TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 27, the 148th day of 2016. There are 218 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 1941, the British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France with a loss of some 2,000 lives, three days after the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood with the loss of more than 1,400 lives. Amid rising world tensions, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency” during a radio address from the White House.
In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a key component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislative program.
In 1936, the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage to New York. The first Aer Lingus flight took place when a de Havilland Dragon carried five passengers from Dublin to Bristol, England.
In 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic. Vehicles began crossing the next day.
In 1942, Navy Cook 3rd Class Doris “Dorie” Miller became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for his “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Penn., ignited a blaze in underground coal deposits that continues to burn to this day. In 1964, independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.
In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification for an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997.
In 1998, Michael Fortier, the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot. Fortier was freed in January 2006.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk is 101. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 93. Former FBI Director William Sessions and author John Barth are 86. Actress Lee Meriwether and musician Ramsey Lewis are 81. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 80. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) and country singer Don Williams are 77. Actor Bruce Weitz is 73. Singer Bruce Cockburn is 71. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 59. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 58. Actresses Peri Gilpin and Cathy Silvers are 55. Comedian Adam Carolla is 52. Actor Todd Bridges is 51. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 50. TV chef Jamie Oliver is 41. Alt-country singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson is 40. Actors Ben Feldman and Michael Steger are 36.