A Blast from the Past

Today is May 29.

FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on this day in 2002 that if the FBI had acted on available information the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington might have been averted.

He was king of the world. Or at least on top of it. It was on this date in 1953 that Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and a Nepalese sherpa named Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. Almost half-a-century later, climbing Everest is still a dangerous deed -- though dozens try it each year and many succeed.

The Turks captured Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, on this date in 1453. The event marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople, renamed Istanbul, became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

162 people were killed on this date in 1977 when a flash fire swept through a nightclub in Southgate, Ky.

On the same date in 1985, 38 people were killed and 400 more injured when rioting erupted between British and Italian soccer fans attending the European Cup Final at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. The clash was televised and viewed by millions throughout Europe.

It was on this date in 1997 that Lt. Kelly Flinn, the Air Force's first female B-52 bomber pilot, was discharged following an investigation into adultery charges against her. The same day, the Army relieved Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis of his command of the Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, Ga., because of an apparently "improper relationship" with a civilian nurse who was caring for his wife.

And this was the date in 1942 that Bing Crosby recorded "White Christmas" in Los Angeles. The song remained the best-selling single of all time for over half a century until surpassed by "Candle in the Wind 1997," Elton John's tribute to the late Princess Diana.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.