This day in history — May 27

Today’s highlight in history 

On May 27, 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Pa., ignited a blaze in underground coal deposits that continues to burn to this day. 

On this date 

In 1933, the Chicago World’s Fair, celebrating “A Century of Progress,” officially opened.

In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act, a key component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislative program.

In 1936, the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage to New York.

In 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicles began crossing the next day).

In 1942, Doris “Dorie” Miller, a cook aboard the USS West Virginia, became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for displaying “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1977, the punk rock single “God Save the Queen,” the Sex Pistols’ sardonic salute to Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Virgin Records.

In 1998, Michael Fortier, the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot. (Fortier was freed in January 2006.)

Ten years ago: Dario Franchitti won a rain-abbreviated Indy 500.

Five years ago: Syria denied allegations that its forces had killed scores of people — including women and children — in Houla, but the U.N. Security Council condemned government forces for shelling residential areas. 

One year ago: President Barack Obama became the first American chief executive to visit Hiroshima, the city where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb during World War II, declaring it a fitting place to summon people everywhere to embrace the vision of a world without nuclear weapons.

Associated Press 

QUOTE UNQUOTE 

"We have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again." 

Barack Obama, 

U.S. president, in a speech at Hiroshima, Japan, on this date in 2016