Today in history

On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled German airship Hindenburg caught fire and crashed while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey; 35 of the 97 people on board were killed along with a crewman on the ground.

In 1527, unpaid troops loyal to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V attacked Rome, forcing Pope Clement VII to flee to safety; some scholars mark the ensuing sack of the city as the end of the Renaissance in Italy.

In 1889, the Paris Exposition formally opened, featuring the just-completed Eiffel Tower.

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration began operating under an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1941, Comedian Bob Hope did his first USO show before an audience of servicemen as he broadcast his radio program from March Field in Riverside, California.

In 1942, during World War II, some 15,000 American and Filipino troops on Corregidor surrendered to Japanese forces.

In 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4.

In 1968, French student protesters and police clashed outside the Sorbonne in Paris, resulting in hundreds of arrests and injuries.

In 1974, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigned after one of his aides was exposed as an East German spy.

In 1981, Yale architecture student Maya Lin was named winner of a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

In 1992, former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, where Winston Churchill had spoken of the “Iron Curtain”; Gorbachev said the world was still divided, between North and South, rich and poor.

Ten years ago: Kobe Bryant won his first MVP award after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference.

One year ago: Always Dreaming won the Kentucky Derby, pulling away in the slop, to win by 2 3/4 lengths over long shot Lookin At Lee, with another long shot, Battle of Midway, five lengths back.