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Daily Calendar for Saturday, May 6, 2028

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Daily Calendar

View daily calendar information including holidays, advice, and daily features.

Saturday, May 6, 2028

Kentucky Derby

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.

Born

  • Sigmund Freud (neurologist & psychiatrist) –
  • Rudolph Valentino (actor) –
  • Orson Welles (actor & director) –
  • Willie Mays (baseball player) –
  • Bob Seger (musician) –
  • Tony Blair (British Prime Minister) –
  • Tom Bergeron (television personality) –
  • George Clooney (actor) –

Died

  • Henry David Thoreau (writer) –
  • L. Frank Baum (author) –
  • The Duke of Devonshire (Canadian Governor General 1916-1921) –
  • Ethelda Bleibtrey (Olympic swimmer) –
  • Marlene Dietrich (actress) –
  • Otis Blackwell (songwriter) –
  • Lillian Asplund (last American survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912) –

Events

  • London and Gore Railroad Co. incorporated –
  • First postage stamps issued in the U.K. –
  • Linus Yale, Jr. received a patent for a lock and key –
  • Dr. John Gorrie patented an ice machine –
  • Confederate General James Longstreet was seriously wounded by his own troops by mistake, Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia –
  • Successful flight of Samuel Langley’s model Aerodrome No. 5 aircraft –
  • Babe Ruth hit his first homerun –
  • 36 lives were lost when Luftschiff Zeppelin #129 Hindenburg, a commercial passenger-carrying airship, burst into flames while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey –
  • At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performed his first USO show –
  • The Channel Tunnel, more commonly known as the Chunnel, linking England and France opened –
  • Racehorse Barbaro won the 132nd Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky –
  • Lt.-Col. Maryse Carmichael became the first female commander of the Canadian Snowbirds –
  • At Westminster Abbey in London, Charles III and his wife Camilla were coronated as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Realms. –

Weather

  • State of emergency declared due to flooding, Winnipeg, Manitoba –
  • Milwaukee recorded 0.6 inch of snow, the first measurable snowfall ever on this date –
  • A cold wave brought morning lows of 17 degrees F to Bismarck, North Dakota –
  • Kentucky Derby horses and people alike endured the coldest temperature recorded since the race was introduced in 1875 - a brisk 43F. –