This Day in History

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Today is May 9.

Today is also "Lord, If I Get Through This, I'll Cut Way Back. Promise." Day.


Events

1092 – Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated. It was the tallest building in the world for 238 years.

1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch (of Punch & Judy) made his first recorded appearance in England.

1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.

1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.

1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro



becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h).

1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.

1945 – World War II: The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst.

1950 - Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard hit store shelves.

1958 – The Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo



has its world premiere in San Francisco.

1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid,



making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.

1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.

1980 – In Norco, California, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.



1800 – John Brown, 1837 – Adam Opel (yeah, that Opel), 1860 – J. M. Barrie, 1873 – Anton Cermak, 1874 – Howard Carter, 1882 – Henry J. Kaiser, 1914 – Hank Snow, 1918 – Mike Wallace "The Grand Inquisitor", 1921 – Daniel Berrigan, 1936 – Albert Finney, 1936 – Glenda Jackson, 1937 – Dave Prater♪♫(Sam & Dave), 1940 – James L. Brooks (The Simpsons), 1942 – John Ashcroft, 1944 – Richie Furay♪♫(Buffalo Springfield, Poco), 1945 – Steve Katz♪♫(Blood, Sweat, & Tears), 1946 – Candice Bergen, 1949 – Billy Joel, 1950 – Tom Petersson(Cheap Trick, 'invented' the twelve-string bass guitar), 1961 – John Corbett (Northern Exposure), 1962 – Dave Gahan♪♫(Depeche Mode)



1914 – C. W. Post (founded Post Foods), 1968 – Harold Gray (created Little Orphan Annie), 1986 – Tenzing Norgay, 1998 – Alice Faye, 2004 – Alan King, 2010 – Lena Horne, 2012 – Vidal Sassoon