TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Friday, May 26, the 146th day of 2023. There are 219 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history
On May 26, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in Moscow. (The U.S. withdrew from the treaty in 2002.)
On this date
In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the Montana Territory.
In 1865, Confederate forces west of the Mississippi surrendered in New Orleans.
In 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee was established by Congress.
In 1940, Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of some 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began.
In 1954, explosions rocked the aircraft carrier USS Bennington off Rhode Island, killing 103 sailors. (The initial blast was blamed on leaking catapult fluid ignited by the flames of a jet.)
In 1971, Don McLean recorded his song “American Pie” at The Record Plant in New York City. (It was released the
following November by United Artists Records.)
In 1981, 14 people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida.
In 1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic. (The marriage ended in 1996.)
In 2004,
nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the attack. (Nichols later received 161 consecutive life sentences.)
In 2009,
President Barack
Obama nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. California’s Supreme Court upheld the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban but said the 18,000 same-sex weddings that had taken place before the prohibition passed were still valid.
In 2011,
Ratko Mladic, the brutal Bosnian Serb general suspected of leading the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, was arrested after a 16-year manhunt. (Mladic was extradited to face trial in The Hague, Netherlands; he was convicted in 2017 on genocide and war crimes charges and is serving a life sentence.)
In 2020, Minneapolis police issued a statement saying George Floyd had died after a “medical incident,” and that he had physically resisted officers and appeared to be in medical distress; minutes after the statement was released, bystander video was posted online. Protests over Floyd’s death began, with tense skirmishes developing between protesters and Minneapolis police. Four police officers who were involved in Floyd’s arrest were fired.
One year ago: It was revealed that the gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school was inside for more than an hour before he was killed in a shootout with police. Actor Ray Liotta died at age 67.
Today’s birthdays
Sportscaster Brent Musburger is 84. Musician Garry Peterson (Guess Who) is 78. Singer Stevie Nicks is 75. Actor Pam Grier is 74. Actor Philip Michael Thomas is 74. Singer Hank Williams Jr. is 74. Actor Margaret Colin is 65. Actor Genie Francis is 61. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 61. Singer-actor Lenny Kravitz is 59. Actor Helena Bonham Carter is 57. Runner Zola Budd is 57. Actor Joseph Fiennes is 53. Actor-animator Matt Stone is 52. Singer Lauryn Hill is 48.