AP Highlight in History: On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
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On this date in:
1832
The first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore.
1840
New Zealand was declared a British colony.
1881
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.
1892
The opera "I Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo was first performed, in Milan, Italy.
1924
Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago, killed a 14-year-old boy in a "thrill killing."
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1956
The United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb, over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1959
The musical "Gypsy" starring Ethel Merman opened on Broadway.
1979
Former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
1980
"The Empire Strikes Back," the second movie in the "Star Wars" series, was released.
1991
Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber.
1998
A 15-year-old student open fired inside Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., killing two students and wounding 23, one day after killing his parents.
1999
Susan Lucci, star of the ABC soap opera "All My Children," won her first Daytime Emmy Award for best actress in the 19th straight year she was nominated.
2008
David Cook won the seventh season of "American Idol."
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