TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, May 5, the 125th day of 2018. There are 240 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 5, 1862, Mexican troops defeated French occupying forces in the Battle of Puebla.

On this date:

In 1494, during his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1942, wartime sugar rationing began in the United States.

In 1945, in the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children. Denmark and the Netherlands were liberated as a German surrender went into effect.

In 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Mercury capsule Freedom 7.

In 1978, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream had its beginnings as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream parlor at a converted gas station in Burlington, Vermont.

In 1994, Singapore caned American teenager Michael Fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by President Bill Clinton.

Ten years ago: Three men were arrested and beaten by Philadelphia police officers after a vehicle chase in a scene videotaped by a WTXF-TV news helicopter. (The three men were later acquitted of attempted murder and all other charges stemming from a shooting that led to their arrests; four of the 18 police officers at the scene were fired and a number of others were disciplined.)

Thought for Today: “The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.”—Ralph W. Sockman, American clergyman (1889-1970).