TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 6, the 127th day of 2016. There are 239 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1891, electrician Irwin “Ike” H. Hoover began installing the first electrical wiring in the White House during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison. (Hoover ended up being offered a full-time job as White House electrician, which he accepted; he later became the White House chief usher.)
In 1935, the Works Progress Administration began operating under an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1937, the hydrogen-filled German airship Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground.
In 1941, Josef Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership, replacing Vyacheslav M. Molotov. Comedian Bob Hope did his first USO show before an audience of servicemen as he broadcast his radio program from March Field in Riverside, Calif.
In 1942, during World War II, about 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to Japanese forces.
In 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4.
In 1966, The Rolling Stones single “Paint It, Black” was released in the U.S. by London Records (some sources say May 7).
In 1981, Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin was named winner of a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
In 1994, former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against President Bill Clinton,
alleging he’d sexually harassed her in 1991. (Jones reached a settlement with Clinton in November 1998.) Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand formally opened the Channel Tunnel between their countries.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II, during a visit to Syria, became the first pope to enter a mosque as he called for brotherhood between Christians and Muslims. American businessman Dennis Tito ended the world’s first paid space vacation as he returned to Earth aboard a Russian capsule.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays is 85. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is 82. Rock singer Bob Seger and singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore are 71. Gospel singer-comedian Lulu Roman is 70. Actors Alan Dale and Ben Masters are 69. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is 63. TV personality Tom Bergeron is 61. Actress Roma Downey, rock singer John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants) and actress Julianne Phillips are 56. Actor-director George Clooney and actor Clay O’Brien are 55. Rock singer-musician Tony Scalzo (Fastball) is 52. Actress Leslie Hope is 51. Rock musician Mark Bryan (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 49. Rock musician Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) is 45. Actresses Adrianne Palicki and Gabourey Sidibe are 33. Actress-comedian Sasheer Zamata is 30.