TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, MAY 11, the 131st day of 2021. There are 234 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration was created as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.
In 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later.
In 1946, the first CARE packages, sent by a consortium of American charities to provide relief to the hungry of postwar Europe, arrived at Le Havre, France.
In 1947, the B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announced the development of a tubeless tire.
In 1953, a tornado devastated Waco, Texas, claiming 114 lives.
In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1973, the espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the “Pentagon Papers” case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dismissed all charges, citing government misconduct.
In 1981, legendary reggae artist Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital at age 36.
In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
In 1997, IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer demolished an overwhelmed Garry Kasparov, winning the six-game chess re-match between man and machine in New York.
In 1998, India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. A French mint produced the first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Comedian Mort Sahl is 94. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is 88. Jazz keyboardist Carla Bley is 85. Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 80. Actor Boyd Gaines is 68. Actor Martha Quinn is 62. Actor Tim Blake Nelson is 57. Actor Jeffrey Donovan is 53. Actor Nicky Katt is 51. Actor Coby Bell is 46. Cellist Perttu Kivilaakso is 43. Actor Austin O’Brien is 40. Actor-singer Jonathan Jackson is 39. Rapper Ace Hood is 33. Latin singer Prince Royce is 32. Actor Annabelle Attanasio (TV: “Bull”) is 28. Musician Howard Lawrence (Disclosure) is 27.