Sam Harless

On The National Day Calendar - What Is Today?

NATIONAL PAPER AIRPLANE DAY

On May 26th each year, National Paper Airplane Day honors the simple aeronautical toy that has been around for thousands of years.



National Paper Airplane Day provides an excuse to play! This inexpensive, healthy, and stimulating form of entertainment brings lots of joy, too. In other words, put down your smartphones and get outside for some primitive fun!

Did you know?

Many believe the use of paper airplanes originated 2,000 years ago in China.

The earliest known date of the creation of modern paper planes was said to have been 1909.

The largest paper aircraft had a wingspan of 59.74 ft. Students and employees from Germany created it on 28th September 2013.

Joe Ayoob recorded the longest distance flown by a paper airplane in February 2012. His plane flew 226 feet, 10 inches.

The longest-lasting paper airplane flight flew 29.2 seconds.

There is more than one way to fold paper for a test flight. Find tips for designs at www.foldnfly.com.

NATIONAL BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE DAY

On May 26th, two of the calendar's favorite foods come together on National Blueberry Cheesecake Day. We've scattered blueberries and cheesecakes throughout these pages in scrumptious celebration. But one day a year they join forces in perfect, delicious harmony.



History of Blueberries and Cream Cheese

There was a time when people only gathered blueberries from the wild. It wasn't until the early 1900s through the observations of Elizabeth Coleman White and the research of Dr. Frederick V. Coville that successful transplanting and domestication of the blueberry became possible. It wasn't long after that commercial production of the blueberry began.

Combine the history of the blueberry with the development of cream cheese, some might consider the blueberry cheesecake to be a truly American dessert. While recipes for cheesecake served athletes in ancient Greece, cream cheese has been a part of American's dessert making since about the 1820s. However, after the advent of pasteurization, mass production became possible. One dairy farmer from Chester, New York, decided to be the first. William A. Lawrence purchased a Neufchatel factory to begin his production and in 1873 the first mass-produced cream cheese became a reality.

Types of Cheesecakes

Either way, this smooth dessert hits the spot when dessert time rolls around. While most cakes have a crumb, cheesecake's texture is nothing like cake. Indeed, its creamy, thick pudding-like character comes from the soft cheese used as the main ingredient. Depending on the recipe, bakers use either cream cheese or cottage cheese. When the cheese is mixed with sugar, eggs, and other ingredients, the batter is added to a crust. Either add the blueberries now or save them for a beautifully fresh and vibrant topping.

When making cheesecake, one of the most common crusts used is a graham cracker crust. Other options include a cookie crust, pastry or sponge cake. However, some cheesecakes are crustless. Depending on the recipe, cheesecakes may be prepared baked or unbaked.

On This Day In History:

1775 - John Hancock becomes president of Congress

On May 24, 1775, John Hancock is elected president of the Second Continental Congress.

John Hancock is best known for his large signature on the Declaration of Independence, which he jested the British could read without spectacles. He was serving as president of Congress upon the declaration’s adoption on July 4, 1776, and, as such, was the first member of the Congress to sign the historic document.

1844 - Samuel Morse demonstrates the telegraph with the message, “What hath God wrought?”

In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The message—“What Hath God Wrought?”—was telegraphed back to the Capitol a moment later by Vail. The question, taken from the Bible (Numbers 23:23), had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the daughter of the commissioner of patents.

Morse, an accomplished painter, learned of a French inventor’s idea of an electric telegraph in 1832 and then spent the next 12 years attempting to perfect a working telegraph instrument. During this period, he composed the Morse code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph messages, and convinced Congress to finance a Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line. On May 24, 1844, he inaugurated the world’s first commercial telegraph line with a message that was fitting given the invention’s future effects on American life.

1935 - MLB holds first night game

The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 on May 24, 1935 in Major League Baseball’s first-ever night game, played courtesy of recently installed lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

The first-ever night game in professional baseball took place May 2, 1930, when a Des Moines, Iowa, team hosted Wichita for a Western League game. The game drew 12,000 people at a time when Des Moines was averaging just 600 fans per game. Evening games soon became popular in the minors: As minor league ball clubs were routinely folding in the midst of the Great Depression, adaptable owners found the innovation a key to staying in business. The major leagues, though, took five years to catch up to their small-town counterparts.

1941 - German battleship, the Bismarck, sinks Britain’s HMS Hood

On May 24, 1941, Germany’s largest battleship, the Bismarck, sinks the pride of the British fleet, HMS Hood.

The Bismarck was the most modern of Germany’s battleships, a prize coveted by other nation’s navies, even while still in the blueprint stage (Hi**er handed over a copy of its blueprints to Joseph Stalin as a concession during the days of the Hi**er-Stalin neutrality pact). The HMS Hood, originally launched in 1918, was Britain’s largest battle cruiser (41,200 tons)-but also capable of achieving the relatively fast speed of 31 knots. The two met in the North Atlantic, northeast of Iceland, where two British cruisers had tracked down the Bismarck. Commanded by Admiral Gunther Lutjens, commander in chief of the German Fleet, the Bismarck sunk the Hood, resulting in the death of 1,500 of its crew; only three Brits survived.

1989 - Lori Ann Auker disappears from a parking lot

Lori Ann Auker, a 19-year-old pet shop worker, disappears from Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. After failing to show up for work, her car was found the next day in the parking lot of the Susquehanna Valley Mall where The Pet Place was located. Police had no clues as to what had happened to her when she arrived at the mall that morning.

Robert Auker, Lori Ann’s husband, was the natural suspect; the two were in the midst of a custody fight at the time of her disappearance and he had recently taken out a life insurance policy on her. Still, even after Lori Ann’s body was found with multiple stab wounds two and a half weeks after her disappearance, police did not have enough evidence to charge Robert Auker with the murder.

On May 24, 2022, a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle walks into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and opens fire on two 4th grade classrooms, killing 19 children and two teachers, and critically wounding 17 others.

2022 - 21 killed in Uvalde, Texas, school shooting

The Uvalde school shooting was the deadliest ever in Texas and the second-worst in American history after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six school staff members.

The Uvalde shooter, Salvador Ramos, legally purchased two assault-style rifles within days of turning 18. Just over a week later, on May 24, he began his deadly shooting spree by shooting his grandmother in the head. Incredibly, she survived.

(Summarized From History.com)