May 21st

Today's Highlight in History:
On May 21st, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his "Spirit of St. Louis" near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

On this date:
In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.

In 1832, the first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore.

In 1840, New Zealand was declared a British colony.

In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

In 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Junior and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago.

In 1956, the United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

In 1959, the musical "Gypsy," inspired by the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, opened on Broadway.

In 1968, the nuclear-powered US submarine "Scorpion,' with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)

In 1980, Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a US service academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.

In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during national elections by a suicide bomber.

Ten years ago: Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians in violence sparked by the slayings of seven Palestinians by an Israeli civilian a day earlier.

Five years ago: Former Secretary of Defense Les Aspin died at a Washington DC hospital after suffering a massive stroke; he was 56.

One year ago: Presidential friend and fund-raiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and agreed to cooperate in an investigation of illegal Asian donations to the Democrats. A luxury cruise liner, the "Sun Vista," sank off Malaysia's western coast; nearly eleven-hundred passengers and crew escaped with no casualties. Susan Lucci won a Daytime Emmy Award for best actress on her 19th try.

"Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want."

-- Irving Kristol, American editor.