May 29, 2020

World Fair Trade Day May 9 is World Fair Trade Day. Support businesses that sell Fair Trade goods. Peace on Fifth is one such store and belongs to my daughter London. She sells on line and has a variety of items including international chocolates. Check out Peace on Fifth.

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 Do You Know Gregory Porter? Hailed by NPR Music as “the next great male jazz singer,” California-born singer and songwriter Gregory Porter’s music career began over 20 years ago, though it wasn’t until he moved to New York City and performed regularly at Harlem’s legendary St. Nick’s Pub that his career really took off. Porter released his debut album, Water, produced by…

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Presenting Cécile McLorin Salvant Born to a French mother and a Haitian father in Miami, Florida, Cécile McLorin Salvant was singing and playing classical piano before she reached the age of 10. A move to France in 2007 saw her study improvisation and vocal repertoire under respected reedist Jean-François Bonnel. Success followed the recording of her debut…

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Popular rider Oliver Lewis rode H. P. McGrath’s thoroughbred Aristides to victory in the first Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875, at the Louisville Jockey Club. Continue reading. The pair won by a reported two lengths, setting a new American record time for a mile-and-a-half race. Fourteen of the fifteen jockeys in the derby, including Lewis,…

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BY OLIVIA B. WAXMAN  MAY 22, 2020 from Time.com Nowadays, Memorial Day honors veterans of all wars, but its roots are in America’s deadliest conflict, the Civil War. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died, about two-thirds from disease. The work of honoring the dead began right away all over the country, and several American towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Researchers have…

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Britain and France conclude Sykes-Picot agreement On May 19, 1916, representatives of Great Britain and France secretly reach an accord, known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, by which most of the Arab lands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire are to be divided into British and French spheres of influence with the conclusion of World War I. The…

Read More This Day in History – May 19