Birthday-May 8

Happy Birthday!
May 8

Born on May 8

Edward Gibbon
Historian
5-8-1737
Harry S. Truman
33rd U.S. President
5-8-1884
Fulton J. Sheen
Archbishop
5-8-1895
Chinmayananda
Hindu Guru
5-8-1916
Don Rickles
Comedian
5-8-1926
Gary Snyder
Poet
5-8-1930

Events on May 8

May 8, 1373: Julian of Norwich
had 15 visions of Jesus Christ
May 8, 1541: Hernando de Soto
discovers the Mississippi River
May 8, 1902: Mt. Pelée
volcanic eruption kills 30,000

May 8, 1929:
Carl Hubbell pitches
no-hitter 11-0
May 8, 1939: War Admiral
wins Kentucky Derby on
way to win Triple Crown
May 8, 1939:
James Joyce on
Time cover, Vol. 33
May 8, 1945:
New York Times:
"War in Europe Has Ended!"

May 8 Postmarks on Postage Stamps

May 8, 1935: U.S. 566 & 720,
Mexico C74 & CO14: Autographed
Amelia Earhart Cover: Solo flight
from Mexico to Newark, N.J.
May 8, 1936:
Germany C57-C58, C47, 469
Graf Zeppelin Cover
addressed to Hotel Astor, NYC
May 8, 1936: Germany C58
Hindenburg Zeppelin
First Flight Cover
addressed to Newark, N.J.

May 8, 1930: Austria C12, C27-C29:
First Flight Cover
carried by Graf Zeppelin
May 8, 1945:
U.S. 608 Liberty
VE-Day Cover (C25 Cover)

May 8, 2010:
Hong Kong 1229, 1232-1233
Birds (issued 12-31-2006) on cover

May 8: Journal Writings on this Date

Goethe
(1749-1832) On the seashore below Taormina, May 8, 1787:
Like a bird that wants to build its nest, I searched for a cranny and perched myself on
the branches of an orange tree in a mean, abandoned peasant's garden. It may sound
a bit strange to speak of sitting on the branch of an orange tree, but it is quite natural
if you know that, when an orange tree is left to itself, it starts putting out branches
above its roots which in time become real boughs. There I was soon lost in fancy,
thinking about a plot for my Nausicaa, a dramatic condensation of the Odyssey.
I think this can be done, provided one never loses sight of the difference between
a drama and an epic... I must not forget to mention that we are looking down from
a small terrace, looking over this beautiful seashore, seeing roses and hearing nightingales, which we are told, sing for six months withou stopping.
— Italian Journey (1786-1788), pp. 281-282

Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882) Concord, Massachusetts, May 8, 1837:
life is our inexhaustible treasure of language for thought... I learn immediately from
any speaker how much he has really learned, through the poverty or the splendor of
his speech. My garden is my dictionary. There are three degrees of proficiency in this
lesson of life. The one class live to the utility of the symbol as majority of men do,
regarding health & wealth as the chief good. Another class live above this mark, to the beauty of the symbol; as the poet & artist, and the Sensual school in philosophy.
A third class live above the beauty of the symbol, to the beauty of the thing signified;
and these are wise men. The first class have common sense; the second, taste; and
the third spiritual perfection... the perfect man— one to a millennium— if so many,
traverses the whole scale & sees & enjoys the symbol solidly; then also has a clear
eye for its beauty; & lastly wears it lightly as a robe which he can easily throw off,
for he sees the reality & divine splendor of the inmost nature bursting through each
chink & cranny. — Journal (1837)

Eugène Delacroix
(1798-1863)
Paris, May 8, 1853:
Man is capable of the most diverse things... La Bruyère says: "It is an excess of
confidence in parents to hope for everything from the good education of their
children, it is a great mistake to expect nothing from it and to neglect it." I am
completely of his opinion, and I add that education continues throughout our lives.
I define it as the cultivation of our spirit and of our mind as a result of our own
fostering and of outer circumstances. Intercourse with decent or bad people is the
good or bad education which goes on throughout one's life. The mind lifts up upon
contact with honest minds; it is the same with the spirit. We harden in the society of
hard and cold people, and if it were possible for a man of merely ordinary virtue to
live among scoundrels he must come finally to resemble them, however little he did
so at the beginning... I am constantly meditating a work in the manner of Addison's
Spectator; a short article, of three or four pages or even less, on the first subject
that comes to mind. I will take the responsibility of thinking out as many as are demanded, for I have an inexhaustible quarry of them.
— Journal, 5-8-1853, pp. 304-306

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862) Concord, Massachusetts, May 8, 1852:
The robin and the bluebird have sung for some time. The haziness is now like a
seaturn, through which the sun, shorn of beams, looks claret, and at length, when half
an hour high, scarlet. You thought it might become rain. Many swallows flying in
flocks high over the river,— the chimney swallow for one... The blackbirds have a
rich sprayey warble now, sitting on the top of a willow or in elm. They possess the
river now, living back and forth across it... and sing in concert on the willows,—
what a lively, chattering concert! a great deal of chattering with many liquid and rich
warbling notes and clear whistles... Methinks the scent is a more primitive inquisition
than the eye, more oracular and trustworthy. When I criticise my own writing, I go by
the scent, as it were. The scent reveals, of course, what is concealed from the other senses. By it I detect earthiness.' — Journal (1852), pp. 35-40

Concord, Massachusetts, May 8, 1859:
Hotter still than the last two days, 90^o and more. Summer yellowbird. C. sees a chimney swallow. Indeed, several new birds have come, and many new insects, with the expanding leaflets. Catbird. The swollen leaf-buds of the white pine— and—
yet more the pitch pine— look whitish, and show life in the tree. Go on the river... Tree-toad is heard. Apple trees begin to make a show with their green.
— Journal (1859), pp. 184-185

May 8: Birth Flower, Birthstone, Zodiac Sign

Birth Flower: Lily of the Valley
Purity, chastity, sweetness,
humiliy, return to happiness

Birthstone: Emerald
Rebirth, foresight, growth,
good fortune, beauty of nature

Zodiac Sign: Taurus, the Bull
Patience, persistence, reliable,
hard work, strength, tenacity

Goethe (1749-1832)	On the seashore below Taormina, May 8, 1787: Like a bird that wants to build its nest, I searched for a cranny and perched myself on the branches of an orange tree in a mean, abandoned peasant's garden. It may sound a bit strange to speak of sitting on the branch of an orange tree, but it is quite natural if you know that, when an orange tree is left to itself, it starts putting out branches above its roots which in time become real boughs. There I was soon lost in fancy, thinking about a plot for my Nausicaa, a dramatic condensation of the Odyssey. I think this can be done, provided one never loses sight of the difference between a drama and an epic... I must not forget to mention that we are looking down from a small terrace, looking over this beautiful seashore, seeing roses and hearing nightingales, which we are told, sing for six months withou stopping. — Italian Journey (1786-1788), pp. 281-282
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)	Concord, Massachusetts, May 8, 1837: life is our inexhaustible treasure of language for thought... I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has really learned, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. My garden is my dictionary. There are three degrees of proficiency in this lesson of life. The one class live to the utility of the symbol as majority of men do, regarding health & wealth as the chief good. Another class live above this mark, to the beauty of the symbol; as the poet & artist, and the Sensual school in philosophy. A third class live above the beauty of the symbol, to the beauty of the thing signified; and these are wise men. The first class have common sense; the second, taste; and the third spiritual perfection... the perfect man— one to a millennium— if so many, traverses the whole scale & sees & enjoys the symbol solidly; then also has a clear eye for its beauty; & lastly wears it lightly as a robe which he can easily throw off, for he sees the reality & divine splendor of the inmost nature bursting through each chink & cranny. — Journal (1837)
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)	Paris, May 8, 1853: Man is capable of the most diverse things... La Bruyère says: "It is an excess of confidence in parents to hope for everything from the good education of their children, it is a great mistake to expect nothing from it and to neglect it." I am completely of his opinion, and I add that education continues throughout our lives. I define it as the cultivation of our spirit and of our mind as a result of our own fostering and of outer circumstances. Intercourse with decent or bad people is the good or bad education which goes on throughout one's life. The mind lifts up upon contact with honest minds; it is the same with the spirit. We harden in the society of hard and cold people, and if it were possible for a man of merely ordinary virtue to live among scoundrels he must come finally to resemble them, however little he did so at the beginning... I am constantly meditating a work in the manner of Addison's Spectator; a short article, of three or four pages or even less, on the first subject that comes to mind. I will take the responsibility of thinking out as many as are demanded, for I have an inexhaustible quarry of them. — Journal, 5-8-1853, pp. 304-306
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)	Concord, Massachusetts, May 8, 1852: The robin and the bluebird have sung for some time. The haziness is now like a seaturn, through which the sun, shorn of beams, looks claret, and at length, when half an hour high, scarlet. You thought it might become rain. Many swallows flying in flocks high over the river,— the chimney swallow for one... The blackbirds have a rich sprayey warble now, sitting on the top of a willow or in elm. They possess the river now, living back and forth across it... and sing in concert on the willows,— what a lively, chattering concert! a great deal of chattering with many liquid and rich warbling notes and clear whistles... Methinks the scent is a more primitive inquisition than the eye, more oracular and trustworthy. When I criticise my own writing, I go by the scent, as it were. The scent reveals, of course, what is concealed from the other senses. By it I detect earthiness.' — Journal (1852), pp. 35-40 Concord, Massachusetts, May 8, 1859: Hotter still than the last two days, 90^o and more. Summer yellowbird. C. sees a chimney swallow. Indeed, several new birds have come, and many new insects, with the expanding leaflets. Catbird. The swollen leaf-buds of the white pine— and— yet more the pitch pine— look whitish, and show life in the tree. Go on the river... Tree-toad is heard. Apple trees begin to make a show with their green. — Journal (1859), pp. 184-185