DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Monday, May 9, the 129th day of 2022. There are 236 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1860: Writer J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland.
1914: President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
1945: With World War II in Europe at an end, Soviet forces liberated Czechoslovakia from Nazi occupation. U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1951: The U.S. conducted its first thermonuclear experiment, nicknamed “George,” as part of Operation Greenhouse by detonating a 225-kiloton device on Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific.
1962: Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology succeeded in reflecting a laser beam off the surface of the moon.
1965: Russian-born American pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed publicly for the first time in 12 years with a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York.
1970: President Richard Nixon made a surprise and impromptu pre-dawn visit to the Lincoln Memorial, where he chatted with protesters who’d been resting on the Memorial steps after protests against the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings.
1974: The House Judiciary Committee opened public hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. (The committee ended up adopting three articles of impeachment against the president, who resigned before the full House took up any of them.)
1980: Thirty-five 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.
1994: South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first Black president.
2012: President Barack Obama declared his unequivocal support for same-sex marriage in a historic announcement that came three days after Vice President Joe Biden spoke in favor of such unions on NBC’S “Meet the Press.” Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney repeated his opposition to gay marriage, telling reporters in Oklahoma City, “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Actor-turned-politician Glenda Jackson is 86. Guitarist Sonny Curtis of Buddy Holly and The Crickets is 85. Producer-director James L. Brooks is 85. Singer Tommy Roe is 80. Singerguitarist Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) is 78. Singer Clint Holmes is 76. Actor Candice Bergen is 76. Actor
Anthony Higgins (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”) is 75. Musician Billy Joel is 73. Bassist Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick is 72. Actor
Alley Mills (“The Bold and the Beautiful,” “The Wonder Years”) is 71. Actor
Amy Hill (“Magnum P.I.”) is 69. Actor
Wendy Crewson (“Revenge”) is 66. Actor John Corbett is 61. Singer David Gahan of Depeche Mode is 60. Actor Sonja Sohn (“Body of Proof,” “The Wire”) is 58.