History Trivia

In 558 the dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian. In 1274 the Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope. In 1429 the English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc. In 1525 the German peasants' revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church and in 1663 the first Theatre Royal was opened in London.

History Trivia

On May 6, 1994, in a ceremony presided over by England's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterand, a rail tunnel under the English Channel was officially opened, connecting Britain and the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age. The channel tunnel, or "Chunnel," connects Folkstone, England, with Sangatte, France, 31 miles away. The Chunnel cut travel time between England and France to a swift 35 minutes and eventually between London and Paris to two-and-a-half hours.

History Trivia

On May 5, 1614 Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian confederacy, married English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Virginia. The marriage ensured peace between the Jamestown settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years. Chief Powhatan's 13-year-old daughter's real name was Matoaka. Pocahontas was a pet name that has been translated as "playful one" and "my favorite daughter."

On May 4, 1471, in merry ole England, the Yorkists defeated the Landcastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses. In 1493, Alexander VI divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal and in 1626 Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island. Native Americans later sold the island (20,000 acres) for $24 in cloth and buttons.

Niccolo Machiavelli

On May 3, 1469, the Italian philosopher and writer Niccolo Machiavelli was born. A lifelong patriot and diehard proponent of a unified Italy, Machiavelli became one of the fathers of modern political theory.

Machiavelli entered the political service of his native Florence by the time he was 29. As defense secretary, he distinguished himself by executing policies that strengthened Florence politically. He soon found himself assigned diplomatic missions for his principality, through which he met such luminaries as Louis XII of France, Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and perhaps most importantly for Machiavelli, a prince of the Papal States named Cesare Borgia. The shrewd and cunning Borgia later inspired the title character in Machiavelli's famous and influential political treatise The Prince (1532).

Leonardo da Vinci

On May 2 1519 Leonardo da Vinci died. Born on April 15, 1452, he was the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence. Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice and spent his last years in France, at the home awarded him by Francis I.

May Day

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.

As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.