Today in history
On May 8, 1541,
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River south of present-day Memphis, Tenn.
n 1737 historian
Edward Gibbon, author of “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” was born in Putney, England.
In 1794 Antoine
Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed by guillotine during France’s Reign of Terror.
In 1828
Swiss philanthropist Jean Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was born in Geneva.
In 1846 American
forces led by Gen. Zachary Taylor won the first major battle of the Mexican War, at Palo Alto, Texas.
In 1884 Harry
Truman, the 33rd president, was born near Lamar, Mo.
In 1886 Atlanta
pharmacist John Styth Pemberton created the flavoring syrup for Coca-Cola.
In 1899 Nobel-
winning economist Friedrich von Hayek was born in Vienna.
In 1932
boxing champion Sonny Liston was born in St. Francis County, Ark.
In 1937
novelist Thomas Pynchon was born in Glen Cove, N.Y.
In 1944 the
first eye bank was established, in New York City.
In 1945 in
a radio address, President Harry Truman declared V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, announcing the surrender of Germany and officially ending the European phase of World War II.
In 1958 Vice
President Richard Nixon was stoned, shoved, booed and spat upon by anti-American demonstrators in Lima, Peru.
In 1970
construction workers broke up a demonstration against the Vietnam War in New York’s financial district, causing injury to 70 protesters.
In 1973
militant American Indians surrendered after holding the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 71 days. (Wounded Knee was the site of the Army’s 1890 massacre of 300 Native Americans.)
In 1978 David
Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to six murder charges in the “Son of Sam” shootings that had terrified New Yorkers.
In 1987
Gary Hart, dogged by reports about his relationship with Miami model Donna Rice, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1994 actor George
Peppard (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Banacek”) died; he was 65.
In 1997
President Bill Clinton assured Central American leaders during a summit in Costa Rica that they need not fear mass deportations of immigrants who had sought refuge in the United States during U.S.-backed conflicts.
In1999 The
Citadel, South Carolina’s formerly all-male military school, graduated its first female cadet, Nancy Ruth Mace. Also in 1999, actor Sir Dirk Bogarde (below) died in London; he was 78.
In 2002 FBI
Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee that an FBI memo from Phoenix warning that several Arabs were suspiciously training at a U.S. aviation school would not have led officials to the 9/11 hijackers even if they had followed up the warning with more vigor.
In 2003 the
Michigan Wolverines were barred from the next postseason play and put on 31⁄ years’ probation
2 by the NCAA for a booster’s payments to players dating to the Fab Five era.
In 2013
In 2006 Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President George W. Bush, proposing “new solutions” to their differences in the first letter from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years. Also in 2006, stunt artist David Blaine emerged weak and wrinkly from a week spent submerged within an eight-foot snow globe-like tank in the plaza of New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts—but without a world record for holding his breath.
In 2008 Silvio
Berlusconi was sworn in as Italy’s premier. Also in 2008, country music star Eddy Arnold died near Nashville; he was 89.
census data showed that blacks voted in the 2012 election at a higher rate than whites for the first time in a presidential election. Also in 2013, an Arizona jury convicted Jodi Arias of firstdegree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend in 2008. (She later received life in prison.)
In 2014 the
Houston Texans selected South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney with the top overall pick in the NFL draft.