Today is Friday, May 11, the 131st day of 2007. There are 234 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 11, 1910, Glacier National Park in Montana was established.
On this date:
In 1502, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere.
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.
In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.
In 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later.
In 1944, Allied forces launched a major offensive against German lines in Italy.
In 1946, the first CARE packages arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
In 1973, charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the “Pentagon Papers” case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct.
In 1985, 56 people died when a flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England.
In 1987, doctors in Baltimore transplanted the heart and lungs of an auto accident victim to a patient who gave up his own heart to another recipient. (Clinton House, the nation’s first living heart donor, died 14 months later.)
In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
Ten years ago: The Deep Blue IBM computer demolished an overwhelmed Garry Kasparov and won the six-game chess match between man and machine in New York.
Five years ago: Israel pulled out of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, leaving Palestinian-run territories free of Israeli troops for the first time in six weeks. Joseph Bonanno, the notorious gangster known as “Joe Bananas,” died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 97.
One year ago: Lawmakers demanded answers after a USA Today report that the National Security Agency was secretly collecting records of millions of ordinary Americans’ phone calls; President Bush sought to assure Americans their civil liberties were being “fiercely protected.” A priest was convicted in Toledo, Ohio, of murdering a nun; the Rev. Gerald Robinson was immediately sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 1980 death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson died in New Paltz, N.Y., at age 71.
Today’s Birthdays: Comedian Mort Sahl is 80. Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 66. Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo is 55. Actress Frances Fisher is 55. Actor Boyd Gaines is 54. Country musician Mark Herndon (Alabama) is 52. Actress Martha Quinn is 48. Actress Natasha Richardson is 44. Country singer-musician Tim Raybon (The Raybon Brothers) is 44. Country musician Keith West (Heartland) is 39. Actor Coby Bell is 32. Actor Austin O’Brien is
27. Actor Jonathan Jackson is 25.
Thought for Today: “We carry our nemesis within us: yesterday’s self-admiration is the legitimate father of today’s feeling of guilt.” — Dag Hammarskjold, U.N. Secretary-General (1905-1961).