Today in History

Today is Monday, May 27, the 147th day of 2013. There are 218 days left in the year. This is the Memorial Day observance.

Today's Highlights in History:

On May 27, 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.

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 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 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrians (vehicles began crossing the next day).

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 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Pa., 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 1993, five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy.

Ten years ago: Two Iraqis shot and killed two American soldiers in Fallujah, a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein. Derrick Todd Lee, a suspected serial killer of women in Louisiana, was arrested in Atlanta. (Lee is under sentence of death for one killing and sentenced to life for another.) A study was released that showed women who took hormones for years ran a higher risk of Alzheimer's or other types of dementia.

Five years ago: Myanmar's military government renewed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for one year; the move came as officials said that international aid workers had finally begun entering Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta area after being blocked for more than three weeks by the junta.

One year ago: Syria strongly denied allegations that its forces had killed scores of people -- including women and children -- in Houla, but the U.N. Security Council condemned government forces for shelling residential areas. At the Cannes Film Festival, Austrian director Michael Haneke won the top prize for a second time with his stark film, "Amour." Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 for the third time. Johnny Tapia, the five-time boxing champion whose turbulent career was marked by cocaine addiction, alcohol, depression and run-ins with the law, was found dead at his Albuquerque, N.M., home; he was 45.

Today's Birthdays: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Herman Wouk is 98. Actor Christopher Lee is 91. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 90. Author John Barth is 83. Actress Lee Meriwether is 78. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 78. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 77. Rhythm-and-blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 74. Country singer Don Williams is 74. Actor Bruce Weitz is 70. Singer Cilla Black is 70. Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Christopher Dodd is 69. Singer Bruce Cockburn is 68. Singer-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater is 63. Actor Richard Schiff is 58. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 56. Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 55. Actress Peri Gilpin is 52. Actress Cathy Silvers is 52. Comedian Adam Carolla is 49. Actor Todd Bridges is 48. Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 47. Actor Dondre Whitfield is 44. Actor Paul Bettany is 42. Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 42. Country singer Jace Everett is 41. Actor Jack McBrayer is 40. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 38. Rapper Jadakiss is 38. TV chef Jamie Oliver is 38. Alt-country singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson is 37. Actor Michael Steger is 33. Actor-singer Chris Colfer is 23. Actor Ethan Dampf is 19.

Thought for Today: "Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one." -- Thomas Carlyle, Scottish critic and historian (1795-1881).

Copyright 2013, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.