Today In History
Today is Wednesday, May 5, the 125th day of 2021. There are 240 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1925: Schoolteacher John T. Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)
ON THIS DATE
› 1494: During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.
› 1891: New York’s Carnegie Hall (then named “Music Hall”) had its official opening night, featuring Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky as a guest conductor.
› 1942: Wartime sugar rationing began in the United States.
› 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.
› 1973: Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.
› 1978: Ben & Jerry’s ice cream had its beginnings as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream parlor at a converted gas station in Burlington, Vermont.
› 2009: Texas health officials confirmed the first death of a U.S. resident with swine flu.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actor Pat Carroll is
94. Country singer-musician Roni Stoneman is 83. Actor Michael Murphy is
83. Actor Lance Henriksen is 81. Comedian-actor Michael Palin is 78. Actor John Rhys-Davies is 77. Rock correspondent Kurt Loder is 76. Rock musician Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) is 73. Actor Melinda Culea is
66. Actor Lisa Eilbacher is 64. Actor Richard E. Grant is 64. Former broadcast journalist John Miller is 63. Rock singer Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 62. NBC newsman Brian Williams is 62. Rock musician Shawn Drover (Megadeth) is
55. TV personality Kyan Douglas is 51. Actor Tina Yothers is 48. R&B singer Raheem DeVaughn is 46. Actor Santiago Cabrera is 43. Actor Vincent Kartheiser is 42. Singer Craig David is 40. Actor Danielle Fishel is 40. Actor Henry Cavill is 38. Actor Clark Duke is 36. Soul singer Adele is 33. Rock singer Skye Sweetnam is 33. R&B singer Chris Brown is 32. Figure skater Nathan Chen is 22.