HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Monday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2017. There are 223 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1947 – Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, the US President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement. 1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils. 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs

explode on board. 1963 – Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis, is shot

and dies five days later. 1967 – Egyptian president Nassar closes Straits of Tiran to

Israel. 1969 – Apollo 10’s lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles

(16 km) of the moon’s surface. 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations. 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the

Republic of Yemen. 2002 – American civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. 2003 – In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the

first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years. 2010 – An Air India Express Boeing 737 goes over a cliff and crashes upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. It is the worst crash involving a Boeing 737. 2012 – Tokyo Skytree is opened to public. It is the tallest tower in world (634 m), and the second tallest manmade structure on Earth, after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m). 2014 – General Prayut Chan-o-cha of the Royal Thai Armed Forces announces a military coup d’état, following six months of political turmoil. 2014 – An explosion occurs in the city of Ürümqi, the capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries. 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the

world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.