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Sunday, May 17, 2009

This day in history

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[May 17, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, May 16, the 136th day of 2009. There are 229 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won "best production," while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress.

On this date:

In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

In 1866, Congress authorized minting of the first 5-cent piece, also known as the "Shield nickel."

In 1868, the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on the 11 articles of impeachment against him.

In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.

In 1939, the government began its first food stamp program in Rochester, N.Y.

In 1948, CBS News correspondent George Polk, who'd been covering the Greek civil war between Communist and nationalist forces, was found slain in Solonica Harbor.

In 1960, a Big Four summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the U.S. in the wake of the U-2 incident.

In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

In 1984, comedian Andy Kaufman died in Los Angeles at age 35.

In 1989, during his visit to Beijing, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, formally ending a 30-year rift between the two Communist powers.

Ten years ago: The Justice Department said preliminary figures from the FBI indicated a decline in serious crime in 1998 for the seventh consecutive year.

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Five years ago: The United States announced a new initiative to speed up the approval process for new combination AIDS drugs that was designed to bring cheap, easy-to-use treatment to millions of people in Africa and the Caribbean. Pope John Paul II named six new saints, including Gianna Beretta Molla, revered by abortion foes because she'd refused to end her pregnancy despite warnings it could kill her. (Beretta Molla, an Italian pediatrician, died in 1962 at age 39, a week after giving birth to her fourth child.)

One year ago: President George W. Bush visited Saudi Arabia, where he failed to win help from Saudi leaders to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices. Osama bin Laden said in an audio statement that al-Qaida would continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until the liberation of Palestine. U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Tyrone L. Hadnott, accused of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl in Okinawa, Japan, was found guilty of abusive sexual conduct by a U.S. military court and sentenced to four years in prison. Robert Mondavi, the patriarch of California wine country, died in Yountville at age 94.

Today's Birthdays: Actor George Gaynes is 92. Actor Harry Carey Jr. is 88. Jazz musician Billy Cobham is 65. Actor Bill Smitrovich is 62. Actor Pierce Brosnan is 56. Actress Debra Winger is 54. Soviet-born gymnast Olga Korbut is 54. Actress Mare Winningham is 50. Rock musician Boyd Tinsley (The Dave Matthews Band) is 45. Rock musician Krist Novoselic is 44. Singer Janet Jackson is 43. Country singer Scott Reeves (Blue County) is 43. Actor Brian F. O'Byrne is 42. R&B singer Ralph Tresvant (New Edition) is 41. Actor David Boreanaz is 40. Political correspondent Tucker Carlson is 40. Actress Tracey Gold is 40. Retired tennis star Gabriela Sabatini is 39. Country singer Rick Trevino is 38. Musician Simon Katz is 38. Actress Tori Spelling is 36. Actress Melanie Lynskey is 32. Actress Megan Fox is 23. Actor Marc John Jefferies is 19. Actor Miles Heizer is 15.

Thought for Today: "The best actors do not let the wheels show." - Henry Fonda, American actor (born this day 1905, died 1982).

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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