TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, May 7, the 128th day of 2024. There are 238 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY

On May 7, 1945, Nazi Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

1889 — The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore opened its doors.

1915 — A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

1963 — The United States launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite.

1975 — President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

2010 — A BP-chartered vessel lowered a 100-ton concrete-and-steel vault onto the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in an unprecedented, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to stop most of the gushing crude fouling the sea.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

R&B singer Thelma Houston is 81.

Actor Robin Strasser is 79. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 78. Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 78. Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is 77. Rock musician Prairie Prince is 74. Movie writer-director Amy Heckerling is 72. Actor Michael E. Knight is 65. Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 63. Actor Traci Lords is 56. Actor Morocco Omari is 54. Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry is 53. Actor Breckin Meyer is 50. Rock musician Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys) is 38. Actor-comedian Aidy Bryant is 37. Actor Taylor Abrahamse is 33.