Today is Tuesday, May 29, the 149th day of 2018. There are 216 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On May 29, 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary, of New Zealand, and Tensing Norgay, of Nepal, became the first climbers to reach the summit.
On this date:
In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.
In 1660, Britain’s King Charles II was restored to the throne on his 30th birthday after nine years in exile.
In 1765, Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia’s House of Burgesses.
In 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the United States Constitution.
In 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state of the union.
In 1917, the 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
In 1932, World War I veterans began arriving in Washington to demand cash bonuses they weren’t scheduled to receive until 1945.
In 1943, Norman Rockwell’s portrait of “Rosie the Riveter” appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. (The model for Rockwell’s Rosie, Mary Doyle Keefe, died in April 2015 at age 92.)
In 1961, a couple in Paynesville, West Virginia, became the first recipients of food stamps under a pilot program created by President John F. Kennedy.
In 1977, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500, finishing in 29th place (the winner was A.J. Foyt).
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened their historic summit in Moscow.
In 1998, Republican elder statesman Barry Goldwater died in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at age 89.
Ten years ago: The Vatican issued a decree stating that anyone trying to ordain a woman as a priest and any woman who attempted to receive the ordination would incur automatic excommunication. Actor-comedian Harvey Korman, Emmy winner for “The Carol Burnett Show,” died in Los Angeles at age 81.
Five years ago: A U.S. drone strike killed Waliur Rehman, the No. 2 commander of the Pakistani Taliban. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a conservative firebrand and a favorite of tea party Republicans, said she would not run for another term in the U.S. House. The Rev. Andrew Greeley, 85, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest, best-selling author and longtime newspaper columnist, died in Chicago.
One year ago: In his first Memorial Day remarks as president, Donald Trump expressed the nation’s “boundless and undying” gratitude to Americans who had fallen in battle and to the families they left behind, hailing as heroes the hundreds of thousands buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Americans turned out by the thousands to celebrate the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy on the day he would have turned 100. Manuel Noriega, a onetime U.S. ally who was ousted as Panama’s dictator by an American invasion in 1989, died at age 83.
Today’s birthdays: Former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent is 80. Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser is 79. Actor Kevin Conway is 76. Actor Helmut Berger is 74. Rock singer Gary Brooker (Procol Harum) is 73. Actor Anthony Geary is 71. Actor Cotter Smith is 69. Singer Rebbie Jackson is 68. Movie composer Danny Elfman is 65. Singer LaToya Jackson is 62. Actor Ted Levine is 61. Actress Annette Bening is 60. Actor Rupert Everett is 59. Actor Adrian Paul is 59. Singer Melissa Etheridge is 57. Actress Lisa Whelchel is 55. Actress Tracey Bregman is 55. Rock musician Noel Gallagher is 51. Singer Jayski McGowan (Quad City DJ’s) is 51. Actor Anthony Azizi is 49. Rock musician Chan Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 49. Actress Laverne Cox is 46. Rock musician Mark Lee (Third Day) is 45. Cartoonist Aaron McGruder (“The Boondocks”) is 44. Singer Melanie Brown (Spice Girls) is 43. Rapper Playa Poncho is 43. Latin singer Fonseca is 39. Actor Justin Chon (TV: “Deception”; “Dr. Ken”) is 37. NBA player Carmelo Anthony is 34. Actor Billy Flynn is 33. Actor Blake Foster is 33. Actress Riley Keough is 29. Actor Brandon Mychal Smith is 29. Actress Kristen Alderson is 27. Actress Lorelei Linklater is 25.
Thought for today: “A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.” — Jean de La Fontaine, French poet (1621-1695).
— Associated Press
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