HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Wednesday, May 10, the 130th day of 2017. There are 235 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1948 – The Republic of China implements “temporary provisions” granting President Chiang Kai-shek extended powers to deal with the Communist uprising; they will remain in effect until 1991. 1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release “Rock Around the Clock”, the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts. 1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth. 1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The
Incredible Hulk. 1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill. 1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder
in Japan. 1979 – The Federated States of Micronesia become selfgoverning. 1981 – François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic. 1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa’s first
black president. 1997 – A 7.3 Mw earthquake strikes Iran’s Khorasan Province, killing 1,567, injuring over 2,300, leaving 50,000 homeless, and damaging or destroying over 15,000 homes. 1997 – The Maeslantkering, a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands that is one of the world’s largest moving structures, is opened by Queen Beatrix. 2002 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. 2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 65 feet (20 meters) from US President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate. 2012 – The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people and injuring 400 others 2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building
in the Western Hemisphere.