Today in History

Today is Sunday, May 13, the 134th day of 2012. There are 232 days left in the year. This is Mother's Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 13, 1992, the Falun Gong movement had its beginning as the sect's founder, Li Hongzhi, began publicly lecturing on his spiritual philosophy in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun.

On this date:

In 1607, English colonists arrived by ship at the site of what became the Jamestown settlement in Virginia (the colonists went ashore the next day).

In 1846, the United States declared that a state of war already existed with Mexico.

In 1861, Britain's Queen Victoria declared her country's neutrality in the American Civil War, but also acknowledged that the Confederacy had belligerent rights.

In 1917, three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.

In 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, were issued to the public. (On a few of the stamps, the biplane was inadvertently printed upside-down, making them collector's items.)

In 1940, Britain's new prime minister, Winston Churchill, told Parliament: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, were spat upon and their limousine battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1961, actor Gary Cooper died in Los Angeles six days after turning 60.

In 1972, 118 people died after fire broke out at the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.

In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped a bomb onto the group's row house; 11 people died in the resulting fire that destroyed 61 homes.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated federal appeals Judge Stephen G. Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush announced that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign a treaty to shrink their countries' nuclear arsenals by two-thirds. President Bush signed a $190 billion farm bill guaranteeing higher subsidies to growers in Midwestern and Southern states. In Baltimore, Dontee Stokes shot and wounded the Rev. Maurice Blackwell, a Roman Catholic priest. (Stokes, who accused Blackwell of sexually abusing him as a boy, was later acquitted of attempted murder, but was convicted of gun charges and sentenced to house arrest. Blackwell was later convicted of abusing Stokes, but had his conviction reversed.)

Five years ago: President George W. Bush made a pilgrimage to the site of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia to mark the 400th anniversary of its founding. Pope Benedict XVI, ending a five-day visit to Brazil, blamed both Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems. Canada won hockey's world championship with a 4-2 victory over Finland.

One year ago: Two suicide bombers attacked paramilitary police recruits heading home after months of training in northwest Pakistan, killing 87 people in what the Pakistan Taliban called revenge for the U.S. slaying of Osama bin Laden. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi taunted NATO in an audio broadcast, saying he was alive despite a series of airstrikes and "in a place where you can't get to and kill me." Sen. George Mitchell announced his resignation as the Obama administration's special envoy to the Mideast.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Buck Taylor is 74. Actor Harvey Keitel is 73. Author Charles Baxter is 65. Actor Franklyn Ajaye is 63. Actress Zoe Wanamaker is 63. Singer Stevie Wonder is 62. Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman is 51. Actor-comedian Stephen Colbert is 48. Rock musician John Richardson (The Gin Blossoms) is 48. Actor Tom Verica is 48. Country singer Lari White is 47. Singer Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 46. Actress Susan Floyd is 44. Contemporary Christian musician Andy Williams (Casting Crowns) is 40. Actress Samantha Morton is 35. Rock musician Mickey Madden (Maroon 5) is 33. Actress-writer-director Lena Dunham is 26. Actor Robert Pattinson is 26. Actress Candice Accola is 25. Actor Hunter Parrish is 25.

Thought for Today: "A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbours." -- William Ralph Inge, English religious leader and author (1860-1954).

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.