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History

The Associated Press
Thursday May 16, 2002

Today is Thursday, May 16, the 136th day of 2002. There are 229 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight: 

On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie “Wings” won “best production” while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. 

 

On this date: 

In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. 

In 1866, Congress authorized minting of the five-cent piece. 

In 1868, the Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him. 

In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome. 

In 1946, the musical “Annie Get Your Gun” opened on Broadway. 

In 1960, a Big Four summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the United States in the wake of the U-2 incident. 

In 1965, the musical play “The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd” opened on Broadway. 

In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 

In 1977, five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying. 

In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress. 

 

Ten years ago:  

The space shuttle Endeavour completed its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert. Actress Marlene Dietrich, who had died in Paris at age 90, was buried in Berlin. America3 (“America Cubed”), skippered by Bill Koch, won the 28th defense of the America’s Cup. 

 

Five years ago:  

President Clinton publicly apologized for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis. The space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia’s Mir station. In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko ended 32 years of autocratic rule, giving control of the country to rebel forces. 

 

One year ago:  

Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was indicted on charges of spying for Moscow. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.) Nathaniel Brazill, a 14-year-old boy who shot his English teacher to death on the last day of the school year, was convicted of second-degree murder in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Brazill was later sentenced to 28 years in prison.) 

 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Author Studs Terkel is 90. Actor George Gaynes is 85. Actor Harry Carey Jr. is 81. Jazz musician Billy Cobham is 58. Actor Pierce Brosnan is 49. Actress Debra Winger is 47. Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut is 47. Actress Mare Winningham is 43. Singer Janet Jackson is 36. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ralph Tresvant (New Edition) is 34. Actress Tracey Gold is 33. Tennis player Gabriela Sabatini is 32. Country singer Rick Trevino is 31. Actor David Boreanaz is 31. Musician Simon Katz (Jamiroquai) is 31. Actress Tori Spelling is 29.