Today is Monday, May 15, the 135th day of 2006. There are 230 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 15, 1942, wartime gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.
On this date:
In 1856, Lyman Frank Baum, the author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” was born in Chittenango, N.Y.
In 1886, poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, Mass.
In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In 1918, U.S. airmail began service between Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
In 1930, Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyo.
In 1940, nylon stockings went on general sale for the first time in the United States.
In 1963, astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program.
In 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.
In 1972, George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer and left paralyzed while campaigning in Laurel, Md., for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1986, searchers on Oregon’s Mount Hood found two teenage survivors of a hiking expedition that became trapped in a whiteout blizzard. Nine other climbers died.
Ten years ago: Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole announced he was leaving the Senate after 27 years to challenge President Clinton full-time.
Five years ago: Tens of thousands of Palestinians packed town squares in the West Bank town of Ramallah as they marked what they called the day of “catastrophe” in 1948, when they were uprooted and the state of Israel created. A celebratory mood took hold of Japan after the palace formally announced that Crown Princess Masako was pregnant. A runaway freight train rolled about 70 miles through Ohio with no one aboard before a railroad employee jumped onto the locomotive and brought it to a stop.
One year ago: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Iraq to express support for its new government. The Czech Republic denied Canada its third straight title and won the world ice hockey championship 3-0 in Vienna, Austria.
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Eddy Arnold is 88. Actor Joseph Wiseman is 88. Playwright Sir Peter Shaffer (“Amadeus”) is 80. Actress-singer Anna Maria Alberghetti is 70. Counterculture icon Wavy Gravy is 70. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is 69. Singer Trini Lopez is 69. Singer Lenny Welch is 68. Actress-singer Lainie Kazan is 66. Actor-director Paul Rudd (“Knots Landing”) is 66. Country singer K.T. Oslin is 64. Singer-songwriter Brian Eno is 58. Actor Nicholas Hammond (“The Sound of Music”) is 56. Actor Chazz Palminteri is 55. Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett is 53. Musician-composer Mike Oldfield (“Tubular Bells”) is 53. Actor Lee Horsley is 51. TV personality Giselle Fernandez is 45. Singer-rapper Prince Be (PM Dawn) is 36. Actor Brad Rowe is 36. Actor David Charvet is 34. Rock musician Ahmet Zappa is 32. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Amy Chow is 28. Actor David Krumholtz (“Numb3rs”) is 28. Actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler is 25.
Thought for Today: “History is a better guide than good intentions.” — Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.