TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 15, the 136th day of 2020. There are 230 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

On this date in 1948, hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the Department of Agriculture.

In 1918, U.S. airmail began service between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, whose members came to be known as WACs. Wartime gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 Eastern states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for nonessential vehicles.

In 1954, the Fender Stratocaster guitar, created by Leo Fender, was officially released.

In 1968, two days of tornado outbreaks began in 10 Midwestern and Southern states; twisters were blamed for 72 deaths, including 45 in Arkansas and 18 in Iowa.

In 1972, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed

while campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, by Arthur H. Bremer, who served 35 years for attempted murder. In 2000, by a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a key provision of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, saying that rape victims could not sue their attackers in federal court.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actresssinger Anna Maria Alberghetti and counterculture icon Wavy Gravy are 84. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and singer Trini Lopez are 83. Actor Chazz Palminteri is 74. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and singer-songwriter Brian Eno are 72. Actor Nicholas Hammond (Film: “The Sound of Music”) is 70. Baseball Hallof-Famer George Brett and musiciancomposer Mike Oldfield are 67. Actor Lee Horsley is 65. Football Hall-ofFamer Emmitt Smith is 51. Actor Brad Rowe is 50. Actor Russell Hornsby and rock musician Ahmet Zappa are 46. Olympic gold medal gymnast Amy Chow and actor David Krumholtz are 42. Actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler is 39. Actress Alexandra Breckenridge and rock musician Brad Shultz (Cage the Elephant) are 38. Rock musician Nick Perri is 36.