Today in History

Today is Sunday, May 27, the 148th day of 2012. There are 218 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicular traffic began crossing the bridge the next day).

On this date:

In 1861, Chief Justice Roger Taney, sitting as a federal circuit court judge in Baltimore, ruled that President Abraham Lincoln lacked the authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (Lincoln disregarded the ruling).

In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., and East St. Louis, Ill.

In 1912, golf legend Sam Snead was born in Ashwood, Va. Author John Cheever was born in Quincy, Mass.

In 1929, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. married Anne Morrow in Englewood, N.J.

In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

In 1936, the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage to New York.

In 1941, the British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France, with a loss of some 2,000 lives, three days after the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood.

In 1942, Navy Cook 3rd Class Doris "Dorie" Miller became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for his "extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety" during Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich was seriously wounded in a bomb attack by Czech agents in Prague; he died eight days later. (The Nazis retaliated with mass executions.)

In 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Pa., ignited a slow-burning blaze in underground coal deposits that continues to smolder to this day.

In 1964, independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

In 1993, five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush commemorated Memorial Day at Normandy American Cemetery in France, where he honored the 9,387 men and women buried there.

Five years ago: American forces freed 42 kidnapped Iraqis in a raid on an al-Qaida hideout north of Baghdad. Dario Franchitti won a rain-abbreviated Indy 500. Broadway actress Gretchen Wyler died in Camarillo, Calif., at age 75.

One year ago: Rich countries and international lenders said at a Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France, they were aiming to provide $40 billion in funding for Arab nations trying to establish democracy, starting with Egypt and Tunisia. President Barack Obama, visiting Poland, honored the memories of those slain in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazis. Gil Scott-Heron, 62, widely considered one of the godfathers of rap music, died in New York. Actor Jeff Conaway died at a hospital in Encino, Calif.; he was 60.

Today's Birthdays: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk is 97. Actor Christopher Lee is 90. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 89. Author John Barth is 82. Actress Lee Meriwether is 77. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 77. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 76. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 73. Country singer Don Williams is 73. Actor Bruce Weitz is 69. Singer Cilla Black is 69. Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Christopher Dodd is 68. Singer Bruce Cockburn is 67. Singer-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater is 62. Actor Richard Schiff is 57. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 55. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 54. Actress Peri Gilpin is 51. Actress Cathy Silvers is 51. Comedian Adam Carolla is 48. Actor Todd Bridges is 47. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 46. Actor Dondre Whitfield is 43. Actor Paul Bettany is 41. Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 41. Country singer Jace Everett is 40. Actor Jack McBrayer is 39. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 37. Rapper Jadakiss is 37. TV chef Jamie Oliver is 37. Alt-country singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson is 36. Actor Michael Steger is 32. Actor-singer Chris Colfer (TV: "Glee") is 22. Actor Ethan Dampf is 18.

Thought for Today: "Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous." -- Chuang-Tzu, Chinese essayist (c.369 B.C.E.-c.286 B.C.E.)

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.