By Cassie Lee
America’s most famous horse race, the Kentucky Derby, has been held continuously since 1875 at Louisville, Kentucky, and has become one of the country’s largest civic celebrations (and betting opportunity). Not bad when you consider that the event lasts only two minutes!
Modeled on England’s Epsom Derby, it is for three-year-old Thoroughbreds and was originally run at a mile and a half (now at a mile and a quarter). Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark organized the first race, and since he wanted the occasion to be festive, he gave a Derby breakfast for his friends before the first running (mint juleps anyone?).
Dances, parties, and carnival-like gaiety have long been a feature of Derby week. The Derby is the first event in the “Triple Crown” series, followed by the Preakness (the second Saturday after the Derby) and the Belmont Stakes (the fifth Saturday after the Derby).
Try making your own Kentucky Derby Pie. And we also have a Mint Punch recipe.
Question of the Day
Rub them with a bar of soap or a candle stub.
Spraying the track with a dry silicone lubricant often works, too. Before application, check with your window manufacturer to make sure that it is safe to use on the type of window materials that you have.
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
What do these sentences have in common?
Joey packed my sledge with five boxes of frozen quail.
Back in my quaint garden, jaunty zinnias vie with flaunting phlox.
Both contain all 26 letters of the alphabet.
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated.
In 1913, the California Alien Land Law of 1913 (Webb-Haney Act) passed the California State Senate, ignoring the demands of Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. The bill forbid immigrants, not eligible of citizenship, from owning any land for agricultural or gardening purposes.
In 1915, following a three-month tour of Europe, Roy W. Howard, president of the United Press, stated that he believed that the Great War had devolved into an endurance contest of incapable of being definitely decided.
In 1937, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
In 1948, the CBS Evening News premiered, with Douglas Edwards as its anchor.
In 1952, a ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lt. Col. Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lt. Col. William P. Benedict of California became the first aircraft landing at the North Pole.
In 1963, members of the Birmingham, Ala., police and fire departments released fire hoses and dogs against a group of African Americans March for Freedom.
In 1968, the United States and North Vietnam agreed to hold peace talks in Paris. After multiple delays, the two sides signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, for which national security adviser Harry Kissinger and North Vietnamese diplomat Le Duc Tho won the Nobel Peace Prize. Tho did not accept the award and the Vietnam War would not end until 1975.
