Today in History: May 9, freighter slams into Tampa Bay bridge, killing 35

Today is Saturday, May 9, the 129th day of 2026. There are 236 days left in the year.

On May 9, 1980, 35 people were killed when a freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,300-foot section of the southbound span to collapse.

Also on this date:

In 1754, the famous political cartoon “Join or Die” was first published by Benjamin Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

In 1951, the U.S. conducted its first thermonuclear experiment as part of Operation Greenhouse by detonating a 225-kiloton device (nicknamed “George”) on Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive pill.

In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened public hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. (The committee ultimately adopted three articles of impeachment against the president, who resigned before the full House took up any of them.)

In 1992, a buildup of methane gas and coal dust triggered a massive explosion in the Westray Mine in Nova Scotia, Canada, killing 26 coal miners.

In 2019, Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking new church law requiring all Catholic priests and nuns to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities.

In 2023, a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million in damages.
• Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo is 75.…Read more by The Associated Press