Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, endorsed “separate but equal” racial segregation, a concept renounced 58 years later by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
On this date:
1642: The Canadian city of Montreal was founded by French colonists.
1765: One-quarter of Montreal was destroyed by a fire.
1652: Rhode Island became the first American colony to pass a law abolishing
African slavery; however, the law was apparently never enforced.
1781: Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru II, 43, was forced to witness the execution of his relatives by the Spanish in the main plaza of Cuzco before being beheaded.
1863: The Siege of Vicksburg began during the Civil War, ending July 4 with a Union victory.
1920: Pope John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland.
1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
1944: During World War II, Allied forces occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month struggle with Axis troops.
1953: Jacqueline Cochran, 47, became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet over Rogers Dry Lake, California.
1967: Tennessee Gov. Buford Ellington signed a measure repealing the law against teaching evolution that was used to prosecute John T. Scopes in 1925.
1973: Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.
1980: The Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.
1981: The New York Native, a gay newspaper, carried a story concerning rumors of “an exotic new disease” among homosexuals; it was the first published report about what came to be known as AIDS.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama urged Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu during a White House meeting to stop Jewish settlements and grasp a “historic opportunity” to make peace with the Palestinians.
Five years ago: AT&T Inc. agreed to buy satellite TV provider Direc TV for $48.5 billion, or $95 per share. The deal was completed in 2015.
One year ago: A 17-year-old armed with a shotgun and a pistol opened fire at a Houston-area high school, killing eight students and two teachers. Dimitrios Pagourtzis is charged in state court with capital murder; his attorney says he is facing 11 federal charges. Hasbro announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had issued a trademark for the scent of Play-doh.