Today in History

[goofywife]

1937: Hindenburg bursts into flames
The German dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames and collapsed to the ground today in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The large lighter-than-air ship used hydrogen, a highly explosive gas, for lift.

"Spectators sobbed hysterically at the abrupt disaster in which the Hindenburg had ended her maiden 1937 trip to America," reported the Fitchburg Sentinel on May 6, 1937. "Eighteen trips had been planned this year."

NOTE: Though the explosion was violent, most of the 97 aboard survived. 13 passengers and 22 crewmembers died, as well as one member of the ground crew. Most deaths were from people jumping from the burning ship rather than the fire itself.

1981: Lin wins Vietnam Veterans Memorial design competition
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund awarded a $20,000 prize to Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, today for her memorial design, which was chosen for Washington D.C. out of 1,421 entries. NOTE: Lin recently served on the selection jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2005.

1910: King Edward VII dies
King Edward VII of Great Britain died today with his family nearby after a brief illness. "The prince of Wales succeeded to the crown immediately, according to the laws of the kingdom, without official ceremony. His first official act was to dispatch to the lord mayor the announcement of his father's death in pursuance of custom," informed The Galveston Daily News on May 7, 1910.

1996: Former CIA director's body is washed ashore
William E. Colby, director of the CIA from 1973 to 1975, was found washed up on a sandbar of the Wicomico River, not far from his vacation home in Maryland. "For the past week, while searchers looked for him in the Wicomico, near where it empties into the Potomac, his widow, Sally Shelton-Colby, had refused to accept the assumption that he had drowned," explained The Intelligencer on May 7, 1996. NOTE: It was believed that Colby, 76, drowned while canoeing on the river.