Today is Monday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2017. There are 223 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 22, 1992, after a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson
hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show” for the final time (Jay Leno took over as
host three days later).
On this date:
In 1860, the United States and Japan exchanged ratifications of the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce during a ceremony in Washington.
In 1913, the American Cancer Society was founded in New York under
its original name, the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared before Congress to
explain his decision to veto a bill that would have allowed World War I
veterans to cash in bonus certificates before their 1945 due date.
In 1939, the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von
Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed a “Pact of Steel” committing the
two countries to a military alliance.
In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.
In 1960, an earthquake of magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever measured, struck southern Chile, claiming some 1,655 lives.
In 1967, a fire at the L’Innovation department store in Brussels
killed 322 people. Poet and playwright Langston Hughes died in New York
at age 65.
In 1968, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion, with 99 men
aboard, sank in the Atlantic Ocean. (The remains of the sub were later
found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)
In 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and
Eugene Cernan aboard, flew to within nine miles of the moon’s surface in
a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon began a visit to the Soviet Union,
during which he and Kremlin leaders signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty. The island nation of Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka.
In 1981 “Yorkshire Ripper” Peter Sutcliffe was convicted in London of murdering 13 women and was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2011, a tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, with winds up to 250
mph, claiming at least 159 lives and destroying about 8,000 homes and
businesses.
Ten years ago: British prosecutors accused former KGB agent Andrei
Lugovoi (AHN’-dray LOO’-goh-voy) of murder in the radioactive poisoning
of Alexander Litvinenko (leet-vee-NYEN’-koh). (Russia, however, has
refused to extradite Lugovoi.) Olympic gold medalist speedskater Apolo
Anton Ohno and his professional dance partner, Julianne Hough (huhf),
won ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
Five years ago: The Falcon 9, built by billionaire businessman Elon
Musk, sped toward the International Space Station with a load of
groceries and other supplies, marking the first time a commercial
spacecraft had been sent to the orbiting outpost. In Flint, Michigan, a
drifter accused of faking car trouble, then stabbing strangers who came
to his aid, was convicted of murdering handyman Arnold Minor after
jurors rejected an insanity defense. (Elias Abuelazam (EE’-lee-us
ah-BOOL’-ah-zahm) is serving a life sentence.) Wesley A. Brown, the
first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in
Annapolis, died in Silver Spring, Maryland, at age 85. Green Bay Packers
receiver Donald Driver and his professional partner, Peta Murgatroyd,
won “Dancing with the Stars” on ABC.
