Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On May 29, 1988, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened their historic summit in Moscow.
On this date:
1765: Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia’s House of Burgesses.
1914: The Canadian ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River in eastern Quebec after colliding with the Norwegian cargo ship SS Storstad; of the 1,477 people on board the Empress of Ireland, 1,012 died. The Storstad sustained only minor damage.
1917: The 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
1943: Norman
Rockwell’s portrait of “Rosie the Riveter” appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
1953: Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.
1954: English runner Diane Leather became the first woman to run a sub-five-minute mile, finishing in 4:59.6 during the Midland Championships in Birmingham.
1973: Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, defeating incumbent Sam Yorty.
1985: Thirty-nine people were killed at the European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium, when rioting broke out and a wall separating British and Italian soccer fans collapsed.
1995: Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to serve in both the House and the Senate, died in Skowhegan, Maine, at age 97.
1998: Republican elder statesman Barry Goldwater died in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at age 89.
2008: The Vatican issued a decree stating that anyone trying to ordain a woman as a priest and any woman who attempted to receive the ordination would incur automatic excommunication.
2009: A judge in Los Angeles sentenced music producer Phil Spector to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actress
Lana Clarkson. Jay Leno hosted “The Tonight Show” on
NBC supposedly for the final time, giving up his desk to Conan
O’brien. After a stint in prime time, Leno returned to “Tonight” in March 2010, stepping down again in February 2014.
Ten years ago: Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood wildman whose memorable career included an early turn in “Rebel Without A Cause” and an improbable smash hit with “Easy Rider,” died in Los Angeles at age 74.
Five years ago: The Barack Obama administration formally removed Cuba from the U.S. terrorism blacklist.
One year ago: In his first public remarks on the Russia investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller said charging President Donald Trump with a crime was “not an option” because of federal rules, but he emphasized that the investigation did not exonerate the president.