Today in History... May 5th

1968 U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen

1961 Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space

1945 Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control

1916 U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic

1912 Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing

1886 A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers’ strike in Chicago

1865 The 13^th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery

1834 The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium

1821 Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena

1818 Karl Marx, German philosopher (The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital) is born

1494 Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria