TODAY IN HISTORY
On May 23, 1984, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued a report saying there was “very solid” evidence linking cigarette smoke to lung disease in non-smokers.
Also on this date
In 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary during World War I.
In 1934, bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
In 1937, industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Co. and the Rockefeller Foundation, died in Ormond Beach, Florida, at age 97.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces bogged down in Anzio began a major breakout offensive.
In 1945, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler committed suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule while in British custody in Luneburg, Germany.
In 1967, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, an action that helped precipitate war between Israel and its Arab neighbors the following month.
In 1975, comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley, 81, died in White Plains, New York.
In 2007, President George W. Bush, speaking at the U.S. Coast Guard commencement, portrayed the Iraq war as a battle between the U.S. and al-Qaida and said Osama bin Laden was setting up a terrorist cell in Iraq to strike targets in America.
In 2016, prosecutors failed for the second time in their bid to hold Baltimore police accountable for the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, as an officer was acquitted in the racially charged case that triggered riots a year earlier.
Ten years ago: Egypt held the Arab world’s first competitive presidential vote. (Islamist Mohammed Morsi was ultimately named the winner following a runoff.)
Five years ago: President Donald Trump made a personal appeal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians as he closed a four-day swing through the Middle East.
One year ago: A Ryanair jetliner flying from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Belarus so authorities there could arrest a passenger, journalist Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.