TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, MAY 2,

the 122nd day of 2017. There are 243 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

On this date in 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, upheld 8-1 a Virginia law allowing the forced sterilization of people to promote the “health of the patient and the welfare of society.” (On this date in 2002, Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner apologized for the thousands of forced sterilizations from 1924 to 1979, calling the practice “a shameful effort.”)

In 1863,

during the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later.

In 1946,

violence erupted during an escape attempt at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay; the “Battle of Alcatraz” claimed the lives of three inmates and two correctional officers before it was put down two days later.

In 1952,

commercial jet service began as a BOAC de Havilland Comet carrying 36 passengers and seven crew members took off from London on a flight to Johannesburg with five stopovers along the way.

In 1957,

crime boss Frank Costello narrowly survived an attempt on his life in New York; the alleged gunman, Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, was acquitted at trial after Costello refused

to identify him as the shooter. In 1965,

Intelsat 1, also known as the Early Bird satellite, was first used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.

In 1997,

a national memorial honoring President Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in Washington, D.C.

In 2011,

Osama bin Laden was killed by elite American forces at his compound in Pakistan, then quickly buried at sea after a decade on the run. Because of the time difference, bin Laden’s death came May 1, U.S. time.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Singer Engelbert Humperdinck is 81. Actress-activist Bianca Jagger is 72. Actor David Suchet is 71. Rock singer Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is 67. Fashion designer Donatella Versace is 62. Rock musician Todd Sucherman (Styx) is 48.