Hello, Headliners. Today’s birthday is celebrated by Little Walter, considered one of the greatest harmonica players of all time. While I try to keep the Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear to less than 10, this is a big day in history:

• 1753 – Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.




• 1759 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.




• 1776 – Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.





• 1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.




• 1851 – Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London.
• 1869 – The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.
• 1884 – Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.




• 1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States.
• 1886 – Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers’ Day in many countries.




• 1893 – The World’s Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago.




• 1894 – Coxey’s Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C..
• 1901 – The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.




• 1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
• 1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.




• 1931 – The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
• 1945 – World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has “fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany”. The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.




• 1945 – World War II: Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Führerbunker. Their children are murdered by Magda by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths.
• 1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1960 – Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.




• 1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
• 1970 – Protests erupt in Seattle, Washington, following the announcement by U.S. President Richard Nixon that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.
• 1982 – The 1982 World’s Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 1989 – Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
• 1991 – Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics
  steals his 939th base, making him the all-time leader in this category.
  However, his accomplishment is overshadowed later that evening by Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers, when he pitches his seventh career no-hitter, breaking his own record.
• 2003 – 2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the “Mission Accomplished” speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”.
• 2009 – Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.
• 2011 – Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has been killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, bin Laden was actually killed on May 2.

Enough delay, let’s get to today’s Headlines Du Jour:

GOP STANDS FOR “GIMME OUR PAYMENTS!”   

TEABAGGED ENOUGH ALREADY?

CRACK MAYOR CORNER:

$COTU$ WATCH:

SO GLAD WE’RE LIVING IN A POST-RACIAL SOCIETY:

FREE THE WEED!!!

IN LGBT NEWS:

WHEN CAPITALISM IS OUTLAWED, ONLY OUTLAWS WILL ENGAGE IN CAPITALISM:

ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORKS:

CAN YOU DIG IT?

SARAH PALIN IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

GLENN BECK IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

MSNBC IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

LEGGY MEGGY IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

ALLEN WEST IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

BULLY BOY BOLLING IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

OUTNUMBERED IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

VIDEO DU JOUR:

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