Today in History

[goofywife]

1980: Mount St. Helens erupts

Mount St. Helens, a volcano in southwestern Washington, erupted today, spewing gas and hot ash into the earth's atmosphere. The eruption killed 57 people and destroyed trees and wildlife in the area.

"Mount St. Helens blew off 1,300 feet of its top Sunday in violent eruptions which sent hot mud, ash and gases raging down its slopes," reported The Chronicle Telegram on May 19, 1980. "Heavy ash, boiling up as high as 10 miles from the top of the mountain, drifted eastward today, blotting out the sky and leaving gritty, slippery deposits on roads as far east as Montana and Wyoming, 500 miles away. The ash turned day into night in most of eastern Washington."

NOTE: The volcano began showing signs of activity almost two months before the devastating eruption. Before 1980, Mount St. Helens had remained silent since a small eruption occurred in 1857, 123 years earlier.

1969: Apollo 10 blasts off

Apollo 10, the fourth manned Apollo mission, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center today. "Apollo 10 hurtled away Sunday on its lonely mission to skim over the craters of the moon, the last daring test for a lunar landing this summer. The three astronauts beamed back brilliant and unprecedented color television pictures of the earth, hanging 26,000 miles away like a blue and white ball," explained The Times Recorder one day after the launch. "Apollo 10 provided the final dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 manned landing on the moon in July." NOTE: The mission was described as a dress rehearsal because the crew tested the lunar module while in orbit.

1933: Roosevelt creates Tennessee Valley Authority

As a part of his New Deal policies, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law today. "Under the new law, the president will appoint a board of three as a 'Tennessee valley authority' to manage industrial and agricultural development of the valley," informed the Winnipeg Free Press on May 19, 1933. "Early employment of thousands of men is hoped for by the administration in putting the vast project into operation."

1927: Explosions kill students in Bath

After killing his wife and setting fire to his farm, school board member Andrew Kehoe set off dynamite at a school in Bath, Michigan today. Kehoe was allegedly upset over a property tax increase to fund the school building. "Explosion of dynamite mysteriously planted under the foundations of the Bath Consolidated grade school here today, took an estimated toll of between 30 and 40 young lives and completely demolished the west wing of the two story brick structure," reported The Warren Tribune on May 18, 1927. "Work of the physicians and nurses was hampered by the heartbreaking search of parents for their children. Parents went from group to group and the general rescue activity was frequently interrupted by the sobbing of a mother who had found what she feared."

1910: Earth passes through tail of Halley's Comet

The Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet today. "Old earth entered into the midst of the comet's tenuous tail at 2 o'clock this afternoon if the astronomers have not been handing out false promises," explained The Fort Wayne Sentinel on May 18, 1910. "Tonight at 10 o'clock the head and tail of the comet and the earth and the sun will be on a direct line." However, just one day after this report was printed, the same newspaper reported that "Mother Earth fell down on the job and did not go through the comet's tail," since nothing significant seemed to happen.

[goofywife]

I was in Basic training at Ft Jackson SC when this happened. We had a girl in the barracks from that area.

[teri88]

Hey, where is May 19th? I miss my Today In History!

[Dobie]

Hello - what happened to the last 2 days?

[katcarasella]

She got tangled up in one of Katy's Bows.

[goofywife]

Sorry Ladies, I have my regular job, one web site and 400 bows on my plate. But I am catching up!

[goofywife]

1994: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died today of cancer at the age of 64. Jackie, as she was popularly called, was renowned for her grace and sophistication. She married John F. Kennedy in 1953 when she was 24. Five years after his assassination, she became the wife of shipping mogul Aristotle Onassis.

"Her exquisite style epitomized a presidency; her stoic dignity carried the nation through the assassination that cut it short," reported the Daily Herald on May 20, 1994. "And in the years that followed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' glamour sustained the tattered myth of an American Camelot. There were women who had more money, more fame or more class, but there was nobody like her. In the end Jackie O was more than a thin, beautiful socialite with a soft little voice. She was more than the wife and widow of a president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and a Greek tycoon, Aristotle Onassis. She married fame and wealth, but earned respect and admiration."

NOTE: From 1978 until her death, Jackie worked as an editor for Doubleday. She and Kennedy had two children, John Jr. and Caroline. John Jr. died on July 16, 1999, when his plane went down into the ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

1982: Sophia Loren imprisoned for tax evasion
Actress Sophia Loren began serving a 30-day prison sentence in Italy today, after a court found her guilty of failing to report five million lire on her income tax return for 1970. "I'm very worried about the time I will have to spend in jail," she told reporters at the Rome airport in 1982. While Loren filed a petition for pardon with President Sandro Pertini, saying her accountants made an error, the actress and her husband, producer Carlo Ponti, had been under investigation for tax and currency violations for quite some time. NOTE: In 1977, finance police nabbed Loren before she caught a flight to Paris and detained her for nine hours at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Prior to that, 10 Italian police agents searched the couple's villa in Rome for seven hours without giving a reason for the search.

1971: Soviet Union launches Mars 2
The Soviet Union launched its second Mars probe today. The first mission was launched in 1962, but failed to reach the Red Planet. "A five-ton Soviet rocket hurled through space today on a six-month unmanned voyage to Mars. It was the Soviets' second expedition to explore the Red Planet. At Cape Kennedy, America's Martian probe, Mariner, sat on the launch pad, its firing postponed indefinitely for the second time since May 8 for additional tests on a control unit," Bucks County Courier Times reported on May 20, 1971.

1962: Kennedy ‘Birthday Salute’More than 15,000 people gathered in New York’s Madison Square Garden for the 42nd birthday of President John F. Kennedy. Marilyn Monroe, in a sheer dress with 2,500 rhinestones sewn in, sang a now-famous sultry version of “Happy Birthday to You.” “As Miss Monroe, in a slinky white dress, sang her version of ‘Happy Birthday,’ two chefs carried around the arena a five-foot birthday cake, sparkling with 45 blue candles. The President actually won’t be 45 until May 29,” explained the Independent Record on May 20, 1962.

1897: Oscar Wilde set free
Playwright Oscar Wilde was set free today after serving two years in Reading Gaol Prison on charges of indecency. The North Adams Transcript noted, "Oscar Wilde, sentenced May 25, 1895, was released from prison today. He goes to Paris but will return and engage in literary work over his own signature. One of his first acts on regaining freedom was to refuse £1,000 for the story of his prison experiences." NOTE: Wilde wrote a letter entitled De Profundis to former lover Lord Alfred Douglas while in prison, and later wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol about his experience there.