Today in History - History - May 12th

1986President Reagan appoints Dr James C Fletcher NASA Administrator

1959"Nervous Set" opens at Henry Miller's Theater NYC for 23 performances

1963Mickey Wright wins LPGA Alpine Civitan Golf Open

199642nd McDonald's LPGA Championship won by Laura Davies

1979Chris Evert's 125-match winning streak on clay comes to an end

1943British premier Winston Churchill arrives in USA

1982In Fatima Portugal, a Spanish priest with a bayonet is stopped prior to his attempt to attack Pope John Paul II

1835Charles Darwin visits copper mines in North Chile

1789William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in UK House of Commons, reasons the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice

1960Elvis Presley appears on a Frank Sinatra special

1956Homer Simpson, fictional character from the long running television show "The Simpsons"

1968Tony Hawk, American skateboarder

1925Tony Hancock, Birmingham England, actor (Rebel, Wrong Box)

1820Florence Nightingale, Florence Italy, nurse (Crimean War)

1956NY Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner (25) weds Elizabeth Joan Zieg

1191Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre.

1990Singer Patti Page (62) weds Jerry Filiciotto

1763Founding Father of the United States Roger Sherman (42) weds second wife Rebecca Prescott (20)

1864J.E.B. Stuart [James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart], Confederate General, dies at 31

1970leonie "Nelly" Sachs, German/Swedish poet (Nobel 1966), dies at 78