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Today (May 14)
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May 14  Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, is a terrestrial planet and is the second smallest of the Solar System's planets with a diameter of 6,779 km (4,212 mi). A Martian solar day (sol) is 24.5 hours and a Martian solar year is 1.88 Earth years (687 Earth days). Mars has two small and irregular natural satellites: Phobos and Deimos. Carbon dioxide is substantially present in Mars's polar ice caps and thin atmosphere. It has the highest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and the largest canyon, Valles Marineris. There are large annual temperature swings on the surface, between −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) and 5.7 °C (42.3 °F) – similar to Earth's seasons. Due to its geological history, the possibility of past or present life on Mars remains of great scientific interest. Mars has been explored by uncrewed spacecraft and rovers, and is an attractive target for future human exploration missions. (This article is part of a featured topic: Solar System.)
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May 14: Feast day of Saint Matthias (Catholicism); Independence Day in Israel (2024)  Monument to the Battle of Lewes
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May 14
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Tomorrow (May 15)
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May 15  A British Chariot manned torpedo Operation Title was an unsuccessful Allied attack on the German battleship Tirpitz during World War II. The Allies considered Tirpitz to be a major threat to their shipping and after several Royal Air Force heavy bomber raids failed to inflict any damage it was decided to use Royal Navy midget submarines instead. Operation Title involved a pair of two-man British Chariots which were transported to Norway on board a small boat named Arthur. Both Chariots were lost when bad weather caused them to detach from Arthur on 31 October. It was not possible for the Allied boat to reach the sea due to German security measures, and Arthur was scuttled. The Allied personnel attempted to escape overland and all but one reached neutral Sweden on 5 November. The other – a British serviceman – was taken prisoner by German forces and murdered on 19 January 1943. Tirpitz was eventually sunk by another bomber raid on 12 November 1944. (Full article...)
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May 15: Feast day of Saint Carthage (Catholicism); Nakba Day in Palestinian communities  Statue of Valentinian II
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May 15
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In two days (May 16)
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May 16 Hö'elün (fl. 1162–1210) was a Mongolian noblewoman and the mother of Temüjin, better known as Genghis Khan. She played a major role in his rise to power. Born into the Olkhonud clan of the Onggirat tribe, Hö'elün was originally married to Chiledu, but was captured shortly after her wedding by Yesügei, an important member of the Mongols, becoming his primary wife. She and Yesügei had three sons and one daughter, as well as Temüjin. After Yesügei was fatally poisoned and the Mongols abandoned her family, Hö'elün shepherded all her children through poverty to adulthood—her resilience and organisational skills have been remarked upon by historians. She continued to play an important role after Temüjin's marriage to Börte. Hö'elün married Münglig, an old retainer of Yesügei, in thanks for his support after a damaging defeat. During the next decades, she arranged marriages, maintained alliances, and was heavily involved in disputes between Genghis, his brothers, and Münglig's sons. (Full article...)
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May 16: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (2024) .jpg) Junko Tabei
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May 16
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In three days (May 17)
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May 17  Raymond Brownell (17 May 1894 – 12 April 1974) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a World War I (WWI) flying ace. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of WWI and served in the Gallipoli campaign before transferring to the Western Front. Awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the Battle of Pozières, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. Moving with his squadron to Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and credited with shooting down 12 aircraft. After the war, Brownell returned to Australia and was group captain at the outbreak of World War II. Establishing the RAAF base in Singapore, he returned to Australia in 1941 and was appointed to lead No. 1 Training Group. He was Air Officer Commanding Western Area for over two years, then led the No. 11 Group on Morotai. Retiring from the Air Force in 1947, Brownell became a partner in a stockbroking firm. He died in 1974; his autobiography was published posthumously. (Full article...)
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May 17: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia; Sanja Matsuri begins in Tokyo, Japan (2024)  Anne of Denmark
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May 17 .jpg) American actor Tom Cruise made his debut in the romantic drama Endless Love (1981). His breakthrough role was in the coming-of-age comedy Risky Business (1983), for which he garnered his first Golden Globe Award nomination. In 1986, Cruise played a fighter pilot in Tony Scott's Top Gun, which was the highest grossing film of that year; he returned to the role in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). He portrayed anti-war activist Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of the July (1989), for which he received his first Golden Globe Award. Three years later, he appeared with Jack Nicholson in the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992). In 1996, Cruise starred as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible, the first film from his production company Cruise/Wagner Productions; he has appeared in six sequel films to date, most recently Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). He earned his second and third Golden Globes for the title role in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996) and the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed drama Magnolia (1999). (Full list...) | |||
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In four days (May 18)
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May 18  Tropical Storm Hernan intensifying offshore Mexico on August 26 Tropical Storm Hernan was a short-lived tropical cyclone that caused widespread flooding and destructive mudslides across southwestern Mexico in late August 2020. The eighth named storm of the 2020 Pacific hurricane season, Hernan formed to the southwest of Mexico on August 26. The cyclone peaked with maximum sustained winds of 75 km/h and a minimum atmospheric pressure of 1001 millibars, before passing just offshore western Mexico and dissipating in the Gulf of California. Hernan, despite not making landfall, dropped extremely heavy rainfall across several states, peaking at nearly 610 millimeters (24 inches) in Jalisco. Over 305 millimeters (12 inches) of rain fell across the Costa Grande of Guerrero from August 24–27. 1,674 homes and 9 schools all suffered severe damage. A man died after falling off his roof checking damages from Hernan. The cyclone caused a total of MXN$594.05 million (USD$26.91 million) in damages across seven states along the Pacific coast of Mexico. (Full article...)
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May 18: Haitian Flag Day in Haiti (1803); Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Crimean Tatar Genocide in Ukraine  Sada Abe
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May 18
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In five days (May 19)
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May 19 .jpg) SB19 "Gento" is a song recorded by the Filipino boy band SB19 (pictured). It was written by the band's leader, Pablo, and produced along with his brother Joshua Daniel Nase and the record producer Simon Servida. The lyrics of the pop and hip hop track are themed around empowerment and use gold mining as a metaphor for achieving success. Sony Music Philippines released the song on May 19, 2023, as the lead single from the boy band's second extended play (EP), Pagtatag! (2023). The song won multiple awards, and music critics praised its catchiness and lyricism. A dance challenge set to the song became a trend on TikTok. "Gento" achieved top 15 chart positions in the Philippines and on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart; the latter made the boy band the first Filipino group to enter the chart. SB19 accompanied the song with a music video depicting them mining for gold, various live performances, and its inclusion on the set list of their Pagtatag! World Tour. (Full article...)
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May 19: Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey (1919)  John Franklin
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May 19
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In six days (May 20)
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May 20 City of Champaign v. Madigan is a 2013 case decided by the Illinois Appellate Court, ruling that messages sent and received by elected officials during a city council meeting and pertaining to public business are public records subject to disclosure, even when stored on personal electronic devices. It was the first court ruling in Illinois to hold that private messages were subject to disclosure under the state's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The case addressed a public records request from a reporter for The News-Gazette in Champaign, Illinois, who observed city council members and the mayor using their personal electronic devices to send messages during a city council meeting. City officials denied the reporter's request; the case eventually reached the Appellate Court, which held that public officials have to disclose their records, even if they are stored on a personal electronic device or account, but only when acting as a public body, such as during a council meeting. (Full article...)
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May 20: National Day of Remembrance in Cambodia (1975); National Awakening Day in Indonesia (1908); Victoria Day in Canada (2024)  The Luttra Woman's skull
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May 20  Hurricane Calvin The 1993 Pacific hurricane season was an event in the annual formation of tropical cyclones over the Pacific Ocean north of the Equator and east of the International Date Line. The season officially began on May 15 in the Eastern Pacific proper (east of 140°W) and June 1 in the Central Pacific (140°W to the International Date Line), and ended on November 30. A total of eighteen tropical depressions formed; fifteen of these developed into named tropical storms, of which eleven became hurricanes and nine became major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson scale). The most impactful storm of the season was Hurricane Calvin (pictured), which made landfall near Manzanillo in the Mexican state of Colima as a Category 2 hurricane; it killed more than 30 people, mainly due to significant flooding, and damages amounted to $32 million. (Full list...) | |||
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May 20
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In seven days (May 21)
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May 21  Anning, depicted with her dog Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector and palaeontologist. She made discoveries of Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis, which changed the scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton, the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons, and the first pterosaur skeleton outside Germany. Her observations helped prove that coprolites were fossilised faeces and that belemnite fossils contained ink sacs. As a woman, Anning could not join the Geological Society of London and struggled to receive credit for her contributions. Henry De la Beche painted Duria Antiquior based on fossils Anning had found and sold its prints for her benefit. After her death, an article about her life was published in Charles Dickens's literary magazine. A statue of Anning was erected in 2022, and she has been depicted in film and in manga. (Full article...)
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May 21: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development  Capture of Syracuse
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May 21
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