history at a glance

TODAY is Sunday May 24 the 145th day of the year. There are 221 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the

Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.

1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives

Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.

1956 – Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the

Lord Buddha’s Parinibbana.

1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7

space capsule.

1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.

1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.

1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.

1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests. 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Miloševic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

2001 – Mountaineering: Temba Tsheri, a 16-year-old Sherpa, becomes the youngest person to climb to the

top of Mount Everest.

2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

2014 – At least 3 people are killed in a shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, Belgium