Moments in Time: Amateur Bandit
The History Channel
On May 27, 1831, trapper-explorer Jedediah Smith, who established the South Pass across the Rocky Mountains in modern western Wyoming as a well-known and heavily traveled route for fur trappers, was riding alone when he was attacked and killed by a hunting party of Comanche Native Americans on the Santa Fe Trail.
On May 28, 1983, Irene Cara's song "Flashdance (What a Feeling)," from the "Flashdance" movie soundtrack, reached the top of the U.S. pop charts and helped push the film to the No. 3 spot on that year's total box-office revenue list. It also proved to be the biggest hit of Cara's career.
On May 29, 2014, LGBT advocate and Emmy-winning actor Laverne Cox of the Netflix original series "Orange Is the New Black" became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of TIME magazine.
On May 30, 1899, amateur bandit Pearl Hart and her drifter boyfriend, Joe Boot, held up an Arizona stagecoach, making away with over $400 in cash. Although discovered and sentenced to prison, neither served their full term, and Hart was pardoned by the governor in 1902, living out the rest of her life in relative obscurity.
On May 31, 1970, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale off the coast of Casma, Peru, in the Pacific Ocean caused an avalanche traveling at over 100 miles per hour that buried the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca, killing an estimated 50,000 people and making it the worst natural disaster ever recorded in the country's history.
On June 1, 1958, following a long political crisis over the Algerian War, former French president Charles de Gaulle was called out of retirement to head a new emergency government as prime minister for a six-month term in an effort to keep the country together.
On June 2, 1920, Eugene O'Neill won his first of four Pulitzer Prizes, for his play "Beyond the Horizon," which was also his first full-length work to be staged. Though he was initially not happy over the news, his attitude improved upon learning the award came with a $1,000 prize and did not involve a ceremony.
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