame, and Americans were enamored with the daring and modest young pilot.