May 6 Birthday
On May 6, 1937, the German passenger airship Hindenburg burst into flames while attempting to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. The fire started at 7:25 PM and consumed the 804-foot ship in thirty-four seconds. Thirty-six people died — thirteen passengers, twenty-two crew, and one ground crewman. The Hindenburg had made ten transatlantic crossings. It used hydrogen, not helium — the United States controlled the world's helium supply and refused to sell to Nazi Germany. The cause of the fire is debated — static electricity, a gas leak, sabotage have all been proposed. Herbert Morrison's radio broadcast — "Oh, the humanity!" — captured the horror live. The disaster ended the era of passenger airships, which were replaced by airplanes within a decade. Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on this day in 1954, at the Iffley Road track in Oxford. His time was 3:59.4. He was twenty-five and a medical student. He trained during his lunch break. The record had been considered impossible — a physiological barrier — and four minutes was the magic number. Bannister's record lasted forty-six days before John Landy broke it. The current record, set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999, is 3:43.13. Over 1,600 runners have now broken four minutes. The barrier was psychological, not physiological — once Bannister proved it possible, others found it easier. Sigmund Freud, born this day in 1856, invented psychoanalysis — a theory of the unconscious mind that has been largely discredited as science but remains deeply influential as culture. His concepts — repression, the unconscious, the id and ego, defense mechanisms — are embedded in everyday language. Freud was a cocaine user who prescribed it to patients. He believed all dreams were wish fulfillment. He fled Vienna after the Anschluss and died in London in 1939, in agony from oral cancer, asking his doctor for a lethal dose of morphine. George Clooney, born this day in 1961, bought a pet pig named Max in 1988 and lived with it for eighteen years. He became famous on ER, became a movie star, became a director, became an activist, and became a tequila magnate — he sold his Casamigos brand for $1 billion. He was arrested at the Sudanese embassy in 2012 protesting the Darfur genocide. People born on May 6 fall under the zodiac sign of Taurus. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 6 include 1937: Hindenburg airship bursts into flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey (36 dead), 1954: Roger Bannister runs first sub-four-minute mile (3:59.4 at Oxford), 1915: Babe Ruth hits first career home run. Famous people born on May 6 include Sigmund Freud (1856), Bob Seger (1945), George Clooney (1961).