TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, MAY 16, the 136th day of 2022. There are 229 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1943, the nearly monthlong Warsaw Ghetto Uprising came to an end as German forces crushed the Jewish resistance and blew up the Great Synagogue. In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. In 1866, Congress authorized minting of the first five-cent piece, also known as the “Shield nickel.” In 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented. “Wings” won “best production,” while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. In 1939, the federal government began its first food stamp program in Rochester, New York. In 1957, federal agent Eliot Ness, who organized “The Untouchables” team that took on gangster Al Capone, died in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, at age 54. In 1960, the first working laser was demonstrated at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, by physicist Theodore Maiman. In 1966, China launched the Cultural Revolution, a radical, as well as deadly, reform movement aimed at purging the country of “counter-revolutionaries.” In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. In 1990, death claimed entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. in Los Angeles at 64 and “Muppets” creator Jim Henson in New York at 53. In 1997, President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed Black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis. In 2007, anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war. In 2016, President Barack Obama called on the nation to support law enforcement officers as he bestowed the Medal of Valor on 13 who risked their lives. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is 79. Jazz musician Billy Cobham and actor Danny Trejo are 78. Actor Bill Smitrovich is 75. Actor Pierce Brosnan is 69. Actor Debra Winger is 67. Olympic gold medal gymnast Olga Korbut is 66. Olympic gold medal marathon runner Joan Benoit Samuelson is 64. Actor Mare Winningham is 63. Rock musician Boyd Tinsley (The Dave Matthews Band) is 58. Rock musician Krist Novoselic is 57. Singer Janet Jackson and country singer Scott Reeves (Blue County) are 56. Actor Brian F. O’Byrne is 55. R&B singer Ralph Tresvant (New Edition) is 54. Actors David Boreanaz and Tracey Gold, and political commentator Tucker Carlson are 53. Actor Khary Payton and rapper Special Ed are 50. Actor Tori Spelling is 49. Actor Sean Carrigan is 48. Singer-rapper B. Slade (formerly known as Tonex) is 47. Actors Lynn Collins and Melanie Lynskey are 45. Actor Jim Sturgess is 44. Actor Joseph Morgan is 41. DJ Alex Pall (The Chainsmokers) is 37. Actors Megan Fox, Drew Roy and Jacob Zachar are 36. Actor-comedian Jermaine Fowler is 34. Actors Thomas BrodieSangster and Marc John Jefferies are 32. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Ashley Wagner is 31.