Today is Saturday, May 30, the 150th day of 2009. There are 215 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.

On this date

In 1854, the territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

In 1883, 12 people were trampled to death when a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge in New York was in imminent danger of collapsing, triggered a stampede.

In 1911, Indianapolis saw its first long-distance auto race; Ray Harroun was the winner.

In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington in a ceremony attended by President Warren Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and lawyer Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln, and his wife, Mary Todd.

In 1943, American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.

In 1958, unidentified American service members killed in World War II and the Korean War were interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

In 1971, the American space probe Mariner 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a journey to Mars.

Ten years ago

Astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery rigged cranes and other tools to the exterior of the international space station during a spacewalk; then, the astronauts entered the orbiting outpost for three days of making repairs and delivering supplies.

Five years ago

Saudi commandos drove al-Qaida militants from a housing complex in the kingdom’s oil hub, ending a shooting and hostage-taking rampage that had left 22 dead, most of them foreigners. Gunmen in Pakistan killed a senior pro-Taliban Sunni cleric (Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai), sparking riots. Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Jamaica for South Africa, saying it would be his “temporary home” until he could return to Haiti.

One year ago

A construction crane snapped and smashed into an apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, killing two workers in the city’s second such tragedy in 2½ months. Diplomats from 111 nations meeting in Dublin formally adopted a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs. (The United States and other leading cluster bomb makers — Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan — boycotted the talks.)

Today’s Birthdays

Country musician Johnny Gimble is 83. Actor Clint Walker is 82. Actor Keir Dullea is 73. Actress Ruta Lee is 73. Actor Michael J. Pollard is 70. Rock musician Lenny Davidson (The Dave Clark Five) is 65. Actor Colm Meaney is 56. Actor Ted McGinley is 51. Actor Ralph Carter is 48. Actress Tonya Pinkins is 47. Country singer Wynonna Judd is 45. Rock musician Tom Morello (Audioslave; Rage Against The Machine) is 45. Movie director Antoine Fuqua is 44. Actress Idina Menzel is 38. Actor Trey Parker is 37. Rapper Cee-Lo is 35. Rapper Remy Ma is 29. Actor Blake Bashoff is 28. Christian rock musician James Smith (Underoath) is 27.

Thought for Today

“It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.”

— Jerome K. Jerome

English author and humorist (1859-1927)