By Cassie Lee
On the fifth of May, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the commemoration of Mexico’s victory over the French at the Battle of the Puebla in 1862. France’s Napoleon III wanted to establish a French empire in Mexico. On May 5, 1862, his well-trained army was defeated at the Battle of Puebla by a far smaller force of Mexican militia. The events of May 5 unified the Mexican people during a long struggle to maintain their own independence. Many Americans, especially those with Mexican heritage, celebrate the outcome of the battle with festivals, food, and music.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
On this date in history:
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.
In 1862, Mexican troops, outnumbered 3-1, defeated invading French forces of Napoleon III.
In 1930, British and Indian troops were put on alert in the major cities throughout India following the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1932, Sen. George W. Norris, R-Neb., leader of the western insurgent Republicans, left the party and threw his support behind Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt for president.
In 1942, Japanese forces stormed Corregidor, a Phillipine Island, in a bid to capture a strategic access point to Manila Bay. By 9:30 a.m. on May 6, the Japanese had taken control of the island fortress.
TODAY’S CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Nathan Wei Chen (born May 5, 1999) is an American figure skater. He is the 2022 Olympic champion, a three-time World champion (2018, 2019, 2021), the 2017 Four Continents champion, a three-time Grand Prix Final champion (2017, 2018, 2019), a ten-time Grand Prix medalist (8 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), the 2022 Olympic gold medalist in the team event, the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event, and a six-time U.S. national champion (2017–22). At the junior level, Chen is the 2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, 2013–14 Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, 2014 World Junior bronze medalist, and a six-time Junior Grand Prix medalist (5 gold, 1 silver). He became the youngest skater to win a U.S. Championship at the novice level in 2010, at age ten, a title he successfully defended the following season.
Chen, who has been referred to as one of the greatest men’s figure skaters of all time by various news outlets, holds the highest winning percentage in competitions in the modern era with a more-than-three-year winning streak from 2018 to 2021. Chen is renowned for performing some of the most technically challenging programs in the world and is acclaimed for surpassing the expected athletic standards in the sport. He is known as the “Quad King” for his mastery of quadruple jumps. Chen is the first skater to have successfully landed each of the five reverse take-off quadruple jumps (Lutz, flip, loop, Salchow, and toeloop) in competition with a positive grade of execution. He has broken world and national records, and is the current world record holder for men in the short program and combined total score, and former world record holder in the free skate under the ISU Judging System. He currently holds the highest total scores of three major ISU competitions: the Olympics, the Four Continent Championships, and the Grand Prix Final. Chen is the first Asian American man to win U.S., world, and Olympic titles in single skating. At age 17, Chen became the youngest U.S. champion since Dick Button (1946), and in 2022 became the first man to win six consecutive U.S. titles since Button (1946–52). When Chen won the 2018 World Championships, he became the youngest World Champion since Evgeni Plushenko (2001). In 2021, he became the first U.S. man to win three consecutive world titles since Scott Hamilton (1982–1984). He is the first and only single figure skater to win both team and singles gold medals in the same Olympic games (2022).
After his gold medal-winning performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chen was named Most Valuable Skater at the 2023 edition of the International Skating Union‘s ISU Skating Awards and earned a nomination for a Laureus World Sports Award. In 2022, he appeared in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most-influential people in the world and was announced as one of Harper’s Bazaar‘s Icons. Chen was included in Forbes‘s 2020 30 under 30 Sports list. Chen has written two books: his memoir One Jump at a Time: My Story and the children’s book Wei Skates On.
Nathan Wei Chen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Chinese immigrant parents Zhidong Chen, a research scientist from Guangxi, China, and Hetty Wang from Beijing. He has four older siblings: Alice, Tony, Colin and Janice Chen, who worked for the Jennifer Doudna lab and co-founded Mammoth Biosciences. Chen’s mother was very involved in his skating career from the beginning, financing his skating activities, as well as the pursuits of his siblings, by working as a medical translator and cleaning houses. Chen was more active and fearless than his siblings, whom he tried to copy. He aspired to become a hockey goalkeeper after watching his older brothers play hockey, but his mother gave him figure skates.
actor Michael Murphy in 1938 (age 87)
actor Lance Henriksen in 1940 (age 85)
actor Michael Palin in 1943 (age 82)
actor John Rhys-Davies in 1944 (age 81)
actor Roger Rees in 1944
writer/TV personality Kurt Loder in 1945 (age 80)
musician Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) in 1948 (age 77)
actor Richard E. Grant in 1957 (age 68)
musician Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen) in 1959 (age 66)
TV newsman Brian Williams in 1959 (age 66)
actor Tina Yothers in 1973 (age 52)
actor Vincent Kartheiser in 1979 (age 46)
actor Danielle Fishel in 1981 (age 44);
actor Henry Cavill in 1983 (age 42)
musician Adele in 1988 (age 37);
musician Chris Brown in 1989 (age 36)
model Hannah Jeter in 1990 (age 35)
U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen, first to land six quad jumps in Olympics program, in 1999 (age 26)
actor Jenna Davis in 2004 (age 21)
COURTESY www.almanac.com
