This day in history

[May 27, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Wednesday, May 27, the 147th day of 2009. There are 218 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic. (Vehicular traffic began crossing the bridge the next day.)

On this date:

In 1818, American reformer Amelia Jenks Bloomer, who popularized the garment that bears her name -- "bloomers" -- was born in Homer, N.Y.

In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill.

In 1929, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. married Anne Morrow in Englewood, N.J.

In 1933, Walt Disney's Academy Award-winning animated short "The Three Little Pigs" was first released.

In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

In 1936, the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage to New York.

In 1941, amid rising world tensions, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency." The British navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France, with a loss of more than 2,100 lives.

In 1964, independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

In 1993, five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy.

Ten years ago: A U.N. tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity, holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo and brutal purge of ethnic Albanians. The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on a mission to carry supplies to the new international space station. In Milan, Italy, the latest restoration of "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, an effort that took 22 years, went on display during a VIP-only showing.

Five years ago: Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Muslim cleric, was arrested in London and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon. (He remains in British custody despite U.S. attempts to extradite him for trial.)

One year ago: Myanmar's military government renewed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for one year; the move came as officials said that international aid workers had finally begun entering Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta area after being blocked for more than three weeks by the junta.

Today's birthdays: Novelist Herman Wouk is 94. Actor Christopher Lee is 87. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 86. Author John Barth is 79. Actress Lee Meriwether is 74. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 74. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 73. R&B singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 70. Country singer Don Williams is 70. Actor Bruce Weitz is 66. Singer Cilla Black is 66. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is 65. Singer Bruce Cockburn is 64. Singer-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater is 59. Actor Richard Schiff is 54. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 52. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 51. Actress Peri Gilpin is 48. Actress Cathy Silvers is 48. Comedian Adam Carolla is 45. Actor Todd Bridges is 44. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 43. Actor Dondre Whitfield is 40. Actor Paul Bettany is 38. Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 38. Country singer Jace Everett is 37. Actor Jack McBrayer is 36. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 34. Rapper Jadakiss is 34. TV chef Jamie Oliver is 34. Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett is 28. Actor Ethan Dampf is 15.

Thought for today: "The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different." -- Aldous Huxley, English author (1894-1963)

[Associated Press]

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