On this day.

HAPPY WORLD TURTLE DAY.

As well as being an important day for turtles and tortoises there are a lot of interesting facts about today. 

• 1430 -  Jeanne d'Arc was captured by Burgundians.  
• That didn't work out very well for the 19 year old Maid of Orléans.
• 1533 - Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void. 
• She faired slightly better than her successors, Anne, Jane, another Anne, and yet another Catherine. 
• 1618 - The Thirty Years War began with the defenestration of Prague. 
• Toss, "AIIIIIIEEE!" Sploosh!  Defenestration is such a groovy word.
• 1701 - In London, Captain William Kidd danced the hempen jig.
• Up the long ladder and down the short rope. 
• 1829 - The Accordion is patented. 
•  1873 - Canada's North West Mounted Police force was established. 
• Probably hasn't worked out well for a lot of folks.  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police always get their man. 
• 1883 - Douglas Fairbanks was born.  
• That would be the one that later became the Senior one.  
• 1895 - The New York Public Library was created.  
• YAY! libraries!!!
• 1900 - Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
• 1910 - Artie Shaw Big Band leader is born. 
• 1928 - George Clooney's auntie Rosemary belts out her first notes warming up those great vocal chords. 
• 1933 - Actress Joan Collins is born.  She'll earn her nerd cred as a guest star in the first season of the original Star Trek.  "the City on the Edge of Forever."  April 6, 1967.  Season 1 ep. 28.
• 1934 - Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by Texas Rangers in Louisiana.  This was the first thing I learned about this day,  Way, WAY back in the dawn of time. 
• 1934 - Robert Moog inventor of the Moog synthesizers, started down a path that would lead to Prog rock stardom for some who chose his babies.
• 1940 - "I'll Never Smile Again" was recorded by Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey. 
• 1945 - Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, committed suicide.
• 1951 - Anatoly Karpov Chess grandmaster en passants his way into the universe.
• 1952 - "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler came out fighting.
• 1958 - Drew Carey Actor, game show host and sometimes funnyman parted the curtain.
• 1958 - Shelley West, danced on a bar and shot out the lights if she drank too much JOSE CUERVO. 
• 1960 - Israel announced the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. 
• 1960 - The Everly Brothers recorded "Cathy's Clown."  
• I guess I'm lucky my mother's name isn't Cathy.
• 1960 - A certain Midnight Rambler rambled onto the stage about an hour and a half before midnight.  Always crowding deadlines that one is.
• 1964 - Ella Fitzgerald's cover of the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love".
• 1974 - Jewel Kilcher Alaskan singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, actress, author and poet comes into the world the same way she performed on stage, barefoot.
• 1975 - Elton John’s "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" album was released in the U.K.   I think I got it for Christmas that year.

All in all, May 23rd is a pretty groovy day...

Thanks.

See you tomorrow.