TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, May 8, the 128th day of 2018. There are 237 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On May 8, 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to murder, attempted murder and assault in connection with the “Son of Sam” shootings that claimed six lives and terrified New Yorkers. (Berkowitz was sentenced to six consecutive life prison terms.)
On this date
1429 — The Siege of Orleans during the Hundred Years’ War ended as English troops withdrew after being defeated by French forces under Joan of Arc. 1541 — Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. 1660 — The British Parliament moved to restore the monarchy by declaring that Charles II had been the country’s lawful king since the execution of his father, Charles I, in 1649. 1794 — Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed on the guillotine during France’s Reign of Terror. 1884 — The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, was born in Lamar, Missouri. 1919 — Adm. John Henry Towers, a Rome native, commanded the historic flight of three Navy NC-flying boats from Rockaway Beach, New York, across the Atlantic Ocean. One of the planes made it to Plymouth England, on May 31, 1919. The actual flight time was 52 hours, 31 minutes, for a distance of 3,936 nautical miles. (During the journey, Towers’ float boat NC-3 went down and was lost at sea for five days. He sailed the seaplane 200 miles to the Azores before continuing his journey.) 1921 — Sweden’s Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty. 1945 — President Harry S. Truman announced on radio that Nazi Germany’s forces had surrendered, and that “the flags of freedom fly all over Europe.” 1973 — Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for ten weeks surrendered. 1984 — The Soviet Union announced it would boycott the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. 1996 — South Africa took another step from apartheid to democracy by adopting a constitution that guaranteed equal rights for blacks and whites. 2017 — Dustin Earl Cotton, who escaped from the Floyd County Courthouse, was successfully recaptured by local and state police that same night while attempting to flee along the banks of the Etowah River.
One year ago
A suspect was arrested in a string of serial killings that terrified a Phoenix neighborhood, a huge break in a case that involved nine deaths and a dozen separate shootings; Aaron Juan Saucedo, 23, faces 26 felony counts of homicide, aggravated assault and drive-by-shooting.
Today’s Birthdays
Naturalist Sir David Attenborough is 92. Singer Toni Tennille is 78. Actor James Mitchum is 77. Country singer Jack Blanchard is 76. Jazz musician Keith Jarrett is 73. Country musician Del Gray is 50. Rock singer Darren Hayes is 46. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 43. Actor Matt Davis is 40. Actor Elyes Gabel is 35. Actor Domhnall Gleeson is 35. Neo-soul drummer Patrick Meese (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats) is 35. Actress Julia Whelan is 34. Actress Nora Anezeder is 29. Rome High School rising junior Elijah Johnson, son of Kimberly Mostella of Rome, is 16.