Gday...

1647  -     The first hanging of a witch occurs in America, portending the Salem witch trials several decades later.

On 26 May 1647, the first person was hanged in America for the crime of witchcraft. Alse Young was arrested, tried in Windsor, Connecticut, and hanged at Meeting House Square in Hartford, on what is now the site of the Old State House. Her execution anticipated the Salem witch trials which occurred later that century.

The Salem witch trials involved a number of convictions and executions for witchcraft in 1692, not in Salem, Massachusetts but in nearby Salem Village, which is now known as Danvers. Between June and September 1692, twenty people in all were executed for witchcraft, mostly by hanging. Many more were imprisoned until the witch hunt hysteria passed. In retrospect, it is believed that those who were afflicted and charged with being witches may have been victims of poisoning by ergot. Ergot is a poisonous fungus that often grows on cereal grains, especially rye and wheat, which were commonly grown around Salem. Poisoning produces symptoms of convulsive jerking, stupor, delirium, and hallucinations, the very symptoms which created suspicion of the witch hunt victims in the first place. Ergot poisoning has been linked to the European witch trials which occurred in the 1600s where rye was grown. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) is an hallucinogenic drug that is derived from ergot today.

1828  -     A mysterious boy, Kaspar Hauser, first appears on the streets of Nürnberg, Germany.

On 26 May 1828 a sixteen-year-old boy appeared in the streets of Nürnberg, Germany wearing peasant clothing and barely able to talk. The only identification carried by the boy was a letter addressed to the captain of the 4th squadron of the 6th cavalry regiment, in which the author asked the captain to take the boy in or hang him, and a letter proclaiming his birthday as 30 April 1812. He could only walk in toddler's step, could barely use his fingers and was able to eat only water and bread. Though chronologically sixteen years old, he appeared to have the mental development of a 6-year-old.

As he learned to communicate, the boy said that for most of his life he had lived in a dark 2 x 1 x 1.5 metre cell with only a straw bed, and a horse carved out of wood for a toy. Given only bread and water, he was sometimes drugged so that somebody could change his clothes and cut his hair and nails. He never saw his caretaker, who only taught him to say "I want to be a rider like my father", and to write Kaspar Hauser, which was assumed to be his name.

Some people began to connect him with the family of the Grand Duke of Baden, due to some facial resemblance. On 17 October 1829, a hooded man tried to kill Hauser with an axe but managed only to wound his forehead. The apparent assassination attempt further fuelled rumours about his connection to the house of Baden. On 14 December 1833, Hauser was lured to Ansbacher Hofgarten with the promise that he would hear something about his ancestry. Instead, a stranger stabbed him fatally to the chest, puncturing his lung. He struggled back home but died three days later. He never identified the stranger, even though a note found with him at the time indicated that he knew his attacker. He was buried in a country graveyard where his headstone reads "Here lies Kaspar Hauser, riddle of his time. His birth was unknown, his death mysterious."

1907  -     American film actor John Wayne, who became popular for his roles in Westerns, is born.

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, USA on 26 May 1907. His name became Marion Mitchell Morrison when his parents decided to name their next son Robert, but in later life he often stated that his middle name was Michael. He became known as "The Duke" as a child after neighbours started calling him "Big Duke," because he never went anywhere without his Airedale Terrier dog, who was Little Duke. A star footballer, he won an athletics scholarship to the University of Southern California, but an injury curtailed his football career and lost him his scholarship.

During his time at University, Wayne began working around the local film studios, then moved up to bit parts. He established a long friendship with director John Ford. After two years working as a prop man at the William Fox Studios, his first starring role was in the 1930 movie The Big Trail; it was the director of that movie, Raoul Walsh, who gave him the stage name "John Wayne" after Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. He was tutored by the studio's stuntmen in riding and other western skills, but did not attain "Western star" status until his performance in the 1939 film Stagecoach.

John Wayne went on to make dozens more western movies, including Fort Apache (1948), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Red River (1949), The Alamo (1960), True Grit (1969), for which he won an Academy Award, and The Shootist (1975). John Wayne died of stomach cancer on 11 June 1979.

1940  -     The Dunkirk evacuation begins, in which over 330,000 Allied troops are rescued when surrounded by German troops.

Dunkirk is a harbour city in the northernmost part of France, in the département of Nord, 10 km from the Belgian border. During World War II, a large force of British and French soldiers were cut off in northern France by a German armoured advance to the Channel coast at Calais, and trapped at Dunkirk. On 24 May 1940 German armour stopped its advance on Dunkirk, leaving the operation to the slower infantry and the Luftwaffe. This reprieve was partly due to the influence of Hermann Göring, who promised Adolf Hitler air power alone could destroy the surrounded Allied troops. This stop order for the armour was reversed on May 26 when the evacuation began.

Operation Dynamo was the name given to the mass evacuation during the Battle of Dunkirk conducted from 26 May 1940 to 4 June 1940 under the command of Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay from Dover. Over a period of nine days, 338,226 French and British soldiers were taken from Dunkirk, France and the surrounding beaches by a quickly assembled fleet of about seven hundred vessels. These craft included the Little Ships of Dunkirk, a mixture of merchant marine vessels, fishing boats, pleasure craft and RNLI lifeboats, whose civilian crews were called into service for the emergency.

1982  -     The Royal Bluebell is officially announced as the floral emblem of the Australian Capital Territory. 

The Royal Bluebell (Wahlenbergia gloriosa) is a small perennial herb found in sub-alpine areas of southeastern New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Protected in its native habitat, it has small violet coloured flowers about 3cm in diameter.

The Royal Bluebell was proclaimed the floral emblem of the Australian Capital Territory on 26 May 1982. The announcement was made by the Hon. Michael Hodgman, the Minister for the Capital Territory. Three criteria had to be met for the flower to be selected. It was required to be native to the ACT, have horticultural merit and ease of propagation, and the potential to be adapted for design purposes, such as emblems and insignia

Cheers - John