Daily post that discusses fun, interesting, historic and important events from today's date. Maybe you need a topic of conversation between family, friends or coworkers. Perhaps you need something to celebrate or remember. If anything, you can learn a thing or two, which is never a bad thing! Give me an upvote and/or follow to show you enjoyed this and I'll make sure to keep up with this.

What happened on May 9th?

First time a steam locomotive breaks 100 mph (160 km/h) in Europe (1904)

If you drive on the highway, these speeds certainly feel attainable, almost easy, but on this date in 1904, the speed of 100 mph (160 km/h) was reached in Europe by a steam locomotive.

The locomotive was named City of Truro (No. 3440). It was built in 1903 and its historic run that made it achieve this speed was made from Plymouth to London Paddington. It was timed at 8.8 seconds between two quarter-mile posts, which would indicate a true speed of 102.3 mph (164.6 km/h). However the stopwatch used could only record in fifths of a second, making the next time it could have recorded was 9 seconds. This, however, would give exactly 100 mph as stated. At this time, a car or aeroplane had not yet achieved this speed.

However, this wasn't the top speed of a train at the time, as a speed of 130 mph was achieved by a trial, but it was on an electric railway. But for a steam locomotive, it was ground breaking and impressive. Charles Rous-Marten, who recorded the time, said "the performance was certainly an epoch-making one."

Vietnam War Protests in the United States (1970)

The Vietnam War raged from 1955 to 1975 and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North was supported by the Soviet Union and China (among others) and the South was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and others. It's considered to be a Cold War-era proxy war. Many Americans believe the war was not justified.

Americans were against it for many reasons. Younger groups were against it while they were the ones being drafted. Many Americans still supported Kennedy, who was against occupying and being involved with Vietnam. The Geneva Conference of 1954 also came up, as that was help to end these types of disputes.

Nevertheless, the US got involved, and on this date in 1970, an esitmated 75,000 to 100,000 people gathered in front of the White House to protest the involvement in the war. Only a few days earlier, on May 4th, Kent State University saw a fatal shooting of four students during a protest by the Ohio National Guard. This certainly also helped ignite the protests.

Accra Sports Stadium Disaster (2001)

This tragedy occured during a match between Ghana's two most successful football (or Soccer, in US terms) teams, the Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club and the Asante Kotoko Sporting Club. Officials expected a brutal match and therefore had taken extra security measures.

At the end, angry fans ended up throwing plastic seats and bottles onto this pitch in dismay. As a result, the police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. This caused chaos and mass crowds to try to filter out of the bottlenecks. Medical staff were not present, as it was near the end of the match, and some gates were locked. The crowds were so dense that people could not breathe or escape.

In total, 117 people died from compressive asphyxiation from not being able to breathe by being crushed in the large crowds. Another 10 died from trauma. This was the worst stadium disaster ever in Africa. Six police officers were charged with 127 counts of manslaughter as a result of the event.

Thanks for reading!

Hopefully you learned a thing or two. See you tomorrow!