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Today in history: May 27

Celebrity birthdays, highlights in history, plus more facts about this day
/ Source: The Associated Press

Today is Friday, May 27, the 147th day of 2005. 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, Calif., was opened to the public.

On this date:
In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., and East St. Louis, Ill.

In 1933, Walt Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated short “The Three Little Pigs” was first released.

In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

In 1936, the Cunard liner Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage.

In 1941, amid rising world tensions, President Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency.”

In 1941, the British navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France, with a loss of 2,300 lives.

In 1964, independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

In 1993, five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy; some three dozen paintings were ruined or damaged.

In 1994, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after spending two decades in exile.

Ten years ago: Actor Christopher Reeve was left paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Va.

Five years ago: Freight cars loaded with hazardous chemicals crashed and exploded in Eunice, La., forcing the evacuation of thousands.

One year ago: Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Muslim cleric, was arrested in London and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

Today’s Birthdays: Novelist Herman Wouk is 90. Actor Christopher Lee is 83. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 82. Actress Lee Meriwether is 70. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 70. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 69. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 66. Country singer Don Williams is 66. Actor Bruce Weitz is 62. Singer Cilla Black is 62. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is 61. Singer Bruce Cockburn is 60. Actor Richard Schiff is 50. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 48. Rock musician Eddie Harsch (The Black Crowes) is 48. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 47. Actress Peri Gilpin is 44. Actress Cathy Silvers is 44. Actor Todd Bridges is 40. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 39. Actor Dondre Whitfield is 36. Actor Paul Bettany is 34. Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 34. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 31. Rapper Jadakiss is 30. Actor Ethan Dampf (“American Dreams”) is 11.

Thought for Today: “History is not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself what situations are in fact comparable.” — Henry Kissinger.