This Day in History – May 27
Today is the 148th day of 2016. There are 218 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight
1941: the British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France with a loss of some 2,000 lives, three days after the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood with the loss of more than 1,400 lives. Amid rising world tensions, President Franklin D Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency” during a radio address from the White House.
Other Events
1896: 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St Louis, Missouri, and East St Louis, Illinois.
1933: the Chicago World’s Fair, celebrating ‘A Century of Progress,’ officially opened. Walt Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated short The Three Little Pigs was first released.
1935: the US Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp v United States, unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a key component of President Franklin D Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ legislative programme.
1936: The Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage to New York. The first Aer Lingus flight took place as a de Havilland Dragon carried five passengers from Dublin to Bristol, England.
1937: The newly completed Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California, was opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicles began crossing the next day).
1942: Navy Cook 3rd Class Doris ‘Dorie’ Miller became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for his “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour.
1985: in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification for an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997.
1998: Michael Fortier (FOR’-tee-ur), the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologising for not warning anyone about the deadly plot. (Fortier was freed in Jan 2006).
Today’s Birthdays
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk (wohk) is 101. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 93. Former FBI Director William Sessions is 86. Author John Barth is 86. Actress Lee Meriwether is 81. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 81. Actor Louis Gossett Jr is 80. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 77.
