Today is Monday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2014. There are 233 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in
circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.
On this date:
In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to
British forces.
In 1870, an act creating the Canadian province of Manitoba was given royal assent, to take effect in
July.
In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in
a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey.
In 1937, Britain’s King George VI was crowned at Westminster AbbeyIn 1943, during World War II, Axis
forces in North Africa surrendered.
In 1963, Betty Miller became the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean as she landed her Piper
Apache in Brisbane, Australia, having left Oakland, California, on April 30, making three stopovers
along the way.
In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who
attacked Pope John Paul II.
Ten years ago: Members of Congress expressed outrage after they were privately shown fresh pictures and
videos of Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. troops.
Five years ago: The government warned that without changes, Social Security would be depleted in 2037,
and the Medicare trust fund would become insolvent in 2017.
One year ago: Pope Francis gave the Catholic church new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century
martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonization ceremony.