TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 5, the 125th day of 2017. There are 240 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1862, Mexican troops defeated French occupying forces in the Battle of Puebla.
In 1494, during his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
In 1892, Congress passed the Geary Act, which required Chinese in the United States to carry a certificate of residence at all times, or face deportation.
In 1927, “To the Lighthouse,” Virginia Woolf’s fifth novel, was published in London.
In 1942, wartime sugar rationing began in the United States.
In 1945, in the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children. Denmark and the Netherlands were liberated as a German surrender went into effect.
In 1955, West Germany became a fully sovereign state. The baseball musical “Damn Yankees” opened on Broadway.
In 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Mercury capsule Freedom 7.
In 1973, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.
In 1981, Irish Republican Army hungerstriker Bobby Sands died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in his 66th day without food.
In 1987, the congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened with former Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord the lead-off witness.
In 1994, Singapore caned American teenager Michael Fay for vandalism a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by President Bill Clinton.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Pat Carroll is 90. Former AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney and saxophonist Ace Cannon are 83. Country singermusician Roni Stoneman and actor Michael Murphy are 79. Actor Lance Henriksen is 77. Comedian-actor Michael Palin is 74. Actor John RhysDavies is 73. Rock correspondent Kurt Loder is 72. Rock musician Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) is 69. Actress Melinda Culea is 62. Actress Lisa Eilbacher and actor Richard E. Grant are 60. Former broadcast journalist John Miller is 59. Rock singer Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) and NBC newsman Brian Williams are 58. Rock musician Shawn Drover (Megadeth) is 51. TV personality Kyan Douglas is 47. Actress Tina Yothers is 44. Rhythm and blues singer Raheem DeVaughn is 42. Actor Santiago Cabrera is 39. Actor Vincent Kartheiser is 38. Singer Craig David and actress Danielle Fishel are 36. Actor Henry Cavill is 34. Actor Clark Duke is 32. Soul singer Adele and rock singer Skye Sweetnam are 29. Rhythm-and-blues singer Chris Brown is 28.