Historical Events On May 15

Today is Thursday, May 15, the 135th day of 2014. There are 230 days left in the year. May 15 2008, at least 100 people were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by an earthmover
exploded in Ijegun village in the Alimosho district of Lagos.

May 15, 1972, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed by Arthur H. Bremer while campaigning in Laurel, Maryland, for the Democratic presidential nomination. (Bremer served 35 years of a 53-year sentence for attempted murder.)

In 1602, English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold and his ship, the Concord, arrived at present-day Cape Cod, which he's credited with naming.

In 1776, Virginia endorsed American independence from Britain.

In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil Co. was a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and ordered its breakup.

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

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, whose members came to be known as WACs. Wartime gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 Eastern states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.

In 1954, the Fender Stratocaster guitar, created by Leo Fender, was officially released.

In 1963, astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program.

In 1974, three Palestinian infiltrators took 100 pupils hostage at a school in the town of Maalot in northern Israel; the gunmen killed 22 children as Israeli troops stormed the building, killing the hostage-takers.

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

In 1988, the Soviet Union began the process of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, more than eight years after Soviet forces had entered the country.

Ten years ago: A 40-ton steel girder dropped from a freeway overpass construction site into morning traffic in Golden, Colorado, crushing one car and killing a family of three.

Five years ago: General Motors told about 1,100 dealers their franchises would be terminated. CIA Director Leon Panetta defended the agency against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding on detainees. Pope Benedict XVI ended his Mideast visit at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Former basketball star and accomplished jazzman Wayman Tisdale died in Tulsa, Oklahoma. at age 44.

One year ago: Under mounting pressure, President Barack Obama released a trove of documents related to the Benghazi attack and forced out the top official at the Internal Revenue Service following revelations the agency had targeted conservative political groups.