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 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 1946, the Irving Berlin musical "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley, opened on Broadway.
In 1948, the body of CBS News correspondent George Polk was found in Solonica Harbor in Greece, several days after he had left his hotel for an interview with the leader of a Communist militia.
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 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that police can search discarded garbage without a search warrant.
In 1988, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report declaring nicotine was addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine.
Ten years ago: Real Quiet added a victory in the Preakness to his win in the Kentucky Derby. (However, Real Quiet later failed to capture the Triple Crown, losing the Belmont Stakes to Victory Gallop by a nose.)
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Five years ago: President Bush launched his re-election campaign. The Senate committed $15 billion to fight global AIDS. In Casablanca, Morocco, five simultaneous suicide attacks claimed the lives of 33 victims, in addition to a dozen suicide bombers.
One year ago: Anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war. Britain's army reversed course and announced that Prince Harry would not be sent to Iraq with his regiment due to "specific threats" from insurgents. (The prince did end up serving in Afghanistan for 10 weeks, until word of his deployment got out.) British Prime Minister Tony Blair paid a farewell visit to President Bush at the White House. Nicolas Sarkozy took over from Jacques Chirac as France's president.
Today's birthdays: Author Studs Terkel is 96. Actor George Gaynes is 91. Actor Harry Carey Jr. is 87. Jazz musician Billy Cobham is 64. Actor Bill Smitrovich is 61. Actor Pierce Brosnan is 55. Actress Debra Winger is 53. Soviet-born gymnast Olga Korbut is 53. Actress Mare Winningham is 49. Rock musician Boyd Tinsley (The Dave Matthews Band) is 44. Rock musician Krist Novoselic is 43. Singer Janet Jackson is 42. Country singer Scott Reeves (Blue County) is 42. Actor Brian F. O'Byrne is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ralph Tresvant (New Edition) is 40. Actor David Boreanaz is 39. Political correspondent Tucker Carlson is 39. Actress Tracey Gold is 39. Tennis player Gabriela Sabatini is 38. Country singer Rick Trevino is 37. Musician Simon Katz is 37. Actress Tori Spelling is 35. Actress Melanie Lynskey is 31. Actress Megan Fox is 22. Actor Marc John Jefferies is 18.
Thought for today: "Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them."
-- Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher-mathematician (1861-1947)
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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