TODAY IN HISTORY

On May 27, 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a key component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislative program.

Also on this date

In 1937, the new Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California, was opened to pedestrian traffic. (Vehicles began crossing the next day.) In 1942, Doris “Dorie” Miller, a cook aboard the USS West Virginia, became the first Black person to receive the Navy Cross for displaying “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. O’Brien, upheld the conviction of David O’Brien for destroying his draft card outside a Boston courthouse, ruling that the act was not protected by freedom of speech. In 1998, Michael Fortier, the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot. (Fortier was freed in January 2006.) In 2020, protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody rocked Minneapolis for a second night, with some people looting stores and setting fires. Protests spread to additional cities. In 2020, the U.S. surged past a milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, with the confirmed death toll topping 100,000. Ten years ago: Syria strongly denied allegations that its forces had killed scores of people – including women and children – in Houla, but the U.N. Security Council condemned government forces for shelling residential areas. Five years ago: British Airways canceled all flights from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports as a global IT failure upended the travel plans of tens of thousands of people on a busy U.K. holiday weekend. One year ago: Former House Speaker and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, urged fellow conservatives to reject the divisive politics of former President Donald Trump as well as those Republican leaders who emulated him.

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE/U.S. NAVY Doris “Dorie” Miller was the first Black person to receive the Navy Cross, for heroism during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He received the medal on May 27, 1942.