This day in history

[May 27, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, May 27, the 147th day of 2010. 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 1860, forces led by Giuseppe Garibaldi took Palermo, Sicily.

In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., 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: Freight cars loaded with hazardous chemicals crashed and exploded in Eunice, La. forcing the evacuation of thousands.

Five years ago: Speaking out for the first time in favor of controversial base closings, President George W. Bush told the Naval Academy commencement the nation was wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary military facilities and needed the money for the war on terrorism. Testimony ended in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial after prosecutors showed jurors a video of the accuser being interviewed by police and the defense rested. (Jackson was later acquitted.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama announced more spending for renewable energy after touring a large field of solar panels at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas. Gunmen detonated a car bomb in Lahore, Pakistan, killing about 30 people and wounding at least 250.

Today's birthdays: Dolores Hope (widow of Bob Hope) is 101. Novelist Herman Wouk (wohk) is 95. Actor Christopher Lee is 88. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 87. Author John Barth is 80. Actress Lee Meriwether is 75. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 75. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 74. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 71. Country singer Don Williams is 71. Actor Bruce Weitz is 67. Singer Cilla Black is 67. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is 66. Singer Bruce Cockburn (KOH'-burn) is 65. Singer-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater is 60. Actor Richard Schiff is 55. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 53. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 52. Actress Peri Gilpin is 49. Actress Cathy Silvers is 49. Comedian Adam Carolla is 46. Actor Todd Bridges is 45. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 44. Actor Dondre Whitfield is 41. Actor Paul Bettany is 39. Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 39. Country singer Jace Everett is 38. Actor Jack McBrayer is 37. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 35. Rapper Jadakiss is 35. TV chef Jamie Oliver is 35. Alt-country singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson is 34. Actor-singer Chris Colfer (TV: "Glee") is 20. Actor Ethan Dampf is 16.

Thought for today: "Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -- Will Durant, American historian (1885-1981)

[Associated Press]

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