On May 30, 1989, student demonstrators unveiled a 33-foot high “Goddess of Democracy and Freedom” statue in Tiananmen Square.
Author: Redactor
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G. K. Chesterton
Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas, and moves among them like a lion-tamer.
On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the last of the original 13 British colonies to ratify the Constitution. It joined the newly re-formed union as the 13th State of the federation. On the same date in 1848, Wisconsin was admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
Hong Kong’s General Chamber of Commerce was founded on this date in 1861. In other commerce news — or, history — the pharmacist John Pemberton placed his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal on May 29, 1886.
Parisian ballet-goers rioted at the premiere of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring on the spring day of May 29 in 1913. The caricature, above, was drawn at the time to portray the event, which is a cultural landmark of the 20th century.
In 1990, the Russian parliament elected Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
May 29th birthdays include
* 1736 – Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, first Governor of Virginia (d. 1799)
* 1874 – G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, and playwright (d. 1936)
* 1906 – T. H. White, Indian-English writer, author of The Once and Future King (d. 1964)
* 1917 – John F. Kennedy, American lieutenant and politician, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
* 1929 – Harry Frankfurt, American philosopher and academic, author of On Bulshit (2005)
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Jorge Luis Borges
The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.
Jorge Luis Borges, “Dead Men’s Dialogue” in Dreamtigers (1960)
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Greek voters
On May 28, 1952, the women of Greece gained the right to vote.
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Townhall: Defending Your Right . . . to Die
Something about Democrats and death — click on over to Townhall.com. Then come back here:
- NBC News: Congress OKs letting terminal patients try unapproved drugs
- Common Sense: Hooray for Congress!
- Goldwater Institute: U.S. House Joins Senate in Passing Right to Try Law, President Pledges to Sign Bill
- Bloomberg: ‘Right-to-Try’ Drug Law Offers No Miracle Cure
- CBS News: “Right to try” bill passes, but will it help terminally ill patients?
- NPR: Right To Try Act Poses Big Challenge For FDA
- The Hill: ‘Right to try’ is an ill-considered bill
- Right to Try – National Movement
- Senate Bill 204
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Mary Wollstonecraft
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
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The Model T Era Ends
On May 27, 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi began his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification.
In 1927 on this date in May, the Ford Motor Company ceased manufacture of the Ford Model T, the last of this model coming off the line the day previous. Over 16 million Model T Fords had been sold, and was a world transformative product. On the 27th, the company began to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
Exactly 70 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Paula Jones could pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he was in office.
In 2015, 27 May, the commercial space company SpaceX was approved as a contractor to the U.S. military for satellite launches; SpaceX has since led the world in its use of re-usable booster rockets which, after sending up orbital rockets, return to a sea surface platform for a safe vertical landing.
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Video: Enslaving a Generation
The tragedy of debt slavery is best seen not in the One Company Town, but in a popular (if universally vexing) government subsidy program:
https://youtu.be/yd6cqJqygt0
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Freedom of Religion
On May 26, 451, the Sassanid Empire defeated the Armenians at the battle of Battle of Avarayr, but guaranteed them freedom to openly practice Christianity.
On May 26, 1328, scholastic philosopher and Franciscan friar William of Ockham and other Franciscan leaders secretly exited Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII. On the same day in 1538, the city of Geneva expelled John Calvin and his followers, who headed to exile in Strasbourg.