Today in History

On This Day in:

1602 – Cape Cod was discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold.

1614 – An aristocratic uprising in France ended with the treaty of St.Menehould.

1618 – Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law.

1702 – The War of Spanish Succession began.

1768 – Under the Treaty of Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.

1795 – Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan.

1849 – Neapolitan troops entered Palermo, and were in possession of Sicily.

1856 – Lyman Frank Baum, author of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,' was born.

1862 – The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

1911 – The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1916 – U.S. Marines landed in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder.

1918 – Regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, began under the direction of the Post Office Department, which later became the U.S. Postal Service.

1926 – Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth were forced down in Alaska after a four-day flight over an icecap. Ice had begun to form on the dirigible Norge.

1926 – The New York Rangers were officially granted a franchise in the NHL. The NHL also announced that Chicago and Detroit would be joining the league in November.

1930 – Ellen Church became the first female flight attendant.

1940 – Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S.

1941 – Joe DiMaggio began his historic major league baseball hitting streak of 56 games.

1942 – Gasoline rationing began in the U.S. The limit was 3 gallons a week for nonessential vehicles.

1948 – Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon only hours after declaring its independence.

1951 – AT& T became the first corporation to have one million stockholders.

1957 – Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1958 – Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.

1963 – The last Project Mercury space flight was launched.

1964 – The Smothers Brothers, Dick and Tom, gave their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1970 – U.S. President Nixon appointed America's first two female generals.

1970 – Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were killed when police opened fire during student protests.

1972 – Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, MD while campaigning for the U.S. presidency.

Wallace was paralyzed by the shot.

1975 – The merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

1980 – The first transcontinental balloon crossing of the United States took place.

1983 – In Boston, MA, the Madison Hotel was destroyed by implosion.

1988 – The Soviet Union began their withdrawal of its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years.

1990 – Vincent Van Gogh's 'Portrait of Doctor Gachet' was sold for $82.5 million. The sale set a new world record.

1997 – The Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station.

1999 – The Russian parliament was unable a attain enough votes to impeach President Boris Yeltsin.

2014 – The National September 11 Memorial Museum was dedicated in New York City.

Born on May 15:

Pierre Curie 1859 – Physicist Katherine Anne Porter 1890 – Journalist, essayist, short story writer Joseph Cotten (Joseph Cheshire Cotten) 1905 – Actor James Mason (James Neville Mason) 1909 – Actor Constance Cummings 1910 – Actress Max Frisch 1911 – Architect, playwright, novelist Eddy Arnold (Richard Edward Arnold) 1918 – Country singer Ellis Larkins 1923 – Musician Richard Avedon 1923 – Photographer Peter Shaffer 1926 – Playwright, novelist, screenwriter Jasper Johns 1930 – Artist Wavy Gravy (Hugh Nanton Romney) 1936 – Entertainer, peace activist Paul Zindel 1936 – Playwright, author Anna Maria Alberghetti 1936 – Opera singer, actress Trini Lopez (Trinidad López III) 1937 – Singer, guitarist Madeleine Albright 1937 – First woman to become a U.S.

Secretary of State Lenny Welch 1938 – Singer Lainie Kazan 1940 – Actress, singer K.T. Oslin (Kay Toinette Oslin) 1942 – Country singer, songwriter Graeham Goble (Graham Goble) 1947 – Musician (Little River Band) Brian Eno 1948 – Musician (Roxy Music)

BIBLE VERSE

“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety. You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor.”