12 May: Today In History

Today is Friday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2017. There are 233 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History:

Events:

1967: “Are You Experienced,” the groundbreaking debut album of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was released in Britain by Track Records (a version with a somewhat different playlist went on sale in the United States the following August on the Reprise label). Procol Harum’s debut single “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was released in the United Kingdom on the Deram label. English poet laureate John Masefield (“And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by…”) died in Abingdon at age 88.

1780:  During the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces.

1870:  An act creating the Canadian province of Manitoba was given royal assent, to take effect in July.

1932:  The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey.

1937:  Britain’s King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey; his wife, Elizabeth, was crowned as queen consort.

1949:  The Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

1957:  Movie director-actor Erich von Stroheim, 71, died in Maurepas, France.

1963:  Betty Miller became the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean as she landed her Piper Apache in Brisbane, Australia, having left Oakland, California, on April 30, making three stopovers along the way.

1975:  The White House announced the new Cambodian government had seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. (U.S. Marines gained control of the ship three days after its seizure, not knowing the 39 civilian members of the crew had already been released by Cambodia.)

1982:  In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope’s longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)

1992:  Actor Robert Reed of TV’s “The Brady Bunch” died in Pasadena, California, at age 59.

1997:  Australian Susie Maroney became the first woman to swim from Cuba to Florida, covering the 118-mile distance in 24 1/2 hours.

2002:  Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba, becoming the first U.S. president in or out of office to visit since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.

Birthdays:

Critic John Simon is 92.

Composer Burt Bacharach is 89.

Actress Millie Perkins is 79.

Rhythm-and-blues singer Jayotis Washington is 76.

Country singer Billy Swan is 75.

Actress Linda Dano is 74.

Actress Lindsay Crouse is 69.

Singer-musician Steve Winwood is 69.

Actor Gabriel Byrne is 67.

Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 67.

Singer Billy Squier is 67.

Blues singer-musician Guy Davis is 65.

Quotes Of The Day:

Before you make a decision, ask youself this question: will you regret the results or rejoice in them?

The longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart.