Today in History

Today is Saturday, May 14, the 135th day of 2016. There are 231 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 14, 1948, according to the current-era calendar, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv.

On this date:

In 1643, Louis XIV became King of France at age four upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter.

In 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory as well as the Pacific Northwest left camp near present-day Hartford, Illinois.

In 1900, the Olympic games opened in Paris as part of the 1900 World's Fair.

In 1925, the Virginia Woolf novel "Mrs Dalloway" was first published in England and the United States.

In 1936, British Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, died in London at age 75.

In 1940, the Netherlands surrendered to invading German forces during World War II.

In 1955, representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. (The Pact was dissolved in 1991.)

In 1961, Freedom Riders were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama.

In 1973, the United States launched Skylab 1, its first manned space station. (Skylab 1 remained in orbit for six years before burning up during re-entry in 1979.) The National Right to Life Committee was incorporated.

In 1988, 27 people, mostly teens, were killed when their church bus collided with a pickup truck going the wrong direction on a highway near Carrollton, Kentucky. (Truck driver Larry Mahoney served 9 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter.)

In 1998, singer-actor Frank Sinatra died at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82. The hit sitcom "Seinfeld" aired its final episode after nine years on NBC.

Ten years ago: Mexico's President Vicente Fox telephoned President George W. Bush to express concern about what he called the possibility of a "militarized" U.S.-Mexican border, a day before Bush's planned Oval Office speech on immigration. Rene Preval was sworn in as Haiti's president for the second time in a decade. Former U.S. poet laureate Stanley Kunitz died in New York at age 100. Aras Baskauskas, a 24-year-old yoga instructor from Santa Monica, California, won "Survivor: Panama, Exile Island," the 12th edition of the CBS reality show.

Five years ago: At New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and potential candidate for president of France, was removed from a Paris-bound plane and charged with sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo. (Strauss-Kahn later resigned; the charges against him were eventually dropped.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama, at a Camp David summit, assured Arab allies they were safe from the threat of an empowered Iran, pledging an "ironclad commitment" to the Sunni governments of the Persian Gulf. B.B. King, 89, the "King of the Blues," died in Las Vegas. Award-winning poet Franz Wright, 62, died in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Today's Birthdays: Opera singer Patrice Munsel is 91. Photo-realist artist Richard Estes is 84. Actress Sian Phillips is 83. Former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is 74. Movie producer George Lucas is 72. Actress Meg Foster is 68. Movie director Robert Zemeckis is 65. Rock singer David Byrne is 64. Actor Tim Roth is 55. Rock singer Ian Astbury (The Cult) is 54. Rock musician C.C. (aka Cecil) DeVille is 54. Actor Danny Huston is 54. Rock musician Mike Inez (Alice In Chains) is 50. Fabrice Morvan (ex-Milli Vanilli) is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raphael Saadiq is 50. Actress Cate Blanchett is 47. Singer Danny Wood (New Kids on the Block) is 47. Movie writer-director Sofia Coppola (KOH'-pah-lah) is 45. Actor Gabriel Mann is 44. Singer Natalie Appleton (All Saints) is 43. Singer Shanice is 43. Actress Carla Jimenez is 42. Rock musician Henry Garza (Los Lonely Boys) is 38. Alt-country musician-singer Ketch Secor is 38. Rock singer-musician Dan Auerbach is 37. Rock musician Mike Retondo (Plain White T's) is 35. Actress Lina Esco is 34. Actress Amber Tamblyn is 33. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is 32. Actress Miranda Cosgrove is 23.

Thought for Today: "Silence cannot hide anything -- which is more than you can say for words." -- From the play "The Ghost Sonata" by Swedish author-playwright August Strindberg (born 1849, died this date in 1912).