TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 26, the 146th day of 2017. There are 219 days left in the year.

On this date in 1917, a tornado in central Illinois killed 101 people, mostly in the Mattoon-Charleston area.

In 1521, Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.

In 1868, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal on the remaining charges.

In 1897, the Gothic horror novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker was first published in London.

In 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee was established by Congress.

In 1940, Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of some 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II.

In 1942, the Tule Lake Segregation Center for Japanese-American wartime internees opened in northern California. The U.S. War Department formally established the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). Radio Tokyo boasted of recent victories in the Pacific War and declared that “the Japanese people can look forward to a triumphal march into London and a victory march in New York.”

In 1954, explosions rocked the aircraft carrier USS Bennington off Rhode Island, killing 103 sailors. (The initial blast was blamed on leaking catapult fluid ignited by the flames of a jet.)

In 1960, U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge accused the Soviets during a meeting of the Security Council of hiding a microphone inside a wood carving of the Great Seal of the United States that had been presented to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

In 1981, 14 people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida.

In 1991, a Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Sportscaster Brent Musberger is 78. Rock musician Garry Peterson (Guess Who) is 72. Singer Stevie Nicks is 69. Actress Pam Grier, actor Philip Michael Thomas, country singer Hank Williams Jr. and British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn are 68. Actress Margaret Colin is 59. Country singer-songwriter Dave Robbins is 58. Actor Doug Hutchison is 57. Actress Genie Francis and comedian Bobcat Goldthwait are 55. Singer-actor Lenny Kravitz is 53. Actress Helena Bonham Carter and distance runner Zola Budd are 51. Rock musician Phillip Rhodes is 49. Actor Joseph Fiennes is 47. Singer Joey Kibble (Take 6) and actor-producer-writer Matt Stone are 46. Contemporary Christian musician Nathan Cochran is 39.