On This Day June 5th

 OTD

June 5th is the one-hundred-fifty-sixth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 209 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1257 – Kraków, in Poland, receives city rights.

1610 – The Masque Tethys' Festival is performed at Whitehall Palace to celebrate the investiture of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.

1829 – HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.

1837 – the Republic of Texas incorporates Houston.

1851 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.

1915 – Denmark amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage.

1956 – Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.

1968 – Sirhan Sirhan assassinates presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

1981 – The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that five people in Los Angeles, California, have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.

1989 – The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

 

Birthdays

.1493 – Justus Jonas, German priest and academic (d. 1555)

1646 – Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1684)

1760 – Johan Gadolin, Finnish chemist, physicist, and mineralogist (d. 1852)

1878 – Pancho Villa, Mexican general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua (d. 1923)

1898 – Salvatore Ferragamo, Italian shoe designer, founded Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. (d. 1960)

1915 – Lancelot Ware, English barrister, and biochemist, co-founder of Mensa (d. 2000)

1932 – Dave Gold, the American businessman, founded the 99 Cents Only Stores (d. 2013)

1951 – Suze Orman, American financial adviser, author, and television host

1972 - Wendi Petersen Stewart, nurse, crafty person, mother

 

Holiday Highlight

NATIONAL GINGERBREAD DAY

 

Earlier, gingerbread meant ‘preserved ginger’, which came from the Old French term ‘gingerbras’, which in turn was derived from ‘zingebar’, the Latin term for ginger.

The spice that gives gingerbread its spicy flavor originated in China, where it was traditionally used as a medical treatment. It spread to Europe via the Silk Road. Early Crusaders brought back this spice from the Middle East to experiment with. They would add it to preserved meats and medicinal remedies, too.

The earliest forms of gingerbread didn’t even use ginger and were not always bread — they were essentially honey cakes. The gingerbread trend caught on as the spice became more affordable to the masses.

The ancient Greeks and Egyptians used gingerbread for ceremonial purposes. They were even a staple in medieval fairs across England, France, Holland, and Germany. At this time, gingerbread was sold as hard cookies in the shape of animals, kings, and queens, and it was occasionally gilded with gold leaf. This decoration is credited to Queen Elizabeth I, who had cookies decorated in this fashion. Over time, fairs in England were called Gingerbread Fairs, and the gingerbread cookies served there were known as ‘fairings.’ The shapes would change according to the season — flowers in the spring and birds in the fall.

The earliest gingerbread man is also credited to Queen Elizabeth I, who reportedly presented visiting dignitaries to her court with these human-shaped gingerbread treats.

The Grimm Brothers’ story “Hansel and Gretel” put gingerbread houses on the map and German settlers brought this trend to the Americas. Gingerbread is now considered an art form in many places including Nuremberg, Ulm, and Pulsnitz in Germany, Torun in Poland, Tula in Russia, Pest in Hungary, Pardubice and Prague in the Czech Republic, and Lyon in France. These places have had baking guilds sanctioned by the government since the Middle Ages.

 

Holidays And Observance

Apple II Day

Festival of Popular Delusions Day

Global Running Day

Hot Air Balloon Day

National Gingerbread Day

National Moonshine Day

National Running Day

National Tailors Day

National Veggie Burger Day

Sausage Roll Day

World Day Against Speciesism

World Environment Day

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