 Today's highlight in history:
On May 15, 1972, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left
paralyzed by Arthur H. Bremer while campaigning in Laurel, Md., for
the Democratic presidential nomination. (Wallace died in 1998;
Bremer was released from prison in November 2007 after serving 35
years of a 53-year sentence for attempted murder.)
On this date:
In 1602, English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold and his ship, the
Concord, arrived at present-day Cape Cod, which he's credited with
naming.
In 1776, Virginia endorsed American independence from Britain.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the
Department of Agriculture. Austrian author and playwright Arthur
Schnitzler was born in Vienna.
In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil Co. was a
monopoly in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and ordered its
breakup.
In 1930, registered nurse Ellen Church, the first airline
stewardess, went on duty aboard an Oakland-to-Chicago flight
operated by Boeing Air Transport (a forerunner of United Airlines).
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating
the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, whose members came to be known as
WACs. Wartime gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 Eastern
states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential
vehicles.
In 1963, astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith 7 on
the final mission of the Project Mercury space program.
In 1970, just after midnight, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl
Green, two black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi,
were killed as police opened fire during student protests.
In 1972, the United States returned the prefecture of Okinawa to
Japanese administration.
In 1975, U.S. forces invaded the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and
recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. (All 40 crew members
had already been released safely by Cambodia; some 40 U.S.
servicemen were killed in the operation.)
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan told a gathering of out-of-town
reporters at the White House he did not consider himself "mortally
wounded" by the Iran-Contra affair. (The president got to relive his
radio-announcer days when he complied with a reporter's request to
read aloud a promo for Nashville station WSM.)
In 1991, Edith Cresson was appointed by French President Francois
Mitterrand (frahn-SWAH' mee-teh-RAHN') to be France's first female
prime minister.
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Ten years ago: The White House acknowledged that in the weeks
before the Sept. 11 attacks, President George W. Bush was told by
U.S. intelligence that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might
hijack American airplanes, but that officials did not know suicide
hijackers were plotting to use planes as missiles. Financier Martin
Frankel pleaded guilty in New Haven, Conn., to 24 counts of
securities fraud and racketeering, admitting that he'd looted
insurance companies of more than $200 million. (Frankel was later
sentenced to nearly 17 years in federal prison.)
Five years ago: The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who'd built the
Christian right into a political force, died in Lynchburg, Va., at
age 73. Yolanda King, the firstborn child of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died in Santa Monica, Calif., at
age 51. President George W. Bush chose Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute to
oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war czar. Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern became the first Irish leader to address the
joint houses of the British Parliament. Kenny Chesney collected his
third consecutive entertainer of the year trophy from the Academy of
Country Music.
One year ago: Thousands of Arab protesters marched on
Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza in an unprecedented
wave of demonstrations, sparking clashes that left at least 15 dead.
Finland scored five late goals to beat Sweden 6-1 and claim its
second title at the ice hockey world championship played in
Bratislava, Slovakia.
Today's birthdays: Playwright Sir Peter Shaffer is 86.
Actress-singer Anna Maria Alberghetti is 76. Counterculture icon
Wavy Gravy is 76. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is
75. Singer Trini Lopez is 75. Singer Lenny Welch is 74.
Actress-singer Lainie Kazan is 72. Actress Gunilla Hutton is 70.
Country singer K.T. Oslin is 70. Singer-songwriter Brian Eno is 64.
Actor Nicholas Hammond ("The Sound of Music") is 62. Actor Chazz
Palminteri is 60. Baseball Hall-of-Famer George Brett is 59.
Musician-composer Mike Oldfield ("Tubular Bells") is 59. Actor Lee
Horsley is 57. TV personality Giselle Fernandez is 51. Football
Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith is 43. Singer-rapper Prince Be (PM Dawn)
is 42. Actor Brad Rowe is 42. Actor David Charvet (shahr-VAY') is
40. Actor Russell Hornsby is 38. Rock musician Ahmet Zappa is 38.
Olympic gold-medal gymnast Amy Chow is 34. Actor David Krumholtz is
34. Actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler is 31. Rock musician Brad Shultz (Cage
the Elephant) is 30. Rock musician Nick Perri is 28.
Thought for today: "Martyrdom has always been a proof of the
intensity, never of the correctness of a belief." -- Arthur Schnitzler
(1862-1931)
[Associated Press]
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