TODAY IN HISTORY

On May 12, 1949, after 11 months, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers foiled with the Berlin Airlift.

Also on this date

In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped 20month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey.

In 1933, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration were established to provide help for the needy and farmers.

In 1943, during World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

In 1958, the United States and Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD).

In 1975, the White House announced the Cambodian government had seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. (U.S. Marines gained control of the ship three days after its seizure, not knowing the 39 civilian members of the crew had been released by Cambodia.)

In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope’s private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)

In 2008, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

In 2009, suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk was deported from the United States to Germany. (On this date in 2011, Demjanjuk was convicted by a German court of being an accessory to the murder of tens of thousands of Jews; he died in 2012 at age 91.)

In 2011, CEOs of the five largest oil companies went before the Senate Finance Committee, where Democrats challenged the executives to justify tax breaks when people were paying $4 a gallon for gas.

Ten years ago: Miami’s LeBron James became the eighth player in NBA history to receive the MVP award three times.

Five years ago: Dozens of countries were hit with a cyberextortion attack that locked up computers and held users’ files for ransom at hospitals and government agencies.

One year ago: Republicans dumped Rep. Liz Cheney from her House leadership post for her repudiation of Donald Trump’s election falsehoods.

NEWSPICTURES ACME Berlin workers unload flour from a freight car that arrived from Germany’s Western Zone, after the Berlin Blockade by Soviet forces ended on May 12, 1949.