DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Wednesday, May 25, the 145th day of 2022. There are 220 days left in the year. On this date in:
1787: The Constitutional Convention began at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.
1946: Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, Abdullah I.
1961: President John F. Kennedy told Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”
1964: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, ordered the Virginia county to reopen its public schools, which officials had closed in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation ruling.
1968: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis was dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.
1977: The first “Star Wars” film (later retitled “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”) was released by 20th Century Fox.
1979: An American Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’hare Airport, killing 273 people.
2008: NASA’S Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the red planet to begin searching for evidence of water; the spacecraft confirmed the presence of water ice at its landing site.
2011: A judge in Salt Lake City sentenced street preacher Brian David
Mitchell to life in prison for kidnapping and raping Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 at the time of her abduction in 2002. A judge in Tucson, Arizona, ruled that Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six in a shooting rampage, was mentally incompetent to stand trial. (Loughner would later plead guilty; he was sentenced to seven life terms in prison.)
2016: Actor Johnny Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, filed for divorce in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences after 15 months of marriage.
2018: Harvey Weinstein was charged in New York with rape and another sex felony in the first prosecution to result from the wave of allegations against him. (Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault; he is serving a 23year prison sentence.)
Actor Ann Robinson (“War of the Worlds”) is 93. Actor Ian Mckellen (“Lord of the Rings”) is 83. Country singer Jessi Colter is 79. Actor-singer Leslie Uggams is 79. Director-muppetteer Frank Oz is 78. Actor Karen Valentine is 75. Actor
Jacki Weaver (“Silver Linings Playbook”) is 75. Singer Klaus Meine of Scorpions is 75. Actor
Patti D’arbanville (“New York Undercover”) is 71. Actor Connie Sellecca is 67. Singer-guitarist Paul Weller of The Jam is 64. Actor-comedian Mike Myers is 59. Actor Joseph Reitman (“The Perfect Storm”) is 54. Actor Anne Heche is 53. Actors Sidney and Lindsay Greenbush (“Little House on the Prairie”) are 52. Actor Jamie Kennedy (“Scream”) is 52. Actor Octavia Spencer is 52.