Michael D. "Stew" Stewart

Happy Cinco de Mayo, we made 55 of these little things. Huzzah.

It’s a look at events and birthdays of this day in history. (Funny voices oh my.)

1904 - Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox tossed a perfect game against the Philadelphia Americans. The final score was 3-0. No player on the Philadelphia team reached first base. It was the third perfect game ever thrown in the big leagues.

1945 – In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon. The explosion killed Elsie Mitchell, the pregnant wife of minister Archie Mitchell, and five children who were on a picnic.

1961 – Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first U.S. space traveler as he rode a Redstone rocket on a 15-minute, suborbital flight that took him and his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule 116.5 miles high and 302 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral, FL.

1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds smacked his 3,000th major-league hit. Not many years later, `Charlie Hustle’ would break Ty Cobb’s career record of 4,191 hits.

2001 - Cliff Hillegass, creator of Cliffs Notes, died at 83 years of age.

Birthdays

1818 – Karl Marx
socialist writer: Das Kapital, The Communist Manifesto; founder of communism; died Mar 14, 1883

1864 - Nelly Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman)
courageous journalist, writing about taboo subjects of her time: divorce, poverty, capital punishment, insanity; women’s rights advocate; died Jan 27, 1922

1914 - Tyrone Power (Tyrone Edmund Power Jr.)
actor: Tom Brown of Culver, The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, This Above All, The Eddie Duchin Story, The Long Gray Line, Witness for the Prosecution; died Nov 15, 1958

1915 - Alice Faye (Alice Jeanne Leppert)
actress: In Old Chicago, Lillian Russell, Rose of Washington Square, Tin Pan Alley, State Fair; died May 9, 1998; more

1926 - Ann B. Davis
Emmy Award-winning actress: The Bob Cummings Show [1958, 1959]; The Brady Bunch, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Naked Gun 33?: The Final Insult, A Very Brady Christmas; died Jun 1, 2014

1927 - Pat Carroll
Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Caesar’s Hour [1956], The Ted Knight Show, With Six You Get Eggroll, Brothers O’Toole

1940 - Lance Henriksen
actor: Powder, Felony, Dead Man, Baja, Spitfire, Color of Night, The Criminal Mind, Delta Heat, Alien 3, The Last Samurai, Johnny Handsome, Near Dark, The Terminator, The Right Stuff, Prince of the City, Damien: Omen 2, Dog Day Afternoon

1942 – Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh)
Grammy Award-winning country singer: I Don’t Wanna Play House [1967], Stand By Your Man [1969]; D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Near You, Apartment #9; died Apr 6, 1998

1943 - Michael Palin
comedian, actor: Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Life of Brian, Brazil, A Fish Called Wanda, American Friends

1944 - John Rhys-Davies
actor: Sliders, Lord of the Rings series, Helen of Troy, The Gold Cross, Au Pair, Marquis de Sade, The Untouchables, The Lost World, War and Remembrance, Raiders of the Lost Ark

1948 - Bill Ward
musician: drums: group: Black Sabbath: Paranoid

1957 - Richard E. Grant
actor: Jack and Sarah, Cold Light of Day, Ready to Wear, L.A. Story, The Age of Innocence, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Hudson Hawk, Henry and June; more

1959 - Brian Williams
TV news anchor: NBC Nightly News, MSNBC: The 11th Hour with Brian Williams

1979 - Vincent Kartheiser
actor: Mad Men, Angel, Elektra Luxx, American Experience, Money, Rango, L.A. Noire, In Time, Fruit of Labor

1981 – Danielle Fishel
actress: Boy Meets World, National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze, The Chosen One, Rocket’s Red Glare, Longshot

1982 – Randall Gay
football [cornerback]: Louisiana State Univ; NFL: New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots

1983 – Henry Cavill
actor: The Tudors, Hellraiser: Hellworld, Red Riding Hood, Tristan and Isolde, I Capture the Castle, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Well Schooled in Murder, The Count of Monte Cristo, Laguna

1985 – Clark Duke
actor: Greek, Hot Tub Time Machine, Kick-Ass, Sex Drive, A Thousand Words, Identity Thief, Hearts Afire, The Croods, Robot Chicken

1988 – Adele (Adele Laurie Blue Adkins)
Grammy Award-winning singer: Chasing Pavements, Make You Feel My Love, Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You, Set Fire to the Rain, Skyfall; more

1989 – Chris Brown
Grammy Award-winning singer: Run It!, Kiss Kiss, I Love U, Crawl, Superman, With You, Forever, Gimme That, Say Goodbye, Yo [Excuse Me Miss]