Today In History

Today is Friday, May 5, the 125th day of 2017. There are 240 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1862: Mexican troops defeated French occupying forces in the Battle of Puebla.

ON THIS DATE

› 1494: During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.

› 1892: Congress passed the Geary Act, which required Chinese in the United States to carry a certificate of residence at all times, or face deportation.

› 1927: “To the Lighthouse,” Virginia Woolf’s fifth novel, was published in London.

› 1942: Wartime sugar rationing began in the United States.

› 1945: In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children. Denmark and the Netherlands were liberated as a German surrender went into effect.

› 1955: West Germany became a fully sovereign state. The baseball musical “Damn Yankees” opened on Broadway.

› 1961: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Mercury capsule Freedom 7.

› 1973: Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actress Pat Carroll is 90. Former AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney is 83. Saxophonist Ace Cannon is 83. Country singer-musician Roni Stoneman is 79. Actor Michael Murphy is 79. Actor Lance Henriksen is

77. Actor John Rhys-Davies is 73. Rock correspondent Kurt Loder is

72. Rock musician Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) is 69. Former broadcast journalist John Miller is 59. Rock singer Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 58. NBC newsman Brian Williams is 58. Rock musician Shawn Drover (Megadeth) is 51. TV personality Kyan Douglas is

47. Actress Tina Yothers is 44. Rhythm and blues singer Raheem DeVaughn is 42. Actor Vincent Kartheiser is 38. Singer Craig David is 36. Actress Danielle Fishel is 36. Actor Henry Cavill is 34. Soul singer Adele is 29. Rock singer Skye Sweetnam is 29. Rhythm and blues singer Chris Brown is 28.