Today in History: May 11, David Cameron becomes British Prime Minister
Today in History: May 11, David Cameron becomes British Prime Minister
Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha wave to the media outside 10 Downing Street in London,Tuesday, May, 11 2010. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)
Civilian, Army and Air Force workers, bolstered by heavy equipment, start the gigantic task of cleaning up wreckage remaining in the downtown area of Waco, Texas, May 14, 1953, in the aftermath of the May 11 tornado. (AP Photo)
Daniel Ellsberg embraces wife Pat in happiness as they emerge from the Federal building in Los Angeles on Friday, May 11, 1973 shortly after the trial judge in the Pentagon Papers case dismissed all espionage, theft and conspiracy charges against Ellsberg and his co-defendant, Anthony Russo. (AP Photo)
Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha wave to the media outside 10 Downing Street in London,Tuesday, May, 11 2010. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)
Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha wave to the media outside 10 Downing Street in London,Tuesday, May, 11 2010. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)
Civilian, Army and Air Force workers, bolstered by heavy equipment, start the gigantic task of cleaning up wreckage remaining in the downtown area of Waco, Texas, May 14, 1953, in the aftermath of the May 11 tornado. (AP Photo)
Civilian, Army and Air Force workers, bolstered by heavy equipment, start the gigantic task of cleaning up wreckage remaining in the downtown area of Waco, Texas, May 14, 1953, in the aftermath of the May 11 tornado. (AP Photo)
Daniel Ellsberg embraces wife Pat in happiness as they emerge from the Federal building in Los Angeles on Friday, May 11, 1973 shortly after the trial judge in the Pentagon Papers case dismissed all espionage, theft and conspiracy charges against Ellsberg and his co-defendant, Anthony Russo. (AP Photo)
Daniel Ellsberg embraces wife Pat in happiness as they emerge from the Federal building in Los Angeles on Friday, May 11, 1973 shortly after the trial judge in the Pentagon Papers case dismissed all espionage, theft and conspiracy charges against Ellsberg and his co-defendant, Anthony Russo. (AP Photo)
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 11, 2010, Conservative leader David Cameron, at age 43, became Britain’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government.
On this date:
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant (STY’-veh-sunt) arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.
In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.
In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded during a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration was created as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
In 1946, the first CARE packages, sent by a consortium of American charities to provide relief to the hungry of postwar Europe, arrived at Le Havre, France.
In 1953, a tornado devastated Waco, Texas, claiming 114 lives.
In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1973, the espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the “Pentagon Papers” case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dismissed all charges, citing government misconduct.
In 1981, legendary reggae artist Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital at age 36.
In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
In 1998, India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. A French mint produced the first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro.
In 2012, a Chicago jury convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. (Balfour was sentenced to life in prison.)
In 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression, building upon his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. (Trump disbanded the commission in January 2018 amid infighting and refusals by numerous states to cooperate.)
In 2020, Twitter announced that it would add a warning label to tweets containing disputed or misleading information about the coronavirus. Jerry Stiller, best known for his role as George Costanza’s father in “Seinfeld” and earlier as part of a comedy duo with wife Anne Meara, died at 92.
In 2021, the confrontation between Israel and Hamas, sparked by weeks of tensions in Jerusalem, escalated; Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while the Israeli city of Tel Aviv came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts said was unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day.