This Day in History – May 6
Today is the 127th day of 2016. There are 239 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights:
1937: The hydrogen-filled German airship Hindenburg burns and crashes in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground.
Other events:
1889: The Paris Exposition formally opens, featuring the just-completed Eiffel Tower.
1910: Britain’s Edwardian era ends with the death of King Edward VII; he is succeeded by George V.
1935: The Works Progress Administration begin operating under an executive order signed by President Franklin D Roosevelt.
1941: Josef Stalin assumes the Soviet premiership, replacing Vyacheslav M Molotov.
1942: During World War II some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrender to Japanese forces.
1954: British medical student Roger Bannister breaks the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4.
1981: Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin is named winner of a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1994: Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files a suit against President Bill Clinton, alleging he sexually harassed her in 1991. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand formally open the Channel Tunnel between their countries.
2001: Pope John Paul II, during a visit to Syria, becomes the first pope to enter a mosque as he calls for brotherhood between Christians and Muslims. American businessman Dennis Tito ends the world’s first paid space vacation as he returns to Earth aboard a Russian capsule.
2006: A British military helicopter apparently hit by a missile crashes in Basra, Iraq, killing four crew members. Barbaro wins the Kentucky Derby.
2015: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completes formation of a new governing coalition.
Today’s Birthdays:
Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays (1931-); Rock singer Bob Seger (1945-); former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (1953-); TV personality Tom Bergeron (1955-); actress Roma Downey (1960-); actor-director George Clooney (1961-); America actress Gabourey Sidibe (1983-).
— AP
