Today in history
On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis monoplane near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 33 1/2 hours.
In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.
In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.
In 1892, the opera “Pagliacci,” by Ruggero Leoncavallo, premiered in Milan, Italy.
In 1917, the Great Atlanta Fire broke out, burning 300 acres, destroying nearly 2,000 buildings and displacing some 10,000 residents. Actor Raymond Burr (“Perry Mason”) was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.
In 1924, in a case that drew much notoriety, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a “thrill killing” carried out by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (Bobby's cousin).
In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean as she landed in Northern Ireland, about 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland.
In 1941, a German U-boat sank the American merchant steamship SS Robin Moor in the South Atlantic after the ship's passengers and crew were allowed to board lifeboats.
In 1945, actors Humphrey Bogart, 45, and Lauren Bacall, 20, were married at Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio (it was his fourth marriage, her first, and would last until Bogart's death in 1957).
In 1955, Chuck Berry recorded his first single, “Maybellene,” for Chess Records in Chicago.
In 1972, Michelangelo's Pieta, on display at the Vatican, was damaged by a hammer-wielding man who shouted he was Jesus Christ.
In 1982, during the Falklands War, British amphibious forces landed on the beach at San Carlos Bay.
In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during national elections by a suicide bomber.
Ten years ago: The Supreme Court ruled that parents didn't need to hire a lawyer in order to sue public school districts over their children's special education needs. The Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert for the diabetes drug Avandia, marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, which disputed a report saying it was linked to a greater risk of heart attack.
“Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the future .... We watch our experts read the entrails of statistical tables and graphs the way the ancients watched their soothsayers read the entrails of a chicken.” — Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (1902-1983).