5/6 Open Thread: International No Diet Day

One's Diet is what one normally or habitually eats. In another sense, it can be taken to mean what one has voluntarily restricted ones food consumption to, as to quantities, specific foods or specific classes of food. In everyday usage, it means some specified dietary regimen that some person or committee has concocted and proposed that people should adhere to for reasons, vegan, paleo, carnivore, high carb, low carb, south beach, south bend, low residue, BRAT, the legendary "Drinking Man's Diet" and the like. I suspect that "no diet day" is a day upon which one is intended to eschew any and all of the latter, and not the cessation of food consumption.

On 5-6-1536 1536 King Henry VIII ordered English-language Bibles be placed in every church. Heh. This was, no doubt, part of his feud with the Pope, but nonetheless a very levelling action. Regardless of how literate the populace as a whole may have been, English was far more accessible to said populace than Latin. It, to a degree, took control of "the word" away from Il Papa and gave it to the masses, at least in Merrie Engelonde.

I won't mention the events of May 6, 1659 because I was taught to spit after saying the name of a certain Roundhead SOB, and I don't want to get any on my keyboard.

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On this day in history:

1536 -- King Henry VIII ordered English-language Bibles be placed in every church

1659 -- Some of the British Army removed Cromwell as Lord Protector and reinstalled the Rump Parliament.

1682 -- Louis XIV of France moved his court to the Palace of Versailles.

1877 -- Crazy Horse surrendered to United States troops

1882 -- The US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1889 -- The Eiffel Tower officially opened to the public

1935 -- Executive Order 7034 created the WPA, which wasn't market based

1937 -- The zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed

1940 -- John Steinbeck won a Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath.

1945 – The WWII Prague Offensive began.

1949 -- EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, performed its first operation.

1954 -- Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile

1996 -- The body of former CIA director William Colby washed up on a riverbank

1994 – The opening of the Channel Tunnel.

1997 -- The Bank of England was freed from political control

2023 – The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the such other realms as were somehow in need of British Royalty.

“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.”

― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

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Some people who were born on this day:

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

~~ Maximilien Robespierre

And that includes any and all instances and forms of censorship

~~ Enhydra Lutris

1758 -- Maximilien Robespierre, lawyer and politician

1856 -- Sigmund Freud, quack, profoundly ignorant of Occam's razor

1856 -- Robert Peary, explorer, US admiral

1868 –- Gaston Leroux, journalist and author

1872 -- Willem de Sitter, mathematician, physicist, and astronomer

1896 -- Rolf Maximilian Sievert, medical physicist

1902 –- Harry Golden, journalist and author

1913 -- Carmen Cavallaro, pianist

1916 -- Robert H. Dicke, physicist and astronomer

1939 -- Eddie C. Campbell, singer and guitarist

1917 –- Kal Mann, songwriter

1924 –- Denny Wright, guitarist, composer, and producer

1929 –- Rosemary Cramp, archaeologist and academic

1937 –- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, boxer wrongfully convicted of murder

1943 -- Andreas Baader, terrorist, co-founder of the Red Army Faction

1945 -- Bob Seger, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1960 –- John Flansburgh, singer, songwriter, and guitarist (They might be giants)

1968 -- Laetitia Sadier, singer and keyboard player

1971 -- Chris Shiflett, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

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Some people who died on this day:

“The most dangerous worldviews are the worldviews of those who have never viewed the world.”

~~ Alexander von Humboldt

1859 – Alexander von Humboldt, geographer, naturalist, and explorer

1862 -- Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet, and philosopher

1902 -- Bret Harte, author and poet

1919 -- L. Frank Baum, novelist

1949 -- Maurice Maeterlinck, poet and playwright

1952 -- Maria Montessori, physician and educator

1963 -- Theodore von Karman, aerodynamicist, mathematician, physicist, and engineer

1963 -- Ted Weems, violinist, trombonist, and bandleader

1983 -- Kai Winding, trombonist and composer

1992 -- Marlene Dietrich, actress and singer

2002 -- Otis Blackwell, singer, songwriter, and pianist

2002 – Bjørn Johansen, saxophonist 2004 -- Barney Kessel, guitarist and composer

2014 -- Farley Mowat, environmentalist and author

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

National Nurses Day

National Azulejo Day (Portugal)

National Crêpe Suzette Day

The first day of Hıdırellez (Turkey)

International No Diet Day

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