This day in history

Today is Sunday, may 5, the 126th day of 2024. there are 240 days left in the year.

➤ Birthdays: comedian-actor michael Palin is 81. Actor John Rhys-davies is 80. Rock correspondent Kurt loder is 79. Rock musician bill Ward (black Sabbath) is 76. Actor melinda culea is 69. Actor lisa eilbacher is 67. Actor Richard e. Grant is 67. former broadcast journalist John miller is 66. Rock singer ian mcculloch (echo and the bunnymen) is 65. broadcast journalist brian Williams is 65. Rock musician Shawn drover (megadeth) is 58. TV personality Kyan douglas is 54. Actor tina Yothers is 51. Actor henry cavill is 41. Soul singer Adele is 36. R&b singer chris brown is 35.

➤In 1494, during his second voyage to the Western hemisphere, christopher columbus landed in Jamaica.

➤In 1821, napoleon bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. helena.

➤In 1925, schoolteacher John t. Scopes was charged in tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)

➤In 1942, wartime sugar rationing began in the united States.

➤In 1945, in the only fatal attack of its kind during World War ii, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart mountain in oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children. denmark and the netherlands were liberated as a German

surrender went into effect.

➤In 1961, astronaut Alan b. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard mercury capsule freedom 7.

➤In 1973, Secretariat won the Kentucky derby, the first of his triple crown victories, in a time of 1:59.4, a record that still stands.

➤In 1981, irish Republican Army hunger-striker bobby Sands died at the maze Prison in northern ireland on his 66th day without food.

➤In 1994, Singapore caned American teenager michael fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by President bill clinton.