Today in History, May 15, 1928: Mickey Mouse debuted in Walt Disney cartoon
Today is May 15. On this date in:
1862
President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the Department of Agriculture.
1918
U.S. airmail began service between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.
1928
The Walt Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse made his debut in a test screening of the silent animated short “Plane Crazy.” (“Steamboat Willie,” released Nov. 18, 1928, was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be widely distributed.)
1930
Registered nurse Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard an Oakland-to-Chicago flight operated by Boeing Air Transport, a forerunner of United Airlines.
1940
DuPont began selling its nylon stockings nationally.
1940
The original McDonald’s restaurant was opened in San Bernardino, California, by Richard and Maurice McDonald.
1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, whose members came to be known as WACs.
1942
Wartime gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 Eastern states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.
1948
Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
1963
Weight Watchers was incorporated in New York.
1972
Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, by Arthur H. Bremer, who served 35 years for attempted murder.
1968
Two days of tornado outbreaks began in 10 Midwestern and Southern states; twisters were blamed for 72 deaths, including 45 in Arkansas and 18 in Iowa.
1972
Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, by Arthur H. Bremer, who served 35 years for attempted murder.
1975
U.S. forces invaded the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and captured the American merchant ship Mayaguez, which had been seized by the Khmer Rouge. (All 39 crew members had already been released safely by Cambodia; some 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in connection with the operation.)
1988
The Soviet Union began the process of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, more than eight years after Soviet forces entered the country.
2008
California’s Supreme Court declared same-sex couples in the state could marry — a victory for the gay rights movement that was overturned the following November by the passage of Proposition 8, which was ultimately struck down by the courts.
2014
President Barack Obama dedicated the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum deep beneath ground zero, calling it a symbol that says of America: “Nothing can ever break us.”
2018
Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano was suspended for 80 games for violating baseball’s drug agreement, becoming one of the most prominent players disciplined under the sport’s anti-doping rules.