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 eleven 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 four hundred 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 days not over. I guess I better go buy a lottery ticket.
I stopped off to visit my mother on my way in to the office today. She is in a room at UAMS, for some issues with her heart. Fiftyfour years ago today she was in another hospital bed on the same street. Back in those days and many days after, if you began life in a hospital in Little Rock, it was at St. Vincent’s. She should get to go back to rehab today. We’re all hoping so. Love you mom. 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, in 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. Thanks again mom.
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 be-comes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
And that is a brief history of May 17.
•••
Hopefully this past May 17 will not be the last, which if some are right, will be the case, because Saturday, which is tomorrow if you’re reading this on the 20th, could be the end of the world.
This from judgermentday2011.com –
“On Saturday May 21st, the world will experience what Harold Camping has predicted a Global Earthquake to be the Greatest Earthquake ever. Camping’s Prophecy Predictions have been proven incorrect in the past, but he has learned from the mistake he made in 1994, and is confident about the date of May 21, 2011. If the earth starts to shake on May 21, how will you react?”
Probably not that well, but that’s just me.