Today is Monday, May 21st, the 141st day of 2001. There are 224 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On May 21st, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his "Spirit of St. Louis" near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. On this date: In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River. In 1832, the first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore. In 1840, New Zealand was declared a British colony. In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. In 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Junior and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago. In 1956, the United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In 1959, the musical "Gypsy," inspired by the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, opened on Broadway. In 1968, the nuclear-powered US submarine "Scorpion,' with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.) In 1980, Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a US service academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. In 1995, former Secretary of Defense Les Aspin died at a Washington DC hospital after suffering a massive stroke; he was 56. Ten years ago: Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during national elections by a suicide bomber. Ethiopia's Marxist president (Mengistu Haile Mariam) resigned and fled into exile as rebels continued to advance. Five years ago: At least 615 people, many of them teen-agers, drowned when an overloaded Tanzanian ferry capsized in Lake Victoria. One year ago: Nineteen people were killed when a charter plane crashed in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. "Dancer in the Dark" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the Grand Prize went to "Devils on the Doorstep." Death claimed actor Sir John Gielgud at age 96 and author Dame Barbara Cartland at age 98. Today's Birthdays: Actor David Groh is 62. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ron Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 60. Musician Bill Champlin (Chicago) is 54. Singer Leo Sayer is 53. Actress Carol Potter is 53. Actor Mr. T is 49. Music producer Stan Lynch is 46. Actor Judge Reinhold is 44. Actor-director Nick Cassavetes is 42. Actor Brent Briscoe is 40. Jazz musician Christian McBride is 29. Actress Fairuza Balk is 27. Rapper Havoc (Mobb Deep) is 27. "Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the future.... We watch our experts read the entrails of statistical tables and graphs the way the ancients watched their soothsayers read the entrails of a chicken." -- Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (1902-1983). (Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Thanks Mary. :-) Kath