On This Day in History - May 5th - Almanac

Today is Thursday May 5, the 126th day of 2016 with 240 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune, Uranus, Venus and Saturn. Evening stars are Jupiter and Mercury.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in 1813; German political theorist Karl Marx in 1818; hatmaker John Stetson in 1830; crusading journalist Nellie Bly in 1864; author Christopher Morley in 1890; radio actor Freeman Gosden, Amos of "Amos and Andy," in 1899; chef and cookbook author James Beard in 1903; actor Tyrone Power in 1914; singer/actor Alice Faye in 1915; actor Michael Murphy in 1938 (age 78); actor Lance Henriksen in 1940 (age 76); singer Tammy Wynette in 1942; actor Michael Palin in 1943 (age 73); actor John Rhys-Davies in 1944 (age 72); actor Roger Rees in 1944 (age 72); author/columnist Kurt Loder in 1945 (age 71); TV newsman Brian Williams in 1959 (age 57); actor Tina Yothers in 1973 (age 43); singer/songwriter Adele Adkins in 1988 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

In 1862, Mexican troops, outnumbered 3-1, defeated invading French forces of Napoleon III.

In 1904, Cy Young of the Boston Americans pitched Major League Baseball's first perfect game in a 3-0 win over Philadelphia.

In 1925, biology teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee state laws.

In 1930, British and Indian troops were put on alert in the major cities throughout India following the arrest and incarceration of Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1932, Senator George W. Norris, R-Neb., leader of the western insurgent Republicans, bolted the party and threw his support behind Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt for president.

In 1942, Japanese forces stormed the Philippine island of Corregidor in a bid to capture a strategic access point to Manila Bay. By 9:30 a.m. on May 6, the Japanese had taken control of the island fortress.

In 1945, Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed in Lakeview, Ore., when a Japanese balloon they had found in the woods exploded. They were listed as the only known World War II civilian fatalities in the continental United States.

In 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the United States' first man in space in a brief sub-orbital flight from Cape Canaveral.

In 1981, imprisoned Irish-Catholic militant Bobby Sands died after refusing food for 66 days in protest of his imprisonment by British authorities as a criminal rather than a political prisoner.

In 1996, Jose Maria Aznar became prime minister of Spain.

In 2003, authorities said a two-day wave of tornadoes killed about 40 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a third term.

In 2006, 10 U.S. soldiers were killed in the crash of a helicopter in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

In 2010, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua died after a long illness and Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president, assumed the presidency.

In 2012, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson won the Libertarian Party nomination for U.S. president.

In 2014, the World Health Organization declared the re-emergence of polio in several countries, including Pakistan, Syria, Cameroon and Nigeria, a worldwide health emergency, calling outbreaks of the disease "an extraordinary event."

A thought for the day: "Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them must share in the guilt for the dead." -- Gen. Omar Bradley