This day in history
today is thursday, May 9, the 130th day of 2024. there are 236 days left in the year.
birthdays: Actor-writer Alan bennett is 90. Producer-director James l. brooks is 87. Musician Sonny curtis of buddy Holly and the crickets is 87. Singer tommy Roe is 82. Singer-musician Richie furay of buffalo Springfield and Poco is 80. Actor candice bergen is 78. Pop singer clint Holmes is 78. Actor Anthony Higgins is 77. Singer billy Joel is 75. blues singer-musician bob Margolin is 75. Rock singer tom Petersson of cheap trick is 74. Actor John corbett is 63. Singer Dave gahan of Depeche Mode is 62. Actor Sonja Sohn is 60. Rapper ghostface Killah is 54. R&b singer tamia is 49. Actor Rosario Dawson is 45.
▶ in 1914, President Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
▶ in 1945, with World War ii in europe at an end, US officials lifted a midnight entertainment curfew.
▶ in 1951, the US conducted its first thermonuclear experiment by detonating a 225-kiloton device on enewetak Atoll in the Pacific.
▶ in 1962, scientists at the Massachusetts institute of technology succeeded in reflecting a laser beam off the moon.
▶ in 1970, President nixon made a surprise and impromptu pre-dawn visit to the lincoln Memorial, where he chatted with a group of protesters after a rally against the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings.
▶ in 1974, “i saw rock and roll’s future and its name is bruce Springsteen.” So wrote Jon landau in his review in the Real Paper after the then-little known songwriter-singer opened for bonnie Raitt at the Harvard Square theater. the mesmerizing performance and landau’s ecstatic response would catapult the young new Jersey rocker to recognition in Rolling Stone.
the House Judiciary committee opened public hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President nixon. (the committee adopted three articles of impeachment against the president.)
▶ in 1980, 35 people were killed when a freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway bridge over tampa bay in florida, causing a 1,400-foot section of the southbound span to collapse.
▶ in 1994, South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.
▶ in 2019, Pope francis issued a groundbreaking church law requiring all catholic priests and nuns to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities.