Advertisement

UPI Almanac for Thursday, May 7, 2015

U-boat sinks the Lusitania, 50-to-1 long shot wins the Derby, Thai PM removed from office ... on this date in history.

By United Press International
Giacomo (L), a 50-to-1 long shot ridden by Mike Smith, wins the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., May 7, 2005. . File Photo by Frank Polich/UPI
1 of 8 | Giacomo (L), a 50-to-1 long shot ridden by Mike Smith, wins the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., May 7, 2005. . File Photo by Frank Polich/UPI | License Photo

Today is Thursday, May 7, the 127th day of 2015 with 238 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Neptune, Uranus and Saturn. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Venus.

Advertisement


Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Scottish philosopher David Hume in 1711; English poet Robert Browning in 1812; German composer Johannes Brahms in 1833; Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1840; Western actor George "Gabby" Hayes in 1885; poet Archibald MacLeish in 1892; Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1892; actor Gary Cooper in 1901; Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid instant camera, in 1909; Argentine political figure Eva Peron in 1919; actor Darren McGavin in 1922; actor Anne Baxter in 1923; singer Teresa Brewer in 1931; Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas in 1933; singer Johnny Maestro in 1939; singer Jimmy Ruffin in 1939; television journalist Tim Russert in 1950; filmmaker Amy Heckerling in 1954 (age 61); actor Alexander Ludwig in 1992 (age 23).


On this date in history:

In 1718, city of New Orleans was founded.

In 1789, the first U.S. presidential inaugural ball, celebrating the inauguration of George Washington, was conducted in New York City.

Advertisement

In 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time.

In 1915, a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people.

In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany from Gen. Alfred Jodl.

In 1987, U.S. Rep. Stewart McKinney, R-Conn., died at age 56, the first member of Congress identified as a victim of AIDS.

In 1995, Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris and former French premier, was elected president of France on his third try.

In 2000, Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's second president in the first democratic transfer of executive power in the nation's 1,000-year history.

In 2005, Giacomo, a 50-to-1 shot, won the Kentucky Derby over Closing Argument, which went off at 71-1.

In 2007, officials reported no survivors in the crash of a Kenyan Airlines plane that went down in a Cameroon mangrove swamp with 114 people aboard.

In 2008, in Russia, Dmitri Medvedev was sworn in to succeed Vladimir Putin as president. (Putin was named prime minister the next day.) In Ireland, Finance Minister Brian Cowan was elected prime minister.

In 2011, the U.S. government said videos taken from the Pakistan hideout of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, killed a week earlier in a U.S. commando raid, showed him directly running al-Qaida operations and constituted the greatest intelligence bonanza collected from a top terrorist.

Advertisement

In 2012, Vladimir Putin was sworn in to a six-year term as president of Russia. He also was president from 2000 to 2008.

In 2013, Mark Sanford, whose governorship had been tarnished by a sex scandal, was elected to Congress in South Carolina.

In 2014, a Thai court, in an abuse-of-power ruling, removed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office.


A thought for the day: Vladimir Lenin said, "There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience."

Latest Headlines