1. On May 30th, 1968 (which is maybe the original day, but not the official day) a group of freed slaves dug up a mass grave of Union soldiers in Charleston, reburied them in individual graves, and decorated the new Union Graveyard with flowers. This was the first Decoration Day, which eventually became Memorial Day, but not to some Southern States who refused to celebrate Memorial Day cause they hated the Union. So they still celebrate Decoration Day the Sunday before, which is really like a Day of the Dead thing. The point is that digging up hundreds of dead decomposing bodies, (on a hot day... at the end of May... in the South... which has got to include mosquitos and horseflies), in order to honor them is more patriotic than anything you will ever imagine doing. Except for that James Bond fantasy you have involving a Shetland pony and 2 tons of c4. Also, I suspect that maybe the freed slaves were not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.
2. In 1977, on Memorial Day, Star Wars opened. The politics of sex was altered irrevocably.
3. On May 25th, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191 took off from O'Hare airport. About half a mile from the take-off point, the airplane pitched into the ground, killing all 271 people aboard, and two others living in a trailer nearby. It was the worst domestic airplane crash in history.
4. On May 25th, 1975, the grizzle bear was declared a "threatened species." I think I like grizzle bear more than grizzly.
5. 5/25/15, all Armenians living in Eastern Anatolia are deported by Turkish Ottoman decree. This came the day after the Russians issued a memo claiming the Turks had massacred the population of 100 Armenian villages, for being pro-Russian.
6. On May 25th, 1861, Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus in the interest of national security. Douchebag.
7. Hanover, Germany hosts the International Fireworks Competition every year. My neighbor however is not German. This is not related to Memorial Day, but I have thought about this at least once a day for the past week. Mostly because of the need to constantly repeat to him "no, you cannot set those off before July 4th." Also, he set them up specifically for a photo op.
