Today in history
Today is Monday, May 14, the 134th day of 2018. There are 231 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 14, 1948, according to the current-era calendar, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv by David Ben-Gurion, who became its first prime minister; U.S. President Harry S. Truman immediately recognized the new nation.
On this date:
In 1643, Louis XIV became King of France at age four upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter.
In 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory as well as the Pacific Northwest left camp near present-day Hartford, Illinois.
In 1900, the Olympic games opened in Paris as part of the 1900 World’s Fair.
In 1925, the Virginia Woolf novel “Mrs Dalloway” was first published in England and the United States.
In 1942, Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” was first publicly performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
In 1955, representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. (The Pact was dissolved in 1991.)
In 1961, Freedom Riders were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a news conference in New York to announce the creation of the Beatles’ latest business venture, Apple Corps.
In 1973, the United States launched Skylab 1, its first manned space station. (Skylab 1 remained in orbit for six years before burning up during re-entry in 1979.) The National Right to Life Committee was incorporated.
In 1988, 27 people, mostly teens, were killed when their church bus collided with a pickup truck going the wrong direction on a highway near Carrollton, Kentucky. (Truck driver Larry Mahoney served 9 1/2years in prison for manslaughter.)
In 1998, Frank Sinatra died at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82. The hit sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its final episode after nine seasons on NBC.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush opened a celebratory visit to Israel, which was marking the 60th anniversary of its birth. Former rival John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination during a surprise appearance at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. Justine Henin (EH’-nen), 25, became the first woman to retire from tennis while atop the WTA rankings.
Five years ago: In an oped appearing in The New York Times, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie said she’d undergone a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. Flamboyant huckster Billie Sol Estes died in DeCordova Bend, Texas, at age 88.
One year ago: Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL’ mah-KROHN’) swept into office as France’s new president, pledging to fortify the European Union, redesign French politics and glue together his divided nation. Five days after South Korea elected a president who expressed a desire to reach out to North Korea, Pyongyang sent a challenge to its rival’s new leader by test-firing a ballistic missile. Actor Powers Boothe died in Los Angeles at age 68. Kara McCullough, a 25-year-old scientist working for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and representing the District of Columbia, was crowned Miss USA at the pageant in Las Vegas.