May 6
The Hindenburg disaster, the Channel Tunnel, No Homework Day, and the old folk belief about planting beans today.
Category Daily Almanac
Daily entries of obscure holidays, folklore, and curiosities
May 5: Cinco de Mayo, Napoleon’s Last Word, and the World’s Most Misunderstood Holiday
On this date in 1821, Napoleon died on a rock in the Atlantic. In 1862, Mexico won a battle that became a holiday in a country that isn’t Mexico. And somewhere, right now, someone is eating a burrito in celebration…
May 4: Star Wars, Kent State, and the Haymarket Bomb
On this day in 1970, students were shot on a campus in Ohio. On this day in 1979, a British newspaper accidentally gave George Lucas a second franchise. These are not unrelated facts — they share a date, and dates…
May 3: Machiavelli, the Constitution Nobody Remembers, and the Day We Agreed the Press Should Be Free
On this day in 1469, a future author of the most misread book in the history of politics was born in Florence. In 1791, a country that would cease to exist within fourteen months passed the most progressive constitution in…
May 2: Athanasius Against the World, and Other Stubbornness
In 1611, the King James Bible was published. In 1945, Berlin fell. And in the village of Ottery St Mary, Devon, England, people have been carrying flaming tar barrels on their shoulders through the streets every November for at least…
May 1: Beltane, Haymarket, and the Holiday America Refused
You’ve been dancing around a pole decorated with ribbons since at least the 14th century, and you may not have known that the ribbons are meant to represent the weaving of summer into the world. The Day May 1st is…