Undated -- Today in History
Today is Saturday, May 12, the 133rd day of 2012. There are 233 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On May 12, 1937, Britain's King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey; his wife, Elizabeth, was crowned as queen consort.
On this date:
In 1012, Pope Sergius IV died, ending a nearly three-year papacy; he was succeeded by Pope Benedict VIII.
In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of Charleston, SC, surrendered to British forces.
In 1812, English poet Edward Lear, known for nonsensical verse like "The Owl and the Pussycat," was born.
In 1902, anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike. (The strike effectively ended in October 1902 with the appointment of an Anthracite Coal Strike Commission by President Theodore Roosevelt.)
In 1922, a 20-ton meteor crashed near Blackstone, Va.
In 1930, Chicago's Adler Planetarium first opened to the public.
In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, N.J.
In 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.
In 1958, the United States and Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD for short).
In 1970, the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun as a Supreme Court justice.
In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope's longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)
In 1992, actor Robert Reed of TV's "The Brady Bunch" died in Pasadena, Calif., at age 59.
Ten years ago: Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba, becoming the first US president -- in or out of office -- to visit since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.
Five years ago: Virginia Tech held its first commencement ceremonies since the April 16 shooting rampage that claimed 32 victims and the shooter. Voters in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch became the first in the nation to back an ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants. (Court challenges have kept the law from taking effect.) A US patrol was attacked south of Baghdad; four Americans and an Iraqi interpreter were killed, three soldiers were kidnapped and later found dead. A US-led coalition operation supported by NATO troops killed the Taliban's most prominent military commander, Mullah Dadullah.
One year ago: CEOs of the five largest oil companies went before the Senate Finance Committee, where Democrats challenged the executives to justify tax breaks at a time when people were paying $4 a gallon for gas. A German court convicted retired US autoworker John Demjanjuk of being an accessory to the murder of tens of thousands of Jews as a Nazi death camp guard. (Demjanjuk, who maintained his innocence, died in March 2012 at age 91.)