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From: Mary Minnich< >
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] Today in History - May 3rd
Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 06:33:52 -0400


Today is Monday, May third, the 123rd day of 1999.
There are 242 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On May third, 1802, Washington DC was incorporated as a city.

On this date:
In 1916, Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by
the British for their roles in the Easter Rising.

In 1921, West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.

In 1944, US wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended.

In 1945, Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.

In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real
estate to blacks or members of other racial groups were legally
unenforceable.

In 1971, anti-war protesters began four days of demonstrations in Washington
DC aimed at shutting down the nation's capital.

In 1978, "Sun Day" fell on a Wednesday as thousands of people extolling the
virtues of solar energy held events across the country.

In 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was chosen to become
Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent
Labor government in parliamentary elections.

In 1986, in NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket
lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff, forcing safety officers
to destroy it by remote control.

Ten years ago: PLO leader Yasser Arafat, ending a two-day visit to France,
said the PLO charter calling for the destruction of Israel had been
"superseded" by a declaration urging peaceful coexistence of the Jewish
state and a Palestinian state.

Five years ago: President Clinton presided over a televised forum from
Atlanta, during which he denied suggestions he'd vacillated on foreign
policy, but said global problems were more difficult than he'd imagined.

One year ago: Space shuttle Columbia and its crew returned to Earth, ending
two weeks of lab work that advanced brain research. After a daylong squabble
that had stretched past midnight, European leaders meeting in Brussels,
Belgium, agreed on Wim Duisenberg (wihm DOWZ'-sen-burg) of the Netherlands
as the chief of the new European Central Bank, but with the proviso that he
step down in 2002 to make way for Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet. "The Sevres
Road," by 18-century landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, was
stolen from the Louvre.

Today's Birthdays:
Broadway librettist Betty Comden is 80.
Folk singer Pete Seeger is 80.
Country singer Dave Dudley is 71.
Singer James Brown is 66.
Singer Engelbert Humperdinck is 63.
Singer Frankie Valli is 62.
Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 53.
Magician Doug Henning is 52.
Singer Christopher Cross is 48.
Country musician Cactus Moser (Highway 101) is 42.
Actress Jill Berard ("Hiller and Diller") is nine.

Thought for Today:

"If you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a
woman."

-- Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister.

(Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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