GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, May 06, the 126th day of 2017 with 239 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 5:32 and sunset is @ 7:48. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter, Saturn & Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Neptune, Uranus & Venus.
ON THIS DAY IN: 1527 – German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.
1529 – Babur defeated the Afghan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghagra, India.
1576 – The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion.
1682 – King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France.
1835 – James Gordon Bennett published the “New York Herald” for the first time.
1840 – The first adhesive postage stamps went on sale in Great Britain.
1851 – The mechanical refrigerator was patented by Dr. John Gorrie.
1851 – Linus Yale patented the clock-type lock.
1861 – Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the Union.
1877 – Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
1882 – The U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S.for 10 years.
1889 – The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, France, marking the dedication of the Eiffel Tower. Also at the exposition was the first automobile in Paris, the Mercedes-Benz.
1910 – Kind Edward VII of England died. He was succeeded by his second son, George V.
1915 – Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run while playing for the Boston Red Sox.
1937 – The German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned in Lakehurst, NJ. Thirty-six people (of the 97 on board) were killed.
1941 – Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.
1941 – Bob Hope gave his first USO show at California’s March Field.
1942 – During World War II, the Japanese seized control of the Philippines. About 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.
1945 – Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1946 – The New York Yankees became the first major league baseball team to travel by plane.
1954 – British runner Roger Banister broke the four minute mile.
1957 – U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book “Profiles in Courage”.
1959 – The Pablo Picasso painting of a Dutch girl was sold for $154,000 in London. It was the highest price paid (at the time) for a painting by a living artist.
1960 – Britain’s Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong Jones. They were divorced in 1978.
1960 – U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
1962 – The first nuclear warhead was fired from the Polaris submarine.
1981 – A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin’s entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1994 – The Channel Tunnel officially opened. The tunnel under the English Channel links England and France.
1994 – Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against U.S. President Clinton. The case alleged that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1997 – Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
1997 – Four health-care companies agreed to a settlement of $600 million to hemophiliacs who had contracted AIDS from tainted blood between 1978-1985.
1999 – Britain’s Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the first elections for Scotland’s new Parliament and Wales’ new Assembly.
1999 – A parole board in New York voted to release Amy Fisher. She had been in jail for 7 years for shooting her lover’s wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.
2001 – Chandra Levy’s parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy’s body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.
2002 – “Spider-Man” became the first movie to make more than $100 million in its first weekend.