In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
This artwork is by an unknown artist depicting Marie Antoinette as she is taken to the guillotine at the height of the French Revolution October 16, 1793, for the crime of treason.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
In 1868, the U.S. Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on the eleven articles of impeachment against him.
Seen here, a facsimile of a ticket used during the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, shown in Washington on Feb. 15, 1974.
(AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)
AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi
In 1957, federal agent Eliot Ness, who’d organized “The Untouchables” team that took on gangster Al Capone, died in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, at age 54.
Seen here, a framed poster from Ness’s unsuccessful run for mayor of Cleveland in 1947 hangs in the Cleveland Police Historical Society at Cleveland police headquarters on Wednesday, June 25, 1997.
(AP Photo/Piet van Lier)
AP Photo/Piet van Lier
On May 16, 1966, China launched the Cultural Revolution, a radical, youth-driven reform movement aimed at bolstering Chairman Mao Zedong while purging the country of “counter-revolutionaries.” It’s been estimated that during the decade of upheaval that followed, hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps more, died as a direct or indirect result of the Cultural Revolution.
(AP Photo, File)
AP Photo, File
In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the United States Congress as she lauded U.S.-British cooperation in the Persian Gulf War.
Here, Queen Elizabeth II is applauded by Vice President Dan Quayle and House Speaker Thomas Foley before her address to the U.S. Congress on Thursday, May 16, 1991 in Washington.
(AP Photo/Doug Mills)
AP Photo/Doug Mills
In 1997, President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis.
In this Friday, May 16, 1997 file picture, President Clinton, left, and Vice President Al Gore, center, reach out to Herman Shaw, 94, a Tuskegee Syphilis Study victim, during a news conference in Washington. Making amends for a shameful U.S. experiment, Clinton apologized to black men whose syphilis went untreated by government doctors.
(AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)
AP Photo/Doug Mills, File
In 2007, British Prime Minister Tony Blair paid a farewell visit to President George W. Bush at the White House.
In this AP photo, U.S. President George W. Bush, right, stands with Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, during a tour of Blair’s house in Sedgefield, Friday, Nov. 21, 2003.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
In 1919, pianist Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin.
This photo shows Liberace is seated at his piano in his Beverly Hills home in California on June 17, 1961. Liberace’s home is reported to have 28 rooms.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
The missing sword in the Joan of Arc statute that lives in Meridian Hill Park has been replaced.
(WTOP/Dick Uliano)
FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2005 file photo, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei looks on during a felicitation ceremony in Katmandu, Nepal. Tabei died Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, of cancer at a hospital outside of Tokyo, according to Japanese media reports. She was 77. Tabei reached the summit of the world's highest mountain in 1975. In 1992, she also became the first woman to complete the "Seven Summits," reaching the highest peaks of the seven continents. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi)(AP/BINOD JOSHI)
FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2005 file photo, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei looks on during a felicitation ceremony in Katmandu, Nepal. Tabei died Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, of cancer at a hospital outside of Tokyo, according to Japanese media reports. She was 77. Tabei reached the summit of the world's highest mountain in 1975. In 1992, she also became the first woman to complete the "Seven Summits," reaching the highest peaks of the seven continents. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi)(AP/BINOD JOSHI)
Today is Thursday, May 16, the 136th day of 2019. There are 229 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 16, 1966, China launched the Cultural Revolution, a radical as well as deadly reform movement aimed at purging the country of “counter-revolutionaries.”
On this date:
In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
In 1868, at the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, 35 out of 54 senators voted to find Johnson guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” over his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, falling one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict; the trial ended 10 days later after two other articles of impeachment went down to defeat as well.
In 1919, pianist Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin.
In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
In 1939, the federal government began its first food stamp program in Rochester, New York.
In 1943, the nearly month-long Warsaw Ghetto Uprising came to an end as German forces crushed the Jewish resistance and blew up the Great Synagogue.
In 1953, Associated Press correspondent William N. Oatis was released by Communist authorities in Czechoslovakia, where he had been imprisoned for two years after being forced to confess to espionage while working as the AP’s Prague bureau chief.
In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court, in California v. Greenwood, ruled that police could search discarded garbage without a search warrant. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report declaring nicotine was addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine.
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the United States Congress as she lauded U.S.-British cooperation in the Persian Gulf War.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis.
In 2007, anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war.
Ten years ago: The ruling Congress party swept to a resounding victory in India’s mammoth national elections. Rachel Alexandra became the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes since 1924, holding off a late charge by Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird to capture the middle jewel of the Triple Crown by a length.
Five years ago: Federal safety regulators slapped General Motors with a record $35 million fine for taking more than a decade to disclose an ignition-switch defect in millions of cars linked at that point to at least 13 deaths (the figure later rose to 90). U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel pledged to Israeli leaders that the U.S. would “do what we must” to prevent the Jewish state’s greatest fear of a nuclear-armed Iran from being realized.
One year ago: Officials at Michigan State University said they had agreed to pay $500 million to settle claims from more than 300 women and girls who said they were assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar.
