Today in History

Published 9:18 pm Monday, May 4, 2009

Today is Tuesday, May 5, the 125th day of 2009. There are 240 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

ON THIS DATE

In 1904, Cy Young pitched the American League’s first perfect game as the Boston Americans defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0.

In 1925, schoolteacher John Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching evolution.

In 2000, the tightest alignment in 38 years of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun and the moon — as seen from Earth — took place.

Associated Press