Saturday, May 14

This Day In History

• 1643   Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
• 1787   Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.
• 1796   English physician Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to an 8-year-old boy.
• 1804   The Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory left St. Louis.
• 1904   The first Olympic games to be held in the United States opened in St. Louis.
• 1942   Aaron Copland's ''Lincoln Portrait'' was first performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
• 1942   The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps was established.
• 1955   Representatives from the Soviet Union and seven other Communist bloc countries signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland.
• 1973   The United States launched Skylab 1, its first manned space station.
• 1985   The first McDonald’s restaurant -- in Des Plaines, IL -- became the first museum of the fast-food business. McMannequins, McPosters and loads of McPhotos display years of hamburger McProgress!
• 1996   A tornado flattened 80 villages in nothern Bangladesh, killing more than 440 people.
• 1998   Singer Frank Sinatra died at age 82 after a heart attack.
• 1998   The hit TV series ''Seinfeld'' aired its final episode after nine years on NBC.
• 1998   The Associated Press commemorated its 150th anniversary.
• 2001   The Supreme Court ruled that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses.

Happy Birthday To

• 1936   Bobby Darin (Cassotto)
• 1944   George Lucas (George Walton Lucas Jr.) (film producer, director: Star Wars series, Indiana Jones series, American Graffiti)