Today in history: May 5 Shepard is the first American in space Business

Today’s moment of history:

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler, making a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard the Mercury Freedom 7 capsule.

In 1494, during his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica.

In 1821, 51-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes was accused in Tennessee of violating a state law that forbade the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his sentence was later overturned.)

In 1942, the United States began rationing sugar during the war.

In 1945, a single fatal attack of this kind during World War II on Mount Girhart in Oregon exploded a Japanese balloon, killing the minister’s pregnant wife and five children. Denmark and the Netherlands were liberated when the capitulation of Germany came into force.

In 1973, the Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of its Triple Crown victories.

In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands died at Labyrinth Prison in Northern Ireland on the 66th day without food.

In 1994, Singapore punished American teenager Michael Faye with a wand for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to a call from President Bill Clinton.

In 2009, Texas health officials confirmed the first death of a U.S. resident from swine flu.

In 2014, the Supreme Court upheld Christian prayers at the beginning of local council meetings.

In 2016, a former garbage collector from Lonnie Franklin Jr. was convicted on 10 counts of “Gloomy Sleep” serial killings aimed at poor young black women for two decades.

In 2020, Tyson Foods said it would resume limited operations at its huge pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, with heightened security measures more than two weeks after the plant closed due to a coronavirus outbreak among workers. Facebook said it had removed several QAnon-related accounts and pages, for the first time taking action against a far-right conspiracy theory circulating among Trump supporters.

Ten years ago: five Guantanamo detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (HAH’-leed shayk moh-HAH’-mehd), the self-proclaimed leader of the 9/11 attacks, were prosecuted as part of a 13-hour trial. -for the tactics of procrastination by the defendants.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump signed his first major bill, a $ 1 trillion spending bill to keep the government running until September. The Department of Labor reported a surge in hiring in April 2017, when employers added 211,000 jobs, more than twice as many as in March.

A year ago, a federal judge in Washington ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its authority when it imposed a national moratorium on evictions. (The moratorium will remain in effect while appealing to the Department of Justice; it was allowed to end in late July.) The Biden administration has joined calls for the patent protection of COVID-19 vaccines to be lifted to help the poorer parts of the world get more doses. Four months after Facebook suspended former President Donald Trump’s accounts, the company’s quasi-independent supervisory board backed the bans, but told Facebook to clarify how long they would last. Peloton recalled about 125,000 treadmills; Tread + treadmills have been linked to the deaths of one child and the injuries of 29 others. A government report says the birth rate in the U.S. fell by 4% in 2021, the biggest drop in one year in nearly 50 years.

Today’s Birthday: Actor Pete Carroll 95. Country musician Ronnie Stoneman – 84. Actor Michael Murphy – 84. Actor Lance Henriksen – 82. Comedian Michael Palin – 79. Actor John Rice-Davis – 78. Rock-loude. 77 years old. Rock music by Black Ward (Black Sabbath) – 74. Actor Melinda Culea – 67. Actor Lisa Eilbacher – 65. Actor Richard E. Grant – 65. Former TV journalist John Miller 64. Rock singer Ian McCullough (Echo and the Bun) 63. Lead journalist Brian Williams – 63. Rock musician Sean Drover (Megadeth) – 56. TV presenter Kaan (KY’-ihn) Douglas 52. Actor Tina Ozers 49. R&B singer Rahim DeVon – 47. Actor Santi. Cabrera – 44. Actor Vincent Cartaiser – 43. Singer Craig David – 41 years old. Actor Daniel Fishel – 41. Actor Henry Cavill – 39. Actor Clark Duke – 37. Soul singer Adele – 34. Rock singer Skye Sweetham – 34 years old. Brown 33. Figure skater Nathan Chen is 23 years old.