This Day in History

On May 11, 1502, Chris- topher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemi- sphere.

On this date:

In 1935, the Rural Electrifi- cation Administration was cre- ated as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

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 1947, the B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announced the development of a tubeless tire.

In 1950, President Harry S. Truman formally dedicated the Grand Coulee Dam in Wash- ington state.

In 1953, a tornado devastat- ed Waco, Texas, claiming 114 lives.

In 1960, Israeli agents cap- tured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 1973, the espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and An- thony Russo in the “Pentagon Papers” case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dis- missed all charges, citing gov- ernment misconduct.

In 1981, legendary reggae artist Bob Marley died in a Mi- ami hospital at age 36.

In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire short- ly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.

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.

Ten years ago: Conserva- tive leader David Cameron, at age 43, became Britain’s youngest prime minister in al- most 200 years after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour govern- ment.

Five years ago: Joyce Hardin Garrard, the Alabama woman convicted of running her 9-year-old granddaughter, Savannah Hardin, to death as punishment for lying about can- dy, was sentenced by a judge in Gadsden to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The NFL came down hard on its biggest star and its champi- onship team, suspending Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady for the first four games of the season, fining the New England Patri- ots $1 million and taking away two draft picks as punishment for deflating footballs used in the AFC title game.