Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

Please continue cutting those limes and getting that sea salt ready for the massive margarita you all have to make to celebrate this day (just do it a little more quietly in Arizona.) For those of you who don't know - it's not Mexican Independence Day (that's September 16th) - it's their victory over the French.



If you another reason to celebrate the day - A US patent was issued for the first bottle with a screw cap and a pour lip to Edward A. Ravenscroft, Glencoe, Illinois (No 2,039,345). Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago manufactured the bottles.



And remember nobody pisses in the beer, that just a stupid urban legend.


Today in History

May 5, 2349 BC -
Noah's Ark lands on Mount Ararat, according to calculations by James Ussher, Archbishop of the Church of Ireland.



According to the good bishop, Noah heard about the two for one Margaritas at Senor Swanky's.


May 5, 1821 -
Napoleon dies on the island of St. Helena, some suspect from arsenic poisoning.



More likely, he died from stomach cancer as did his father.


May 5, 1925 -
High school teacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution by authorities in Dayton, Tennessee, as part of a publicity stunt to make the town famous.



Since Scopes admitted teaching the theory, he was found guilty, and the law remained on the books in the backward state until 1967.


May 5, 1945 -
Mrs Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children are killed while attempting to drag a Japanese balloon out the woods in Lakeview, Oregon. Unbeknownst to Mitchell and the children, the balloon was armed, and it exploded soon after they began tampering with it.

They are the only people killed in action on the US mainland during World War II.


May 5, 1961 -
Alan B. Shepard is the first American in space, with a fifteen minute suborbital flight. He was forced to piss himself in his suit prior to launch, as it lacked an evacuation system.



He was launched in the 2,000-lb. capsule Freedom 7 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by a Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket. The flight traveled 302 miles at a speed relative to the ground of of 4,500 mph.

Aren't you glad you know that now.


And so it goes.

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