TODAY is Wednesday, May 5, the 125th day of 2010. There are 240 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeated French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.

In 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named "Music Hall") had its official opening night in New York City.

In 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested in the shooting deaths of a paymaster and security guard during a robbery at a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts. (Sacco and Vanzetti were later convicted and executed amid an international outcry.)

In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)

In 1955, West Germany became a fully sovereign state. The baseball musical 'Damn Yankees' opened on Broadway.

In 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced his country had shot down an American U-2 plane which the US claimed was conducting weather studies over Turkey. (The US cover story fell apart two days later when Khrushchev announced that the U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, had survived.)

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." – Ralph W. Sockman, American clergyman (1889-1970).