FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2008

Today is Friday, May 16, the 137th day of 2008. There are 229 days left in the year.

1527 _ Florence becomes a republic

1532 _ Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor

1792 _ Denmark abolishes slave trade

1875 _ Quake in Venezuela and Colombia kills 16,000

1920 _ Joan of Arc canonized a saint in Rome

1974 _ Helmut Schmidt becomes West German chancellor

1985 _ Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year

1988 _ Surgeon General C. Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin

1989 _ Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing

1991 _ Queen Elizabeth becomes first British monarch to address U.S. congress