Celebrations Today – May 5
Holidays and observances
- Children’s Day (Japan)
- Children’s Day (South Korea)
- Cinco de Mayo (Mexico and the United States)
- Christian feast day:
- Constitution Day (Kyrgyzstan)
- Coronation Day (Thailand), commemorating the coronation of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1950
- Europe Day (Council of Europe)
- Feast of al-Khadr or Saint George (Palestinian)
- Indian Arrival Day (Guyana)
- International Midwives’ Day (International)
- Liberation Day (Denmark)
- Liberation Day (Netherlands)
- Lusophone Culture Day (Community of Portuguese Language Countries)
- Martyrs’ Day (Albania)
- Patriots’ Victory Day (Ethiopia)
- Senior Citizens Day (Palau)
- Tango no sekku (Japan)
Celebrations Today – USA: May 5
National Astronaut Day
World Password Day
National Cartoonists Day
Cinco de Mayo
National Hoagie Day
National Totally Chipotle Day
National Space Day – First Friday in May
National Military Spouse Appreciation Day – Friday Before Mother’s Day
National Provider Appreciation Day – Friday Before Mother’s Day
National Intergalactic Star Wars Day
International Firefighters Day
National Kids Fitness Day
National Petite and Proud Day
National Respect For Chickens Day
World Give Day
Today in US History: May 5
It certainly is most absurd, the fact can never be!
My great grand daddy never was a monkey up a tree!Grace Carleton,
“Too Thin; or, Darwin’s Little Joke”
Too Thin; or, Darwin’s Little Joke,
Grace Carleton, words; O’Rangoutang, music, 1874.
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820-1860 & 1870-1885
The Darwin Club,
Rea Irvin, artist, March 18, 1915.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
On May 5, 1925, high school science teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in one of Tennessee’s public schools. Scopes had agreed to act as defendant in a case intended to test Tennessee’s new law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in its public schools. On May 4, the day before Scopes’s arrest, the Chatanooga Times had run an ad in which the American Civil Liberties Union offered to pay the legal fees of a Tennessee teacher who was willing to act as a defendant in a test case. Several Dayton residents hatched a plot at a local drugstore. They hoped that a trial of this type would bring much needed publicity to the tiny town of Dayton.
Defending Lawyer and Judge of Scopes Trial,
Clarence Darrow seated with Judge John F. Raulston, July 12, 1925.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
The men enlisted several local attorneys and one easy-going teacher who believed in academic freedom and in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution which states that all organisms developed from earlier forms through a process of natural selection. While volumes of scientific evidence support the theory of evolution, many felt that it contradicted the story of creation as described in the Bible and thus did not want evolution taught in schools.
The trial pitted famous labor and criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow against former senator and secretary of state William Jennings Bryan, who worked for the prosecution. The trial was such a media circus that, on the seventh day in the courtroom, the judge felt compelled to move the proceedings outdoors under a tent due to the unbearable heat and for fear that the weight of all the spectators and reporters would cause the floor to cave in.
Scopes Trial Lawyers, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow in courtroom during Scopes trial, 1925.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
As Judge John T. Raulston incrementally disallowed the use of the trial as a forum on the merits or validity of Darwin’s theory, the trial swiftly drew to a close. The jury took only nine minutes to return a verdict of guilty. After all, Scopes had admitted all along that he had, in fact, taught evolution. As the trial came to a close, reporter and critic H.L. Mencken explained to readers of the Baltimore Sun and the American Mercury:
All that remains of the great cause of the State of Tennessee against the infidel Scopes is the formal business of bumping off the defendant. There may be some legal jousting on Monday and some gaudy oratory on Tuesday, but the main battle is over, with Genesis completely triumphant. Judge Raulston finished the benign business yesterday morning by leaping with soft judicial hosannas into the arms of the prosecution.
When the defense appealed the verdict, the Tennessee State Supreme Court acquitted Scopes on a technicality but upheld the constitutionality of the state law. Not until 1967 did Tennessee lawmakers overturn the law, finally allowing teachers to teach evolution. The trial did bring Dayton, Tennessee a great deal of publicity, mostly comprised of reinforcements of a stereotype of the south as an intellectual backwater, certainly not the type Daytonians had hoped to attract.
- Visit Universtiy of Missouri-Kansas City Law School Professor Doug Linder’s faculty project, Tennessee vs. John Scopes “The Monkey Trial” 1925. The site, a component of Famous Trials in American History, includes photos, portions of trial transcripts, and page images of the text from which Scopes taught evolution.
- See other sheet music illustrations in the collections Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885, Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920, and The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana.
- See the Today in History features on William Jennings Bryan and H.L. Mencken.
My First Real Bath: Gee! Ain’t it Great!
Clifford Kennedy Berryman, 1925.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Cinco de Mayo
Mexican Catholic Church,
Deming, New Mexico, circa 1910-1919.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections
Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza successfully defended the town of Puebla on May 5, 1862, temporarily halting France’s efforts to establish a puppet regime in Mexico. With the U.S. absorbed by the Civil War, Emperor Napoleon III hoped to create a French sphere of influence in Latin America. The victory is commemorated as a national holiday in Mexico.
The Mexican victory at Puebla was short-lived. French reinforcements seized the town in March 1863. The following June, Maximilian, younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria and a member of the Hapsburg dynasty, was crowned emperor of Mexico. He remained in power until 1867, when Napoleon III abandoned his Mexican adventure and withdrew his troops.
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become an occasion to celebrate Hispanic culture. Fairs commemorating the day feature singing, dancing, food, and other amusements, and provide a means of sharing a rich and diverse culture.
Mexican Girl, Deming, New Mexico, circa 1910-1919.
The South Texas Border, 1900-1920: Photographs from the Robert Runyon Collection
Learn more about the history of Hispanic America:
- See the The South Texas Border, 1900-1920: Photographs from the Robert Runyon Collection, a collection of over 8,000 images of the Lower Rio Grande Valley from the early 1900s.
- Enjoy Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection, an online presentation of a multi-format ethnographic field collection which documents religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.
- Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941 documents everyday life at Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in the early 1940s. The collection includes an interview with twenty-year-old migrant worker José Flores. He reflects on the cultural differences between Mexican and American families, discusses discrimination against Mexicans, and describes life in an FSA camp.
- The Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress assists researchers investigating the geographical areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Iberia; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the U.S., and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. See the presentation Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995 which is available through the Hispanic Reading Room homepage as well as other online collections on Hispanic culture.
- Don’t miss Today in History features on José Manuel Gallegos and Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.
- Search Working in Patterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting using keywords Mexican American, Hispanic American, emigration, and immigration to find and listen to interviews regarding working in America.
- The Mexican American section of the Teachers Page’s Immigration presentation features the history of Mexicans in the United States.
Today in History – May 5-External Links
Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia