 Today's highlight in history:
On May 12, 1937, Britain's King George VI was crowned at Westminster
Abbey; his wife, Elizabeth, was crowned as queen consort.
On this date:
In 1012, Pope Sergius IV died, ending a nearly three-year papacy; he
was succeeded by Pope Benedict VIII.
In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of
Charleston, S.C., surrendered to British forces.
In 1812, English poet Edward Lear, known for nonsensical verse like
"The Owl and the Pussycat," was born.
In 1902, anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike. (The
strike effectively ended in October 1902 with the appointment of an
Anthracite Coal Strike Commission by President Theodore Roosevelt.)
In 1922, a 20-ton meteor crashed near Blackstone, Va.
In 1930, Chicago's Adler Planetarium first opened to the public.
In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of
Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near
Hopewell, N.J.
In 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the
Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin
Airlift.
In 1958, the United States and Canada signed an agreement to create
the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American
Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD for short).
In 1970, the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun
as a Supreme Court justice.
In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish
priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In
2008, the pope's longtime private secretary revealed that the
pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)
In 1992, actor Robert Reed of TV's "The Brady Bunch" died in
Pasadena, Calif., at age 59.
Ten years ago: Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba, becoming the
first U.S. president -- in or out of office -- to visit since the 1959
revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.
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Five years ago: Virginia Tech held its first commencement
ceremonies since the April 16 shooting rampage that claimed 32
victims and the shooter. Voters in the Dallas suburb of Farmers
Branch became the first in the nation to back an ordinance
prohibiting landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants.
(Court challenges have kept the law from taking effect.) A U.S.
patrol was attacked south of Baghdad; four Americans and an Iraqi
interpreter were killed, three soldiers were kidnapped and later
found dead. A U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO troops
killed the Taliban's most prominent military commander, Mullah
Dadullah.
One year ago: CEOs of the five largest oil companies went
before the Senate Finance Committee, where Democrats challenged the
executives to justify tax breaks at a time when people were paying
$4 a gallon for gas. A German court convicted retired U.S.
autoworker John Demjanjuk (dem-YAHN'-yuk) of being an accessory to
the murder of tens of thousands of Jews as a Nazi death camp guard.
(Demjanjuk, who maintained his innocence, died in March 2012 at age
91.)
Today's birthdays: Baseball Hall-of-Famer Yogi Berra is 87.
Critic John Simon is 87. Composer Burt Bacharach is 84. Actress
Millie Perkins is 74. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jayotis Washington is
71. Country singer Billy Swan is 70. Actress Linda Dano is 69.
Musician Ian McLagan is 67. Actress Lindsay Crouse is 64.
Singer-musician Steve Winwood is 64. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 62.
Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 62. Singer Billy Squier is 62. Country
singer Kix Brooks is 57. Actress Kim Greist is 54. Rock musician
Eric Singer (KISS) is 54. Actor Ving Rhames is 53. Rock musician
Billy Duffy is 51. Actor Emilio Estevez is 50. Actress April Grace
is 50. Actress Vanessa A. Williams ("Melrose Place") is 49. Country
musician Eddie Kilgallon is 47. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 46. Actor
Scott Schwartz is 44. Actress Kim Fields is 43. Actress Samantha
Mathis is 42. Actress Jamie Luner is 41. Actor Christian Campbell is
40. Actress Rhea Seehorn is 40. Actor Mackenzie Astin is 39. Actress
Malin (MAH'-lin) Akerman is 34. Actor Jason Biggs is 34. Actress
Emily VanCamp is 26. Actor Malcolm David Kelley is 20. Actors
Sullivan and Sawyer Sweeten ("Everybody Loves Raymond") are 17.
Thought for today: "Mistrust the man who finds everything
good; the man who finds everything evil; and still more the man who
is indifferent to everything." -- Johann Kaspar Lavater, Swiss
theologian (1741-1801)
[Associated Press]
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