Today is Wednesday, May 7, the 127th day of 2014. There are 238 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 7, 1789, America’s first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President George
Washington, who’d taken the oath of office a week earlier. (His wife, Martha, did not attend; she was
back in Virginia, attending to family business.)
On this date:
In 1763, Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa Indians, attempted to lead a sneak attack on British-held Fort
Detroit, but was foiled because the British had been tipped off in advance.
In 1824, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, had its premiere in Vienna.
In 1889, the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore opened its doors.
In 1915, nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the
Irish coast.
In 1928, the minimum voting age for British women was lowered from 30 to 21 – the same age as men.
In 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims (rams), France,
ending its role in World War II.
In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning
French forces.
In 1964, Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F27, crashed near San Ramon, Calif., after a passenger
apparently shot both pilots, then himself, killing all 44 people on board.
In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era." In Ho Chi Minh
City – formerly Saigon – the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.
In 1984, a $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit
brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they’d suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.
In 1994, Norway’s most famous painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch (muhnk), was recovered
almost three months after it had been stolen from an Oslo museum.
Ten years ago: Army Pfc. Lynndie England, shown in photographs smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi
prisoners, was charged by the military with assaulting the detainees and conspiring to mistreat them.
(England was later convicted of conspiracy, mistreating detainees and committing an indecent act, and
sentenced to 36 months; she served half that term.) Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered
"my deepest apology" to abused Iraqi prisoners and warned that videos and photos yet to come
could further inflame worldwide outrage.
Five years ago: A federal jury in Paducah, Ky., convicted a former soldier, Steven Dale Green, of raping
and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl after killing her parents and younger sister while he was
serving in Iraq. (Green was sentenced to life without possibility of parole; he hanged himself in prison
in February 2014.)