Flamboyant huckster Billie Sol Estes died in DeCordova Bend, Texas, at age 88.įive years ago: Israel and the U.S. Ten years ago: In an op-ed appearing in The New York Times, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie said she’d undergone a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors about a serious rare inflammatory condition in children linked with the coronavirus. In 2008, the Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. (Truck driver Tyrone Williams was later sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison for his role in the deaths.) In 2003, more than 100 immigrants were abandoned in a locked trailer at a Texas truck stop 19 of them died. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana for medical purposes. The hit sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its final episode after nine years on NBC. In 1998, singer-actor Frank Sinatra died at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82. (Truck driver Larry Mahoney served 9 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter.)

In 1988, 27 people, mostly teens, were killed when their church bus collided with a pickup truck going the wrong direction on a highway near Carrollton, Kentucky.

In 1961, Freedom Riders were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama. In 1955, representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland.

Truman immediately recognized the new nation. In 1948, according to the current-era calendar, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv by David Ben-Gurion, who became its first prime minister U.S. In 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory as well as the Pacific Northwest left camp near present-day Hartford, Illinois. In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter. In 1643, Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. On May 14, 1940, the Netherlands surrendered to invading German forces during World War II.

Fire Country by David Estes