TODAY IN HISTORY

FRIDAY MAY 6, 2022 1937

The hydrogen-filled German airship Hindenburg caught fire and crashed while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey; 35of the 97 people on board were killed along with a crewman on the ground.

1882

President Chester Alan Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.

1910

Britain’s Edwardian era ended with the death of King Edward VII; he was succeeded by George V.

1935

The Works Progress Administration began operating under an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1941

Josef Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership, replacing Vyacheslav M. Molotov. Comedian Bob Hope did his first USO show before an audience of servicemen as he broadcast his radio program from March Field in Riverside, California.

1942

During World War II, some 15,000 American and Filipino troops on Corregidor island surrendered to Japanese forces.

1954

Medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4.

1994

Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against President Bill Clinton, alleging he’d sexually harassed her in 1991.

2004

President George W. Bush apologized for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, calling it “a stain on our country’s honor”; he rejected calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.

2006

Lillian Gertrud Asplund, the last American survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, died in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, at age 99.

2010

A computerized sell order triggered a “flash crash” on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones industrials to a loss of nearly 1,000points in less than half an hour.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays is 91. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-ala., is 88. Rock singer Bob Seger is 77. Singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore is 77. Gospel singer-comedian Lulu Roman is 76. Actor Alan Dale is 75. Actor Ben Masters is 75. Actor Richard Cox is 74. Actor Gregg Henry is 70. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is 69.