Today in history

On May 16, 1763, the English lexicographer, author and wit Samuel Johnson first met his future biographer, James Boswell. In 1866 Congress authorized minting of the 5-cent piece. In 1868 the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him. In 1920 Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.

In 1929 the first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. (The movie “Wings” won “best production” while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress.)

In 1946 the musical “Annie Get Your Gun” opened on Broadway.

In 1960 a Big Four summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the U.S. in the wake of the U2 incident.

In 1965 the musical play “The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd” opened on Broadway.

In 1975 Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

In 1977 five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying. In 1988 Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report declaring nicotine was addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine. Also in 1988 the Supreme Court ruled that police can search discarded garbage without a search warrant.

In 1989, during his visit to Beijing, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, formally ending a 30-year rift between the two Communist powers.

In 1992 the space shuttle Endeavour completed its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert.

In 1991 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

In 1992 America3 (“America Cubed”), skippered by Bill Koch, won the 28th defense of the America’s Cup.

In 1994 Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, shutting down the prison and military headquarters where Israeli soldiers had been in charge since the 1967 Middle East War.

In 1997 President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis. In 1999 the Justice Department said preliminary figures from the FBI indicated a decline in serious crime in 1998 for the seventh consecutive year.

In 2001 former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was indicted on charges of spying for Moscow. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)

In 2002 the remains of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were unearthed in Pakistan. In 2003 the Senate committed $15 billion to fight global AIDS. Also in 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco, five simultaneous suicide attacks claimed the lives of 33 victims, in addition to a dozen suicide bombers.

In 2005 Newsweek magazine retracted its Quran abuse story that sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan that left about 15 people dead and scores injured. Also in 2005 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states can’t bar out-ofstate wine shipments.

In 2006 the Pentagon released the first video images of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the military headquarters building and killing 189 people in the Sept. 11 hijacking.