May 13th

Today's Highlight in History:
On May 13th, 1940, in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

On this date:
In 1607, the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, was settled.

In 1842, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, who collaborated with Sir William Gilbert in writing 14 comic operas, was born in London.

In 1846, the United States declared that a state of war already existed against Mexico.

In 1917, three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.

In 1918, the first US airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. (On some of the stamps, the airplane was printed upside-down, making them collector's items.)

In 1954, President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.

In 1954, the musical play "The Pajama Game" opened on Broadway.

In 1958, Vice President Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-US demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1981, Pope John Paul the Second was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.

In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group's headquarters; eleven people died in the resulting fire.

Ten years ago: Two US airmen were shot to death in the Philippines on the eve of talks concerning the future of US military bases; the revolutionary New People's Army claimed responsibility for the killings.

Five years ago: Army Captain Lawrence Rockwood was convicted at his court-martial in Fort Drum, New York, of conducting an unauthorized investigation of reported human rights abuses at a Haitian prison (the next day, Rockwood was dismissed from the military, but received no prison time).

One year ago: Russian lawmakers opened hearings on whether President Boris Yeltsin should be impeached. (The lower chamber of parliament ended up rejecting all five charges raised against Yeltsin, including one accusing him of starting the Chechen War.) Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and columnist Meg Greenfield died in Washington at age 68.

"A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbours."

-- William Ralph Inge, English religious leader and author (1860-1954).