Today in History:
On May 14, 1948, according to the current-era calendar, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv by David Ben-Gurion, who became its first prime minister; U.S. President Harry S. Truman immediately recognized the new nation.
On this date:
In 1643, Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 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 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 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.
In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana for medical purposes.
In 2003, more than 100 immigrants were abandoned in a locked trailer at a Texas truck stop; 19 of them died. (Truck driver Tyrone Williams was later sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison for his role in the deaths.)
In 2008, the Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice.
In 2013, in an op-ed in The New York Times, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie said she’d undergone a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer.
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron swept into office as France’s new president, pledging to fortify the European Union, redesign French politics and glue together his divided nation.
In 2018, writer Tom Wolfe, who chronicled the space race in “The Right Stuff” before turning his satiric wit to such novels as “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” died in New York at the age of 88.
In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors about a serious rare inflammatory condition in children linked with the coronavirus.
In 2022, a gunman wearing body armor opened fire in a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, killing at least 10 people before being taken into custody.