HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Friday, May 19, the 139th day of 2017. There are 226 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1950 – Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to
Israeli ships and commerce. 1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail. 1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first manmade object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data). 1961 – At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement. 1962 – A birthday salute to US President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of “Happy Birthday”. 1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. 1971 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet
Union. 1984 – Michael Larson, a contestant on the television game show Press Your Luck exploits a bug in the prize board, and wins over US$110,000. 1991 – Croatians vote for independence in a referendum. 1997 – The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts. 2007 – President of Romania Traian Basescu survives an impeachment referendum and returns to office from suspension. 2010 – The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders. 2012 – Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in the Italian city of Brindisi, killing 1 and injuring 5 others. 2012 – A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the
Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing 9 people. 2015 – The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast.