Today is Monday, May 23, the 143rd day of 2005. There are 222 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, La.
On this date:
In 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.
In 1533, the marriage of England’s King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.
In 1701, Captain William Kidd was hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and murder.
In 1788, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
In 1937, industrialist John D. Rockefeller died in Ormond Beach, Fla.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces bogged down in Anzio began a major breakout offensive.
In 1945, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler committed suicide while imprisoned in Luneburg, Germany.
In 1960, Israel announced it had captured former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of crimes against humanity and hanged in 1962.
In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell in connection with their Watergate convictions.
In 1985, Thomas Patrick Cavanagh, an aerospace engineer who admitted trying to sell “stealth” bomber secrets to the Soviet Union, was sentenced in Los Angeles to life in prison.
Ten years ago: The nine-story hulk of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was demolished. That same day, James Nichols, whose brother and a friend were charged in the Oklahoma bombing, was released from federal custody. Leland William Modjeski, a 37-year-old graduate student, was shot and wounded on the White House lawn after scaling a fence with an unloaded gun.
Five years ago: Two weeks before a U.S.-Russia arms summit, presidential candidate George W. Bush said he would slash America’s nuclear arsenal as part of a broad national security review that would call for a missile-defense system.
One year ago: A large section of roof of a new passenger terminal at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport collapsed, killing four people. A river ferry with about 250 people aboard capsized in eastern Bangladesh during a storm, leaving about 100 dead.
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Betty Garrett is 86. Pianist Alicia de Larrocha is 82. Bluegrass singer Mac Wiseman is 80. Actor Nigel Davenport is 77. Actress Barbara Barrie is 74. Actress Joan Collins is 72. Actor Charles Kimbrough is 69. Rhythm-and-blues singer General Johnson (Chairmen of the Board) is 62. Actress Lauren Chapin is 60. Country singer Misty Morgan is 60. Country singer Judy Rodman is 54. Singer Luka Bloom is 50. Actor-comedian Drew Carey is 47. Country singer Shelly West is 47. Actor Linden Ashby is 45. Actress-model Karen Duffy is 44. Rock musician Phil Selway (Radiohead) is 38. Singer Lorenzo is 33. Country singer Brian McComas is 33. Singer Maxwell is 32. Singer Jewel is 31. Actor Adam Wylie is 21.
Thought for Today: “He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.” — Henry Emerson Fosdick, American clergyman (1878-1969).