MAY 5 — 1877 Sitting Bull heads north to Canada; 2002 Spider-Man wins box office record; 1864 battle of Wilderness; 1979 Spectacular Bid wins Kentucky Derby; 1904 Cy Young throws 1st perfect game for Modern Era
MAY 5
1877 – Sitting Bull heads north to Canada.
…Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during the years of resistance to US Government policies. He defeated and massacred the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
After the battle he and his men went to Montana and hunted buffalo, managing to keep their distance from the USA army for the most part. While in Canada he became friends with North-West Mounted Police Commander James Walsh, as well as another enemy Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfeet.
Things went well for Sitting Bull for four years until the buffalo herd started thinning and food became scarce. They were forced to go back to America. He was assigned to the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota in 1883, and worked as a performer with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and eventually was shot by Indian police when he resisted their attempt to arrest him for his participation in the Ghost Dance uprising, which was a religious movement.
2002-American superheroes begin battling it out.
…THWIPPP! The Amazing Spider-Man wins the first one and defeats not only Batman and Superman, but unbelievably took out the mighty Harry Potter. The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, was released on Friday, May 3, and quickly became the fastest movie ever to earn more than $100M at the box office. By Sunday it had raked in $114M. Even the Green Goblin couldn’t believe it! Since then every summer has been dominated by super hero movies but Batman finally got revenge in 2008 when the Dark Knight or Batman 6 as some call it, grossed $155M in its first weekend.
The battles still rage on every summer, so as Stan Lee would say,
‘nuff said.
1864- The Battle of the Wilderness begins.
…This is the first battle that Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant’s 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign fought against Gen. Robert E Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. It was a tie. They fought in the dense thickets known as the Wilderness of Spotsylvania. Over the course of two days, the two armies fought to a bloody stalemate, inaugurating a new era of violence in the war in the East. Though badly bloodied in the fighting, the Federals continued their march to the south.
1979-Spectacular Bid wins the 105th Kentucky Derby
…in a little over 2 minutes.
From 1978-1980, this two year old thoroughbred horse won 26 or 30 races, set several track re cords, and earned a over $2M. He won the Eclipse Award in each of his three seasons. He retired in 1980 and moved to Florida and sat by the pool sipping lemonade for the remainder of his days.
1904-Pitching for the Boston Red Sox, Cy Young throws a perfect game
… against the Detroit Tigers. This was the first perfect game of the modern era; the e last had been thrown by John Montgomery War in 1880. It was the second of three no-hitters that Young would throw, and the only perfect game.