By The Associated Press
Today is Monday, May 5, the 125th day of 2025. There are 240 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Mercury capsule Freedom 7.
Also on this date:
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
In 1862, Mexican troops repelled French attacks on the city of Puebla de los Ángeles in the Battle of Puebla, also known as the Battle of Cinco de Mayo.
In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)
In 1945, in the only fatal attack on the U.S. mainla