SANDY KOZEL
DiMaggio’s major-league debut came on May 3,
1936, in a game at Yankee Stadium against the
St. Louis Browns.
DiMaggio played 64 games in left field, 54 in
center field, and 20 in right field in 1936 before
taking over as the full-time center fielder in 1937.
DiMaggio struck out 39 times in 1936, the highest
season total of his career, during which he struck
out only 369 times in 6,821 at-bats.
On May 3, 1942, during World War II, the first modern naval
engagement in history, the Battle of the Coral Sea, began. A
Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the
Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s defensive perimeter.
The United States, having broken Japan’s secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby,
attempted to intercept the Japanese armada.
Four days of battles between Japanese and American aircraft
carriers resulted in 70 Japanese and 66 American warplanes
destroyed.
This confrontation, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, marked the
first air-naval battle in history, as none of the carriers fired at each
other, allowing the planes taking off from their decks to do the
battling.
Among the casualties was the American carrier Lexington; “the
Blue Ghost” (so-called because it was not camouflaged like other carriers) suffered extensive aerial damage and was scuttled by
destroyer torpedoes. Two hundred sixteen Lexington crewmen
died as a result of the Japanese aerial bombardment.
The American aircraft carrier USS Lexington explodes on 8
May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972)
After nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover died, leaving the powerful
government agency without the administrator who had been
largely responsible for its existence and shape.
Educated as a lawyer and a librarian, Hoover joined the
Department of Justice in 1917 and within two years had
become special assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell
Palmer.
May 20, 1972
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, was killed by U.S.
forces during a raid on his compound hideout in Pakistan.
The notorious, 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist
network of Islamic extremists, had been the target of a nearly
decade-long international manhunt.
The raid began around 1 a.m. local time (4 p.m. EST on May 1,
2011 in the United States), when 23 U.S. Navy SEALs in two
Black Hawk helicopters descended on the compound in
Abbottabad, a tourist and military center north of Pakistan’s
capital, Islamabad. One of the helicopters crash-landed into
the compound but no one aboard was hurt.
During the raid, which lasted approximately 40 minutes, five
people, including bin Laden and one of his adult sons, were
killed by U.S. gunfire. No Americans were injured in the assault.
A vendor walks past a sand sculpture of al-Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden created by Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik on a beach in Puri in the eastern Indian state of
Orissa on May 2, 2011. (Reuters)
Whitman’s confections have been produced for over 175 years.
Originally a "confectionery and fruiterer shoppe" set up in 1842
by 19-year-old Stephen F. Whitman on the Philadelphia waterfront, Whitman’s first became popular with traveling sailors and their
wives.
They would often bring imported fruits, nuts, and cocoa which
were obtained during their voyages to Mr. Whitman so that he
could make the popular European confections people craved
in that era.
Stephen Franch Whitman (1823 – 1888)
