June 2 - Yell "Fudge" at the Cobras in North America Day

If today's event seems somewhat familiar, you must be an Indiana Jones fan! If you encounter a cobra today (or any day), just yell "fudge", and the cobra will shrink away in fear! (Realistically, this day was brought about by the discovery that feeding a cobra fudge will make it gag).

You learn something new every day!

Today is also Children's Awareness Memorial Day, National Bubba Day, and National Cancer Survivors Day!

Here are some interesting things that happened on this day in history:

- In 1537, Pope Paul III proclaimed that native people “are truly men” and so should not be enslaved, and that they should receive the Roman Catholic faith.
- In 1763, at what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas captured Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
- The Gazette Littéraire pour la ville et district de Montréal ceased publication in 1779, after the arrest of founder Fleury Mesplet and editor Valentin Jautard for criticizing a judge's rulings in their paper. It was the first entirely French newspaper in Canada. Mesplet went on to create La Gazette de Montréal, which had a dual French/English bilingual format.

- Geologist Alexander Murray, who practically single-handedly mapped the geology of Canada West, was born at Crieff, Scotland in 1810.
- Harriet Tubman led Union guerrillas into Maryland in 1863, freeing slaves.

- Canadian forces under Alfred Booker were driven back by the Fenians at Ridgeway, Canada West in 1866.

- Black Americans observed a day of fasting to protest lynchings in 1899.
- Mont Sorrel on the Ypres Salient was captured by German forces from the 3rd Division of the Canadian Corps in 1916. Commander Major-General M.S. Mercer was killed and Brigadier-General V.A.S. Williams was captured.

- William Avery ("Billy") Bishop was awarded the Victoria Cross for a single-handed dawn attack on a German airfield on this day in 1917.

- Velveeta Cheese was created by Kraft in 1928.
- At the age of 40, Babe Ruth announced his retirement as a ball player in 1935.

- At Trail, Local 480 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers was certified in 1944.
- Hockey player Larry Robinson, who was one of two players ever to appear in the play-offs 20 times, was born in Winchester, Ontario in 1951.
- Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation took place in Westminster Abbey in 1953. http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/queen-elizabeth-ii-marks-60-years-since-coronation-1.1307827

- Journalist Judith Jasmin interviewed Orson Welles on Radio-Canada television in 1958.
- Barbara Walters asked Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would be in 1981.
- "Dead Poets Society" starring Robin Williams, premiered in 1989.
- Indonesian censors banned Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" in 1994.
- Prime Minister Jean Chrétien replaced Paul Martin with John Manley as finance minister in 2002.
- Ken Jennings began his 74-game winning streak on Jeopardy! in 2004.

Check out what happened last week in science:















Stay tuned for our next, "On This Day in History"!