History & Quotes - Other Notable Events, May 9

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Other Notable Events, May 9

In 1502, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on his fourth and final voyage to the New World.

In 1926, Cmdr. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett were the first to fly over the North Pole.

In 1961, in a speech to TV bigwigs at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, new Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow referred to television as "a vast wasteland."

In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened its hearing on the possible impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon.

In 1978, the body of former Italian minister Aldo Moro, who had been kidnapped by Red Brigade terrorists, was found shot to death in the back of a car in Rome.

In 1979, the United States and Soviet Union reached a basic accord on the SALT 2 nuclear arms treaty.

In 1980, a Liberian freighter rammed a bridge in Florida's Tampa Bay, collapsing part of the span and dropping 35 people to their deaths. A new $240 million Sunshine Skybridge opened seven years later, on April 30, 1987.

In 1987, 183 people died when a Polish airliner bound for New York crashed near Warsaw. The dead included 38 Americans.

In 1991, William Kennedy Smith, nephew of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was charged with the March 30 rape and assault of a woman at the Kennedy estate in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was acquitted.

In 1992, Miss Namibia, a 6-foot-tall model and masseuse, was crowned Miss Universe, the first from her country to win the beauty pageant.

In 1993, thousands of war veterans, politicians and anti-government demonstrators gathered across Moscow and the former Soviet Union to celebrate the World War II victory over Germany at Stalingrad.

In 1996, U.S. scientists announced they had found a protein without which the AIDS virus cannot fuse to human cells.

In 2001, at least 123 people were killed during a stampede at a soccer match in Accra, Ghana.

In 2003, U.S. and British intelligence officials interrogated a mid-level Iraqi intelligence agent who appeared to have detailed knowledge of assassination techniques using chemical and biological weapons.

Also in 2003, a well-connected Los Angeles socialite, Katrina Leung, who also allegedly acted as a double-agent for China, was formally charged with passing sensitive documents on to Chinese intelligence officers.

In 2004, President Akhmad Kadyrov of Chechnya was assassinated in an explosion at a stadium in Grozny where Russia's World War II victory was being celebrated. Thirty-one others also died in the blast.

In 2005, a federal appeals court ruled that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney did not have to reveal how the White House energy policies were developed.

Also in 2005, the federal bankruptcy court gave United Airlines permission to terminate its pension plans.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 05/02/2006

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