Today in History
Today is Friday, May 11, the 132nd day of 2024. There are 234 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 11, 1981, legendary reggae artist Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital at age 36 of acral lentiginous melanoma, a skin cancer that is rare but the most common type found among people of color.
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 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 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.
In 2020, Twitter announced that it would add a warning label to tweets containing disputed or misleading information about the coronavirus.
In 2022, the Senate fell far short in a rushed effort toward enshrining Roe v. Wade abortion access as federal law, blocked by a Republican filibuster. The move came after a draft report from the Supreme Court overturning the 50-year-old ruling. (The 6-3 decision would be issued essentially as drafted the following month.)
In 2023, Manhattan prosecutors said they would bring criminal charges against a man accused of using a deadly chokehold on an unruly passenger aboard a New York City subway train.
Today’s Birthdays: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is 91. Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 83. Actor Pam Ferris is 76. Former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly is 74. Actor Shohreh Aghdashloo (SHOH’-reh ahg-DAHSH’-loo) is 72. Actor Frances Fisher is 72. Sports columnist Mike Lupica is 72. Actor Boyd Gaines is 71. Actor and former MTV VJ Martha Quinn is 65. Actor Tim Blake Nelson is 60. Actor Jeffrey Donovan is 56. Actor Nicky Katt is 54. Actor Coby Bell is 49. Cellist Perttu Kivilaakso (PER’-tuh KEE’-wee-lahk-soh) is 46. Actor Austin O’Brien is 43. Actor-singer Jonathan Jackson is 42. Rapper Ace Hood is 36. Latin singer Prince Royce is 35. Actor Annabelle Attanasio (TV: “Bull”) is 31. Musician Howard Lawrence (Disclosure) is 30.