This Day in History

On May 26, 1981, 14 peo- ple were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida.

On this date:

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the Montana Territory.

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

In 1938, the House Un-American Activities Com- mittee was established by Con- gress.

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

In 1971, Don McLean re- corded his song “American Pie” at The Record Plant in New York City (it was released the following November by United Artists Records).

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in Moscow. (The U.S. withdrew from the treaty in 2002.)

In 1978, Resorts Casino Hotel, the first legal U.S. casi- no outside Nevada, opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In 1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Re- public. (The marriage, howev- er, ended in 1996.)

In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court made it far more difficult for police to be sued by people hurt during high-speed chas- es. The Supreme Court also ruled that Ellis Island, historic gateway for millions of immi- grants, was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.

In 2004, nearly a decade af- ter the Oklahoma City bomb- ing, Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the attack. (Nichols later re- ceived 161 consecutive life sentences.)

In 2005, President George W. Bush received Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the White House; Bush called Abbas a courageous democrat- ic reformer and bolstered his standing at home with $50 mil- lion in assistance.

In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated federal ap- peals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. California’s Supreme Court upheld the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban but said the 18,000 same-sex weddings that had taken place before the prohibition passed were still valid.