Today is Tuesday, May 5, the 125th day of 2009. There are 240 days left in the year.
553 _ Second Council of Constantinople (fifth ecumenical council) opens
1809 _ Mary Kies is first woman issued a U.S. patent (weaving straw)
1834 _ Charles Darwin's expedition begins at Rio Santa Cruz
1891 _ Carnegie Hall opens in NYC with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor
1912 _ Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing
1920 _ U.S. President Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal
1956 _ World championships of judo are first held, in Tokyo
1962 _ ``West Side Story" soundtrack album goes to No. 1 and stays No. 1 for 54 weeks which is more than 20 weeks longer than any other album
1965 _ First large-scale U.S. Army ground units arrive in South Vietnam
2000 _ Conjunction of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Moon