On This Day:
Sunday May 4, 2014 This is the 124th day of the year, with 241 days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: galaxies The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. The sun is just one of millions of stars in this huge disk-shaped area and our galaxy is just one of the millions scattered throughout the universe. Our galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across and about 1,000 light-years deep, meaning that a beam of light would take about 100,000 years to shine from one end to the other. Not all galaxies are shaped or sized alike, and they are not composed of the same things. We learn about our own and other galaxies by picking up radio waves on radio telescopes and measuring and interpreting them. The closest galaxy to us (in our "local group" of about 20-30 galaxies) is Andromeda, about 2 million light-years away. Galactic phenomena - the changes and formations of the galaxies - are fascinating to astronomers and cosmologists.
Holidays Feast day of St. Pelagia of Tarsus, St. Florian of Lorch, St. Robert Lawrence, St. Augustine Webster, St. Gothard, St. John Houghton, St. Venerius of Milan, and St. Cyriacus.
China: Youth Day.
Curacao: Memorial Day.
Rhode Island: Independence Day.
Events 1471 - The Battle of Tewkesbury, the last battle in the Wars of the Roses, took place; the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians.
1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island. He purchased Manhattan from resident Algonquin Indians for the equivalent of $24.
1715 - A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
1776 - Rhode Island declared independence from England.
1836 - The Ancient Order of Hibernians was founded.
1886 - At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded.
1894 - The first Bird Day was observed.
1904 - Work began on the Panama Canal.
1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.
1945 - German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark, and northwest Germany agreed to surrender in World War II.
1961 - A group of 13 "Freedom Riders" left Washington for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals.
1970 - Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.
1973 - The world's tallest building, Sears Tower, Chicago, was completed.
Births 1796 - Horace Mann, educator, the father of public education in the U.S., author, editor.
1825 - Thomas Huxley, English naturalist, biologist.
1874 - Frank Conrad, American electrical engineer, helped establish first radio station.
1928 - Thomas Kinsella, Irish poet.
1929 - Audrey Hepburn (Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Rusten), Belgian-born American actress.
1941 - George F. Will, American Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist.
Deaths 1980 - Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavian soldier and president.
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