Did you know that it was on this day in 1066 the Granada massacre takes place as a Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city (why would a Muslim mob crucify someone?)? Or that it was on this day in 1919 Lincoln’s Inn in London admits its first female bar student?
And on this day in 1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed, in 1924 Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies, in 1948 The Cole Porter Broadway musical, Kiss Me, Kate (1,077 performances), opens at the New Century Theatre and becomes the first show to win the Best Musical Tony Award, in Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin and today, in 2011, due to a change of time zone the day is skipped in Samoa and Tokelau.
Some birthdays you may want to remember on this day are Rudyard Kipling, English writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1936), Bo Diddley, American singer and musician (1928-2008), Sandy Koufax, American baseball player (1935), Patti Smith, American singer and poet (1946), Tracey Ullman, English actress and singer (1959), Heidi Fleiss, American madam (1965), Ato Boldon, Trinidadian athlete (1973) and Tiger Woods, American golfer (1975).
Need a reason to raise a glass of bubbly on this day? Maybe you can do so in celebration of Day of the Declaration of Slovakia as an Independent Ecclesiastic Province (Slovakia) or, if you get really desperate, perhaps for Freedom Day (Church of Scientology)?
For more information about historic events on this day, please go here.
A Glass of Bubbly 