This day in history

[May 07, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Friday, May 7, the 127th day of 2010. There are 238 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims (rams), France, ending its role in World War II.

On this date:

In 1789, the first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President George Washington and his wife, Martha.

In 1833, composer Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany.

In 1840, composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, Russia.

In 1915, nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

In 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the pilot of an American U-2 plane shot down over Sverdlovsk had been captured alive along with proof the aircraft had been on a spying mission. Leonid Brezhnev replaced Marshal Kliment Voroshilov as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

In 1963, the United States launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era." In Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon -- the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories. (On this date in 2002, Seattle Slew died.)

In 1984, a $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they'd suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.

Ten years ago: A second fire was set to contain an earlier blaze that was begun to clear brush on the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico; the second fire blew out of control, destroying more than 200 homes and damaging part of the Los Alamos National Laboratory before it was controlled. President Vladimir Putin took the oath of office in Russia's first democratic transfer of power. Actor-producer-author Douglas Fairbanks Jr. died in New York at age 90.

Five years ago: During a visit to Riga, Latvia, President George W. Bush said the United States had played a role in Europe's painful division after World War II -- a decision that Bush said helped cause "one of the greatest wrongs of history" when the Soviet Union imposed its harsh rule across Central and Eastern Europe. Giacomo, a 50-1 long shot, won the Kentucky Derby. Former congressman Peter W. Rodino Jr., who'd led the House impeachment investigation of President Richard Nixon, died in West Orange, N.J. at age 95.

One year ago: A federal jury in Paducah, Ky. convicted a former soldier, Steven Dale Green, of raping and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl after killing her parents and younger sister while he was serving in Iraq. (Green was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.) Former Illinois police Sgt. Drew Peterson was indicted for murder in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Mickey Carroll, one of the last surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," died in Crestwood, Mo. at age 89.

Today's birthdays: Former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is 78. Singer Jimmy Ruffin is 71. Actress Robin Strasser is 65. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer Thelma Houston is 64. Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (The Dead) is 64. Rock musician Prairie Prince is 60. Actor Robert Hegyes is 59. Movie writer-director Amy Heckerling is 56. Actor Michael E. Knight is 51. Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 49. Country musician Rick Schell is 47. Rock singer-musician Chris O'Connor (Primitive Radio Gods) is 45. Actress Traci Lords is 41. Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry is 39. Actor Breckin Meyer is 36. Rock musician Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys) is 24. Actor Taylor Abrahamse is 19.

Thought for today: "When an old man dies, a library burns down." -- African proverb

[Associated Press]

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