TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, May 3. Today’s highlight:
On May 3, 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was chosen to become Britain’s first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labour government in parliamentary elections.
On this date:
In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city.
In 1937, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “Gone With the Wind.”
In 1947, Japan’s postwar constitution took effect.
In 1948, the Supreme Court, in Shelley v. Kraemer, ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to Blacks or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable.
In 1987, The Miami Herald said its reporters had observed a young woman spending “Friday night and most of Saturday” at a Washington townhouse belonging to Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart. (The woman was later identified as Donna Rice; the resulting controversy torpedoed Hart’s presidential bid.)
In 2006, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, deciding he should spend life in prison for his role in 9/11; as he was led from the courtroom, Moussaoui taunted, “America, you lost.”
In 2009, Mexican President Felipe Calderon told state television that a nationwide shutdown and an aggressive informational campaign appeared to have helped curtail an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico.
In 2015, two gunmen were shot and killed by a police officer in Garland, Texas, after they opened fire outside a purposely provocative contest for cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
In 2016, in a stunning triumph for a political outsider, Donald Trump all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination with a resounding victory in Indiana that knocked rival Ted Cruz out of the race.
In 2018, a federal grand jury in Detroit indicted former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn on charges stemming from the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. (Under Germany’s constitution, he could not be extradited to the U.S. to face charges.)
Ten years ago: U.S. officials published online a selection of letters from Osama bin Laden’s last hideaway; the documents portrayed a network that was weak, inept and under siege — and its leader seemingly near wit’s end about the passing of his global jihad’s supposed glory days.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump met at the White House with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, promising “to do whatever is necessary” to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
One year ago: An elevated section of the Mexico City metro collapsed as subway cars were passing over it, killing 26 people; investigations found that the failure was caused by construction defects. New York Gov. Bill and Melinda Gates said they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage; the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said they would continue to work together at the world’s largest private charitable foundation. Singer-songwriter Lloyd Price, an early rock ‘n’ roll star and rock Hall of Fame member whose hits included “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” died in suburban New York at the age of 88.