Today in History
Today is Wednesday, May 11, the 131st day of 2022. There are 234 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 11, 2010, Conservative leader David Cameron, at age 43, became Britain’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government.
On this date:
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant (STY’-veh-sunt) arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.
In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.
In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded during a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration was created as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
In 1946, the first CARE packages, sent by a consortium of American charities to provide relief to the hungry of postwar Europe, arrived at Le Havre, France.
In 1953, a tornado devastated Waco, Texas, claiming 114 lives.
In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1973, the espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the “Pentagon Papers” case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dismissed all charges, citing government misconduct.
In 1981, legendary reggae artist Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital at age 36.
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.
In 1998, India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. A French mint produced the first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro.
In 2020, Twitter announced that it would add a warning label to tweets containing disputed or misleading information about the coronavirus. Jerry Stiller, best known for his role as George Costanza’s father in “Seinfeld” and earlier as part of a comedy duo with wife Anne Meara, died at 92.
Ten years ago: A Chicago jury convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. (Balfour was sentenced to life in prison.)
Five years ago: President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression, building upon his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. (Trump disbanded the commission in January 2018 amid infighting and refusals by numerous states to cooperate.)
One year ago: The confrontation between Israel and Hamas, sparked by weeks of tensions in Jerusalem, escalated; Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while the Israeli city of Tel Aviv came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. The Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River was closed after authorities said they found a crack in the span linking Arkansas and Tennessee. (The bridge remained closed for nearly three months.) More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts said was unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day. Stage and screen actor Norman Lloyd, known for his role as a kindly doctor on TV’s “St. Elsewhere,” died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 106; his career had earlier put him in the company of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin and other greats.
Today’s Birthdays: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is 89. Jazz keyboardist Carla Bley is 86. Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 81. Actor Pam Ferris is 74. Former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly is 72. Actor Shohreh Aghdashloo (SHOH’-reh ahg-DAHSH’-loo) is 70. Actor Frances Fisher is 70. Sports columnist Mike Lupica is 70. Actor Boyd Gaines is 69. Actor Martha Quinn is 63. Actor Tim Blake Nelson is 58. Actor Jeffrey Donovan is 54. Actor Nicky Katt is 52. Actor Coby Bell is 47. Cellist Perttu Kivilaakso (PER’-tuh KEE’-wee-lahk-soh) is 44. Actor Austin O’Brien is 41. Actor-singer Jonathan Jackson is 40. Rapper Ace Hood is 34. Latin singer Prince Royce is 33. Actor Annabelle Attanasio (TV: “Bull”) is 29. Musician Howard Lawrence (Disclosure) is 28.