Today in history

On May 12, 1870, Manitoba entered Confederation as a Canadian province.

In 1932 the body of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded area of Hopewell, N.J.

In 1933 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration were established to provide help for the needy and farmers.

In 1937 Britain’s King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

In 1943, during World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

In 1949 the Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade.

In 1965 West Germany and Israel exchanged letters establishing diplomatic relations.

In 1970 the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun as a Supreme Court justice.

In 1978 the Commerce Department said hurricanes no longer would be given female names exclusively.

In 1982 guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet before he could reach Pope John Paul II as the Roman Catholic pontiff toured the shrine at Fatima, Portugal.

In 1992 four suspects were arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the Los Angeles riots.

In 1994 the Senate joined the House in approving legislation banning blockades, violence and threats against clinics that perform abortions.

In 1995 President Bill Clinton, during a stopover in Ukraine, visited Babi Yar, the site where more than 30,000 Kiev Jews were massacred by the Nazis in 1941.

In 1997 Australian Susie Maroney became the first woman to swim all the way from Cuba to Florida, covering the 118-mile distance in 24 ½ hours.

In 2002 Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba, becoming the first U.S. president — in or out of office — to visit since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.