Today is Wednesday, May 27, the 148th day of 2020. There are 218 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 27, 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a key component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislative program.
On this date:
In 1861, Chief Justice Roger Taney, sitting as a federal circuit court judge in Baltimore, ruled that President Abraham Lincoln lacked the authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (Lincoln disregarded the ruling).
In 1933, the Chicago World’s Fair, celebrating “A Century of Progress,” officially opened. Walt Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated short “The Three Little Pigs” was first released.
In 1941, the British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France with a loss of some 2,000 lives, three days after the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood with the loss of more than 1,400 lives. Amid rising world tensions, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency” during a radio address from the White House.
In 1995, actor Christopher Reeve was left paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Today’s Birthdays: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 97. Former FBI Director William Sessions is 90. Author John Barth is 90. Actress Lee Meriwether is 85. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 85. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 84. Rhythm and blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 81. Actor Bruce Weitz is 77. Former Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is 76. Singer Bruce Cockburn (KOH’-burn) is 75. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is 73. Singer-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater is 70. Actor Richard Schiff is 65. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 63. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 62. Actress Peri Gilpin is 59. Actress Cathy Silvers is 59. Comedian Adam Carolla is 56. Actor Todd Bridges is 55.
Thought for Today: “Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.” — Chuang-Tzu, Chinese essayist (c.369-c.286 B.C.)
