It was a good week for weather lovers. Low humidity and sunny days with highs in the upper 60s and low 70s – the way May ought to be. May is also the month when we have the most office birthdays here at The Daily Record, of which I am one. And there seems to be a lot of other people I know with May birthdays. Maybe it’s because it is named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May.
Famous people born on my birthday, the 17th, include Sugar Ray Leonard (55), Enya (50), Bill Paxton (56), Dennis Hopper (who would have been 75), Maureen O’Sullivan (who would have been 100), and Ayatollah Khomeini, who, had he lived, would have been 109 this week.
It was interesting reading up on Khomeini’s death. After spending 11 days in a hospital, he died on June 3, 1989. Iranians poured out into the cities and streets to mourn his death in a “completely spontaneous outpouring of grief.”
Despite the hundred-degree heat, crushing mobs created an impassable sea of black for miles as they wailed, chanted and rhythmically beat themselves in anguish ... As the hours passed, fire trucks had to be brought in to spray water on the crowd to provide relief from the heat, while helicopters were flown in to ferry the eight killed and more than 400 injured.
Three and a half million people attended his funeral. Iranian officials had to abort the first funeral, after a large crowd stormed the procession, nearly destroying Khomeini’s wooden coffin in order to get a last glimpse of his body. At one point, his body almost fell to the ground, as the crowd attempted to grab pieces of the death shroud. The second funeral was held under much tighter security. Khomeini’s casket was made of steel, and heavily armed security personnel surrounded it.
I’m actually writing this on my birthday. Yes, that means I’m working. The plans to be comfortably retired on the beach at this point in time have not as yet materialized, but the day is not over. I guess I better go buy a lottery ticket.
I looked to see what other events happened on my birthday. For one thing, back in 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was formed when 24 stockbrokers signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree outside of 68 Wall Street in Manhattan.
In 1939, The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers played in the United States’ first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.
On May 17, 1849, a fire nearly burned St. Louis to the ground. This was the first fire in U.S. history in which it is known that a firefighter was killed in the line of duty.
In 1875, on the 17th of May, Aristides won the first Kentucky Derby. The Louisville Courier-Journal wrote: “It is the gallant Aristides, heir to a mighty name, that strides with sweeping gallop toward victory ... and the air trembles and vibrates again with the ringing cheers that followed.”
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court overturned state-sponsored segregation with their unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, paving the way for integration and the civil rights movement.
1957 – I was born.
In 1973, the country turned on their televisions to watch the Watergate hearings.
In 1990, The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminated homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
And that is a brief history of May 17.
This article was originally published May 20, 2011 in The Daily Record.