May 27th

Today's Highlight in History:
On May 27th, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California, was opened to the public.

On this date:
In 1647, the first recorded American execution of a "witch" took place in Massachusetts.

In 1818, American reformer Amelia Jenks Bloomer, who popularized the garment that bears her name -- "bloomers" -- was born in Homer, New York.

In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.

In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

In 1936, the Cunard liner "Queen Mary" left England on its maiden voyage.

In 1941, amid rising world tensions, President Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency."

In 1941, the British navy sank the German battleship "Bismarck" off France, with a loss of 2300 lives.

In 1964, independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

In 1994, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after two decades in exile.

Ten years ago: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev tried to calm his nation's economic nerves with a hastily scheduled television address. Cesar Gaviria Trujillo was elected president of Colombia. The political opposition of Burma (Myanmar) scored a victory in the country's first free, multiparty elections in three decades.

Five years ago: Actor Christopher Reeve was left paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Virginia.

One year ago: A UN tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity, holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo and brutal purge of ethnic Albanians. The space shuttle "Discovery" blasted off on a mission to carry supplies to the new international space station. In Milan, Italy, the latest restoration of "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, an effort that took 22 years, went on display during a VIP-only showing.

"Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous."

-- Chuang-Tzu, Chinese essayist (c.369-c.286 B.C.)