May 9

Today in History
• 1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated in Lincoln, England
• 1450 - 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated
• 1460 - Courtyard of the episcopal palace in Atrecht has witch burnings
• 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his final trip to the New World
• 1671 - Colonel Thomas Blood tried to steal Crown Jewels from the Tower of London
• 1689 - English King William III declares war on France
• 1754 - 1st newspaper cartoon in America-divided snake "Join or Die"
• 1785 - British inventor Joseph Bramah patents beer-pump handle


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Alphabet Magnet Day
• Guernsey Liberation Day
• Hurray for Buttons Day
• Lag BaOmer
• National Butterscotch Brownie Day
• National Lost Sock Memorial Day
• Russian Victory Day
• Tear the Tags Off The Mattress Day

Birthdays
• 1147 - Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese founder of bakufu and 1st shogun
• 1540 - Maharana Pratap, Rajput king of Mewar (1572-1597)
• 1785 - James Pollard Espy, American meteorologist (Philosophy of Storms)
• 1800 - John Brown, abolitionist; led attack on Harpers Ferry
• 1810 - Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau
• 1837 - Adam Opel, German automobile manufacturer
• 1866 - Gopal Krishna Gokhale, reformer and leader of Indian Independence Movement
• 1873 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist, found King Tutankhamen's tomb