Today is Thursday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2014. There are 223 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 22, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the University of Michigan, outlined the goals
of his "Great Society," saying that it "rests on abundance and liberty for all" and
"demands an end to poverty and racial injustice."
On this date:
In 1761, the first American life insurance policy was issued in Philadelphia to a Rev. Francis Allison,
whose premium was six pounds per year.
In 1860, the United States and Japan exchanged ratifications of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce during a
ceremony in Washington.
In 1913, the American Cancer Society was founded in New York under its original name, the American
Society for the Control of Cancer.
In 1939, the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed a
"Pact of Steel" committing the two countries to a military alliance.
In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece
and Turkey.
In 1968, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, sank in the Atlantic Ocean. (The
remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)
In 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flew to within
nine miles of the moon’s surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon began a visit to the Soviet Union, during which he and Kremlin leaders
signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The island nation of Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka.
In 1981 "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe was convicted in London of murdering 13 women and
was sentenced to life in prison.
In 1992, after a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s "Tonight Show" for
the last time.
Ten years ago: Filmmaker Michael Moore’s "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing commentary on Bush White
House actions after the September 11 attacks, won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama promised graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy that, as
their commander in chief, he would only send them "into harm’s way when it is absolutely
necessary."
One year ago: Lois Lerner, an Internal Revenue Service supervisor whose agents had targeted conservative
groups, swore to a House committee she did nothing wrong, then refused to answer further questions,
citing her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself. Chechen immigrant Ibragim Todashev, a
friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was fatally shot by an FBI agent in Orlando,
Florida. In a brutal daylight attack in London, two men with butcher knives hacked to death an off-duty
British soldier, Lee Rigby, before police wounded them in a shootout.
