Today in History

Today is Tuesday, May 27, the 147th day of 2014. 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, California, was opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicles began crossing the next day).

On this date:

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

In 1929, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. married Anne Morrow in Englewood, New Jersey.

In 1933, the Chicago World's Fair, celebrating "A Century of Progress," officially opened. Walt Disney's Academy Award-winning animated short "The Three Little Pigs" was first released.

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.

In 1944, Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist play "Huis clos" (known in English as "No Exit") was first performed in Paris.

In 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, ignited a blaze in underground coal deposits that continues to burn 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 for an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997.

In 1994, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after spending two decades in exile.

Ten years ago: Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, a Muslim cleric, was arrested in London and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon. (Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, was extradited to the United States in the fall of 2012; his trial began in New York in April 2014.)

Five years ago: President Barack Obama announced more spending for renewable energy after touring a large field of solar panels at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas. Gunmen detonated a car bomb in Lahore, Pakistan, killing about 30 people and wounding at least 250.

One year ago: The European Union decided to lift an arms embargo on the Syrian opposition while maintaining all other sanctions against President Bashar Assad's regime after June 1, 2013. U.S. Sen. John McCain, a proponent of arming Syrian rebels, quietly slipped into Syria for a meeting with anti-government fighters. A coordinated wave of car bombings tore through mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad, killing dozens.

Today's Birthdays: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk is 99. Actor Christopher Lee is 92. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 91. Former FBI Director William Sessions is 84. Author John Barth is 84. Actress Lee Meriwether is 79. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 79. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 78. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 75. Country singer Don Williams is 75. Actor Bruce Weitz is 71. Singer Cilla Black is 71. Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Christopher Dodd is 70. Singer Bruce Cockburn is 69. Singer-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater is 64. Actor Richard Schiff is 59. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 57. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 56. Actress Peri Gilpin is 53. Actress Cathy Silvers is 53. Comedian Adam Carolla is 50. Actor Todd Bridges is 49. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 48. Actor Dondre Whitfield is 45. Actor Paul Bettany is 43. Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 43. Country singer Jace Everett is 42. Actor Jack McBrayer is 41. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 39. Rapper Jadakiss is 39. TV chef Jamie Oliver is 39. Alt-country singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson is 38. Actor Ben Feldman is 34. Actor Michael Steger is 34. Actor-singer Chris Colfer is 24. Actor Ethan Dampf is 20.

Thought for Today: "Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -- Will Durant, American historian (1885-1981).

Copyright 2014, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.