Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

May 7

1993
Record amount paid for a single photograph: $189,875 for Man Ray's Glass Tears (c1930).

1992
Constitutional amendment, proposed in 1879, to restrict congressional pay raises is ratified. It only took 203 years.

1992
"We're finally going to wrassle to the ground this gigantic orgasm that is just out of control," said by Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) in reference to the budget deficit.

1991
Abraham Lincoln: Geneticists at John Hopkins University are are given permission to clone the late President's genes.

1984
Agent Orange: American Veterans of the Vietnam War reach an out-of-court settlement with seven chemical companies over the defoliant Agent Orange.

1945
World War II: Germany surrenders ending the war in Europe. All military action was to stop at midnight.

1942
16,000 Allied soldiers surrender the strategically important Island of Corregidor to Japan, during World War II.

1915
Sinking of the Lusitania: This civilian steamer is sunk by a German submarine, killing 114 Americans. Years later, it was revealed that the Lusitania had in fact been carrying arms to Great Britain.

1824
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiers in Vienna.

1953
Roberta Gregory, underground cartoonist, creator of Sheila and the Unicorn.

1933
Johnny Unitas, American football Hall of Famer, 3-time Player of the Year (1959, 64, 67), and was named greatest player of all time.

1926
Val Bisoglio, American actor. TV: Quincy (bar owner Danny Tovo).

1923     d. 1985
Anne Baxter, American Oscar-winning actress. Film: The Razor's Edge (1946, Oscar) and All About Eve (1950, title role). TV: Hotel (Victoria Cabot).

1922     d. 2006
Darren McGavin (William Lyle Richardson), American Emmy-winning actor. TV: Mike Hammer (1957, title role), The Night Stalker (Carl Kolchak) and Murphy Brown (Murphy's dad). Film: A Christmas Story (1983, Father)

1909     d. 1991
Edwin Herbert Land, American inventor. He created the Polaroid instant camera, developed Polaroid lenses, and founded the Polaroid Corp. (1937).

1901     d. 1961
Gary Cooper (Frank James Cooper), American actor. Film: Sergeant York (1941) and High Noon (1952). He originally moved to California to become a political cartoonist.

1885     d. 1969
Gabby Hayes (George Hayes), American western actor. Film: Hopalong Cassidy films (Windy).

1840     d. 1893
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer. Music: The Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker.

1833     d. 1897
Johannes Brahms, German composer.

1993     b. 1903
Mary Philbin, silent-film actress, co-starred with Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925).

1987     b. 1931
Stewart B. McKinney, American politician. He was the first U.S. congressman to die from AIDS.

1975     b. 1915
George Baker, American cartoonist, creator of Sad Sack (1942).

1890     b. 1808
James Nasmyth, British engineer, invented the steam hammer (1839).

1873     b. 1808
Salmon Portland Chase, American jurist, secretary of the treasury (1861-64) and 6th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1864-73). His portrait appears on the U.S. $10,000 bill.

1868     b. 1778
Henry Peter Brougham, Scottish orator. "Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."

1849     b. 1794
William Jenkins Worth, American general, for whom Fort Worth, Texas is named.

973     b. 912
Otto I, "Otto the Great," Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (962-73), first of the Saxon kings.

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