TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 9,

the 129th day of 2018. There are 236 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

On this date in 1958, “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock’s eerie thriller starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, premiered in San Francisco, the movie’s setting.

In 1754,

a political cartoon in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette depicted a snake cut into eight pieces, each section representing a part of the American colonies; the caption read, “JOIN, or DIE.”

In 1814,

the Jane Austen novel “Mansfield Park” was first published in London.

In 1914,

President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

In 1918,

CBS newsman Mike Wallace was born Myron Leon Wallace in Brookline, Mass.

In 1936,

Italy annexed Ethiopia.

In 1945,

with World War II in Europe at an end, Soviet forces liberated Czechoslovakia from Nazi occupation. U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.

In 1961,

in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton N. Minow decried the majority of television programming as a “vast wasteland.”

In 1978,

the bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who had been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome.

In 1980,

35 people were killed when a freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section of the southbound span to collapse.

In 1994,

South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.

In 2012,

President Barack Obama declared his unequivocal support for same-sex marriage in a historic announcement that came three days after Vice President Joe Biden spoke in favor of such unions on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Actor-writer Alan Bennett is 84. Actor Albert Finney and actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson are 82. Producer-director James L. Brooks and musician Sonny Curtis (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) are 81. Singer Tommy Roe is 76. Singer-musician Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco) is 74. Actress Candice Bergen and pop singer Clint Holmes are 72. Actor Anthony Higgins is 71. Singer Billy Joel and blues singer-musician Bob Margolin are 69. Rock singer-musician Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick) is 68. Actress Alley Mills is 67. Actress Amy Hill is 65. Actress Wendy Crewson is 62. Actor John Corbett is 57. Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) is 56. Actress Sonja Sohn is 54. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is 50. Rapper Ghostface Killah is 48. Country musician Mike Myerson (Heartland) is 47. Actor Chris Diamantopoulos and rhythm-and-blues singer Tamia are 43. Rock musician Dan Regan (Reel Big Fish) is 41. Actor Daniel Franzese is 40. Rock singer Pierre Bouvier (Simple Plan), actress Rosario Dawson and rock singer Andrew W.K. are 39. Figure skater Angela Nikodinov is 38. Actress Rachel Boston is 36. TV personality Audrina Patridge is 33. Actress Grace Gummer is 32.