Today in history
Today is Saturday, May 27, the 147th day of 2017. There are 218 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California, was opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicles began crossing the next day).
On this date
In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.
In 1929, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. married Anne Morrow in Englewood, New Jersey. In 1933, the Chicago World’s Fair, celebrating “A Century of Progress,” officially opened. Walt Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated short “The Three Little Pigs” was first released.
In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a key component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislative program.
In 1936, the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage to New York. The first Aer Lingus flight took place as a de Havilland Dragon carried five passengers from Dublin to Bristol, England.
In 1941, the British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France with a loss of some 2,000 lives, three days after the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood with the loss of more than 1,400 lives. Amid rising world tensions, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency” during a radio address from the White House.
In 1942, Doris “Dorie” Miller, a cook aboard the USS West Virginia, became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for displaying “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1957, the single “That’ll Be the Day” by Buddy Holly’s group The Crickets was released by Brunswick Records.
In 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, ignited a blaze in underground coal deposits that continues to burn to this day.
In 1977, the punk rock single “God Save the Queen,” the Sex Pistols’ sardonic salute to Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Virgin Records.
In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification for an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997. In 1998, Michael Fortier (FOR’tee-ur), the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot. (Fortier was freed in Jan. 2006.)
Ten years ago: American forces freed 42 kidnapped Iraqis in a raid on an al- Qaida hideout north of Baghdad. Dario Franchitti (DA’ree-oh fran-KEE’-tee) won a rain-abbreviated Indy 500. Broadway actress Gretchen Wyler died in Camarillo, California, at age 75.
Five years ago: Syria strongly denied allegations that its forces had killed scores of people — including women and children — in Houla, but the U.N. Security Council condemned government forces for shelling residential areas. At the Cannes Film Festival, Austrian director Michael Haneke won the top prize for a second time with his stark film, “Amour.” Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 for the third time. Johnny Tapia, the five-time boxing champion whose turbulent career was marked by cocaine addiction, alcohol, depression and run-ins with the law, was found dead at his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home; he was 45.