TODAY IN HISTORY

SUNDAY MAY 15, 2022

1948

Gours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

1862

President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the Department of Agriculture.

1928

The Walt Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse made his debut in the silent animated short “Plane Crazy.”

1967

the U.S. Supreme Court, in its unanimous In re Gault decision, ruled that juveniles accused of crimes were entitled to the same due process afforded adults.

1970

Just after midnight, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two Black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi, were killed as police opened fire during student protests.

1972

Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, by Arthur H. Bremer, who served 35years for attempted murder.

1975

U.S. forces invaded the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and captured the American merchant ship Mayaguez, which had been seized by the Khmer Rouge.

1988

The Soviet Union began the process of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, more than eight years after Soviet forces entered the country.

2000

By a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a key provision of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, saying that rape victims could not sue their attackers in federal court.

2007

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who built the Christian right into a political force, died in Lynchburg, Virginia, at age 73.

2009

General Motors told about 1,100 dealers their franchises would be terminated.

2015

A jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and left more than 250 wounded.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor-singer Anna Maria Alberghetti is 86. Counterculture icon Wavy Gravy is 86. Singer Lenny Welch is 84. Actor-singer Lainie Kazan is 80. Actor Gunilla Hutton is 80. Actor Chazz Palminteri is 76.