A Bad Sign for Economy: Money Anxiety Index
Decreased to 47.9, Lowest Level in 50 Years

Dr. Dan Geller, who follows the economy and has reported findings since 2000, report: “"The May Money Anxiety Index decreased to 47.9, the lowest level in 50 years. The improvement in the financial confidence of consumers stems in Part from the April unemployment rate, which decreased to 3.9 - its lowest in the past 20 years. 

"The last time the money anxiety index was that low occurred in September of 1969, when the Money Anxiety Index stood at 47.6, and the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.

The financial confidence index that measures what people do rather than what people say in response to confidence surveys and opinion polls. Records show that prior to the Great recession, the Money Anxiety Index, which is based on actual behavior, started climbing up three months before consumer confidence surveys started showing a decline.

(This poll was taken before the US Policy formal change regarding Iran, but perhaps expected by those being polled. Editor)

About Dr. Dan Geller
Dr. Dan Geller is a behavioral economist who pioneered the research and application of behavioral economics to the banking services. Through his research firm, Analyticom, Dr. Geller provides banking executives with scientific forecasting and pricing tools enabling them to improve financial performance. Dr. Geller is a frequent speaker and media guest. He appeared on national TV and radio, such as CNBC and Fox, and delivered the keynote address at the American Banker's Symposium.

 

 

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New York Bill to License Internet Lenders
Facing Very Strong Opposition from Industry

Introduced by Senator Elaine Phillips (R-Long Island, District 7), SB 8340 is headed to the Senate Banking Committee. As Leasing News Legal Editor Tom McCurnin stated in his column several months ago, with the Consumer Financial Protection Board in deregulations, it is leaving the states to make their own laws as they did with Usury laws in the past.

The proposed internet lending charter would apply to companies making consumer loans of $25,000 or less and commercial loans of $50,000 or less. If enacted, a company that obtains an internet lending charter would be subject to examination and supervision by the Department of Financial Services and would be required to maintain a minimum capital requirement of at least $250,000, an amount that is five times higher than similar brick-and-mortar licensed lenders operating in New York. (1)

This is being very well watched and opposed by the alternate. financing industry that uses the internet for finding, processing, and closing loans over the internet. There are many FinTech companies, including Google and other such companies, who have services that research and provide leads via the internet, especially Merchant Cash Advance providers such as PayPal and many others.

New York Senate Bill 8340 would require companies to obtain approval from the N.Y. Department of Financial Services to "engage in the business of making loans over an internet or electronic platform, and to provide a customer with the funds of an approved loan, whereby the application of the customer seeking the loan is taken, and the loan is approved or denied, by the internet lending services corporation, over the internet, or by other electronic means approved by [the Department of Financial Services],." reports CounselorLibrary.com.

S9340
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2017/s8340

 

 

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Top Nine Leasing Company Websites
in North America 

These ratings are all from Alexa, May 8, 2018: Three Month Ratings. They are ranked with the lower number, meaning where they place on the USA list (the lower the rating, the more visitors. The numbers are not how many visitors, but ranking on the list.)

These are not ranked by a vote of who has the best website, but the ranking in Google conducted by Alexa, an Amazon company.

The latest gives an indication of how important FinTech is in contacting potential customers and continuing to connect with them over the internet. CIT is back in first place. It should be noted FinTech Breakthrough named the CIT Point-of-Sale Platform as the "Best Small Business Lending Solution" in 2018. The full story is in the today’s press release section of Leasing News.

Crest Capital is number two, falling from number one, as their claim to fame is the Section 179 website, which Leasing News wrong about (1). 

Direct Capital in New Hampshire gets most of its business via the use of the internet and was a leader in this field very early, one of the reasons for their success (purchased by CIT in March, 2015).  TimePayment specializes in smaller leases, although now into the middle market, too. Very FinTech.  Despite Balboa Capital complaints, they remain in the top due to their internet marketing, as do the other companies.

Although number nine on the list, it should be noted that Ascentium Capital was voted by Breakthrough Technology as being the "Best Business Lending Platform."

Throughout the taking of the ratings about every three months, it should be noted that Financial Pacific has steadily improved their ratings up. Their following is primarily from  "third party originators" who send them business.

GreatAmerica Financial Services  works with many vendors, especially in the copier business as well as other related industries, as well as has over 500 employees who work the internet from Cedar Rapid, Iowa. Their rating also improved.

www.cit.com
361,367

www.crestcapital.com
379,719

www.timepayment.com
410,024

www.directcapital.com
446,594

http://www.balboacapital.com/home.aspx
466,594

www.leaseq.com
715,368

www.greatamerica.com
947,199

 
www.finpac.com
955,915

 
www.ascentiumcapital.com
1,291,948

 

(1) Trojan Horse or Very Clever Advertising
http://leasingnews.org/archives/Mar2018/03_16.htm#alert

 

 

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Leasing Industry Ads---Help Wanted
Now’s the Time to Apply

We are looking for: Account Executive Senior Account Executive National Sales Manager 2018 Interns for Sales, Operations, or Accounting What sets CoreTech apart from other equipment leasing companies is our team members and impeccable reputation. Are you unhappy with the ethics of your company and the promises made to you? Join our team, positions are available in Newport Beach, CA and remotely. To learn more, please click here www.coretechleasing.com CoreTech specializes in assisting medium to large size companies throughout various markets including: Legal, Medical, Manufacturing, Education, Corporate and Semi-Conductor Over 100 law firms trust CoreTech for their leasing needs, why wouldn't you?

Developing Strong Leaders for the
Commercial Equipment Leasing/Financing Industry

By Scott Wheeler, CLFP

Ground Game
 
Commercial equipment leasing and finance originators spend much of their time laying the groundwork for future business. They prospect, meet with customers, attend trade shows, develop marketing materials, prepare for meetings, create meaningful databases, etc. Successful originators are able to convert their ground games into "REAL" results. They build foundations based upon purpose. Top originators have goals when they dial the phone, meet with vendors, or make presentations at trade shows. Their priority is not to be busy, but rather to be productive.

Building relationships is a methodical process with progressive steps toward desired outcomes. Top producing originators focus on outcomes and continuously seek out better means to effectively navigate the process. We have all met originators who do all the correct steps in order, are meticulous about the processes one through eight, but they fail to convert their efforts into final results (steps nine and ten). Additionally, we have met originators who complete steps two and four first, then immediately skip to step ten and have a funded transaction. Successful originators have the flexibility to mix and match their ground game based upon the specific situation, the client's needs, and the opportunity at hand. They are willing to methodically complete every step to close a deal, but they are also capable of assessing a particular transaction and bypassing unnecessary steps to quickly move the transaction forward to funding.

Having a strong ground game requires an originator to assess a given situation, choose a desired path, and then to execute with precision. Having a strong ground game requires a sixth sense in salesmanship. Having a strong ground game requires the desire to succeed.
 

https://www.createspace.com/5355516 

Scott A. Wheeler, CLFP
Wheeler Business Consulting
1314 Marquis Ct.
Fallston, Maryland 21047
Phone: 410 877 0428
Fax: 410 877 8161
Email: scott@wheelerbusinessconsulting.com
Web: www.wheelerbusinessconsulting.com

 

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Part V
Customer Relation Management Keeps Score

Sales Makes it Happen by Ralph Mango

Contract Management

Within each CRM platform is the capability to automate the contract construction, redlining and approval processes prior to using the electronic signature capability of choice. This facilitates the identification of each contract’s events toward the closing of the Contract and identifying the timelines of each. The audit trail that is provided is invaluable.

Assuming the Sales Stage continuum discussed previously, it is possible to archive contract and proposal templates for selection at the appropriate Stage. By archiving these templates, there is speed and efficiency that is an improvement over the construction of a proposal or contract for each transaction from scratch. This also allows for a one-time overall Legal and Sales review of these templates as standards to be met, and as the starting point for the inevitable redlining that occurs with major or new Clients.

Any interested department may review the proposal or Contract status within the Transaction record.

Each version and the status thereof during the redlining process is available for review on the way to the Legal-approved, execution-ready version to be presented to the Client. There are also controls available that allow only that version to be presented to the Client, thereby ending the battle of which version is the ‘chosen one.’ 

One of the more valuable controls allows for the creation of a deadline for receipt of the signed Contract from the Client, after which the Contract is null and void. This can be helpful in creating urgency for the Client to expedite the contract through its review, approval and signature processes in order to meet the month or quarter end deadline we all struggle to meet. That deadline can be calendared in the Transaction record to provide reminders that the Contract has not been signed and create a follow-up by which to do so. 

Finally, and this is a solid productivity enhancement, the CRM using the electronic signature capability, automatically transmits the duly-executed Contract to the Client and stores same in the cloud in your archives.

Ralph Mango
Associate Leasing News Editor
732-642-5008
ralphmango@hotmail.com

Part I
http://leasingnews.org/archives/Apr2018/04_11.htm#crm 
Part II
http://leasingnews.org/archives/Apr2018/04_18.htm#crmI
Part III
http://leasingnews.org/archives/Apr2018/04_25.htm#crm
Part IV
http://leasingnews.org/archives/May2018/05_02.htm#crm

 

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20 years ago, on May 6, 1998, Steve Jobs introduced the first iMac in one of his famous keynotes. It was a watershed moment for Apple, marking the beginning of a remarkable turnaround after the company had spent most of the 1990s flirting with irrelevance. The iMac was also Job’s first major project after having returned to Apple in December 1996.

Interestingly, the iMac, or the Mac in general, started Apple’s return to form in the late 1990s, but it has done little more than lay the groundwork for the company’s rise to where it stands today. As the following chart illustrates, Mac computers gradually lost relevance to Apple as the company introduced one blockbuster product after the other (think iPod, iPhone and iPad) in the first decade of the 21st century.

In each of Apple’s past three fiscal years, Mac sales accounted for 11 percent of the company’s revenue, down from 86 percent in 2000.

by Felix Richter, Statista.com

https://www.statista.com/chart/8817/mac-sales-as-a-percentage-of-apples-revenue/

 

##### Press Release ############################

ELFA Award Stewart Abramson and Dominic Liberatore
the Edward A. Groobert Award for Legal Excellence

Washington, D.C.—The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) has awarded Stewart G. Abramson, Senior Managing Counsel at Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, and Dominic A. Liberatore, Deputy General Counsel at DLL, the Edward A. Groobert Award for Legal Excellence. ELFA Legal Committee Chair Dustin Lee, VP, Assistant General Counsel at Fifth Third Bank, presented the award to Abramson and Liberatore on May 7 at the ELFA Legal Forum in Washington, D.C., in recognition of their significant contributions to the association and the equipment finance industry.

Stewart G. Abramson

Abramson has been an active member of ELFA for more than 22 years and a tireless contributor to the association’s legal community. He is a past Chair of the ELFA Legal Committee, which is a member and staff resource on a wide range of national and international legal issues impacting the equipment finance industry. In addition to his service on the committee from 2007-2010, Abramson has participated in several subcommittees of the Legal Committee, including Amicus Curiae, State Legislative & Regulatory, E-Commerce, Equipment Leasing & Finance Magazine and Capital Markets, as well as working groups on Automatic Renewal and the Uniform Commercial Code.

Abramson has served as an information resource for ELFA members regarding legal issues impacting the equipment finance industry. He has made many presentations and participated on numerous panels at the ELFA Legal Forum and other ELFA events on topics including syndications and capital markets; letters of credit, guaranties and securities account collateral; confidentiality agreements and intercreditor agreements; regulatory compliance issues for leasing & finance companies; and confidentiality agreements. He has also contributed articles on legal matters to the association’s Equipment Leasing & Finance Magazine. In addition, he has provided input to ELFA’s state advocacy department on issues affecting the equipment leasing and finance industry at the state level.

In addition, Abramson is an active member of ELFA’s LegalTalk, an e-mail discussion group where members post questions and exchange commentary on legal topics, sharing his industry expertise, insights and analysis on a wide range of legal issues important for equipment leasing and finance lawyers.

Before serving in his current position as Senior Managing Counsel in the Wells Fargo Law Department, Abramson served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Charter Financial, Inc. from 1988 until Charter’s acquisition by Wells Fargo in 2000. Previously he was General Counsel of North American Corporation prior to joining Charter. Abramson holds a B.S from Union College (NY) and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law. He is a recipient of the President’s Award from Wells Fargo Equipment Finance.

Dominic A. Liberatore

Liberatore has been an active member of ELFA and an advocate for the equipment finance industry for more than 20 years. He is a past Chair of the ELFA Legal Committee and has also participated in a number of subcommittees of the Legal Committee, including E-Commerce, Equipment Leasing & Finance Magazine, Legal Resources, Capital Markets and Equipment Finance Regulatory and Compliance. He is the current Legal Subcommittee Coordinator.

Liberatore is a leading authority on e-leasing and has been a major contributor to ELFA’s advocacy and outreach efforts on this issue. He has spoken on this topic numerous times at the ELFA Legal Forum and the ELFA Annual Convention and has contributed articles on e-leasing to ELFA’s Equipment Leasing and Finance Magazine. Liberatore has also contributed to the work of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, serving on the E-Signatures Study Subcommittee and the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Equipment Lease Financing.

Liberatore also has contributed to ELFA’s advocacy efforts, preparing materials for and attending meetings with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank.

In addition to his current position as Deputy General Counsel for DLL, Liberatore has served in a variety of senior in-house legal positions with DLL, IOS Capital, Inc. (the captive finance subsidiary of IKON Office Solutions, Inc.), Copelco Financial Services Group, Inc. and the FDIC.  Prior to going in-house, Liberatore was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City and Wolf Block in Philadelphia. He holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. from the University of Buffalo. He is the current Chair of the Subcommittee on Leasing of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the ABA Business Law Section.  

About the Award
The Edward A. Groobert Award for Legal Excellence is named for ELFA’s long-time Secretary and General Counsel Edward A. Groobert, who was active in the legal affairs of the association from the mid-1960s until his retirement in 2010.

About ELFA
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) is the trade association that represents companies in the $1 trillion equipment finance sector, which includes financial services companies and manufacturers engaged in financing capital goods. ELFA members are the driving force behind the growth in the commercial equipment finance market and contribute to capital formation in the U.S. and abroad. Its 580 members include independent and captive leasing and finance companies, banks, financial services corporations, broker/packagers and investment banks, as well as manufacturers and service providers. For more information, please visit www.elfaonline.org.

#### Press Release #############################

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### Press Release ############################

FinTech Breakthrough Names CIT Point-Of-Sale Platform
As "Best Small Business Lending Solution" In 2018

NEW YORK, Fintech Breakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global FinTech market, announced that it has selected CIT's point-of-sale digital platform as the winner of its "Best Small Business Lending Solution" award. The platform allows business customers to finance their purchases at the point-of-sale in as little as five minutes.

"We congratulate CIT on their 2018 FinTech Breakthrough Award distinction," said James Johnson, managing director, FinTech Breakthrough. "The point-of-sale platform delivers a seamless experience to small business customers who may want to finance or lease their purchases. As a bank focused on offering financing solutions for small and midsized businesses, they are leading the industry with this technology."

CIT's point-of-sale platform finances B2B purchases of more than $2,500. An automated credit process and mobile document signing, simplifies the financing experience enabling customers to shop, apply and complete purchases either in store or online. 

"We are proud of this recognition from FinTech Breakthrough for our innovative, point-of-sale financing solution," said John Paradisi, chief growth officer and head of business development for CIT's Business Capital division. "For many small business owners, financing is critical not only for running the business, but also for pursuing opportunities to grow. We've created this technology to streamline the financing process. It's extremely rewarding to help our customers succeed, as their success is ultimately our success."

CIT's Business Capital division empowers small, mid and large cap businesses by providing financing solutions via technology-enabled platforms and market leading structuring expertise. This includes its small business lending unit, Direct Capital.

The FinTech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program founded to recognize the FinTech innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the world in a range of categories, including Personal Finance, Lending, Payments, Investments, RegTech, InsurTech and many more. The 2018 FinTech Breakthrough Awards program attracted more than 3,000 nominations from across the globe.

About CIT
Founded in 1908, CIT (NYSE: CIT) is a financial holding company with approximately $50 billion in assets as of March 31, 2018. Its principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, N.A., (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender) has approximately $30 billion of deposits and more than $40 billion of assets. CIT provides financing, leasing, and advisory services principally to middle-market companies and small businesses across a wide variety of industries. It also offers products and services to consumers through its Internet bank franchise and a network of retail branches in Southern California, operating as OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank, N.A. For more information visit cit.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook. Register to receive press releases at cit.mediaroom.com/email-alerts.

About FinTech Breakthrough
FinTech Breakthrough, part of the Tech Breakthrough Awards organization, is an independent awards and recognition platform devoted to honoring excellence in Financial Technologies and Services companies and products. The FinTech Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of FinTech companies and products in categories including Payments, Personal Finance, Wealth Management, Fraud Protection, Banking, Lending, RegTech, InsurTech and more. For more information visit www.FinTechBreakthrough.com.

#### Press Release #############################

Blue Tick Hound
Arlington, Virginia  Adopt a Dog

Clyde
Male
Large
DOB  2/12/15

"Meet Clyde! He’s a hound dog who is pleased to make your acquaintance.  He likes people, especially those with treats and ear rubs for him.  He loves running through the grass, sniffing around, and watching the squirrels.  He’d make a great new best friend."

To meet Clyde at an adoption event,
please e-mail dogs@lostdogrescue.org
or call (703)295-DOGS.

Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation
P.O. Box 50037
Arlinginton, VA 22205
dogs@lostdogrescue.org

Adopt a Pet
http://www.adoptapet.com/

 

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Brad Peterson Appointed to Board Advisory Position
American Association of Commercial Finance Brokers

Chief Executive Officer, Channel Partners, Minnetonka, Minnesota   (March, 2009 - Present); President of PredictiFund (a whole owned subsidiary) CAN Capital (May, 2007 - March, 2009); Vice President of Business Development, Pentech Financial Services (August, 2005 - April, 2007); Sr. VP., General Manager, General Manager. U.S. Bancorp., Manifest Funding Services (1996 - 2005); Manager, Financial Services, Area Controller, District Sales Manager (April, 1981 - September, 1996).  Education: Iowa State University, Bachelors of Science, Industrial Administration and Economics. Volunteer: President of United Association of Equipment Leasing (NEFA), 2007. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-peterson-9193b044/ 

News Briefs----

U.S. Oil Prices Hit $70 a Barrel for First Time Since ’14
   the Iran nuclear agreement is pushing them even higher
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/business/energy-environment/crude-oil-

Deutsche Bank Weighs Cutting U.S. Staff by About 20%
  lender retreats from businesses it deems less competitive
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-08/deutsche-bank-is-said-to-weigh-cutting-u-s-staff-by-about-20

US job openings equal unemployed
   for 1st time in 2 decades
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/us-employers-post-record-high-66-million-open-55014394

Financial Technology Report Shows Georgia Leads
  as Global FinTech Hub
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/05/08/new-report-details-georgias-growing-lead-in.html

Nasdaq CEO: We need more female leaders
    in the financial industry
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/07/news/companies/nasdaq-ceo-adena-friedman-boss-files/index.html

Panera CEO says delivery is a 'must have'
   for restaurants of the future
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/panera-ceo-says-delivery-is-a-must-have-for-restaurants/article_fb4e25cb-1b32-5543-bcd6-506f209c5703.html

 

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You May Have Missed---

Women’s Leadership Forum Sets Stage
  For Industry Mission to Foster More Diversity
http://thealtagroup.com/womens-leadership-forum-sets-stage-for-industry-mission-to-foster-more-diversity/

 

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Baseball

wenty-Six Years Now by Anonymous

Published: Unknown (Unknown)

After the war After white on white on white After Robinson Yes, Twenty-Six years now Twenty-Six Twenty-Six have come And Gone. And the once empty rosters are no longer Empty. as the face of my mother That day My father spoke. I remember the gloom of my fathers words And what they did to my mother's face And what they did to my heart - Those words my daddy spoke. Daddy told us about Josh Gibson And how he was Swatting white balls In black parks while Ruth and fellows like Foxx Were Making hay. Daddy told us about Satch, Ole Satch Lean and hummin; Told about Ole Satch And how when Satch was Striking black leather In places Like Chattanooga And Birmingham And Pittsburgh And Bismarck And Cleveland And Whichita And Kansas City And Havana Told when Satch was doing all those things How Grove and Dean and Feller Were Making Hay. Yes, Twenty-six years since my father's words Twenty-six years since his death He had a belly laugh My daddy did And his laugh if ever such a sound could reach your ears Would be filled with the Loud and Quiet joy That men such as Mays and Robinson and Aaron Could have given him. Not their booming home runs and feats of magic. Just their faces Just their faces Just their faces now.

 

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Sports Briefs---

49ers' Foster pleads not guilty to felony charges
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/36bd8017-6114-3d48-a104-d3e9f423b6c5/ss_49ers%27-foster-pleads-not.html

Stephen Curry explains how Warriors assistant Bruce Fraser
   helped him through injuries
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/05/08/nba-playoffs-stephen-curry-explains-how-warriors-assistant-bruce-fraser-helped-him-through-injuries/

Aaron Rodgers next up for new deal after
  Falcons' Matt Ryan gets contract extension
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2018/05/03/aaron-rodgers-contract-packers/578834002/

Phil Simms says Giants are in win-now mode
http://www.theredzone.org/Blog-Description/EntryId/69951/Phil-Simms-says-Giants-are-in-win-now-mode

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California Nuts Briefs---

George Deukmejian, ex-governor of California, dies at 89
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article210741009.html

Brown's Delta tunnels get $650 million boost
 from Santa Clara Water Agency
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/delta/article210731179.html

Watch killer whales take body surfing to the next level in Monterey Bay
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/orcas-whale-watching-california-san-francisco-sf-12895513.php

Leonardo DiCaprio Owns How Many Homes?!
   A Startling Peek at His Property Portfolio
https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Leonardo-DiCaprio-Owns-How-Many-Homes-A-12886003.php

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“Gimme that Wine”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJnQoi8DSE8

Wine Columnist Rod Smith Dies
  Memorial May 9th, Healdsburg, CA
https://www.winebusiness.com/blog/?go=getBlogEntry&dataid=198671

The 2018 James Beard Award Winners
https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2018-james-beard-award-winners

Slicing and Dicing Sauvignon Blanc Wines
https://www.winesandvines.com/news/article/198694/Slicing-and-Dicing-Sauvignon-Blanc-Wines

The Rise of California Syrah
http://drinkinsider.com/2018/05/the-rise-of-california-syrah/

Sonoma County Vintners Co-op plans big Cloverdale warehouse
http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8287631-181/sonoma-wine-construction-real-estate

The 2018 James Beard Award Winners
https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2018-james-beard-award-winners

Slicing and Dicing Sauvignon Blanc Wines
https://www.winesandvines.com/news/article/198694/Slicing-and-Dicing-Sauvignon-Blanc-Wines

The Rise of California Syrah
http://drinkinsider.com/2018/05/the-rise-of-california-syrah/

Sonoma County Vintners Co-op plans big Cloverdale warehouse
http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8287631-181/sonoma-wine-construction-real-estate

Wine Prices by vintage
http://www.winezap.com
http://www.wine-searcher.com/

US/International Wine Events
http://www.localwineevents.com/

Leasing News Wine & Spirits Page
http://two.leasingnews.org/Recommendations/wnensprts.htm

This Day in History

     1502 – Christopher Columbus left Spain on his final voyage to the New World.
    1607 - The first Episcopal Church service in an English colony took place at Cape Henry, near Jamestown, Virginia, when the Reverend Robert Hunt celebrated the Eucharist. The event was reported as follows: “We did hang an awning (whish is an old saile) to three or four trees, to shadow us from the sunne, our walles were railes of wood, our seats unhewed trees till we cut plankes; our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees.”
    1754 - An American creation, the first newspaper cartoon was “Join or Die,” designed by Benjamin Franklin and published in Philadelphia, PA, in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. It was printed in the first column of the second page. It depicted a snake cut into segments representing South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may09.html
    1763 - The Siege of Fort Detroit began during Pontiac’s War against British forces.  It was an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by North American Indians under Pontiac to capture the fort that had been captured by the British during the French and Indian War following the fall of Montreal in 1760.
    1783 - The Purple Heart, the first honor badge for enlisted men and noncommissioned officers, was awarded to Sergeants Daniel Bissell, William Brown, and Elijah Churchill of Connecticut regiments, for meritorious action in the Revolutionary War. They were entitled “to wear on facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk, with narrow lace or binding.”
http://www.americal.org/awards/ph.htm 
http://www.purpleheart.org/
    1784 - A deadly hailstorm in South Carolina hit the town of Winnsborough. The hailstones, measuring as much as nine inches in circumference, killed several persons, and a great number of sheep, lambs and birds. 
    1796 - William Blount and William Cocke of Tennessee, elected by the Tennessee legislature, present their credentials to the US Senate. They were refused seats because Tennessee was not admitted until June 1, 1796. They were elected again on August 2, 1796, and took their seats on December 6, 1796. Blount was impeached for concocting a plain to aid the British, but the procedure did not pass the US Senate; however during the trial he was elected to the Tennessee Senate, and eventually and became President of the Senate.
http://www.lexrex.com/bios/wblount.htm
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000570
Cocke assumed the role of Senator in the next term until the legislature elected another person (in these days the state legislature elected US Senate representatives). He later moved to Mississippi, served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and afterwards was appointed Indian Agent for the US. 
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000572
    1800 - Abolitionist leader John Brown (d. 1859) was born at Torrington, CT.  Leader of attack by slaves on the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, October 16, 1859, which was intended to give impetus to movement for escape and freedom for slaves. His aim was frustrated and in fact resulted in increased polarization and sectional animosity. The first civilian killed by John Brown's raiders at Harpers Ferry was a free Black man. History has made him the legendary martyr of the abolitionist movement; even Walt Whitman wrote a poem about Harpers Ferry. Unfortunately, the real facts are: “He was a complete failure in business. He welched on his debts. He almost certainly was insane. And, in 1856, he nearly plunged Kansas into civil war by ruthlessly murdering five helpless members of a mildly proslavery family, in the process ‘splitting open heads and chopping off arms and fingers.’  Dixon Wecter, “The Hero in America” (1941).  Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859 at Charles Town, WV.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/jbrown/master.html 
http://www.johnbrown.org/
    1813 - General William Henry Harrison turned back a siege of Fort Meigs by Shawnee military leader Tecumseh and British general Henry A. Proctor. Harrison was to become the ninth President of the United States, but for only a month, as he contacted pneumonia from a cold and died in office (the first president to die in office).
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may09.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh9.html
    1830 - Birthday of Harriet Lane (d. 1903), Franklin County, PA.  She acted as official hostess in the White House for her uncle, bachelor James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, and became known as America’s First Lady. Her popularity at the time is compared to that of Jacqueline Kennedy in the 1960s. She is known as the first modern First Lady (using her position to advocate causes) including the arts and American Indian causes.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/buchanan_j.html
    1843 - Birthday of Belle Boyd (d. 1900) at Martinsburg, VA.  She was a notorious Confederate spy, stealing weapons, secrets, and helping prisoners to escape. She was arrested several times, once deported to Canada. She authored a book about her exploits. Following the war, she became an actor and lecturer, continuing in that profession until her death in 1900. She married three times, her last marriage to a man 15 years her junior. She once shot at a man who was calling on her daughter and refused to marry her. Author of the book, “Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison.”
http://www.civilwarhome.com/boydbio.htm
http://www.civilwarhome.com/belleboyd.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/southernrebels/belle.html 
    1846 - Word reaches Washington that an American patrol had been ambushed by Mexican forces north of the Rio Grande. This leads to the US Congress granting President James K. Polk’s request for a declaration of war four days later. The Mexican-American War began with a dispute over the US government’s 1845 annexation of Texas, which had won independence from Mexico in 1836. Mexico believed that France and Britain would support it in a war against the US. In January of 1846, President James K. Polk, a strong advocate of westward expansion, ordered General Zachary Taylor to occupy disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. On 12 May 1846, Mexican troops attacked the forces of General Taylor, who went on to win the Battle of Palo Alto.  On 13 May 1846, Congress, yet unaware of that battle, approved a declaration of war, appropriating ten million dollars for the war effort and authorizing the President to call for 50,000 volunteers. On 02 February 1848, representatives from the US and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, formally ending the Mexican War, recognizing Texas as part of the United States, and extending the boundaries of the United States west to the Pacific Ocean.
    1862 - Confederate forces at Norfolk, VA evacuated the city in a costly move, leaving valuable materiel for the Union army. Norfolk and Portsmouth were occupied on May 10, and the naval yard at Gosport, VA was burned.  In reality, this ended the Confederates’ ability to build metal ships and make major repairs to their navy.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/merrimacbirth.htm
http://www.civilwarhistory.com/navy/CSSNavy.htm
    1862 - At Hilton Head, SC, General David Hunter, commander of the Department of the South, issued orders freeing slaves in South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Not having congressional or presidential approval, the orders were countermanded by President Lincoln on May 19th, ordering Hunter to retract his proclamation as he still feared that this action would force slave-owners in Border States to join the Confederates. President Jefferson Davis and the leaders of the Confederate Army were furious when they heard of Hunter's actions and orders were given that he was a "felon to be executed if captured.”  President Lincoln explained to the New York Tribune, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it."
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWhunter.htm
    1862 – As a precaution during the Civil War, the U.S. Naval Academy relocated from Annapolis to Newport, Rhode Island.
    1864 - Union General John Sedgwick is shot and killed by a Confederate sharpshooter during fighting at Spotsylvania. His last words are: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--" 
http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/OfficersAndEnlistedMen/johnsedgwick.html
http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:General%20John%
    1865 – Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, learning of Lee’s surrender to Grant, surrendered his forces at Gainesville, AL.  Separately, President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation ending the belligerent rights of the Confederacy and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships.
    1868 - First known as Fullers Crossing, then Lakes Crossing, the name of this Nevada town was officially changed to Reno. It was named after General Jesse Reno, a Union officer of the Civil War. When the Comstock Lode was discovered in Virginia City, the nearest large city was Reno, thus it became popular and is still known today as “The Biggest Little City in the World.” Its six-week residency requirement for divorce became law on May 1, 1931, making it a popular city. At the time, it was the major “gambling city” in the United States, and prostitution was legal in several surrounding counties. It was the Las Vegas of its day, today primarily visited by people living in Northern California, although visited by tourists from around the world for not only gambling activity, but the surrounding “ghost towns” and surrounding old West towns such as Carson City, its capital, Virginia City, and other cities in the California gold country. 
http://www.cityofreno.com/.
    1871 - The first Hispanic player in Major League Baseball was Esteban Bellan, a Cuban, for the Troy Haymakers of the National Association.
    1882 – Henry J. Kaiser (d. 1967) was born in Sprout Brook, NY.  He was one of America’s leading industrialists during its rise in the early 20th century to industrial might.  He became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding, establishing Kaiser Shipyards to build Liberty Ships during World War II.  After the War, he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel.  Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente’s health care for his workers and their families. He led Kaiser-Frazer followed by Kaiser Motors, automobile companies known for the safety of their designs. Kaiser was involved in large construction projects such as civic centers and dams, and invested in real estate. With his wealth, he established the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, non-partisan, charitable organization.
    1894 - Portland, Oregon had its latest freeze when the temperature fell to 32 degrees. This is the only May freeze in Portland's history.
    1899 – African-American John A. Burr patents the rotary-blade lawn mower.
    1909 - Alice Koller Leopold birthday. She wrote Connecticut's equal pay and minimum wage bills in 1949, her freshman year in the Connecticut Assembly. The next year, she was elected the Connecticut's secretary of state. She then served as Director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1953-61, and was the Assistant to the Secretary of Labor to aid and develop programs for women. She was a strong advocate of the Equal Rights Amendment. The mother of two, she had created her own toy company before entering public life.
    1910 - Pianist Bob Zurke (d. 1944) was born Detroit, MI.
http://www.parabrisas.com/d_zurkeb.html
    1914 - President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation asking Americans to give a public expression of reverence to mothers through the celebration of Mother's Day. Carnations have come to represent the day following President William McKinley’s habit of always wearing a white carnation, his mother's favorite flower.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may09.html
(The first Mother’s Day was observed in 1907 at the request of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, PA, who asked her church to hold service in memory of all mothers on the anniversary of her mother’s death. The newspapers of the day reported this event and it continued the next year at other churches, now annually, the second Sunday in May. 
    1914 - Hank Snow (d. 1999), one of the fathers of country music in Canada, was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. He was heavily influenced by singer and yodeler Jimmie Rodgers, and began to perform in his style in the early 1930's. Snow made his radio debut about 1933 on CHNS in Halifax, and three years later, made his first recording for Victor, the company with which he remained for four decades. He settled permanently in Nashville, Tennessee about 1950, and became a US citizen in 1958.  Snow became a regular on the Grand Ole Opry in 1950, the same year he recorded "I'm Movin' On," which became one of the most successful singles of the first 50 years of recorded country music. His other hits include "Golden Rocket" and "I've Been Everywhere." Hank Snow was indicted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976 and into the Juno Awards Hall of Fame in 1979. 
On this date in 1994, on his 80th birthday, Hank Snow received an honorary degree from St. Mary's University in Halifax. The presentation was made in Nashville, and he spoke to the graduates via videotape.
http://www.hanksnow.com/
    1916 - President Woodrow Wilson mobilizes the National Guard of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to patrol their borders with Mexico as Brigadier General John J. Pershing led an Army expedition into northern Mexico to try to capture or kill the bandit leader Pancho Villa and his group. In March, Villa and his men raided the town of Columbus, NM, killing a number of soldiers and civilians before slipping back across the border. Soon these Guardsmen would be joined by Guard units coming from all the states to a total 158,000 men. While their main mission was to secure the border, the Army used this partial mobilization to train the Guard in large unit formations almost impossible to conduct in normal peacetime exercises for just a few days. This training paid great dividends when America committed its Guardsmen to combat in France after our entry in World War I.
    1918 - TV Journalist Mike Wallace was born Myron Leon Wallace (d. 2012), Brookline, MA.  He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his sixty-year career and he was one of the original correspondents for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which debuted in 1968. Wallace retired as a regular full-time correspondent in 2006, but still appeared occasionally on the series until 2008.
    1926 – Adm. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made what they claimed was the first airplane flight over the North Pole. At 9:02 a.m., their plane passed over the North Pole. Bennett swung the plane to the right to confirm their position on the sextant, then circled and confirmed it twice more.
Later, evidence suggests they may have missed their target by 150 miles.
    1927 - A major tornado outbreak occurred from Texas to Michigan. There were 28 tornadoes rated F2 or greater. 9 separate tornadoes killed 5 or more people making this day one of the worst tornado days in U.S. History. Popular Bluff, Missouri was devastated by a tornado rated F4 on the Fujita Scale. 98 people were killed and 300 were injured. 31 business and residential blocks were destroyed in the city. Strong, Arkansas was leveled by another F4 tornado with 24 people killed.
    1928 - Birthday of Pancho Gonzales, born Richard Alonzo Gonzales (d. 1995) at Los Angeles, CA. A self-taught player, Gonzales won the 1948 US National Singles Championship and repeated in 1949. He turned pro and won the world’s championship from 1954 through 1962. Gonzales was an aggressive, temperamental player who rarely trained. 
    1933 - A tornado, rated F4 on the Fujita Scale, moved through Monroe, Cumberland, and Russell Counties in Kentucky. 36 people were killed.
    1934 - The nationwide labor upsurge of 1934 reached its peak in San Francisco when leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) called a strike of all West Coast dockworkers, demanding a wage scale, a “closed shop” (union membership as a requirement of employment), and union-administered hiring halls. A few days later, seamen and teamsters joined the strike, effectively stopping all shipping from San Diego to Seattle. “The Big Strike: A Journalist Describes the 1934 San Francisco Strike” by Mike Quinn 
    1937 – Cincinnati Reds C Ernie Lombardi tied the modern Major League record with six hits in six consecutive at bats as Cincinnati routed Philadelphia, 21-10, on 24 hits.   At the Polo Grounds in NYC, the Giants’ Carl Hubbell won his 4th straight and his 20th in a row, subduing the Cubs, 4-1. Hubbell matched the mark of Rube Marquard, who won that many in 1911-12.
    1939 – Birthday of Ralph Boston, Laurel, MS.   US National Track & Field Hall of Famer, Olympic Hall of Famer: gold medalist: long jump [1960], silver [1964], bronze [1968]; broke world long jump record 5 times, the last at 27 feet, 5 inches [1965]. 
http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/bostonra.shtml
    1939 – Glenn Miller records "Stairway to the Stars" with Ray Eberle, one of the most popular singers in the 1940’s. 
    1941 - Billie Holiday records “God Bless the Child” (Okey 6270)
    1944 - Jimmie Davis, who was a successful country singer as early as the 1930's, became governor of Louisiana. Davis, the composer of the country standard "You Are My Sunshine," later resumed his music career.
http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/davis.html
http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/artists/e4-jimmie.html
http://www.etrecordshop.com/jdtribut.htm
    1945 - Steve Katz birthday, Brooklyn, NY.  Vocalist, guitarist and harmonica player with such bands as the Blues Project, Blood, Sweat and Tears and American Flyer.
http://www.altx.com/katz/katzbio.html
http://www.rdrop.com/users/rickert/steve-solo.html
    1946 - Birthday of Candice Bergen in Beverly Hills, CA, daughter of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. A whole generation, however, knows her as Murphy Brown, the role for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards as the title character on the CBS sitcom “Murphy Brown” (1988–98). At 34, she married French filmmaker Louis Malle who died in 1995. They had one daughter Chloe (b. 1985).
    1949 - Singer/pianist/composer Billy Joel was born in The Bronx. His hit single "Just the Way You Are," won two Grammy Awards in 1979 and has since become a standard. The album from which the song was taken, "The Stranger," is reported to have sold more than five-million copies. Joel's other hit singles include "My Life," "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Piano Man,” and "Uptown Girl."  Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the US, all of which he wrote. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner who has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards. He has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all-time.  Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest honor for influencing American culture through the arts.  Joel also held the first rock concert at Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1990.
http://www.billyjoel.com/
http://www.billyjoelmusic.com/
http://billyjoel.8k.com/
    1953 - Top Hits
“Pretend” - Nat King Cole
“Song from Moulin Rouge” - The Percy Faith Orchestra
“I Believe” - Frankie Laine
“Mexican Joe” - Jim Reeves
    1954 - Chet Baker Quartet first concert, Ann Arbor, MI. 
(Saw him play many times. He always sounded “flat,” but then I dated a girl he used to date, and enough said.)
http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/shop/
    1958 - Still angry that his employers refuse to back him in his defense of recent charges of inciting a riot at a Boston show, DJ Alan Freed quits New York radio station WINS, claiming they refused to "stand by my policies and principles." The same day, Freed debuts his new package tour in Hershey, PA, starring Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Danny and the Juniors, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Larry Williams, and the Chantels. 
    1959 - 16-year-old Wayne Newton made his Las Vegas debut at the Fremont Hotel. That first booking, scheduled to last two weeks, stretched into three years. Newton went on to become king of the Vegas showrooms, earning close to $20 million a year. He has been seen live by over 12 million people, more than have seen either Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley in concert.
    1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Control approved the “birth control pill.” It was developed over a five-year period by Gregory Pincus, a biochemist at Worchester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Shrewsbury, MA, and John Rock, a gynecologist at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA.  It used synthetic progesterone and estrogen to repress ovulation in women. The first clinical tests were performed in 1954. The project was initially commissioned and funded by birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger and heiress Katherine Dexter McCormick.
    1960 – Tony Gwynn (d. 2014) was born in LA.  He played 20 years in the majors, all with the San Diego Padres, with a lifetime .338 batting average and 3,141 hits. He won the batting title 8 times, led the league in hits 7 times and was a 15-time All-Star.  In 2007, Gwynn was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He received 532 of 545 possible votes. He was inducted with Cal Ripken, Jr.
    1961 – Top Hits
“Runaway” – Del Shannon
“Mother-In-Law” – Ernie K-Doe
“A Hundred Pounds of Clay” – Gene McDaniels
“Hello Walls” – Faron Young
    1961 – Perhaps still germane today, speaking before the bigwigs of network TV at the annual convention of the National Association of Broadcasters, Newton Minow, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, exhorted those executives to sit through an entire day of their own programming. He suggested that they “will observe a vast wasteland.” Further, he urged them to try for “imagination in programming, not sterility; creativity, not imitation; experimentation, not conformity; excellence, not mediocrity.”
    1961 – First baseman Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles became the fourth player to hit grand slams in consecutive innings. Gentile hit his homers in the first and second innings of a game against the Minnesota Twins and added a sacrifice fly as the Orioles won, 13-5.
    1964 – Louis Armstrong, great jazz trumpet player, and now singer, found his recording of "Hello Dolly!" on the "Billboard" music chart in the top spot for the first time in his 41-year music career. Later, ‘Satchmo’ was cast in the movie version of "Hello Dolly!” When the song hit Number One, it pushed out the Beatles “She Loves You.” He had another top pop tune also sung by Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, but he is best remembered for “Mack the Knife.”  In the many old recordings, when Louis Armstrong played, you could always pick him out. He was the most influential jazz man of the 20th Century.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/louie.html 
http://www.louis-armstrong.com/
http://www.satchmo.com/louisarmstrong/props4pops.html
    1968 - In front of only 6,298 Oakland fans, Jim “Catfish” Hunter hurls the first American League perfect game in forty-six years as the A's defeat the usually heavy hitting Twins, 4-0.
    1969 - Top Hits
“Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” - The 5th Dimension
“Hair” - The Cowsills
“Hawaii Five-O” - The Ventures
“Hungry Eyes” - Merle Haggard
    1965 - Vladimir Horowitz played his first public concert in 12 years at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The audience applauded the piano virtuoso with a standing ovation that lasted for 30 minutes.
    1970 - Blues Images "Ride Captain Ride" is released.
    1970 - The Guess Who hit the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 with "American Woman." The song was born by accident when guitarist Randy Bachman was playing a heavy riff on stage after he had broken a string and the band had taken a break. The other members joined in on the jam and Burton Cummings started singing the first thing that came into his head. A fan in the audience had it all on tape and presented it to the group after the show. It was quickly developed into a full song in the studio and ended up spending 3 weeks at the top of the US singles chart. 
    1973 – Mick Jagger added $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 raised by The Rolling Stones’ January benefit concert for victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.
    1974 - Congress begins impeachment hearings of President Richard M. Nixon. 
    1974 - Bruce Springsteen gives the most important performance of his career, opening for Bonnie Raitt at her Boston Arena show. Playing his full two-hour set at Raitt's insistence, Bruce delivers a show so impressive that Rolling Stone's Jon Landau later wrote in Boston's The Real Paper, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau would later become Springsteen's manager and producer. 
    1977 - Top Hits
“Hotel California” - Eagles
“When I Need You” - Leo Sayer
“Sir Duke” - Stevie Wonder
“Play, Guitar Play” - Conway Twitty
    1977 - Patty Hearst let out of jail.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics4/hearst/
    1979 - At the Astrodome, substitute umpire Dave Pallone ejected the entire Cardinal bench after the players threw helmets and bats onto the field to protest a call. The minor league arbitrator was pressed into duty due to the Major League umpire strike.
    1981 - The Dallas/Fort Worth area experienced its worst hailstorm of record as baseball to grapefruit size hail, accompanied by 100 mph winds, caused nearly $200 million in damage. Hail accumulated eight inches deep at Cedar Hill, TX
    1984 - The Chicago White Sox defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6, on a Harold Baines’ home run in the 25th inning. The game, the first 17 innings of which were played the day before, was the longest extra-inning game by time, 8 hours, 6 minutes. The teams then played their regularly scheduled game of nine innings, making a total of 34 innings in two days.
    1985 - Top Hits
“We are the World” - USA for Africa
“Crazy for You” - Madonna
“Don’t You Forget About Me” - Simple Minds
“There’s No Way” – Alabama
    1987 - Switch-hitter Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles became the first player in Major League history to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in consecutive games
    1987 - Twenty-eight cities in the northwestern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. The record high of 95 degrees at Redding, CA was their fifth in a row, and the record high of 102 degrees at Hanover, WA was just one degree shy of their record for May. 
    1988 - Thunderstorms in the Mississippi Valley spawned a total of 57 tornadoes, including 24 in Wisconsin, and a record 22 tornadoes in one day in Iowa. There were also more than 200 reports of large hail and damaging winds. Baseball size hail was reported at Terre Bonne, MO. At Rockford, IL one person was temporarily trapped inside a portable toilet toppled by thunderstorm winds gusting to 80 mph. Fortunately, not a single person was killed in the "Mother's Day" tornado outbreak.
    1989 - Twenty-one cities in the eastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. Lows of 28 degrees at Asheville, NC and 31 degrees at Greer, SC were records for May.
    1992 - Seventeen years after his first American chart entry, Bruce Springsteen makes his US TV debut when he appears on “Saturday Night Live” with host Tom Hanks.
    1992 - Final episode of "Golden Girls" airs on NBC-TV.  It now lives a vigorous second life in re-runs on multiple cable channels.
http://lifetimetv.com/shows/golden/
http://epguides.com/GoldenGirls/
http://www.beatricearthur.com/
    1994 - Netscape changes the World Wide Web, opens it open for everyone to use easily. James Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Inc., announces he will start a new company called Mosaic Communications Corporation. (The company would later change its name to Netscape Communications.) Clark teamed up with Marc Andreessen and six other programmers to create Mosaic, one of the earliest Web browsers, at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. When Netscape went public in December, 1995, it broke records for the most successful opening day of stock trading in history. Unfortunately, the company later found itself in a fierce and expensive battle with Microsoft, which ultimately led to its sale to AOL in late 1998.
    1997 - Peter Peterson presented his portfolio in Hanoi, becoming the first Ambassador to Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War. Peterson, a former Air Force captain, had been held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 6.5 years after his bomber was shot down near Hanoi in 1966. He was released in March, 1973. The United States had not maintained formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam since its previous ambassador, Graham Martin, left Saigon by helicopter in 1975 as the city fell to the North Vietnamese forces.
    1998 - Cardinal Mark McGwire hit his 400th career home run. Big Red's historic milestone comes in 4,727 at-bats (127 fewer at-bats than Babe Ruth), the fewest ever needed to reach the mark.
    2005 - Carlos Beltran (.267, 38, 104) becomes the tenth $100 million player in Major League history as the 27-year old native of Puerto Rico agrees to seven-year deal for $119 million with the Mets.  The current standard is $325 million signed by Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins in 2014.
    2010 – Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in Major League history as the Oakland A’s defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-0.
    2011 – The Texas Senate approved amended legislation allowing students in Texas to carry handguns on campus.
    2013 - A report revealed that hackers using fraudulent ATM cards in February, 2013, stole $45 million.
    2014 - The NBA named business executive Dick Parsons as acting CEO of the L.A. Clippers.  Owner Donald Sterling was banned for life from contact with the Clippers or the NBA after he made racist remarks and the NBA forced the sale of the team.