AT A GLANCE

Published 1:15 am Thursday, May 9, 2019

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, May 9, the 129th day of 2019. There are 236 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY

On May 9, 1980, 35 people were killed when a freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section of the southbound span to collapse.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

• Actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson is 83. • Producer-director James L. Brooks is 82. • Musician Sonny Curtis (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 82. • Singer Tommy Roe is 77. • Singer-musician Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco) is 75. • Actress Candice Bergen is 73. • Singer Billy Joel is 70. • Actor John Corbett is 58. • Actress Sonja Sohn (“The Wire”) is 55. • Actress Rosario Dawson (“Jane the Virgin”) is 40. • Actress Grace Gummer (“Mr. Robot” ) is 33.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistible force into an immovable object.” — Laurence J. Peter, Canadian-born educator (1919-90).

ON THIS DATE

In 1712, the Carolina Colony was officially divided into two entities: North Carolina and South Carolina.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

In 1926, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett supposedly became the first men to fly over the North Pole. (However, U.S. scholars announced in 1996 that their examination of Byrd’s flight diary suggested he had turned back 150 miles short of his goal.)

In 1962, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology succeeded in reflecting a laser beam off the surface of the moon.

In 1994, South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.