Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On May 28, 1912, the Senate Commerce Committee issued its report on the Titanic disaster that cited a “state of absolute unpreparedness,” improperly tested safety equipment and an “indifference to danger” as some of the causes of an “unnecessary tragedy.”
On this date:
1533: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of England’s King Henry VIII to
Anne Boleyn valid.
1863: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, made up of freed blacks, left Boston to fight for the Union in the Civil
War. 1908: British author Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond as well as “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” was born in London.
1918: American troops fought their first major battle during World War
I as they launched an offensive against the German-held French village of Cantigny; the Americans succeeded in capturing the village.
1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular traffic could begin crossing the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain. In Nazi Germany, Volkswagen was founded by the German Labour Front.
1940: During World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces.
1957: National League owners gave permission for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants to move to Los Angeles and San Francisco. 1959: The U.S. Army launched Able, a rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, aboard a Jupiter missile for a suborbital flight which both primates survived.
1964: The charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization was issued at the start of a meeting of the Palestine National Congress in Jerusalem.
2003: President George W. Bush signed a 10-year, $350 billion package of tax cuts, saying they already were “adding fuel to an economic recovery.”
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama visited Grand Isle, Louisiana, where he personally confronted the spreading damage wrought by the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP blowout — and the bitter anger rising onshore.
Five years ago: A federal grand jury indictment handed up in Chicago revealed that former U.S. House Speaker Dennis
Hastert had agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about “prior misconduct” by the Illinois Republican. Hastert later pleaded guilty to breaking banking law and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
One year ago: Sports Illustrated magazine was sold for $110 million to Authentic Brands Group, a company that specializes in managing fashion, entertainment and sports brands.