TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, May 2, the 122nd day of 2017. There are 243 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On May 2, 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, upheld 8-1 a Virginia law allowing the forced sterilization of people to promote the “health of the patient and the welfare of society.” (On this date in 2002, Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner apologized for the state’s thousands of forced sterilizations from 1924 to 1979, calling the practice “a shameful effort.”)

On this date

1863 — John Wisdom of Gadsden, Ala., arrived in Rome on a borrowed, lame pony to warn that the Yankees were only 25 miles away and headed to Rome. 1863 — During the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Virginia; he died eight days later. 1890 — The Oklahoma Territory was organized. 1908 — The original version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” with music by Albert Von Tilzer and lyrics by Jack Norworth, was published by Von Tilzer’s York Music Co. 1936 — “Peter and the Wolf,” a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow. 1946 — Violence erupted during a foiled escape attempt at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay; the “Battle of Alcatraz” claimed the lives of three inmates and two correctional officers before it was put down two days later. 1952 — Commercial jet service began as a BOAC de Havilland Comet carrying 36 passengers and seven crew members took off from London on a flight to Johannesburg with five stopovers along the way. 1957 — Crime boss Frank Costello narrowly survived an attempt on his life in New York; the alleged gunman, Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, was acquitted at trial after Costello refused to identify him as the shooter. 1965 — Intelsat 1, also known as the Early Bird satellite, was first used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic. 1997 — A new national memorial honoring President Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in Washington, D.C. 2011 — Osama bin Laden was killed by elite American forces at his Pakistan compound, then quickly buried at sea after a decade on the run. Because of the time difference, bin Laden’s death came May 1, U.S. time.

One year ago

The first U.S. cruise ship in nearly 40 years pulled into Havana Harbor, restarting commercial travel on waters that had served as a stage for a half-century of Cold War hostility.