Today in history
Today is Wednesday, May 16, the 136th day of 2018. There are 229 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 16, 1868, at the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, 35 out of 54 senators voted to find Johnson guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” over his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, falling one vote short of the twothirds majority needed to convict; the trial ended 10 days later after two other articles of impeachment went down to defeat as well.
On this date:
In 1532, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro and a small band of soldiers landed on the northwestern coast of Peru.
In 1703 (Old Style calendar), the Russian city of Saint Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great.
In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
In 1939, the federal government began its first food stamp program in Rochester, New York.
In 1946, the Irving Berlin musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” starring Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley, opened on Broadway.
In 1948, CBS News correspondent George Polk, who had been covering the Greek civil war between communist and nationalist forces, was found slain in Salonika Harbor.
In 1953, Associated Press correspondent William N. Oatis was released by communist authorities in Czechoslovakia, where he had been imprisoned for two years after being forced to confess to espionage while working as the AP’s Prague bureau chief.
In 1966, China launched the Cultural Revolution, a radical as well as deadly reform movement aimed at purging the country of “counter-revolutionaries.”
In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court, in California v. Greenwood, ruled that police could search discarded garbage without a search warrant. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report declaring nicotine was addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine.
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the United States Congress as she lauded U.S.-British cooperation in the Persian Gulf War.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush visited Saudi Arabia, where he failed to win help from Saudi leaders to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices. Osama bin Laden said in an audio statement that al- Qaida would continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until the liberation of the Palestinians. Robert Mondavi, the patriarch of California wine country, died in Yountville at age 94.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama named a temporary chief for the scandal-marred Internal Revenue Service and pressed Congress to approve new security money to prevent another Benghazi-style terrorist attack. Candice Glover won the 12th season of “American Idol” on Fox.