On This Day:
Wednesday May 7, 2014 This is the 127th day of the year, with 238 days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: plastics Plastics have become one of the most used materials in the world. Their molecules are made up of long chains of atoms and they are easily shaped by heating. Most plastics are synthetic, made from chemicals that are usually extracted from petroleum. Rubber from rubber trees is a natural kind of plastic, although synthetic rubber can also be made using petrochemicals. Thermoplastics soften and melt each time they are reheated, then retain their shape and harden when the temperature falls. Thermosetting plastics will not soften again once they have been heated and set. Americans throw away around 2.5 million plastic bottles each hour; in a year, Americans throw away enough plastic bottles to circle the earth four times.
Holidays Feast day of St. John of Beverley, St. Letard, St. Domitian of Maestricht, and Saints Serenicus and Serenus.
El Salvador: Day of the Soldier.
Germany: Hamburg Harbor Birthday / Hafengeburtstag.
Events 1763 - Pontiac's Rebellion began when a confederacy of Native American warriors under Ottawa chief Pontiac attacked the British force at Detroit.
1789 - The first inaugural ball was held, for George Washington, in New York.
1821 - The Africa Company was dissolved because of heavy expenses incurred, and Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Gold Coast were taken over by the British government to form British West Africa.
1832 - Greece became an independent kingdom.
1847 - The American Medical Association (AMA) is founded in Philadelphia.
1915 - Nearly 1200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast, on its return trip from New York to Liverpool, England.
1939 - Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1945 - Germany signed an unconditional surrender at the Allied headquarters in France.
1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (later renamed Sony Corporation) is founded with about 20 employees.
1947 - "Kraft Television Theatre" premiered on TV.
1954 - Vietnam claimed victory over France at Dien Bien Phu, ending the Indochina War.
1960 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
1974 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns.
1992 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage (STS-49).
1998 - Londoners voted overwhelmingly to elect their own mayor for the first time in history.
1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler Corporation for US $40 billion, forming DaimlerChrysler, the largest industrial merger in history.
2000 - President Vladimir Putin took the oath of office in Russia's first democratic transfer of power.
2006 - Rolling Stone magazine publishes its one-thousandth issue.
Births 1711 - David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian.
1812 - Robert Browning, English poet.
1833 - Johannes Brahms, German composer.
1840 - Peter I. Tchaikovsky, Russian composer.
1870 - Marcus Loew, American film executive, consolidated studios to create MGM.
1885 - Gabby Hayes, American actor.
1892 - Archibald MacLeish, American poet, dramatist, statesman, and Librarian of Congress.
1909 - Edwin Herbert Land, American, inventor of the Polaroid Land Camera.
1919 - Eva Perón, president of Argentina.
1933 - John Constantine "Johnny" Unitas, professional American football player.
1968 - Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma), American actress.
Deaths 1941 - James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist.
2000 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor.
2006 - Richard Carleton, Australian television journalist.
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