DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, May 12, the 133rd day of 2024. There are 233 days left in the year. On this date in:
1780: Under siege for more than a month, American forces suffered their worst defeat of the Revolutionary War when they surrendered Charleston, South Carolina, to the British.
1932: The body of toddler Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of the famous aviator, was discovered near the family’s estate.
1933: As part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration was created to combat unemployment during the Great Depression. By the end of 1935, it had employed more than 20 million people.
1941: Konrad Zuse unveiled the world’s first programmable computer, the Z3 machine, which used a binary system. Programs were fed to the computer on rolls of punched film.
1942: A German U-boat torpedoed and sank a U.S. tanker in the mouth of the Mississippi River, killing more than two dozen sailors.
1963: A relatively unknown Bob Dylan walked off the set of “The Ed Sullivan Show” because CBS censors objected to the song he planned to perform, “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.”
1965: The uncrewed Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashed into the moon. It was intended to become the first craft to successfully navigate a soft landing, but a problem with a gyroscope caused the craft to lose control.
1968: Protesters began arriving in Washington, D.C., as part of the Poor People’s Campaign developed by Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders.
1975: The American freighter SS Mayaguez and its 39 crewmembers were captured by the Khmer Rouge off the coast of Cambodia. Two days later, American forces attacked the island where the crew was believed to be held hostage, though it was later discovered the crew were in the process of being released. U.S. casualties included 38 killed and three Marines later executed when left behind on the island.
2008: Agents for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, arresting almost 400 workers, nearly all of them Latino.
2015: A train bound for New York City derailed in Philadelphia, killing eight and injuring more than 200. The train was found to have been traveling at twice the speed limit for the stretch of track carrying it.
2022: The number of U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 reached 1 million.
– William Cain, USA TODAY Network
Today’s birthdays: Singer-musician Steve Winwood, turns 76. Singer-musician Billy Squier, 74. Actor Gabriel Byrne, 74. Actor Ving Rhames, 65. Actor Emilio Estevez, 62. Actor Vanessa Estelle Williams, 61. Actor Stephen Baldwin, 58. Actor Kim Fields, 55. Actor Rhea Seehorn, 52. Actor-comedian Jason Biggs, 46. Actor Rami Malek, 43. Actor Emily Vancamp, 38.
– USA TODAY Network