This Week in History

MAY 9

Kathy Lehane Cawthorne was born.

Tim McElhinney was born.

1914 – Mother’s Day became a public holiday.

1994 – The South African parliament chose Nelson Mandela as president.

MAY 10

John L. Muldoon was born.

Laura Flower Bruns was born.

Karen Potter was born.

Meghan Anderson was born.

1924 – J. Edgar Hoover became director of the FBI.

1940 – Winston Churchill succeeded Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister.

MAY 11

1997 – IBM’s supercomputer, Deep Blue, defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion, in a six-game chess match.

May 12

Coleen Lane was born.

Elise Heeran was born.

1932 – The body of Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s kidnapped baby was found.

1943 – Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

May 13

Lynn Heeran was born.

1940 – Winston Churchill gave his first speech as prime minister: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

1981 – Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca as he drove through a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Rome.

May 14

Tricia Davey was born.

Tim Harkins was born.

Bernadette O’Brien was born.

Maureen Hayes was born.

Ginna Siegrist was born.

1904 – The Olympic Games were held in the United States for the first time, in St. Louis, Missouri.

1998 – Frank Sinatra died at the age of 82.

May 15

Courtney Donahue was born.

1940 – Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S.