Happy Birthday May 5

Karl Marx was born into a progressive middle class Jewish family on May 5, 1818 at Bruckenstrausse 10, Trier, Prussia, (now Germany). The Marx household hosted many visiting intellectuals and artists during Karl's early life. 

In 1830 Karl Marx started attending Trier High School. His senior thesis, which anticipated his later development of a social analysis of religion, was a treatise entitled Religion: The Glue That Binds Society Together, for which he won a prize.

Marx's birthplace in Trier. By Berthold Werner, Wikipedia Commons

John Batterson Stetson was born into a family of New Jersey hatters on May 5, 1830, the 8th of 12 children. Stetson was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he left New Jersey to explore the American West. In 1865 he designed The Boss of the Plains, a lightweight all-weather hat for the demands of the American West. Stetson's cowboy hat was later renamed "Stetson" after the maker. The Stetson soon became the most well-known headgear in the West.

The singer Adele was born on May 5, 1988 in Tottenham, London. Her first public singing performance was in a school presentation where she sang "Rise" by Gabrielle. When she got her first record deal, Adele made just one change to her smoking habit: she moved from roll-up cigarettes to Marlboro Lights. One of the executive producers told Adele to lose weight. But she replied: "I write music for ears; not eyes.

For more May 5 anniversaries, including Christopher Columbus landing in Jamaica, the death of Napoleon and Ben and Jerry opening their first ice cream parlor, check out OnThatDay.