Today in History - May 9

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 9, 1754, a cartoon in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "JOIN, or DIE."

On this date:

In 1883, Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset was born in Madrid.

In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia.

In 1945, U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.

In 1958, "Vertigo," Alfred Hitchcock's eerie thriller starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, premiered in San Francisco, the movie's setting.

In 1961, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow decried the majority of television programming as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters.

In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened public hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon.