May 6
Tony Blair.
British Labour Party leader Tony Blair, born this day in 1953, has served as prime minister since 1997. He first won election to the House of Commons in 1983. His entry into politics coincided with a long political ascendancy of the Conservative Party (from 1979) and Labour's loss of four consecutive general elections (1979–92).
"We live in a world where isolationism has ceased to have a reason to exist.…We are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not. We cannot refuse to participate in global markets if we want to prosper. We cannot ignore new political ideas in other countries if we want to innovate. We cannot turn our backs on conflicts and the violation of human rights within other countries if we want still to be secure."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing the Economic Club of Chicago, April 22, 1999
Hindenburg disaster
The Hindenburg in flames at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey, May 6, 1937.
1937: On this day, while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the first of its scheduled 1937 transatlantic crossings, the German dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames and was completely destroyed; 36 of the 97 persons aboard were killed. The fire was generally attributed to a discharge of atmospheric electricity in the vicinity of a hydrogen leak from the airship's gasbag. The Hindenburg disaster marked the end of the use of rigid airships in commercial air transportation.
1954: Roger Bannister of Britain became the first athlete to run a mile in less than four minutes.
1942: The American garrison on Corregidor Island, under the command of General Jonathan M.Wainwright, surrendered to Japanese invaders after a 27-day standoff during World War II.
1931: American baseball star Willie Mays was born in Westfield, Alabama.
1915: American motion-picture actor and director Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
1856: Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was born in Freiberg, Moravia, Austrian Empire (now Príbor, Czech Republic).
1840: The “penny black” stamp, issued in Great Britain, went into circulation as the first prepaid postage stamp in history. |
