@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Saturday, May 15, the 135th day of 2010. There are 230 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1918, the world's first airmail service began between New York, Philadelphia and Washington, using planes supplied by the US War Department.

In 1928, the Australian Flying Doctor service was inaugurated by Dr. Vincent Welsh at Australian Inland Mission, Cloncurry, Queensland.

In 1930, registered nurse Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty serving 11 people on an Boeing 80A on an Oakland-to-Chicago flight operated by Boeing Air Transport (a forerunner of United Airlines).

In 1940, nylon stockings were first introduced to the public by DuPont. The Dutch army surrendered to the invading Germans.

In 1948, hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

In 1955, the Vienna Treaty, signed by Britain, France, the United States and Soviet Union, restored Austrian sovereignty.

In 1957, Great Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific.

In 1970, just after midnight, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi, were killed as police opened fire during student protests.

In 1972, George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer and left paralysed while campaigning in Laurel, Maryland, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1975, US forces invaded the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayagüez. All 40 crew members had already been released safely by Cambodia; some 40 US servicemen were killed in the operation.

Thought for Today

"History is a better guide than good intentions." — Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former US ambassador to the United Nations.